Product Description:
2 LPs on 1 CD: SURFIN' SAFARI (1962)/SURFIN' USA (1963).
The Beach Boys: Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson, Dave Marks, Mike Love, Al Jardine.
Recorded at Capitol, Western, Conway Studios, Hollywood, California.
Includes liner notes by David Leaf.
Heard in retrospect after PET SOUNDS or TODAY!, the Beach Boys' first album may sound somewhat embryonic. In the context of its time, however, SURFIN' SAFARI is a solid and entertaining listen filled with songs based on everyday middle-class teen life in early-1960s California. Foremost among these is the group's first hot-rod tune, "409." In some ways an even better song than "Surfin' Safari" (the bigger hit on the other side of their first Capitol single), "409" isn't as full of car-spotter lingo as the group's later hot-rod singles (most of them co-written by L.A. disc jockey and car nut Roger Christian), but it has a stripped-down, almost punky garage-rock sound that thunders along mightily behind the chanting background singers and one of Mike Love's better lead vocals.
Entertainment Reviews:
Q - 5/01, p.129
3 stars out of 5 - "...These records are as unvaried as brilliance can be, but not one song here will make anyone unhappy..."
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