The sunday mornin’ gospel goes good with a song
There’s blues, folk, and country, and rock like a rollin’ stone
The world could come together as one
If everybody under the sun
Would add some music to your day**
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| The Beach Boys at Summerfest Sunday night. Photo by Caroline Tan. |
It all started 50 years ago this summer.
I was sitting under the boardwalk on the beach in New Jersey with a group of my friends, where as a teenager I spent virtually every summer day. Since it was mandatory that all teenagers listened to music while at the beach, someone in the group had a transistor radio. What’s a transistor radio, you ask? It was a small, portable radio with a little dial and volume control. You charged it up at home and it would last all afternoon. I’ts been called the most popular communications device in history, at least before the cell phone. But I digress.
Out of that little radio on that hot summer afternoon, I heard the words that changed my life forever: “Let’s go surfin’ now, everybody’s learnin’ how, come on a safari with me.” The song’s catchy beat grabbed me instantly. I sat up, asked everyone to be quiet, and we all listened intently to this new tune.
The song, not surprisingly called “Surfin’ Safari”, was by a new band called the Beach Boys. It didn’t have the incredible layered harmonies that the group became famous for a short time later, but it was a great first effort, a fun, carefree diddy about going surfing and having fun. We thought ourselves pretty accomplished surfers, okay body surfers but it was surfing to us, and we were experts at having fun. So “Surfin’ Safari” was an instant hit. And I was hooked.
Sunday night’s Beach Boys performance at the Marcus Ampitheater was something I had been looking forward to for a very long time. Summerfest was a stop on the band’s 50th anniversary tour, and it’s been a very long time since they were together on stage. The fact that this tour actually happened is somewhat miraculous for many reasons, not the least of which is that these guys have been around for 50 years.
You could call this a review of the Beach Boys concert, and since I would tell you it was fantastic, I suppose it sort of is. They played for nearly three hours, over 40 songs, and virtually every one sounded just like it did way back then.
But I’d like it to be about music, and the impact it can have on a person’s life, becoming part of our heritage, our legacy, about, really, who we are. Seeing the Beach Boys, and getting their new album “That’s Why God Made the Radio,” reminded me of the impact their music had on me.
Music, when you’re alone, is like a companion, for your lonely soul.**
For most of us, we can think back to when we became who we are and thank a certain song, a certain singer or a certain band for influencing that. Music has that kind of power.
Music has a way of attaching itself to us and becoming intertwined with our lives the first time we hear it, and becoming part of our fiber. Music is something we can immerse ourselves in; it can take us to another place, and another time. In a lot of ways, it really defines us.
The music of the Beach Boys has and always will have that effect on me.
Steven Van Zandt of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band was quoted as saying: “(Their) music is purely spiritual, its harmony is universal, its time is eternal.”
In his review of Sunday night’s concert, Dave Tianen of the Journal Sentinel that the Beach Boys: “…helped change the sound of modern music and created a myth, and approach to making music, that endures to this day. The aging of the innovators does nothing to negate that.”
I was so blessed I got to see Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks perform one more time Sunday night. We are incredibly fortunate here in Milwaukee to have so many concerts at so many venues for so many months. There are people in other parts of the country that rarely get the opportunity to see a concert, to see live music. We should take advantage of that as much as we can.
I hope you have music that influences you like this. No matter what it is, the Beach Boys or your favorite musician or band, make sure to add some music to your day.
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**Lyrics from “Add Some Music to Your Day” by Brian Wilson, Joe Knott & Mike Love, the Beach Boys, from the Sunflower album.
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