The Beach Boys have become a little creepy to me. The songs like Surfer Girl and California Girls are great when being performed by 18 year old guys. When performed by sixty year old guys, it's embarrassing, like Woody Allen continuing to have twenty-five year old leading ladies when he's in his seventies.
It brings to mind the episode of Married With Children where Al and Peggy go to their high school reunion. There's an old sixties psychedelic band playing and a hot girl in a bikini dancing in a cage. The band finishes a song and the girl says, "Daddy, can I take a break now?"
One of the things that was great about Clint Eastwood and John Wayne was that as they aged, they took parts that were appropriate for their actual age. They didn't keep playing thirty year olds.
OUCH!!
I liked Miles Davis because he wasn't playing the same stuff at the age of 60 (though I confess I don't remember how old he was when he died ... I think it was around 60) that he was at the age of 30.
The Beach Boys created music that personified an age group and culture within America's baby boom generation. The music really does convey the emotional and sensory essence of beeing a teen ager or young adult hanging around a Southern California beach with nothing to do but surf and soak sun with your pals. It was a fleeting era, brilliantly captured in music. Quite a phenomenon, when you think about it!
On one hand, I understand your thoughts about “60 year-old guys singing Surfer Girl” but let’s keep the proper perspective:
The Beach Boys aren’t singing about things they do, they are singing about a lifestyle that is endless. Kids today relate to their music and “The Girls On The Beach” but within their own generation.
This particular song, “The Warmth of the Sun” is not a song that is aimed specifically at just the young. It’s about loss. In fact, the song was written by Brian Wilson on the night of November 22nd, 1963. Earlier in the day, President Kennedy had been assassinated. Brian was inspired to write about the loss of someone that means a lot to him. He wrote the entire song in one night (which, when you think about the chord progressions, is pretty incredible) but decided instead of making it about the loss of Kennedy he would make it a universal story about losing “someone” close to you. It worked then, and nearly 50 years later, it still does.
I haven’t seen the Beach Boys in concert since Carl died. It’s now down to just one original member (Mike Love) and Bruce Johnston. Although Al is in the video, that was done before Carl died so that puts it PRE-1998. I prefer to think of the Beach Boys as they were back in this timeframe. As for Willie... well, he’s always sounded like an old man and that’s part of his charm. I disagree with his politics, but that’s OK. My only concern for him is as a singer and he’s one of the best in the country genre. He IS country.