The Beach Boys, Surf Music, and the British Invasion

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The Beach Boys, Surf Music, and the British
Invasion
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Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys

• Formed in 1961 by Brian Wilson, his two brothers,
  a cousin, and a friend in Hawthorne, California
• Brian Wilson was the guiding spirit of the band
  during the groups first decade.
• The defining model of the Beach Boys
• Demonstrate mastery of early rock n roll
• Create original material based on and extending
  those styles
• Branch out beyond the forms, sounds, and lyrics
  of traditional rock n roll to create something
  truly unique

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Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys

• The songs of the Beach Boys enshrined Wilsons
  somewhat mythical version of California in the
  consciousness of young Americans.
• Surfin Safari
• Surfer Girl
• The Warmth of the Sun
• California Girls
• Wilsons vision was inclusive even though it
  remained place specific.

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Brian Wilsons Journey from Imitation, through
Emulation, to Innovation

• The Beach Boys first Top 10 hit, the famous
  Surfin USA (Number Three, 1963), simply
  borrows the music of Chuck Berrys 1958 hit
  Sweet Little Sixteen with new words.
• The Beach Boys next hit, Surfer Girl (Number
  Seven, 1963), reinvigorated the sound and spirit
  of the doo-wop ballad by infusing it with
  California beach content.
• Fun, Fun, Fun
• The groups first hit of 1964 evoked Chuck Berry.
  
• The solo guitar introduction cops its twelve-bar
  blues licks directly from Berrys Roll Over
  Beethoven and Johnny B. Goode.

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Brian Wilsons Journey from Imitation, through
Emulation, to Innovation

• By mid-1964, Wilson had moved past obvious
  emulation into a period of aggressive
  experimentation with his inherited styles and
  forms.
• I Get Around
• The Beach Boys first Number One record
• Turns the up-tempo rock n roll anthem into a
  thoroughly individual kind of expression

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Surf Music

• The popular duo Jan (Berry) and Dean (Torrence)
  worked with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys on a
  number of projects.
• Wilson co-wrote Jan and Deans biggest hit, Surf
  City (Number One, 1963).

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Dick Dale (b. 1937)

• The guitar style of Southern California surf
  music is based on the sound created by Dick Dale
  of the Del Tones.
• Solid-body guitar
• High-wattage Fender amplifier
• Lots of reverb
• Wet sounding surf guitar
• One of Dick Dales characteristic techniques was
  the rapid, descending tremolo
• Borrowed by the Chantays to open their recording
  of Pipeline
• Sustained national recognition eluded Dick Dale
  in the 1960s.
• His music became famous in the 1990s, when his
  recording of Misirlou, from 1962, was used as
  opening music in the hit film Pulp Fiction.

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Ventures

• The most successful instrumental group associated
  with surf rock
• Seattle-based ensemble
• Adopted aspects of the style after it became
  popular in California
• The Ventures hit Number Four with Hawaii Five-0
  
• Theme song of the hit TV show
• Featured on American Bandstand

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The Beatles, the British Invasion, and the
American Response

• The Beatles
• If greatness is measured in commercial success
  and popularity, the Beatles were the greatest
  popular musicians of the twentieth century.
• They started out as a performing band modeled on
  Buddy Hollys group, the Crickets.
• After some initial shifts in personnel, the
  Beatles achieved a stable lineup by 1962,
  consisting of
• John Lennon and George Harrison (lead and rhythm
  guitars and vocals),
• Paul McCartney (bass and vocals), and
• Ringo Starr (drums and occasional vocals).

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The Beatles

• During their extended apprenticeship period, the
  Beatles played at clubs in their hometown of
  Liverpool and elsewhere.
• In Hamburg, Germany, they performed an imitative
  repertoire that centered on covers of songs by
  the American rock n roll artists they most
  admired.

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Listening Please Please Me (1962)

• Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
• Performed by the Beatles
• An excellent example of the Beatles early
  songwriting and performing.
• Straightforward, up-tempo love song in a typical
  AABA form
• Clever internal rhymes complainin is rhymed
  with rain in my heart at the beginning of the
  B section.

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Listening Please Please Me (1962)

• Formal structure with two levels
• The A sections have their own distinctive form,
  aabc a phrases have descending melodic motion
• b phrase text simply repeats the words come on,
  come on, building intensity the c phrase is the
  melodic high point of the section.
• AABA
• A a a b c
• A a a b c
• B d d
• A a a b c

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Listening Please Please Me (1962)

• A
• a Descending melodic motion
• a Again
• b Come on, come onbuilds intensity
• c Please, please memelodic high point of
  the section
• B
• d I dont Bridgenew music
• d I do Change/extension of phrase
• A Exact repetition of A section

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Listening A Hard Days Night (1964)

• Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
• Performed by the Beatles
• Number One in 1964
• Title song of the Beatles first movie
• Begins with dissonant guitar chordeffective hook
  

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Listening A Hard Days Night (1964)

• Overall form is AABA
• The A section is twelve bars long, has three
  four-bar phrases, and uses blue notes that do not
  follow the typical blues harmonic structure.
• More than the three traditional chords are used.
• The chord changes dont always happen in the
  expected places.

