This has probably been discussed before, but being relatively new I'd like to hear others opinions.

So do most here consider "The Beach Boys" to be Surf or classify it as something else (R&R)?

For the record I like them but don't own an album and have never performed a Beach Boys tune. _Pet Sounds _is an amazing album though and thier sound is certainly part of Americana music imo.

Their early albums are of course surf music while later stuff like Pet Sounds isn't.

T H E ✠ S U R F I T E S

Early beach boys is surf, as much as any 'instro' song. Damn, I never use this retarded word 'instro' .

Miserlou has lyrics for all you surf lyric hating people & here they are below. This is 1 song that is better without the lyrics, YUK !

My Misirlou (Egyptian girl), your sweet glance
Has lit a flame in my heart.
Ah, ya habibi, Ah, ya leh-leli, ah (Arabic: Oh, my love, Oh, my night‎)
Your two lips are dripping honey, ah.

Ah, Misirlou, magical, exotic beauty.
Madness will overcome me, I can't endure any more.
Ah, I'll steal you away from the Arab land.

My black-eyed, my wild Misirlou,
My life changes with one kiss
Ah, ya habibi, one little kiss, ah
From your sweet little lips, ah.

Of course they are Surf, at least in the early days. They are the band that got me into Surf. They were like my gateway Surf band. After the Beach Boys, I would search for other Surfer music, and eventually with my dad's help discovered Dick Dale. And the rest is history.

i have a ton of old surfing photo's of me surfing the north side of the surf city pier on big choppy surf around 1968-69 their were all so a few ventures/surf cover bands around lejuene-j-ville as well at that time, i took lesson form a guy in a j-ville music store that played in one of those bands (64-66) he knew every venture tune and gave me all his ventures and surf records that i still have......cheers

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or @ Timothy C Sullivan

I think they are surf musicians ... instrumental a few times and vocal the most, but surfers at last.

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DannySnyder
Now I'm the one who's being dogmatic. While I'm a fan of their music, I hesitate to call it surf, I prefer to call it Beach music. To me Surf is an instrumental style of music. However, I'm prepared to stay in the minority on this one.

I think I see where you're coming from. In the most technical terms you could divide things into Instrumental Surf and Vocal Surf. I could see the Beach Boys as being a Vocal Surf band that did a few Instrumental Surf pieces. BTW, it goes the other direction too, Dick Dale did some vocals.

That having been said, Instrumental Surf seems to be the common thread of this forum and I can understand reducing that handle to simply "Surf".

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

synchro
I think of it from the standpoint of someone listening to the tube-driven AM radio while riding in their parent's car with their older sister. What was I hearing in the early '60s? I was hearing lots of different things but the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean were the sounds of southern California. The second that music came on I was transported to that world. Instrumental Surf dovetailed nicely with that music and the sound of the guitar work tended to be similar to the guitar work on the Beach Boys and other bands that sang about surfing. There was no need to mentally shift gears when transitioning from one to another. They both brought to mind the endless summer of southern California and the image of a life we could only imagine.

I like synchro's answer best. That is the closest to what I believe the Beach Boys represented in the early sixties. In John Blair's ILLUSTRATED DISCOGRAPHY OF SURF MUSIC 1961-1965 he says, I quote, "Besides Dick Dale and the Del-Tones and Jan & Dean, The Beach Boys were the most important and influential surf music artists from the 1960's". I must say I feel the same way.

But that said, The Beach Boys were first and foremost a Rock and Roll group and they had the foresight to change with the times... thus Pet Sounds. That's why they survived. The Beach Boys are indeed surf, but they also did hot rod songs and ballads. Beach music? I didn't know there was such a category with all due respect, Jeff. Sounds like a comp you can get from KTEL! It's easy to put things in all these little sub categories today, but really it's all Rock and Roll. And what the Beach Boys were doing in the early to mid sixties was by all accounts the "Surf Sound".

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badash

DannySnyder
Now I'm the one who's being dogmatic. While I'm a fan of their music, I hesitate to call it surf, I prefer to call it Beach music. To me Surf is an instrumental style of music. However, I'm prepared to stay in the minority on this one.

Don't go pissing off our southern friends. "Beach Music" means something on the right coast

Yep, "Beach Music" is a whole other genre here on the Southern East Coast (Carolinas & S. Va).

topsail

badash

DannySnyder
Now I'm the one who's being dogmatic. While I'm a fan of their music, I hesitate to call it surf, I prefer to call it Beach music. To me Surf is an instrumental style of music. However, I'm prepared to stay in the minority on this one.

Don't go pissing off our southern friends. "Beach Music" means something on the right coast

Yep, "Beach Music

" is a whole other genre here on the Southern East Coast (Carolinas & S. Va).
Really? Educate me.

Danny Snyder

"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party

Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF