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Cover Me! The Beach Boys “Girl Don’t Tell Me”

29 Thursday Jul 2021

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Poprock Themepark

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Amy Miles, Anderson Council, Fleko, Fossil Cliffs, Fuzzy, Gal Gun, Girl Don't Tell Me, Gumball, Gyllene Tider, Heartworms, Hot Pockets, Jared Letkis, Joe Jitsu, Keith Green, Ken Sharp, Kevin Robertson, Laura Biagini, Mudwerks, Nomadi, Oceanics, Stephen Bates, Summer Days (and Summer Nights), The Beach Boys, The Smithereens, Tony Rivers and the Castaways, Truly

This just might be my favourite Beach Boys song. When it was released in late 1965 it represented a departure from the band’s prior neo-1950s surf rock for more Beatles melodic territory, particularly its jangle guitar and Carl Wilson’s lone vocals, sans the usual group back up. Brian Wilson would later cite the Fabs’ “Ticket to Ride” as particularly influential here. I didn’t hear the song until my Dad came home with Endless Summer in 1974 but immediately it stood out for me from the rest of the band’s early period hits on the collection. Brian Wilson’s usual subject matter – teen drama – remained the same but the song’s structure and subtle hooks were nothing like the other 19 songs. It’s a tune I can play and play and still want more. Curiously, covers of the song were few until more recent times, no doubt reflecting the increasing critical appreciation of the band and their legacy that has occurred over time.

The Beach Boys

“Girl Don’t Tell Me” appeared in December 1965 on the Beach Boys’ eighth long player Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) and as the b-side to the “Barbara Ann” single. But Brian Wilson had written the song back in February and the composition had been shopped to various artists. 13 year old Keith Green would actually release the first version in October 1965, his vocal range suiting the teen angst of the song. Green’s career as a teen star was ultimately cut short by the rise of Donny Osmond but he later surfaced as a highly successful Christian rock artist. Teen pop idols Dino, Desi and Billy recorded a version of the song in 1966 but couldn’t quite hit the ‘I’s in the “I’m the guy who left you …” line. A much better version was put together the same year by Tony Rivers and the Castaways, a Brian Epstein managed group that had the Rolling Stones’ Andrew Loog Oldham produce their release. And then … nothing. Covers of the song evaporated as critical interest in the Beach Boys’ early material declined and the band’s commercial and creative drive stalled in the 1970s (other than as a featured act on the emerging ‘oldies’ circuit).

Keith Green
Tony Rivers and the Castaways

Covers of “Girl Don’t Tell Me” only really start to appear in the 1990s and beyond as the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson in particular start to gain traction as important, critical influences on late twentieth century popular music. An early adopter was Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens who included a cover on the band’s debut EP Girls About Town as far back as 1980. That band drive the lead line home throughout the song, making it a killer hook. But things really take off in the 1990s with covers from Gumball (1992), Heartworms (1995), Fuzzy (1996), and the Sparkle Jets (1998). The first two bands perform the song with a grunge and rock demeanor while the latter two are more into the indie and jangle scenes.

Heartworms
Fuzzy

In the new millennium bands started to take refreshing new liberties with the song, like Truly’s Beach Boys-meets-The Who rendition that appeared on their rarities collection Twilight Curtains in 2000. Other reinventions include Ken Sharp’s baroque interpretation (2000), the blistering punky version from the Hot Pockets (2002), Amy Miles’ fantastic 1970s throwback (2005), and Joe Jistsu’s Weezer-ish treatment (2007).

Truly
Hot Pockets
Amy Miles

Since then bands have increasingly experimented with the song’s structure and traditional instrumentation. Check out Oceanics radically retooled version (2012) for a take you won’t recognize until the lyrics kick in. The Lunar Laugh’s Jared Letkis (with Laura Biagini) gives a performance that is pure ear candy, adorned with all sorts of catchy instrumental choices and unique harmony vocals. Mudwerks has a wonderfully different interpretation of the song, with neat keyboard echo effects and distinctive guitars. Meanwhile Halifax, Nova Scotia’s Fossil Cliffs offer up a very satisfying psych rock workout.

Oceanics

As our new decade begins, interest in “Girl Don’t Tell Me” continues unabated. 2020 alone offered up three more inspired covers. Stephen Bates loves all things beach and summer and his take on the song has a refreshing, slightly punk/DIY feel. Chicago’s Gal Gun uses just an acoustic guitar to offset his stark, intimate vocal. Kevin Robertson lets loose the jangle on a cover that appeared with all the other songs from Summer Days (and Summer Nights) put together by the should-be famous TM Collective. The most recent cover comes from another tribute collection, the Jem Records Celebrates Brian Wilson album. This time the Anderson Council put an inventive pop psychedelia stamp on the tune, with fabulous results.

