Surf's Up!
Surf's up! is a song by The Beach Boys or Brian Wilson . The song was written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks . Surf's up! was the first song Wilson and Parks wrote together for the Smile album and which was to be a focal point for this concept album.
Recorded in 1966
Surf's up! was written during a single night in 1966. Wilson composed the piece on his piano, which he had placed in his sandpit for better inspiration.
Wilson presented the piece alone with piano accompaniment for a CBS special on pop music moderated by Leonard Bernstein . He later recorded this solo version in his living room. The first part of the song was recorded in the studio in November 1966, but without vocals. These recordings were postponed to a later date, but not ended.
Photo taken in 1971
In 1971, the recordings of this piece were pushed forward again under the direction of Carl Wilson for the Beach Boys. For the first part, Carl used the existing Backin track from 1966 in order to underlay it with further instrumentation and to contribute the vocals. For the second part, he took Brian Wilson's existing demo from his living room recording from 1966. Although Brian didn't have much to do with the recording, he provided another fragment from the Smile album to finish this song. Based on the piece “Child is father of the man”, he concluded the song “Surf's up!” By having the Beach Boys sing with their harmonies over the existing piano demo. Al sang the melody based on "Father of the Man". Another line of text "As life is done, all the children carry on" was removed by Brian for this.
The finished version of the song was released as a single in 1971.
Recorded in 2004
When Brian Wilson finally finished Smile in 2004, he also took Surf's up! new on. The arrangement from 2004 is very close to the version from 1971. However, the song was recorded half an octave lower and the melody part was moved a whole octave down.
Meaning of the text
The song is basically about a man who watches the audience playing his roles through an opera glass at a concert. He realizes that livelihoods, institutions and kingdoms collapse like dominoes. Then the music is over and turns into a trumpeting swan. The man has lost himself in his vision and is going on a journey. Reality is far away, he creates it himself in a dream. He visits the old Europe of the Middle Ages, where he meets poor people in cellar taverns who seek their happiness in singing. He sees the festivals, the drinking parties, the attempts of people to forget the wars, the battles at sea. Then the man feels down because he doesn't even have tears for the suffering of the world and his own suffering.
But he feels hope. Back to the tides, to the beach, to childhood and he hears the word - God's word, which is given to him in a nursery rhyme and he listens to know that the children know the way.
Cover versions
In 2001 the song by Vince Gill , Jimmy Webb and David Crosby was recorded for the "All Star Tribute to Brian Wilson" .