SURF UP.4

Surf's Up (song)
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“Surf's Up”
Single by The Beach Boys
from the album Surf's Up
Released November 8, 1971
Format Vinyl
Recorded 1966/1967, 1971
Genre Pop music
Length 4:12
Label Brother/Reprise
Producer The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys singles chronology
"Long Promised Road"/"'Til I Die"
(1971) "Surf's Up"/"Don't Go Near the Water"
(1971) "You Need a Mess of Help to Stand Alone"/"Cuddle Up"
(1972)

"Surf's Up" is the title of a song written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks. The song was intended as one of the centrepieces for the aborted Beach Boys' album Smile, which was begun in late 1966 but shelved in mid-1967. It was reworked and used as the title track for the twenty-second official album by The Beach Boys, Surf's Up, released in 1971. It also appears as the tenth track in Brian Wilson's re-recorded SMiLE, released in 2004.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 1966-67 recording
* 2 1971 recording
* 3 2004 version
* 4 Other releases
* 5 See also

[edit] 1966-67 recording

"Surf's Up" was written in a single night at Brian Wilson's piano in his sandbox. Brian believes
“ the lyrics for 'Surf's Up' were very Van Dyke; only he could have done that - only Van Dyke could have written those lyrics. We wrote that at my Chickering piano, I think, in my sandbox and it took us about an hour at most to write the whole thing. We wrote it pretty fast; it all happened like it should. ”

In Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile, when asked by Van Dyke Parks what Wilson was feeling when he wrote the music for "Surf's Up," he responded with
“ I just felt some love, I felt a whole lot of love, there was a whole lot of love going on at the time. ”

The song was certainly fully composed by November 1966, when Brian Wilson was filmed performing the song on piano for a CBS News special on popular music, hosted by Leonard Bernstein. An apparently complete backing track for the first (2:20) section was recorded and mixed in November 1966, but vocals and other overdubs were still to be added, and work on the middle and closing sections was either never undertaken, or never finished. It is notable that the flourishes played on muted trumpet in the verses of "Surf's Up" are almost identical to the familiar 'laughing' refrain of the theme for the Woody Woodpecker cartoon series. This musical reference recurs in the instrumental piece "Fall Breaks And Back To Winter" on the album Smiley Smile, (which was in fact subtitled "Woody Woodpecker Symphony").
Brian Wilson's performance of "Surf's Up"

The original studio recording of the song was never completed. A fully finished (or near-complete) backing track for the first section was recorded in late 1966 and early 1967 under the production of Brian Wilson, and other vocal and instrumental segments were also recorded, but a final edit was apparently never made. Wilson also recorded a complete 'demo' solo performance of the song in late 1966, accompanying himself on piano; this was apparently made for a CBS television special on pop music hosted by composer Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein expressed his admiration for the song during the television special:
“ There is a new song, too complex to get all of first time around. It could come only out of the ferment that characterizes today's pop music scene. Brian Wilson, leader of the famous Beach Boys, and one of today's most important musicians, sings his own 'Surf's Up.' Poetic, beautiful even in its obscurity, 'Surf's Up' is one aspect of new things happening in pop music today. As such, it is a symbol of the change many of these young musicians see in our future. ”

Although the second section of the song features the demo version of the song from 1966-67, with Brian Wilson on lead vocals, the entire demo version remained unreleased until it was released on the Beach Boys 1993 box set release Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys. The demo version of the song obviously does not feature any additional vocal or instrumental overdubs, and at the conclusion of the song, Brian can be heard singing the original ending to the "Surf's Up" song without the "Child is Father of the Man" vocal overdubs.[citation needed]

[edit] 1971 recording

A later composite version of the song was completed by The Beach Boys under the supervision of Carl Wilson in 1971. The song was credited as being produced by The Beach Boys, though most of the production for the new instrumental sections of the song was done by Carl. The first section featured a new lead vocal by Carl dubbed over the original 1966 backing track, as well as additional instrumentation. It's said that the band asked Brian to do the lead vocal as he would have originally, but he was unwilling to or possibly felt he was unable to perform it at this point in time.

The second section ("Dove nested towers"...) featured mainly Brian's vocal and piano from the demo recording plus new vocal and instrumental overdubs. The third section combined the closing section of Brian's demo with newly-recorded vocals and other additions, with the lead vocal ("A children's song, have you listened as they play?") being done by Al Jardine.

Oddly enough, despite being completely unwilling to work on the rest of the song and do the lead vocal, the new ending of the 1971 version was entirely Brian's work. It is based on another Smile era track, "Child is the Father of the Man". It is unkown if the song was originally to end this way or if it was a newer addition by Brian. An additional line to this section, "As life is done, all the children carry on," was written but was removed at Brian's request.

The newly-finished song was released as a single and also appeared on the 1971 album of the same name, Surf's Up. The B-side of the single was "Don't Go Near the Water".

Evidently referring to the solo 'demo' version, Brian stated:
“ The vocal on that [Surf's Up] was a little bit limited. It's not my favorite vocal I ever did, but it did have heart. Nevertheless, it'll be out there again with this reissue, and I'll be naked to the world!