JUKEBOX: The Other Side of Summer

Welcome to the first in what I hope will be a regular series on REBEAT. My name is Carey and I love making playlists. I used to love making mix CDs, and before that, I loved making mix tapes. Whether it’s a mix of songs to listen to on dark November nights, songs from my favorite TV shows, or songs to suitably impress some cute guy on the Internet with my musical taste, few things give me more dorky satisfaction than organizing and curating collections of my favorite music.

We’re starting off with the first playlist idea I pitched to Allison: songs that sound like the Beach Boys — but aren’t. It’s a fitting place to start, not just because it’s the middle of the summer, but because Allison and I first bonded two years ago during the Beach Boys’ 50th anniversary tour. In this playlist, you’ll find homages and parodies, girls and cars, falsettos and theremins, underpants and internal organs… wait, what?

Let’s get started.

“Stroller Town,” Jonathan Coulton

When Mike Love told Brian Wilson not to “fuck with the formula,” this is the formula he was talking about. More specifically, this is “The Beach Boys Formula: Cars Edition.” “Stroller Town” is like the baby of “I Get Around” and “Shut Down” — and literally, since, as the title suggests, it’s a song about a drag race between two baby strollers. JoCo nails the structure, lyrical style, and relentless optimism of an early Beach Boys song, with some organ, sleighbells, and handclaps thrown in for good measure.

“Seaside Lament (Sand),” Da Vinci’s Notebook

“The Beach Boys Formula: Surfing Edition” — except it’s Da Vinci’s Notebook, the comedy a cappella group that later begat JoCo collaborators Paul & Storm, so instead of name-checking beaches or the Surfer Stomp, the guys sing about how much they hate getting sand in their pants. DVN’s goofy, sophomoric humor was always anchored by their impressive vocal chops, so it’s no surprise that when they go for a “Good Vibrations”-style breakdown in the bridge, they can pull off those gorgeous harmonies even when they’re rhyming “Speedos” with “Doritos.”

“Forever,” The Explorers Club

The Explorers Club may be the best argument Dennis Wilson fans have for the importance of his role in the Beach Boys. If you dissect a typical Beach Boys harmony line, Dennis’s part is usually the part that sounds (at least at first) slightly out of place, or maybe even wrong. Even before drugs, alcohol, and punches to the throat took their toll, Dennis’s voice was ragged and rough compared to his brothers’ choirboy tones. But instead of keeping him quiet, Brian gave Dennis the notes that added texture and complexity to the songs. The Explorers Club, as faithfully as they imitate the Boys on “Forever” (and the rest of Freedom Wind), do not have a Dennis. They’re more like what would happen if all the guys who’d been hired to sing Brian’s falsetto parts onstage made an album together—which means that as Beach Boys-like as Freedom Wind sounds at first, multiple listens reveal it to be more like an imitation of “Surf With Me Or Don’t Hang Around” by Randell Kirsch and Papa Doo Ron Ron. Lots of fun, but perhaps not as emotionally resonant as “In My Room.”

“At My Most Beautiful,” R.E.M

R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills was a huge Beach Boys fan, as you might guess from his sweet, high vocal harmonies, and the lush arrangements on his songs “Near Wild Heaven” and “Texarkana.” But it wasn’t until 1998 that he and the band put together a full-on Beach Boys tribute. “At My Most Beautiful” sounds like a Pet Sounds outtake, and may be the most sincere love song the boys from Athens ever wrote.

“The Love Songs of B. Douglas Wilson,” Splitsville

A Brian Wilson tribute that — unlike the Barenaked Ladies’ more famous ode — actually sounds like Brian Wilson. It’s the final track on the Maryland power-pop band’s Pet Soul album, appearing alongside songs with titles like “Sunshiny Daydream” and “Caroline Knows.” The Pet Sounds instrumental quirks are all here — woodblocks, martial snare drum rolls, accordions, and a ghostly theremin — along with melancholy piano and wistful walls of harmony. The lyrics combine references to famous Beach Boys songs (“Catch A Wave,” “Be True To Your School,” “Surf’s Up”) with nods to T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” to tell Brian’s story.

“Pancreas,” “Weird Al” Yankovic

Like Da Vinci’s Notebook, “Weird Al” Yankovic has built a comedy career on a solid foundation of musical talent. “Pancreas” takes us from an “Our Prayer”-style choral opening to “God Only Knows” verses into full-on “Heroes and Villains” and “Do You Like Worms?”-style freakouts and back again, augmented by cellos, horns, bass harmonicas, and a theremin. And of course, it’s all there to tell the story of what Yankovic claims is his favorite body part. “My pancreas attracts every other pancreas in the universe/With a force proportional to the product of their masses/And inversely proportional to the distance between them”? Van Dyke Parks only wishes he could write like that.

“Drivin’ Around,” The Raspberries

Beach Boys pastiches tend to pay homage to the “surf/car/fun” era or the glories of Pet Sounds and Smile. The Raspberries, on the other hand, make musical nods to songs like “Do It Again” and “Marcella” in a song that wouldn’t sound out of place on Carl and the Passions –So Tough, maybe with Carl Wilson and Blondie Chaplin shredding their larynxes “Wild Honey”-style on lead vocals.

“The Other Side of Summer,” Elvis Costello

The Beach Boys’ attempts at political and social relevance were never exactly successful, but trust Elvis Costello to be able to match some sunny California sounds with withering lyrics like “The dancing was desperate, the music was worse/They bury your dreams and dig up the worthless/Goodnight, God bless, and kiss goodbye to the earth.” (Contrast that with the Boys’ 1992 effort, “Summer In Paradise,” on which Mike Love rapped, “Surfers recycle, now, don’t you know/Like everyone from California to Kokomo.”) The video, which might be the most 1991 thing that ever happens, juxtaposes Elvis and his band of happy beach babes with shots of urban decay.

“Pale and Precious,” The Dukes of Stratosphear

XTC foreshadowed the psychedelic bent of Skylarking and Oranges and Lemons — and laid the groundwork for many of the other songs on this playlist — with this and other songs by their alter egos, The Dukes of Stratosphear.

“Hush,” Jellyfish

And we’ll close with this one: a simple, beautiful lullaby with lovely falsetto vocals and a sweeping “ooh-WAH” to die for.

Did I miss your favorite Beach Boys homage? Share it in the comments!

Carey Farrell

Carey Farrell is a writer, musician, and teacher from Chicago. She enjoys collecting vintage books and records, watching terrible movies, and telling people about the time her band opened for Peter Tork. Find her on YouTube or Bandcamp.