The Beach Boys came on the scene in 1961, straight outta Hawthorne, California. The group’s songs embodied the myth of a youthful and carefree Southern California existence, one filled with surfboards, cars and pretty girls.
The core group—bassist and primary songwriter Brian Wilson, his brothers Carl (guitar) and Dennis (drums), cousin Mike Love (vocals) and guitarist Al Jardine—built the music around sublime, Four Freshmen–inspired vocal harmonies. As time went on, Brian Wilson retired from touring, instead concentrating his efforts in the recording studio.
(Glen Campbell replaced Brian Wilson in performances after he melted down on a flight to Houston at the end of 1964, but he rejoined them two months later at the February 26, 1965 San Jose Civic show, where the mayor showed up and presented a box of dried prunes to the band.)
Inspired by Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound” production techniques, Wilson became an innovator in the studio-as-instrument aesthetic. Deaf in one ear, he nonetheless could conceive in his head exactly what he wanted. And with the deep talent of LA-based session players—drummer Hal Blaine and bassist/guitarist Carole Kaye among them—he would run the studio musicians through countless takes to realize the “teenage symphonies to God” he heard in his head.
Psychedelic Wave
Busy on the road, his fellow Beach Boys came in toward the end of sessions for “Good Vibrations” to layer their breathtaking vocal harmonies atop the instrumental beds. And in the end, Wilson got the recording he wanted. For his trouble, Wilson earned a #1 single; that success encouraged him to dive into an even more ambitious project, “Pet Sounds.” Often cited as one of the 1960s’ greatest works, that album employed a similar set of working methods, and the result set a new standard in sonic excellence: timeless songs, top-notch arrangements and a sound that held up to repeated, intense listens.
The Beatles were among those who listened. Paul McCartney would go on record naming “God Only Knows” as his favorite song. When the Beatles’ bid to better Wilson’s work yielded “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” Wilson struck back with an even more ambitious project: “SMiLE.” Working with impressionistic lyricist Van Dyke Parks, he began to craft an abstractly conceptual work of genius. But Wilson’s bouts with psychedelic drugs and incipient mental illness meant that “SMiLE” would be abandoned.
To varying degrees, the rest of the Beach Boys had their reservations about Wilson’s studio adventures. Though the tale may be apocryphal, Mike Love allegedly warned Wilson not to “f*** with the formula.” In any event, once the “SMiLE” project was scuttled, the Beach Boys effectively retreated from psychedelia, and their era of experimentation ended. Brian Wilson’s participation within the group would become ever more sporadic; the other members took up the slack, continuing to craft new music that balanced their pop inclinations with more serious musical pursuits.
Back to the Beach
By the 1970s, though, popular tastes had changed, and the Beach Boys had largely fallen out of favor in the music marketplace. Albums like 1973’s “Holland” would be well-received in critical quarters, but sales figures were less impressive. But in 1974, Capitol Records compiled a 2LP set, “Endless Summer;” that 20-song collection focused squarely on the group’s early, pre-“Pet Sounds” material.
“Endless Summer” was a runaway commercial success, albeit a two-edged sword: the album revived the Beach Boys’ fortunes, but preserved them forever in their comparatively innocent, striped-shirt guise. Though new releases would continue, from that point onward, the Beach Boys would effectively operate as a nostalgia outfit, emphasizing the sun-and-fun character of those early tunes.
Created with a briefly returning Brian Wilson, the group’s last new studio album of all-original music, “That’s Why God Made the Radio”, was released in 2012.
Fast forward a half century to 2024. Long estranged from the group, Brian Wilson suffers from dementia and is in the care of a conservatorship. Brothers Carl and Dennis Wilson have long since passed away. Jardine—who had toured with Wilson’s superb solo group—is on his own. Sole remaining founding member Love helms an official configuration of the Beach Boys, including longtime member Bruce Johnston (he joined in 1965). Love is 83; Johnston is a year younger.
