.jpg)
Labor Day weekend. Down at my parent’s place on Cape Cod. We’re in the garage about to leave for the last hurrah of the summer at Old Silver Beach with my mom and the kids. My father is seeing us off from the garage. I look down and see a big box for a 3M overhead projector. I assume it is being used for something else. They had been cleaning out junk from the basement.
“You have an overhead projector?” I ask, opening the trunk of the car.
“Yeah,” he answers, hands in pockets, with the unspoken implication, “why do you ask?”
I ask, “Really? I wasn’t even aware that people still use these things. What with Power Point being 15 years old and all.”
My wife and mother are snickering as we all load up the car.
“Nah, I don’t know how to do any of that stuff,” he answers.
“What do you use it for, presentations?” I ask. Though my father is at least 12 years into retirement, you would never know it. He is on various committees on a volunteer basis. I imagine him showing the arts guild and the church fundraisers how messy their financials are: “Next slide, please.” He keeps regular hours in his home office. We got him a shredder once as a gift for something. A year later, it was still there in the unopened box. “I haven’t had a chance to read the manual,” he explained.
A shredder.
My mother asks, “So what are you showing on that projector thing, nudie shows?”
“Yeah, ‘Hey man, the transparency of that chick is upside down!'” I add in my best disgruntled stag party jeer. “Where did you get this thing, on Craigslist or something?”
“Nah, Staples.”
“They still sell them? Other people still buy them?”
“Yep, I guess so.”
“Have you read the manual yet?” I ask him.
This is a man well known for his adherence to the meticulous practice of unpacking parts no matter what the kit or product, assembly required or not, laying everything out in an organized flow, getting the proper tools, unfolding the instructions and reading and re-reading them. And yet, it once took two of us to get a swing set about 3/4 of the way assembled before we realized we had to disassemble almost all of it and start over. I inherited my mechanical know-how from him.
And so, we bid goodbye to another summer from a Cape Cod garage.
We were happy to find out that the Buffalo Tom song, “Summer,” was placed on this NPR list/mix of “Songs for Summer’s End.” Regular readers and BT fans are well aware that the topic of the change of seasons, and summer’s end in particular, have held a forceful sway for BT songwriting. A small sampling of our others in this genre include “White Paint Morning,” “Treehouse,” and “September Shirt” to more overtly autumnal tones like “Mineral.” Winter songs might include “Frozen Lake” and “Crutch.” The peak of summer? Maybe “Tangerine,” and “Souvenir.” A Buff Tom May Day soundtrack would definitely have “Sundress.”
There are a good amount of songs that capture the immediate end of summer for me as a fan. From standards like “September Song” and “Summer Wind” to Earth, Wind, and Fire’s “September.” Wilco’s “In a Future Age” resonates for me more recently.
But nothing captures the “wasted every day” feel and the idea of lost opportunity of summer like the Beach Boys’ “Surfer Girl.” It probably seems as incongruous — as it does even to me — that I love the beach. Talk about transparency — that might as well describe my ultra-fair skin. I can only swim a few strokes before I sun out of steam. I hate seafood. But I never was a camping guy, a mountains or a lake guy. I love the shore. I always wished I was a surfer dude. I envy Matt Tahaney and Billy Beard, fellow musician buddies who head out in wet suits in almost any season around New England, laid back and hunting for great waves. Maybe this is why I identify with “Surfer Girl.”
While they are so immediately associated with the joys of fun, sun, surf, and sand via their early singles, and then for the melancholia of the more growing-up projects like Pet Sounds, “Surfer Girl” is one of those that sits in between somehow.
The music is unmistakably wistful, a pining melody against an almost corny standard D-Bm-G-A sad-pop chord sequence. But then it turns even more aching. As I pointed out on Twitter/Facebook this week, I really would not have previously been able to tell you what a major 7th chord was, even as I might be playing a major 7th (as opposed to a straight 7th), but the chord form is all over “Surfer Girl” (under “make my heart come…”) and (“standing by the ocean’s roar,” e.g.) and a good major 7th will break your heart. Apparently, Brian Wilson used “When You Wish Upon a Star” as a guide, writing it at the age of 19.
But I think — perhaps incorrect in my presumption — that most people write off the song as a lightweight Beach Boys number. On the surface, it seems like just a surfer dude out to pick up a surfer girl. Story over. But Brian was not a surfer. He sees himself as a poseur here, a wannabe surfer but not cool enough. As with another song from the same era, “In My Room,” there is an acute loneliness at the core, heartbreak, anxiety and resignation that he will not get the girl (“little one/Make my heart come all undone/Do you love me, do you surfer girl?) She is elusive, nameless, a voiceless stranger, a crush (“I have seen you on the shore/Standing by the ocean’s roar.”) That poignant melancholy has a tight grip.
But then it gets even more urgent, as the singer is all of a sudden left alone on the middle-eight, after having had the support of Four Freshmen-like harmonies up to this point. He takes the “We could ride the surf together….” lines solo before the choir comes back in to join him as the key modulates upwards to an even more aching verse and outro.
