The Beach Boys Love You

I was discovering my mom and dad's eight-tracks they had purchased from a vacation trip

we took in the early 1980's and I somehow got hooked on The Beach Boys Love You album which was

my dad's. At the time I didn't even know it was called that, I just knew it as The Beach Boys and that

the album had a lot of songs on it that appealed to me, a nine year old kid at the time.

It starts out with a faster, harder edged song "Let's Go On This Way," then it goes into "Roller Skating

Child," which is also fast and it made me think of my city's roller rink called Skatetown. I remember

skating there for parties and for school outings. Mike Love sings about his girl skating and she's got a

ribbon in her hair, and he tells of chasing after her around the rink. It all brought

me back to the times when I would do the same thing.

Other tracks were those that would appeal to a young boy growing up in the 1980's. Love You had

"Johnny Carson," kind of a dark song in tribute to the television icon. I watched Carson with my parents!

(Not Carson Daly by the way).

There was "Solar System," in which Brian Wilson sings asking

What do the planets mean?/And have you ever seen/sunrise in the morn,

it shined when you were born/Saturn has rings all around it/I searched the sky and I found it!

It makes me think of a caring father stargazing with his kids.

There's "Honkin Down the Highway" and "Ding Dang," not masterpieces, but maybe you can see how

these titles would seem kid-friendly. There's the tender "Airplane," and then the jaunty standout"Good

Time," sung by Al Jardine with help from Brian Wilson's wife's all-girl group, Spring. Notice in the song

that Al's girlfriend's name changes from Penny to Betty. Two girls in one song? That's success!

I also love the song, "I Want To Pick You Up"by Dennis Wilson about him taking care of his

little daughter, getting her ready for bed, and how he tells her to be careful not to sting her eye when

she's in the bubble bath.

A lot of these songs bring to mind a more mature group who at this point in time are settling down,

having families and children, and that they are okay with that. I am very okay with the fact that Love You

was reissued on CD and is now sold with 15 Big Ones as its companion.