Life on the Left Coast: Wouldn't It Be Nice

I stayed up late the other night to watch the Grammy's. Yes I know they took place some time ago but it's only now that I just got around to seeing the recording on the PVR. Although I must say, even with fast forwarding past commercials and award show blather, to only watch the performances, it was still a considerable commitment of television watching time for me.

But worth it.

It turned out that a part of the show was devoted to the Beach Boys, who were billed on the show as being "reunited" for the first time in more years than we really want to remember. This definitely got my attention, on a number of levels.

The segment started out with a couple of contemporary bands doing Beach Boys covers. When the lead singer of Maroon 5 started to croon (no other word for it) those amazing teenage love lyrics of the song Surfer Girl, I thought, oh yes, this is their greatest song. Memory time. It brought me way way back to a time of listening to the '45's of my friend's big sister Pat. Then off to my summers as a young girl at Minden, camping in the tent outside the cottage with my cousins, flashlights lighting up the canvas walls, listening to tunes on the transistor radio of stations coming out of the dark from places like Michigan and Chicago and beyond, late at night.

Surfer Girl at the Grammy's was followed by another band covering Wouldn't It Be Nice. I was watching the singer closely to see if he was going to crack up at what I think are the most ironic lyrics ever - was he going to nail it or was he going to crack? Dum de dum "We could be marrieeed, and then we'd be happeee...Wouldn't it be nice..." I sing along to this song out loud and believe me, I can't do this with a straight face. What was Brian Wilson really thinking about when he wrote all this?

Back to the Grammy's, the "real" Beach Boys came on for the third and final song of the segment. The "reunion". Mike Love (who has never gone away), Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston who joined (I think) when Brian left, and Brian Wilson himself. There they all were, up in front of the Grammy world, singing Good Vibrations (not a favorite of mine) and when I saw them on the screen, oh my goodness, what a shock. I'll try to be delicate about this. Just let me say, I don't think I'm the only one who scares themselves when they look in the mirror.

Brian Wilson and Mike Love at the Grammy's 2012

Brian

What else is wrong with this picture of the 50th anniversary "reunion"? Who's missing? Two of the original brothers, Dennis and Carl, that's who.

Dennis Wilson, the drummer of the original Beach Boys, was my first crush (after Perry Mason, of course) as a young girl. When I was growing up, in Montreal Canada, California was Mecca. Everyone wanted to be here. As a wee teenybopper in the tent at Minden, with ear pressed to the transistor radio, the lure of sand, surf and California, as sung by the Beach Boys, was a beacon. Cheryl Tiegs was the cover girl, not just literally on the magazines, but for the whole sunshine fable. And Dennis Wilson was beautiful.

Later, when I was sort of grown up (sort of), and living in Toronto, I used to go the Beach Boys concerts that used to arrive every year without fail, during the CNE, the Canadian National Exhibition - a typical staid Toronto name for a midway, with lights and noise and a bunch of rides and side shows, where all the teenagers used to go to hang out. A young girl with a blond boyfriend who bought her a ring at one of the kiosks, two hearts entwined, wrapped around the finger. The first ring anyone had ever given her and she thought it was just fine. Of course the "gold" wore off within the week revealing the rough metal underneath that chaffed the skin, the metal turning skin blue. But believe me, those summer evenings at the EX it were all tremendously romantic, all those blond, teen hormones in play, and most especially when combined with the headliner show Beach Boys concerts - "Do you love me, do you, surfer girl?" and of course, "Wouldn't it be nice?". Well what other answer is there to lyrics like that? YES YES YES!!!

But even by then, the group was a touring band, doing the circuit, dining off the old hits. Mike Love, the lanky front man and lead singer was the constant over the years. Brian Wilson withdrew early to live at home in his bathrobe, taking with him his song writing magic, and Dennis Wilson was sometimes there on tour and sometimes not.

The last time I saw Dennis Wilson was in the open air arena at the Ex. It was quite strange. He sang a solo without accompaniment, a cappela, under the summer night sky. The song was the Joe Cocker tune "You Are So Beautiful To Me". The audience was completely still - it was all about the voice. The minute his voice faded to the end of the song, the first blast of the evening's fireworks began, lighting up the dark.

Dennis then stopped touring and I stopped going.

He died some years later, in 1983, at the age of 39. Drowned.

That event was, for me, one of those "where were you?" moments, like, where were you when Kennedy/King/Bobby/Lennon/Diana died. We were young and foolish in Jamaica at the time and our driver, Mr. Campbell, came into the house to tell me the news. "One of the Beach Boys died", he announced. "Which one?", I asked, although I knew without hearing the answer that it was Dennis. That happens a lot to me, and to others. Knowing. Before you know you know.

For the next three days I played the music. Loud. This coincided with the visit of my mother, a true classical music fan, so no doubt my California surfer musical tribute was not entirely music to her ears. I was in mourning and one thing my mother was very very good at, was knowing when to speak and when to hold it.

I don't know how this 50th anniversary tour will go for them. The music sings for itself and a reunion of the last men standing, as it were, to play it again on stage seems kind of silly to me. Yes I know that lots of bands from the era do this reunion things, but this is MY band I'm talking about. I'd rather keep it to the sounds and the memories.

But what do I know. Someone, somewhere, thinks they will be making money.