Beach Boys: All Summer Long

Beach Boys: All Summer Long (truncated 80's edited reissue)

1964

Capital Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. I Get Around  2. All Summer Long  3. Hushabye   4. Little Honda  5. We'll Run Away  6. Wendy  7. Do You Remember? 8. Girls on the Beach  9. Drive-In  10. Don't Back Down 

This is a vinyl reissue of the Beach Boy's 6th album that was reissued in the '80's and is missing two tracks, "Carl's Big Chance." and "Our Favorite Recording Sessions."




Here's the original (and much nicer) cover...


I honestly don't listen to much of the Beach Boy's earlier material..I'm more a fan of "Pet Sounds" and "Smile" but when I see one of their older albums in the dollar bin, I always pick 'em up and I always get a kick out of them...When I was a young kid (roughly age 7-10 or so) The Beach Boys were one of my first "favorite groups," along with Billy Joel, Kiss and Weird Al Yankovic... I have fond memories of my Mom taking us to the local drug store, and there would be a bin of "dollar tapes" and she would always let me and my brother pick out a tape whenever we were there...Here are some of the tapes we would pick up...

Sammy Hagar: Turn Up the Music...I can still recite the complete lyrics to the song "Trans Am"
even though I haven't heard it in 20 some years...

This one was pretty popular with me and my younger brother...The awesomely titled "Crusin & Boozin'!"

 

Thanks to the incredible D&D inspired covers, these tapes practically jumped out of the bargain bins and right into the hands of boneheaded kids everywhere...For some reason I can't recall a single song on this even though i must have listened to it a billion times...

Same with this one..Look at that awesome space woman and the cool domed city in the background....Any kid who sees this cover just has to know what it's all about...Unfortunately it's all about 80's soft rock...

Out of all the tapes pictured above, this is the only one I actually still own...Well, I have a vinyl copy of it anyway...We'll probably get to it in a few months.,..

Anyway...during this formative period of my life one band stood out among all others...The Beach Boys...This was great music to play in your walkman while you wasted your summer vacation doing nothing at all...

Simple, unpretentious pop music that's immediately catchy... but listening back to it now, it wasn't as simple and uncomplicated as it seemed...I don't think it's a surprise to anybody that Brian Wilson was a brilliant songwriter and producer...But really listen to  "I Get Around" and "Hushabye." They're actually anything but simple and uncomplicated...

But the sentiment is... Track after track of talk about summers, girls, cars and drive-ins...The only dark cloud on the horizon is the runaway-to-elope fantasy of "We'll Run Away."  Otherwise it's smooth sailing, and lightweight listening...This was released right in the midst of the British Invasion...The Beatles had just made their game-changing performance on Ed Sullivan...

The Stones had just released their debut album...

 

So the Beach Boys really had to step up their game and I think you can really see the roots of that here...Really, I prefer this to the early work of the Beatles or Stones...It's just incredibly well done and check out that list of classics on the track listing...

Now let's look back on the good ol' days...Those simpler times of 1964...that golden year when "All Summer Long" was released...

The Vietnam War was still raging on...US Destroyer Maddox is attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin by  North Vietnamese torpedo boats, which results in  Congress authorizing War Against North Vietnam..."We Get Around!"

The capture of the Boston Strangler who killed 13 people in a two year murder spree! "Do you Remember?"

Wide spread Race Riots in multiple cities in New York, New Jersey and Chicago. "All Summer Long!"

Alright...maybe the good ol' days were  horrible...but the Beach Boys and the Beatles sounded so damn happy...There must have been something good that happened that year! Some ray of light that gave them to strength to look at a cruel world and sing the most ebullient pop songs known to mankind...

ah, here it is...

...In 1964 Buffalo Wings were invented!

Okay, that answers that..

So let's drown our sorrows in a bucket of Buffalo wings and listen to "Wendy" by the Beach Boys...