They Get Around
These days, the Beach Boys are primarily a performing unit; the group—Love and Johnston plus a top-flight array of younger musicians, including lead guitarist John Wedemeyer—continues to tour, bringing the sentimental sounds of surf, sun and sand to modern-day audiences. And in tacit acknowledgment of the compilation that revived the band’s career, the current Beach Boys tour is branded as “Endless Summer Gold.”
Mike Love says that concerts on this tour feature 18 of the album’s 20 songs. “And we’re still getting amazing audience response,” he says. “All kinds of demographics, all age groups come out and have a great time, and I think that’s a wonderful thing.” He readily concedes that the release of “Endless Summer” 50 years ago last month gave the Beach Boys a shot in the arm that continues to pay dividends today. “As time goes on,” he observes, “you have a resurgence, then your career subsides a bit, and then you have another resurgence.”
Love cites attendance figures from some of the band’s most historically notable shows—an estimated 900,000 in Philadelphia in 1985, half a million at the Washington Monument later that same day—and makes the point that his group’s appeal endures. “We’ve had our highs even in the midst of our lower-selling albums,” he says. “And we’re doing fantastic right now; we have thousands of people singing along to our songs.”
A longtime friend of the band, television actor and sometime musician John Stamos is a featured performer with the Beach Boys on this tour. He plays drums alongside main drummer Jon Bolton. And like every member of the touring unit, he sings.
Love is enthusiastic about the tour, and about the new Disney+ documentary, “the Beach Boys.” Like “Endless Summer,” this officially sanctioned chronicle of the group’s history focuses on the sun and fun more than the dense, ambitious studio works of the mid ’60s. Love makes the point that since late 1964, there have effectively been two parallel versions of the group. “One is the recording group, of which Brian was absolutely in charge,” he says. “And then there’s the touring group. My cousin Carl was in charge of that musically, but I was in charge of agency and management. I’ve always preferred the live music part of it.”
Keeping It Classic
Carl Wilson passed away in 1998; these days his place in the touring group is filled by Wedemeyer, who joined in May 2023. Though he lives in Las Vegas, Wedemayer is a Los Gatos native with a long South Bay history; for years he led adventurous trio group WHaT. Though his formative musical years were immersed in the blues, he says that when he belatedly discovered “Pet Sounds,” everything changed for him. It struck a chord with the musician, who describes himself as “in love with pop music and great songs.” Between covers of Frank Zappa and Howlin’ Wolf, WHaT could launch into a note-perfect reading of the Beach Boys’ 1973 classic “Sail On Sailor.”
Wedemeyer came to the attention of Mike Love during his time playing with Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers. With that group, he had shared an occasional bill with the Beach Boys. “I was happy to be on the periphery of the Beach Boys,” he admits. “I never dreamed that (an offer to join) would come up.”
But it did, and Wedemeyer has since played hundreds of dates with the band. And the versatile guitarist says that when he joined, he had a clear goal. “I decided that my mission would be to play the parts as close to the original recordings as I could,” he says. “My ear just wants to hear those classic Carl Wilson, Tommy Tedesco, Barney Kessel and Glen Campbell guitar licks.”
Along with singing harmony in the band, Wedemeyer works hard to get just the right guitar tone and effects to match the vibe of each classic Beach Boys tune. “It’s not a guitar gig,” he emphasizes. “It’s about the songs.” And while he’s a generation younger than the group’s leaders, he remains in awe of their stamina and work ethic. “The PR on Mike Love is that he’s one of the biggest a******* in rock and roll,” he concedes. “He gets a bad rap. In fact, he’s the nicest, most accommodating guy. And trying to keep up with a couple of 80-plus-year-old guys is fascinating,” Wedemeyer enthuses. “The minute you start to complain, you look at Mike all raring to go, and you think, ‘Okay, I’m gonna shut up now!”
To read more about the Beach Boys, including a piece in which Los Gatan Editor Drew Penner considers their relationship to surf culture, visit metrosiliconvalley.com.
The Beach Boys play Music in the Park in San Jose’s Plaza de César Chávez this Sunday, on July 28.
