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Thread: The Beach Boys

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    Moderator Ken Cheng's Avatar
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    Default The Beach Boys

    Continuing on our current trend of discussing classic Western rock bands and performers...

    The Beach Boys' music provided the soundtrack to life in Southern California during the 1960s. Brian Wilson was (and still is) a brilliant songwriter who wrote some absolute classics such as "Surfin' USA", "Surfer Girl," "California Girls," "Wouldn't It Be Nice," and "Good Vibrations," among others. The vocal texture that Wilson created in harmony with his brothers Carl and Dennis, cousin Al Jardine, and friend Mike Love was unique and distinctive.

    On a more personal level, I feel a distinct kinship with the band's music because of my own childhood experiences.

    I was born in Los Angeles in 1972. For the first six months of my life, I lived in Hollywood and L.A.'s Chinatown before going with my family to Hong Kong for two years. When I returned to California in 1974, my family settled in the city of Hawthorne, California. Hawthorne is a classic Southern California middle class town located just a few miles from the LA International Airport. The town is also just a few miles from the beach (particularly Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach). When we lived in Hawthorne, my family often drove to the beach after dinner on warm summer evenings. These were happy childhood memories.

    On the last day of school in my kindergarten year (1978) at Ramona School in Hawthorne, the school played the Beach Boys' "Surfin USA" over the PA system. This was the first time I'd ever heard a Beach Boys song in my life, and I had no idea who the Beach Boys were. I knew that I liked the song, however, and as I grew up, I came to know and like many more of their songs.

    It wasn't until I was a young adult, however, that I discovered why my elementary school played a Beach Boys song on the last day of school. The Beach Boys were born and raised in Hawthorne. The Wilson family's old home was literally just blocks from where my grandfather lived at the time. They had attended the same elementary school (Ramona) where I'd attended kindergarten, 1st Grade, and part of 2nd Grade (before my family moved away from Hawthorne to Monterey Park, California). It explained why I had always felt such a deep personal connection to the band's music, however. Their songs were about places and things that I had experienced personally during childhood. Thus, their songs had and have special meaning to me. I feel very much at home with the Beach Boys' music, and their songs always evoke memories of childhood in Hawthorne and those summer nights watching the sunset on the golden Southern California coast.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Canuck21's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Cheng
    Continuing on our current trend of discussing classic Western rock bands and performers...

    The Beach Boys' music provided the soundtrack to life in Southern California during the 1960s. Brian Wilson was (and still is) a brilliant songwriter who wrote some absolute classics such as "Surfin' USA", "Surfer Girl," "California Girls," "Wouldn't It Be Nice," and "Good Vibrations," among others. The vocal texture that Wilson created in harmony with his brothers Carl and Dennis, cousin Al Jardine, and friend Mike Love was unique and distinctive.

    On a more personal level, I feel a distinct kinship with the band's music because of my own childhood experiences.

    I was born in Los Angeles in 1972. For the first six months of my life, I lived in Hollywood and L.A.'s Chinatown before going with my family to Hong Kong for two years. When I returned to California in 1974, my family settled in the city of Hawthorne, California. Hawthorne is a classic Southern California middle class town located just a few miles from the LA International Airport. The town is also just a few miles from the beach (particularly Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach). When we lived in Hawthorne, my family often drove to the beach after dinner on warm summer evenings. These were happy childhood memories.

    On the last day of school in my kindergarten year (1978) at Ramona School in Hawthorne, the school played the Beach Boys' "Surfin USA" over the PA system. This was the first time I'd ever heard a Beach Boys song in my life, and I had no idea who the Beach Boys were. I knew that I liked the song, however, and as I grew up, I came to know and like many more of their songs.

    It wasn't until I was a young adult, however, that I discovered why my elementary school played a Beach Boys song on the last day of school. The Beach Boys were born and raised in Hawthorne. The Wilson family's old home was literally just blocks from where my grandfather lived at the time. They had attended the same elementary school (Ramona) where I'd attended kindergarten, 1st Grade, and part of 2nd Grade (before my family moved away from Hawthorne to Monterey Park, California). It explained why I had always felt such a deep personal connection to the band's music, however. Their songs were about places and things that I had experienced personally during childhood. Thus, their songs had and have special meaning to me. I feel very much at home with the Beach Boys' music, and their songs always evoke memories of childhood in Hawthorne and those summer nights watching the sunset on the golden Southern California coast.
    I love the Beach Boys. I loved them since I was a kid also but I don't know exactly when I knew about the band. I guess it was during all those vacation trips in the car and the radio often played Beach Boys songs that are associated with the summer season. The Beach Boys is the only American band that I admire and it's also the band of my childhood even though I live in a cold place up in Canada. I remember spending hours listening to the radio on a show that played oldies just so that I could catch a Beach Boys song. I even think that the first album I ever bought was a compilation of the Beach Boys. The album cover even influenced me to draw a dude surfing on a huge wave in an art class in high school. The only documentary I taped as a kid or teen was about the Beach Boys and I still have it until this day. I think the title was "The Beach Boys: An American Band". Yes, I love the Beach Boys.
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  3. #3
    Moderator Ken Cheng's Avatar
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    One of my favorite videos of the Beach Boys performing live on television back in 1964.

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    Senior Member Dagger Lee's Avatar
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    As Jackie Chan (starring as Lee) in Rush Hour said, "The Beach Boys are great American music!".

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    Moderator Ken Cheng's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dagger Lee
    As Jackie Chan (starring as Lee) in Rush Hour said, "The Beach Boys are great American music!".
    It's absolutely true.

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