Ye Serfin' Safari

Overall Album Score: 7.2 out of 10

The Beach Boys were clearly one of those bands that took quite awhile to start getting good. So, these early albums are very much weak and pretty much ignored when rock critics discuss their artistic merits. But, I will tell ya that it's still very fun sifting through all their early material. Already, they managed to have two of their biggest hits of all time: "409" and the title track. Those are hits for the ages! Listen to them, enjoy them, and know that they'll get a whole hell of a lot better!

There are a few other minor highlights in this album. One of which is "Cuckoo Clock," which features a marginally catchy melody. It's fun to listen to, and I like it. However, "Cuckoo Clock" is not a very well known Beach Boys song for a single good reason: It's not memorable. So you should know that when I try selling the non-"Surfin' Safari" and "409" songs, I'm really stretching myself thin! There's no reason you shouldn't purchase those two tracks from iTunes and call it a day.

One notable aspect of this album worth a mention is that the Beach Boys write most of this material. That's something very few rock bands could boast as early as 1962. One of the album's covers, "Little Girl (You're My Miss America)," is total crap, so at least we know that Wilson had the Boys' principal songwriter had more sense than everyone else in the world! Wilson, who would very soon emerge as a songwriting genius, is at his formative stages. But already he figured out how to make endurable radio hits. The skills he would develop in harmony and melody would come later on. Even as early as the next album. Can't wait!!

Overall Album Score: 7.2 out of 10 (There's the two hits ... and ... you can basically forget about the rest.)

Average Song Score: 7.6 (Harmless stuff through and through. A few memorable hits, but a lot of filler also.)

Album Tilt: 7.0 (There's not a whole lot to take away from this. I would never actually recommend that anyone owns this album. You'll get the two hits and nothing much else ... unless you're a die hard or something!!)

Artist Rating: 7.0 ("Moon Dawg" tempts me, but I won't raise this score. The Beach Boys were under control of the record companies at this time, so their lack of artistic prowess wasn't really their fault.)

Track Reviews

Surfin' Safari 10/10

Let's go surfin' now/everybody's learning how/come on a safari with me ... That's how the Beach Boys introduce themselves, and what nice words. I even like them even though I live in Kansas, which has been scientifically proven to be the worst place in the United States to go surfing. But when I listen to this song, I'm not in Kansas. I'm in Cali-freaking-fornia where there's this giant thing called "the ocean." And apparently some people get these big pieces of wood or something, put it on top of this "ocean" thing, and stand on top of it!!! ... Yes, this is why there are so many hot women in California!!!! (I've never been to California, as a matter of fact, but I know there's how women in California, because the Beach Boys told me so circa 1965.) Any-dang-way, this is a great surfing song! The melody is very catchy. The groove and instrument playing sounds like it's from a bunch of wimpy white boys, but that's OK, because this was 1962, and ... The Beach Boys were a bunch of wimpy white boys. 1962 was in the midst of a dark age in rock (who the frig cares about girl group and Motown?), but this song is a highlight! Too bad I can't say the same thing about the other songs...

County Fair 7/10

The melody is OK, but it strikes me as being a dumb old throwaway song with some really embarrassing dialogue in the middle of it. I'd take this song over half of the stuff kids today like listening to. But it's nothing special. (I wonder if this is what the Sparks were making fun of in their "Algebra" song from their debut album?)

Ten Little Indians 7/10

Well, the Beach Boys would later cover "Sloop John B," but this adaptation from the nursery rhyme is just meant to be cute and little else. It's mildly enjoyable though.

Chug-a-Lug 8/10

Who the heck wants a song about drinking root beer? Oh wait, I forgot. This is the early '60s and it's OK for music to be sucky. I like the groove even though it sounds exactly like the other songs on this album. The melody is decent, and so is the instrumentation. The lyrics are embarrassingly stupid, but ... they pretty much already hit their nadir with "County Fair."

Little Girl (You're My Miss America) 4/10

There's nothing appealing about this song. The melody just isn't worth anything. The whole "sha-la-la" background chorus is something that should have stayed in the '50s! And whoever the hell that is singing "You're My Miss America" in that barritone probably didn't rehearse much. It's also notable that this is the album's only ballad ............

409 9/10

Everybody likes this song! As you probably know, this is one of the album's biggest hits, and it continues to get radio play to this day. The melody is catchy and the instrumentals are predictably white-boyish. Hey, but that's why we like the Beach Boys, right? (No? ... What's that you say about harmonies and ballads?)

Surfin' 6.5/10

For a surfing band, there's not a lot of songs about surfing on it. This is only their second, and it SUCKS!!! OK, it's not so bad, but it's obviously a dumb old throwaway song. It starts out sounding like that "Hey Mickey, you're so fine" song and then the bulk of the song is a goofy thing featuring silly scat vocals and a non-melody. Oh well.

Heads You Win, Tails I Lose 7.5/10

Dumb lyrics, but the melody is passable this time. The chorus is interesting in its own way. The bouncy rhythm section is kind of fun. The vocals are funny, because it sounds like they're falling asleep. (Hey, they'll get better, I swears!)

Summertime Blues 8/10

Hey, I like the riff! They ripped it off from something I can't remember, but who cares? It was 1962, and that's OK. This is a cover anyway. The melody is pretty good here. But this is only a minor highlight.

Cuckoo Clock 8.5/10

This is a pretty good song. The melody is catchy. They accent this song with calls of "Cuckoo," which sounds totally gimmicky to me, but this isn't as embarrassing as they did previously in this album. There's some good use of harmonies here as well.

Moon Dawg 8/10

A very interesting song! It's an atmospheric instrumental and it features some sound effects of a dog barking. A significant precursor to the title track of "Pet Sounds?" Mayhaps.

The Shift 6.5/10

This song isn't bad, but it doesn't have a great enough melody to warrant the wimpy performances! This is basically another throwaway song as far as I can tell. Perhaps you have another opinion.

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