So I hear the Beach Boys are getting back together and are going to go on tour. At which point... WTF?! They're fucking SEVENTY YEARS OLD! Being seventy years old is fine if you're a folkie like Leonard Cohen or Pete Seeger, or a country icon like Willie Nelson. Those folks never sung celebrations of being young in the sun, they were always serious adults. But the Beach Boys made their rep on songs about *surfing* and cars and shit, for cryin' out loud. That's young people stuff, what are they gonna do, come shuffling out on stage in their walkers and sorta jerk spasmodically around while "playing" their instruments (as session musicians play behind the scenes) and "singing" (lip-synching to recordings made when they were young)? WTF?
Maybe the prediction that December 21st, 2012 is the end of the world aren't so far-fetched after all. If septuagenarians can get together and sing "fun fun fun fun surfin' usa!" while jerking spasmodically in their walkers, *anything* is plausible, yo!
- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
Willie Nelson, a "serious adult"? Serious doper, for sure. Cohen, a folkie? A good Jewish boy-cum-Buddist with a depressive, droning monotone, but is he volk? Seeger, of course.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, all of those listed traded on being world-weary from early days whereas the beach Boys hadn't much. It very odd how the Baby Boomers yearn for the mostly ersatz nostalgia.
It very odd how the Baby Boomers yearn for the mostly ersatz nostalgia.
ReplyDeleteTalkin' 'bout my g-g-generation.
In the age of lady gaga and hip-hop, I'd call the nostalgia real.
Cheers!
JzB
Jazzb,
ReplyDeleteI meant spec. to the BB, most people didn't catch waves off Malibu or Surf City. Personally I love 60's-mid-80's pop-rock, but was never a BB fan. I did like the erzatz Monkees, however, as they had some fine songwriters. (All of these were heard by me a generation later, so I'm interpreting the times thru my lens. Great or good music can withstand that.)
Per la Gaga et. al. -- TOTAL erzats crap. I have nothing to say.
Thing about the Beach Boys is that they really only had one album that was any good (Pet Sounds) then once their only good album flopped, spent the next twenty years as a nostalgia act rehashing their oldies for those who pined for the days of beach blanket movies. So it's not as if we're talking about some folks who had extraordinarily productive music careers, their entire music career was, like, five years long, then the rest of their lives spent as a nostalgia act banking on it.
ReplyDeleteI would think that the music I program here at this blog should somehow vaporize the notion that hip-hop and Lady Gaga are all that this generation's musicians have for the public. Harumph!
- Badtux the Music Penguin
Every time I hear of some aging rock band doing this, I remember why the phrase "Act your age." used to be so often used.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't much of a Beachboys fan, tho' I liked a couple songs. I did spend weekends in the summer house of one of these guys...down in Big Sur. His brother-in-law married my good Army buddy. I liked the music Al Jardine played THERE better than the public stuff.
He played a mean mandolin in medieval style.
What goes around comes around. I'd rather listen to the Beach Boy's than Gaga.
ReplyDeleteYes, BT, you have introduced me to some good music here. You are the eclectic musical penguin, IMHO.
ReplyDeleteLisa -
ReplyDeleteI was pretty much just having fun with the idea.
Tux -
Did I deserve a Harumph?
We are, after all, talking about commercial stuff here, which is not exactly what you display most prominently.
Cheers!
JzB
I must admit, the Beach Boys do have a few interesting gems on their Smile Sessions album which was just released a short while ago.
ReplyDelete