Surf’s still up for reconstituted Beach Boys

Quick, name a rock band from the 1960s. Who’d you pick — The Beatles or the Stones? Jefferson Airplane or the Grateful Dead? But hey, what about the Beach Boys?

With songs like “Surfin’ Safari,” “I Get Around” and “California Girls,” this L.A. band defined the sunny side of the California sound.

While the Dead and their ilk were improvising and experimenting, the Beach Boys kept it tight and bright, churning out pop odes to the joys of being young, American and free.

And their “Good Vibrations” evocation of carefree beach life and convertibles quite possibly inspired as many people to pick up and move to California as the Gold Rush did.

But with lead singer Mike Love as the only original member of the current band, is this ensemble a true representation of the Beach Boys?

Brian Wilson, Love’s first cousin and the creative genius who composed most of the band’s early hits and sang distinctive falsetto harmonies, had psychological and drug problems. He withdrew from touring with the Beach Boys in 1964, soon after they’d struck gold, though he kept recording in the studio with them for several years.

Wilson’s mental state improved, and he rejoined the touring Beach Boys briefly, but he now has his own band. The other two Wilson brothers who were founding Beach Boys members, Dennis and Carl, have died.

Love gained rights to the Beach Boys name in a legal decision; he says he and Wilson remain on good terms. Asked if he and Wilson might reunite onstage someday, Love said, “Anything’s possible.”

Love acknowledges it’s not the same band but says the group creates the essence of the Beach Boys sound. The main difference, he says, is that the audience doesn’t shriek as much as they did in the ’60s.

“There’s not as much screaming now because a person who comes to a show 40 years later is not going to be screaming,” Love said. “But sometimes in their children or their children’s children, you see that excitement and energy expressed.”

The Beach Boys began in 1961 by emulating the pristine vocal harmonies they learned from bands like The Four Freshmen.

After their string of chart-topping hits in the early 1960s, the Beach Boys became more ambitious, releasing the wildly acclaimed “Pet Sounds” in 1966. Songs like “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “God Only Knows” went beyond happy-go-lucky beach fun to feelings of longing and melancholy.

That’s the essence of the Beach Boys’ magic — more than four decades later, their songs evoke more than nostalgia.

“The music takes people back to a time in their life when they have memories of who they were with or what they were doing or where they were living,” Love said.

When the Beach Boys were working on their early songs, Love, 68, said he never expected they’d have such a persuasive influence on pop music.

“But we did know one thing,” Love said. “That our penchant for harmonies would distinguish us from so many other groups.”

After Brian Wilson left the Beach Boys touring band in 1964, he was replaced by a then-unknown studio musician named Glen Campbell.

Today, Love is backed by Bruce Johnston, who replaced Campbell and joined the band in 1965 on bass, and several much more recent additions including Love’s son, Christian Love, who plays guitar and sings. Vocally, Christian sounds like Carl Wilson, says band manager Jay Jones.

Love believes younger listeners are discovering the Beach Boys. “When my daughter was 10,” Love said, “she came home from school and said her fourth-grade class’ favorite song was ‘Wouldn't it be Nice,’ released exactly 40 years before.

“The lyrics speak to the young person who’s got a crush on somebody. For my generation these songs would be nostalgic, but for others first listening to them and going through that phase of life,” Love said, they’re relevant.

Love says his daughter Ambha, now 13, has “100 Beach Boys songs on her iPod, along with Hendrix and Alicia Keys and Beyonce and rap.” Love enjoys it all, except the harder rap.

“I like something with a melody and some harmonies and perhaps a chord progression, so we have a little sonic gulf there,” he said. “But when I was her age I was listening to early rock and roll, and my parents didn’t appreciate that. So that’s totally normal and natural. I don’t get bugged about it.”

These days, the Beach Boys play at baseball stadiums, casino theaters and county fairs. Love said he especially enjoys intimate indoor theaters like the Wells Fargo Center, where the band plays Sunday night, because sound quality is better.

“Indoors, we can do a wider range of our songs,” he said. “We can do some of the more subtle things, like an a capella song or ‘In My Room’ that’s more sensitive. But,” Love emphasized, “we always do our hits.”

The Beach Boys’ last big hit, “Kokomo,” came more than two decades ago. But Beach Boys fans don’t mind.

The original boy band has grown up and parted ways, but the youthful vigor, ardent longing and ethereal harmonies of their songs transcend time. And, when the Beach Boys are on stage, the California dream endures.

Michael Shapiro’s most recent story for The Press Democrat was about Buckwheat Zydeco. He can be reached at michaelshapiro@yahoo.com.