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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Jan 7, 2019 20:58:55 GMT -5
This second album by the Beach Boys was released in 1963 to much fanfare. The album itself reached #2 on the Billboard 200, while the title track hit #3. Shut Down also made an appearance in the top 40 at #23. Attachments:
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Post by Beach Boys Fan on Jan 7, 2019 22:12:19 GMT -5
8. Cool album - hey wow, "Surfin' U.S.A.". It's their best pre-Pet Sounds song. I tells ya.
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Post by kds on Jan 11, 2019 8:42:54 GMT -5
I'm giving Surfin USA a seven. It's a solid listen all the way through, and the vocals are really the first example of the signature Beach Boys harmony sound that was hinted at on Surfin Safari.
It's a bit of an oddball in the catalog with the unusual amount of instrumentals, given that The Beach Boys' main strength has always been their vocals. But, instrumentals were the order of the day for surf rock.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2019 8:32:05 GMT -5
8/10 for Surfin' USA. This is really when the Beach Boys become The Beach Boys, if you ask me. I think it's a great listen all the way through, and the surf instrumentals are indicative of what surf music was at that time. I love the way the boys paid homage to it, and then made it their own. This is an album that shows respect to the genre and also transcends it.
Highlights: Surfin' USA, Farmer's Daughter, Misirlou, Stoked, Lonely Sea, Shut Down, Let's Go Trippin', Finder's Keepers
Lowlights: Noble Surfer (the only song I would have left off, but it doesn't really bother me that much)
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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2019 15:23:28 GMT -5
Nine in my book ("No-Bull Surfer" is a bit iffy, lol). But the "sea of instrumentals" is right on target, whatever the reason for including them all. Hearken to the Carl-Dave machine in full flight. All other vocal tracks are top-notch. And the perfectly voiced nod to the Seasons in the closer is a truly wonderful touch.
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Post by Jason (The Real Beach Boy) on Mar 28, 2019 11:27:51 GMT -5
8.5. It's often forgotten that the early Beach Boys were truly a great self-contained unit and it shows here. The instrumentals are just as cool as the vocal tracks.
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Post by #JusticeForDonGoldberg on Dec 26, 2020 12:49:11 GMT -5
This album suffers from the same problem as the previous album, but it’s a lot less interesting about it. That problem being, the lead single and it’s B-side are so great, but they can’t keep that quality for the majority of the album. The problem is, they substituted goofy, quirky novelty songs with boring surf instrumentals, and the album suffers for it. Surfin' U.S.A.: this is probably the quintessential beach song. Mike has finally come into his own, with his deep, businessman like delivery of the lyrics, and Brian’s advancements in production, especially double tracking all the vocals, really helps this song bump. If I had any complaints, it would be all the extra noise in the fade out, but that’s not distracting enough to detract from this songs quality.
Farmer's Daughter: Brian is also quickly coming into his own vocally, with this song completely destroying the lead he had on their first album. subject matter wise, this matches their first album more than it does this album, but it’s still a good song, so I can forgive it for that. Misirlou: This instrumental is just annoying, every single version I’ve heard of it. There’s no version that I’ve heard of this song where I don’t have a pounding headache afterwards. Stoked: I actually like this one. It’s nothing special or anything, but it’s got a relaxing, chilled out quality to it that I like. Lonely Sea: One thing I appreciate about this album more than their first, is that they don’t shy away from changing things up. On the first album, every song seem to be around the same tempo, with a very similar backing beat. As for this song, it’s great. Obviously they would do variations on this theme way better in the future, and the spoken word bit is quite cringi, but I can forgive all that. It’s still a shame that they already had this recorded before they released their first album, and still chose to put 10 Little Indians on there instead. Really guys? Shut Down: this song coming directly after Lonely Sea has always been quite jarring for me. But yeah, this song is great. I don’t have much to say about it, but it is top tear early Beach Boys. Noble Surfer: This song justifies its existence with that solo. Other than that, it’s just lame. Honky Tonk: oh hey, more of this. Just what the world needed. I mean, I guess it’s fine, but the world would definitely not be any worse if this song didn’t exist. Lana: The first 10 seconds of this song are great. The rest of the song does not live up to those high standards. in fact, after those first 10 seconds, the rest of the song basically puts me to sleep with how generic it is. Even Brian’s voice can’t save this one. Surf Jam: well, it’s better than the last 3 songs, but it’s still nothing special. Let's Go Trippin': way better live. This is just limp and lifeless. Finders Keepers: an actually good song? I forgot what one of those sounded like after this side of the LP. But yeah, I like this one. Which is something I cannot say about this album as a whole. Way too many boring instrumentals, huge jumps in Quality, A boring cover photo, and it doesn’t even have the excuse that this was the first album. Again, great songs continue to build in the vaults, and they chose to put this out? Why!!! The title track, Shut Down, Lonely Sea and Finders Keepers save this from being absolutely Worthless, and those four songs are just completely timeless and will never grow old, and were a huge part of my childhood, but they are what’s keeping this surfboard on the waves. 4/10, and I’m being generous.
