All Summer Long (July 1964)
Album History (Released July 1964)
Released only three months after “Shut
Down Volume 2”, this album sees the Beach Boys in a similar place. Their star
is progressively rising, the music is getting more complex, and the hits just
keep coming. The first track “I Get Around” will be the Beach Boys’ very first
number one hit in the U.S.
Tracklist
Thanks, Wikipedia.
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Song Analysis
1. I Get Around
Whoa. This is one of the most popular Beach Boys songs.
I feel like because the song is so pervasive, it is easy to forget just how
incredible it is.
Imagine that you hadn’t heard the Beach Boys before and
someone hands you a pair of headphones and says: “Listen to this.”
What song sounds like this? Nothing. This is a
completely unique pop song. No other song uses the falsetto, harmonies and a
driving rhythm section like this. The amazing drum track gets lost on this song
just because the vocals are so insane and incredible. Play this song a few
times. Really listen to it. What is this? Where could this come from? They
should have launched this into outer space on the golden record.
The lyrics are absurd, sure. These idiots are bragging
about being the coolest dudes on the strip. They make good bread. OK, great, we
don’t care.
What we do care about is the fact that this song sounds
like no other song in history, is compelling for every second of its two minute
run time, and overall is an incredible creation. I like other Beach Boys songs
more than this one, but I have to give this song credit for sounding like it
was written by an alien genius.
2. All Summer Long
The best part of this song has to be the glorious xylophone
introduction. The song recounts the high points of a summer romance: a horse
ride, spilled coke, beach clothes, and listening to a radio. Yeah, that sounds
pretty good, I guess.
I like this song quite a bit, but it’s hard to digest
directly after “I Get Around”. We have an incredible fast-paced outer space pop
song, followed by a pretty good Beach Boys pop song. It honestly throws me off.
This is a good track.
3. Hushabye
This is a cover of a song written for the Mystics in
1959. That song was covered by The Kingsmen, which is seemingly where
Brian was influenced to introduce his own version. All versions are based off an
old lullaby called “All the Pretty Horses”.
Every time Brian does these covers, I find I’m usually
more fond of the originals. He does them straight, not changing much or
adding anything interesting. The Mystics version is real nice, included below.
I’ve also included The Kingsmen’s version. In that version, they slow the song
down to a crawl, way too slow in my opinion.
The Mystics:
The Kingsmen:
4. Little Honda
It’s a Beach Boys car song… except about a motorcycle!
This is a cookie-cutter song. Mike Love sounds like he sung this in his sleep.
Yawn.
5. We’ll Run Away
Beautiful ballad sung by Bryan with some really bad
advice. He wrote this with Gary Usher.
The message of this song is terrible: “We are in love,
our parents married early, we have no money, let’s marry anyway! No. Please don’t
do this. Terrible idea. Acquire money first so you can marry and provide your
children with comfort and security. That’s reasonable. Marrying your high
school sweetheart because you want to get laid and move out of your house is a
rotten idea.
At this point, we’ve had so many good ballads, this one
doesn’t feel like it builds on any of the previous ones, and loses some points
for essentially going by the books.
6. Carl’s Big Chance
Carl’s big chance to write another unsensational instrumental
track to take up two minutes of space on an album. Filler track.
7. Wendy
This is an underrated Beach Boys track. The fifteen
second introduction is incredible. First, just guitar, then two drum beats,
then drum roll, then guitar and drum, then WEEEEEENDY. Awesome.
After the introduction, the song cruises along with the
enjoyable Wendy melody. At the 1:10 mark we are treated to a solo breakdown of
some fun garbage-sounding organ. On paper, it seems like inserting a trash
organ into your pretty pop song might be a bad idea, but here it works
perfectly. Great song.
8. Do You Remember
Here, Brian writes a song to reference and praise the
music of his idols. It’s a tribute to a certain kind of 1950’s rock n’ roll. The
song doesn’t do a good enough job of mimicking this style, or injecting Beach
Boys sound into it. Overall, it ends up just coming across as lame and
annoying.
9. Girls on the Beach
Nice ballad. However, the lyrics are a bit creepy. “The girls
on the beach are all within reach, if you know what to do.” Ummm, what do you
mean? Know what to do? That sounds rapey and nefarious guys.
Now where this song enters true bliss is around the 1:15
mark. We get a quick Dennis Wilson interjection: “The sun in her hair, the
warmth of the air.”
This quick, excellent five seconds of Dennis are the
best part of this song. He should have been given more to do here, Dennis knows
what he’s talking about when it concerns girls on the beach.
10. Drive-In
Oh boy. This song is about Mike Love’s disgusting date
at the drive-in. He lets you know, very explicitly, that he is not interested
in watching the motion picture. He and
his date are gonna be necking and doing some heavy petting during the movie. He
mentions that he will be purchasing: “…a big buttered popcorn and an extra
large coke, a few chili dogs and man I’m going broke!”
Gross, dude. So first, you and this nice young lady are
gonna slurp down some coke and chili dogs, then get your fingers greasy on some
buttered popcorn, and then engage in intimate relations? So now, I’m
envisioning Mike Love kissing this young girl with his hot popcorn butter
breath, she’s got chili all over her sweater, and I’m in the car next to them,
trying to enjoy the damn movie. Kids these days!
I actually like this song. It is a low stakes song in
the vein of “County Fair” on their first album. A stupid song about kids on a
date.
11. Our Favorite Recording Sessions
This album is pretty much copying “Shut Down Volume 2”.
On that album, we filled some space with “Cassius Love vs. Sonny Wilson”. Here,
we have “Our Favorite Recording Sessions”. It’s the boys being annoying in the
studio, and after hearing them do the same type of thing on the last album, it’s
hard to excuse another filler track of recording sessions.
12. Don’t Back Down
“Don’t back down from that wave!” One gets the sense
that Brian is really sick of producing these surf songs. This one feels
completely phoned in.
You can even hear it in Brian’s voice. He makes his voice as
shrill as possible, even straining it at points, almost as if to say: “Screw
this surf song.”
Overall Album Impressions:
Very
similar in structure to “Shut Down Volume 2”. One completely transcendent song
in “I Get Around”, a few good songs in “All Summer Long”, “Girls on the Beach”,
“Wendy”, and “We’ll Run Away”, and some filler.
It’s a good
record, but at this point in the Boys’ career, the filler tracks are becoming
less excusable. “I Get Around” is unbelievable, and “All Summer Long” will
forever be a viable album simply for containing it.
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