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Fun, Fun, Fun The Beach Boys Come To Kravis Center T
he Beach Boys, which originally included three Southern California brothers, a cousin and a school chum, quickly blossomed from a repertoire of pop songs glorifying surfing, muscle cars and the teen lifestyle to sophisticated harmonies and cutting-edge production methods thanks to the musical genius of eldest brother Brian Wilson. But when the band performs at The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts on April 17th at 8 p.m., you’ll notice a visual disconnect between the iconic album covers and the seven guys on stage. Only two original performers, founding member Mike Love and long-timer Bruce Johnston, are still around. Still, even without the angelic voices of Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, the band manages to maintain its rich precision Beach Boys harmonies.
Love, who co-wrote many of the Beach Boys’ biggest hits with Brian Wilson, was the prodigal cousin in the original lineup and perennial organizer on tour, routinely introducing the other band members. In fact, he eventually came out the victor after several decades of litigious family clashes and now owns proprietary rights to the Beach Boys’ name (which was invented by an overzealous employee at the record company where the band’s first vinyl effort was recorded and labeled; the surprised teenagers, who had performed as The Pendletones, didn’t have the money to have the labels fixed, so they kept the name). The Beach Boys have consistently had a rotating lineup, at one time even being fronted by singer Glen Campbell. The list of former members looks like an L.A. phone book, though the band managed to tour with mostly longtime members until the late ’90s, when Love and Johnston began touring with young backup musicians. These days, Love’s son, Christian, plays guitar, and the harmonies of those old songs, “Help Me Rhonda,” “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” “Little Deuce Coup,” “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “I Get Around,” and “Good Vibrations” ... well, they sound even more precise than on the records. For more information, call 561-832-7469 or visit kravis.org. O
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