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Post by boogieboarder on Jul 28, 2021 10:51:33 GMT -5
In my humble opinion, I think this album suffered from Gary Usher being edged out of the picture by Murry Wilson. Six of the originals on the previous album were co-written with Gary Usher, (and the rest by Mike Love). There was only one Gary Usher co-written song on Surfin’ USA, “Lonely Sea,” which many people have mentioned as being a highlight of this album - but I believe was actually written and recorded much earlier, and only overdubbed for this album. If Brian had continue writing with Gary, they might have had more songs stockpiled instead of having to rely on so many instrumentals.
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Post by drbeachboy (Dirk) on Jul 28, 2021 11:18:23 GMT -5
I always wondered if Capitol had more to do with recording the surf instrumentals? For the band to appeal more to the fans of that genre. I have read that the Boys’ were not particularly popular with that crowd and this album would appeal more to their liking.
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Shawn
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Post by Shawn on Jul 28, 2021 13:53:34 GMT -5
6/10. Not a fan of the instrumentals. Not that they’re bad, just that they’re out-of-place. I’d be even more surprised if I had been around/alive in the UK at the time seeing as how it was released there in August (?) 1965 - all those instrumentals would seem even further out of place then.
But the cover art? That’s in a whole different league - one of their best, and it perfectly captures the essence of Southern California summers.
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Post by AGD on Jul 31, 2021 1:17:47 GMT -5
Time, or the lack thereof: aside from "The Lonely Sea", recorded at the 4/19/62 Capitol demo tape session (and later overdubbed, obvs), to the best of my knowledge the album was recorded over five sessions in thirteen days (1/31/63 to 2/12/63) and was in the racks by late March, preceded by a single on March 4th. The first album was enough of a success (#32) for Capitol to ask for another, doubtless under the terms of the 7/16/62 contract. Unlike The Beatles, or indeed pretty much any other major band of the day, our Boys didn't have a huge and practised live repertoire to draw on. As has been noted elsewhere, the sidelining of Gary Usher was likely a contributing factor (but to give Murry his due, he'd already hooked Brian up with Roger Christian).
That's what I think, anyway.
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Post by Rick Bartlett on Jul 31, 2021 6:00:37 GMT -5
In some ways, we are kind of lucky to have to even got 'The Lonely Sea'.... It could have easily been another track thrown on the pile of 'working' songs that was already accumulating. Now, if it had only been given the 'Surfer Girl' album approach..... I think 'The Lonely Sea' had an upper punch in it that didn't quite get it's chance... Great Great tune.
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Post by boogieboarder on Jul 31, 2021 9:25:31 GMT -5
Given that “farmer’s daughter” jokes were ubiquitous since at least 1900, and obviously inspired The Beach Boys song, they should have sequenced the album with “Farmers Daughter” followed by “Punchline” - the two songs recorded within 3 days of each other.
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Post by Awesoman on Aug 9, 2023 7:27:12 GMT -5
In some ways, we are kind of lucky to have to even got 'The Lonely Sea'.... It could have easily been another track thrown on the pile of 'working' songs that was already accumulating. Now, if it had only been given the 'Surfer Girl' album approach..... I think 'The Lonely Sea' had an upper punch in it that didn't quite get it's chance... Great Great tune.
Yeah "The Lonely Sea" is an early foreshadowing of the kind of music Brian would eventually evolve into making. Here's a fine cover of the song performed by Steve Almaas and Ali Smith: music.youtube.com/watch?v=ngs_r6mv-nw&feature=share
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Post by boogieboarder on Aug 9, 2023 7:50:10 GMT -5
Capitol put in big letters on the front cover “The number one surfing group in the country!” I assume this was true in every country where this album cover was released with those words.
Discounting the instrumentals (which arguably are surf music only because they were marketed as such - guitar instrumentals were considered surf music only after silent surfing films started using them for background music, and bands picked up on that. For example, Bill Doggett’s “Honky Tonk” came out in 1956.)
As for the seven vocals, only three were about surfing. “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” “Noble Surfer,” and “Finders Keepers.” Even “The Lonely Sea” mentions the ocean, but is not about surfing. It would be like saying a song called “The Lonely Road” was about car racing.
So even on their second album, Brian was not just about surfing and cars.
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