The Beach Boys - Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) Vinyl LP

The Beach Boys – Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)

Vinyl LP, Reissue, 2010

Capital Records

Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)reminds me of The Beatles Rubber Soul album or maybe Beatles For Sale, not in the sense of sound but in maturity due to the themes on the album. Also for an odd reason it reminds me of New York City more than Southern California. Beyond their cover of Phil Spector's “Then I Kissed Her” it has that master's touch over these recordings. It is almost if The Beach Boys re-invented themselves as the male Ronettes. This and The Beach Boys Today are my favorite early albums by the mighty five. The songs are between child-like and adult. So maybe this is their most teenage album of them all!

We know the famous cuts here “California Girls” and “Help Me Rhonda,” but my favorite songs are “Girl Don't Tell Me,” “Let Him Run Wild,” and “You're So Good To Me.” Those three songs are masterpieces. For one, the singing on these cuts are incredible and so emotional. Great performances from the studio band, and it is just a beautiful production. But there are no bad cuts on Summer Days, it is basically a perfect album doing what it does best, which is capturing the inner-world of The Beach Boys.

But saying that there is one song here that is extremely disturbing, now that we know the facts between the Wilson boys and their father. That of course is “I'm Bugged At My Ol' Man.” Humorous till you realize that they must be singing about their grand ol' dad. The Beach Boys biography is a very sad one. When you come to think of it, it's amazing that Brian Wilson is still with us, and still working!