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Listening A Hard Days Night (1964)

• A Blues-like twelve-bars
• Its been a hard days night
• Its been a hard days night
• But when I get home to you
• A
• You know I work
• And its worth it
• So why on earth

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Listening A Hard Days Night (1964)

• B When Im home bridgenew music
• AExact repetition of first A
• AInstrumentalGuitar solo, eight bars
• Voice enters for last four bars of section
• B When Im home as before
• A Its been a hard days as before

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Listening Yesterday

• Instrumentationacoustic guitar and strings
• Distinguishing features of Beatles style
• Reference to popular style
• Emphasis on melody
• Imaginative instrumentation
• Responsiveness to text

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Listening Yesterday

• Romantic ballad with strong roots in Tin Pan
  Alley popular song tradition
• Form AABABAvariation of Tin Pan Alley
  thirty-two-bar AABA form
• Opening A section
• 1. Yesterday
• 2. All my troubles
• 3. Now it looks
• 4. Oh, I believe

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Listening Eleanor Rigby (1966)

• Instrumentation String quartetviolins, viola,
  cello
• The lyrics describe two lonely people whose lives
  have been exercises in futility
• The harmony emphasizes the feeling of loneliness
  by alternating between two chords without
  reaching a goal.
• The melody does not lead anywhere there is no
  sense of melodic development.
• Verse-Chorus formalternation of a persistent
  refrain and narrative.

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The Rolling Stones

• Of all the British Invasion acts other than the
  Beatles, the Rolling Stones have had the greatest
  cumulative influence in America.
• They cultivated an image as bad boys, in
  deliberate contrast to the friendly public image
  projected by the Beatles.
• (I Cant Get No) Satisfaction
• Perhaps their most famous hit record
• Number One in 1965
• Composed by band members Mick Jagger and Keith
  Richards
• Memorable buzzing guitar hook
• Unrelenting beat
• Unabashedly self-oriented and ultimately sexual
  lyrics
• The song perfectly exemplifies the distinctive
  low-down, hard-rocking essence of both the
  Rolling Stones themselves and their music.

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Other British Invasion Bands

• The other British Invasion acts that had a
  long-term impact in America started as the
  Beatles did with firm roots in American RB and
  rock n roll.
• On the whole, the Rolling Stones, the Animals,
  the Who, the Kinks, and Eric Clapton remained
  closer to these roots during their careers than
  the Beatles did.

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Beach Boys

• Brian Wilson, inspired by the Beatles album
  Rubber Soul (1965), produced what is arguably
  rocks first concept album, Pet Sounds.
• Released in mid-1966
• Modest seller, compared with some other Beach
  Boys albums
• Had an enormous impact on other musicians
• Paul McCartney affirmed that Pet Sounds was the
  single greatest influence on the Beatles
  landmark 1967 album Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts
  Club Band.

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Good Vibrations

• Wilson furthered his experimentation with the
  late 1966 single Good Vibrations, which reached
  Number One on the charts and has remained
  probably the Beach Boys most famous song.
• Written and produced by Brian Wilson
• Performed by the Beach Boys
• Innovative hit single

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Good Vibrations

• Virtually every aspect of the record is unusual.
• No name for the form
• Unique yet effective
• Wilson uses a rich sound palette to communicate
  the sensuous experience that is the essential
  subject matter of Good Vibrations.
• Memorable melodic hooks and a wide, colorful
  palette of chords
• Extremely costly recording to produce
• Milestone in the developing history of rock
  production

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Listening Good Vibrations, 1966

• A I love the colorful clothes
• High solo voice
• Organ accompaniment
• Flutes
• Percussion
• Minor key

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Listening Good Vibrations, 1966

• B Im picking up good vibrations
• Bass voice enters
• Accompanied by cello, theremin, percussion
• Group enters with vocals
• Major key

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Listening Good Vibrations, 1966

• A again
• B again structure suggests verse/chorus
• C Soft humming, then I dont know but she sends
  me there
• Steadily builds tension
• No stable key

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Listening Good Vibrations 1966

• Instrumental transition
• New key established (major)
• D Gotta keep those lovin good vibrations
  happenin with her
• Solo voice, then group
• Organ accompaniment
• Text repeats, fades out

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Listening Good Vibrations, 1966

• TransitionAah!
• Variations on B, Im picking up good
  vibrations
• Full group texture
• Overlapping vocals
• Major key
• Voices drop out
• Cello and theremin

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Smile

• At the time Wilson was completing Good
  Vibrations, he was also at work on an album to
  be called Smile.
• Eagerly anticipated for many months, Smile was
  abandoned in 1967.
• Wilson returned to and completed Smile in 2004.