It is all a dream. You never believe that the idea that the singer can truly “ride the surf together” with her, or that he even has a woody (please Beavis; it refers to a wood-paneled station wagon that was hip with surfers), though you can tell he really knows he can make her “dreams come true” somehow. He has watched her all summer and knows he will never see her again.
Hello Mr Janowitz 🙂
Are you still taking requests for CotW? If yes could you please add Andy Pratt's Summer, Summer to the list? If no then um, oh well
—
Dave W.
Good stuff! It reminds me of the way the Pixies did a cool that cool alt take of "Wave of Mutilation" slowed down like this. Definitely gives the surf tune a lamenting quality. Sweet layering of the backup vocals too.
.: As usual, a wonderful back story to your choice for this week's CotW. I'll confess straightaway that I have always considered Surfer Girl to be a lightweight BB tune, but your analysis has changed that for me. I've always been aware that only Dennis surfed, and that Carl and Brian didn't – always found that fascinating in light of the band's image as surfer dudes. I'm hearing multiple background harmony vocals here – how many tracks, Bill? I think the harmonies are the highlight of the song.
There is a period in the Beach Boys history that really resonates with me – it was the time when the albums Sunflower, Surf's Up, Holland, and Carl and The Passions – So Tough, appeared. There were some amazing songs on those records, including the tunes written by Ricky Fataar and Blondie Chaplin, when they were briefly in the band. "Leaving This Town" is a tune that I love.
The Beach Boys nailed "summer" for me with these lyrics:
Sittin' in my car outside your house
(Sittin' in my car outside your house)
'Member when you spilled coke all over your blouse
T-shirts, cut-offs, and a pair of thongs
(T-shirts, cut-offs, and a pair of thongs)
We've been having fun all summer long.
Regarding your "Major 7th" confession, that totally blows my mind. You've used the chord before in songs like Larry, where it dominates. Was it just that you didn't know what it was called? I just googled Surfer Girl, and you're right (duh), the song is littered with Maj7 chords. Funny that I've never looked at the chords for this tune in 43 years of playing. It changes everything, doesn't it?
I want to write more, but fear I'm overdoing it on my responses, so will wish you a good week, and say thanks again for your weekly musical gift to us.
thanks – this series is a continuing treat. As a huge Brian Wilson fan, I appreciate your thoughts on a much deeper song than might appear upon a quick listen. Alas, the windy waves were pretty good in Hew Hampster yesterday …..
Much of the songs and your blogs are about transitions and the nostalgic often painful ends to things. I just realized that most of the end of summer songs, except maybe "summer nights" from grease, really speak of leaving the beach. As I listened to your cover of surfer girl, it made me think that as a kid you really look forward to and miss the beach vacation the most. Xmas and sports championships and all the rest happen at home. The beach you go to, make friends, and leave in a week or two.
A song from your era of being a kid at thw beach is a strong memory pill. My era had "summer breeze" and "brandy" among other. In fact, most buffalo tom songs about summer ending are really about leaving the beach behind- "write it in the sand" "driftwood from the shore" etc.
WJB- that pixie version is callled the "UK Surf" mix. Coincidence?
Bill, please allow me to say more…
Paul: Being 56, I've lived through a number of "eras", and I'm reminded of mid-60s tunes like Summer in the City, Daydream, and Summertime Blues (the version by Blue Cheer), as summer songs of importance. Now you mention Brandy and Summer Breeze, and the time machine takes me back to the early 70s. In that period, Carly Simon released her second album, which featured a tune called Summer's Coming Around Again, about the return of summer, rather than the end, a romantic ditty that I played as a cover song in the last band I was in.
It's like you can almost label summer songs into three time periods: early, middle, and late summer.
Bill, you write often about the end of summer, the loss of the season. I grew up in land-locked Winnipeg, but what few people outside of the region know is that Winnipeg is an hour south of one of the best beaches in NA, Grand Beach on Lake Winnipeg. Granted, we could only go there 10-12 weeks of the year, but when we did, it was a blast. I miss those times.
Along with BT's Summer, another all-time favorite tune about the end of summer is The Boys of Summer, my favorite Henley tune. Both he and Bill sing eloquently about said end of summer in their respective tunes. Other great summer songs include Mungo Jerry's cheesy one-hit wonder, In the Summertime, and Sunny Afternoon by The Kinks. Even Dancin' In The Moonlight. I'll stop now.
Springsteen could write a good summer song
The end of summer bums me out because I'm left with a list of things I wanted to do. It always seems like the first half lasts forever, and I tell myself "Wow, I've got lots to do but I also have loads of time to enjoy it." Then, in the blink of an eye, summer is over.
I own an opaque projector. It's never let me down. I can't say the same for my computer.
A cover of "Sunny Afternoon" would be so cool.
hey masshole who sells no records , how about the YANKEES!!!!!