Archived Weblog Entry - 09/01/2004: "Beach Boys"

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09/01/2004 Archived Entry: "Beach Boys"

Beach Boys
Summer ends and a string of Beach Boys tunes hits the airwaves.
"God Only Knows" - what makes the Beach Boys so odd is that underneath these romantic motifs and wholesome image lurks deep insanity. Brian Wilson's flip outs have become the legends of popular music. But they also stand for what was central to the Beach Boys in general. Lunacy. Break outs based on emotion without care to rationality. The inability to really be happy.
The greater lesson of the Beach Boys is how appearances deceive. The '60s belief in surfing, beach music, blanket bingos, lasting relationships... yields to dark fantasies, obsession, and manic compulsive behavior. The lyrics seem so simple and touching:

If you should ever leave me
Though life would still go on, believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would livin' do me
God only knows what I'd be without you

Nice, eh? Touching. What would I do without you? But the constant repetition (this is pretty much the whole song) of these words speaks to the real insanity lurking. This person is having a break down. And maybe s/he means the words/maybe not...maybe s/he follows up this chant with outlandish acts (like Dennis Wilson drowning/Brian Wilson on drugs/something else entirely), but saying them over and over like a mantra hides the anxiety beneath. "I fixate because I don't know what I'd be without you..."This is a pedagogy of anxiety. It's also a pedagogy not far removed from academia where fantasies and illusions often reign in hallways, classrooms, etc. Beach Boys for Dummies? Maybe.