Surf’s Up is a very strange album for The Beach Boys. It came at a time when Brian Wilson was not in a good place. This led to the rest of the band writing more than on many previous albums. This yielded some very interesting lyrics to say the least.
“Don’t Go Near the Water”
“Don’t Go Near the Water” is lyrically quite unlike most everything that came before for The Beach Boys, even after such varied albums as Friends, 20/20, and Smiley Smile. In fact, it seems to have been intentionally written to contrast with many of their early songs about summer, surf, and sun. The lyrics additionally show an attempted greater consciousness of societal issues which is a common thread throughout the album; this specific song deals with water pollution. Unfortunately, the song does not do much artistically with this theme which leaves it to feel more like an afterschool PSA than an artistic statement. A specifically interesting line is, “toothpaste and soap will make our oceans a bubble bath.” This line in particular stands out as more ridiculous than the rest. While it seems like it could be a reference to microbeads, this controversy did not arise until recent years and would not have been known in 1971 when the album was released. Instead, this line reveals that the song was written without much research done into the subject. This like a number of other lines seems to reveal that the writers were not taking the subject very seriously, and an audience cannot be expected to take something seriously if its creator cannot.
4/10
“Long Promised Road”
The second track on the album, “Long Promised Road,” feels like a much more genuine effort lyrically than the first. It too deviates from the expectations set for The Beach Boys by their early work, but it does so in a way that seems more for the sake of the song itself and not simply for the sake of doing so as the case seemed to be in “Don’t Go Near the Water.” The lyrics are sung from the point of view of a person who desperately wants to be happy but is weighed down by the troubles that surround him. Though he acknowledges the difficulty, he is able to overcome his personal troubles and not allow them to affect his well-being. The song has a strong sense of optimism about it that feels very honest. Unlike the early, happy songs from The Beach Boys, this song’s lyrics feel much more mature. They acknowledge problems, and happiness prevails despite them. There are moments in the song that seem somewhat over-embellished and clunkily worded such as the lines, “So hard to lift the jewelled sceptre When the weight turns a smile to a frown So hard to drink of passion nectar When the taste of life’s holding me down.” These lines carry meaning, but they feel as if they’re trying to be something more than they should be. The metaphors used feel somewhat melodramatic and end up making the lyrics more difficult to relate to. Overall, the song is not a bad one despite its flaws. Unlike the song’s protagonist, however, these troubles do weigh it down.
7/10