Anderson Council

I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the many non-English covers of the song as they too show remarkable ingenuity and talent. Italy’s Nomadi put out “La mia libertà” (translation: “My Freedom”) in 1966, switching out the traditional guitar lead line for what sounds like a cello. And it works spendidly. The Hik put out a less engaging Dutch version in the same period. Next up, Sweden, with Gyllene Tider’s great “Ge Mej Inte Det Där” (translation: “Do Not Give Me That”) in 1981. More recently Argentina has gotten into the act with Fleko’s 2016 Spanish language version, which has some far out spacey guitar adornments and fierce vocals.

Nomadi
Gyllene Tider

Well here I am, 23 versions of the song later and I’m still ready for more! Sometimes a song is just so good you can’t break its hold on you, regardless of how it is played or how often you hear it. So I say, bring it on cover bands! I’m ready for even more of Brian Wilson’s deceptively simple, addictive earworm.

Autumn singles almanac

07 Wednesday Oct 2020

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Poprock Themepark

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

American Cigarettes, American Dream, Autumn Almanac, Be True to Yourself, Ben Kweller, Best Shirt On, Big Times, Bodyheat, Chuck Prophet, Circuit Boredom, Critical Hit, Dead Stars, Declan McKenna, Diners, Do You Like Us Now, Don't Want to Talk About It, Dreams Don't Come True, Elephant Stone, Emily, Fuzzysurf, Gal Gun, Greg Pope, Hollow, I Could Only, I Wanna Be Your Sam, Impossible Sum, Indoor Music, Irene Para, It's This, Joey Molland, Jump Back from the Light, Let's Start Over Again, Maxwell Stern, Menacing Smile, Own Sweet Time, Phonographic Memory, Premium, Rainy Day Man, Saving Me Saving You, SCV3, Sweet Tooth, The Embryos, The Ern Malley Affair, The Kinks, The Land That Time Forgot, The Lolas, The On and Ons, The Ruen Brothers, The Wrecking Yard, Vanilla, Water Tower, Wishing on a Dark Star, Yeah is What We Have, Zeros

Hard to believe that the Kinks took “Autumn Almanac” to number 3 in the UK back in the fall of 1967. Going against the grain of the emerging psychedelic scene, the song is so laid back, almost anti-commercial. Ultimately, the single kicked off the band’s grand pastoral-romantic period that followed with albums like The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur and the Decline of the British Empire. But enough about Ray and company. They’re just the inspiration to launch our own autumn singles almanac, a carefully curated collection of 20 songs to lighten up your fall, ease you in to the autumn, and get you hooked on these hooks!

The Ruen Brothers evoke a distinctive atmosphere on their new single “Saving Me, Saving You,” somewhere spooky, perhaps with fog. But when the titanic vocals cut in there’s no hiding. The spotlight is on and something electric is going on. These guys have got style! It’s a haunting 3 minute mélange of guitars and striking songcraft. Prolific popmaster Greg Pope puts the acoustic guitar to the front of the mix on his new album, Wishing on a Dark Star. It really carries this light, carefully crafted pop gem that appears about two thirds of the way through the album, the aptly titled “Jump Back from the Light.” The hooky ‘whoa-oh’s are just gravy. Chicago garage poppers Gal Gun offer up a literal “Premium” single from their soon to be released new album Critical Hit. The song has a strong Weezer vibe, exhibiting that pleasant mixture of dissonant punk qualities laid over an early 1960s song structure. The b-side (“Oh Oh I Love Her So”) is all that, even more so. Tacoma’s Vanilla change our pace completely with a lovely McCartney-esque “Let’s Start Over Again.” John Lennon used call these sort of tunes ‘granny music’ but I love’em. I’m certainly impressed with the band’s command of different song idioms. I don’t know what ‘indie tinged emo’ is but apparently it is Yeah Is What We Have. So, I guess I love indie tinged emo because their new single “I Could Only” is great. The mix of spare guitar work, percussion and sweet vocals is addictive and endearing.

Speaking of sweet, Declan McKenna burst on the scene as an uber talented charismatic teen boy wonder with his hooky protest song “Brazil” back in 2015. Now entering his twenties he’s still working the adorable seam pretty hard with this new album Zeros. He continues to push the boundaries of his songwriting and performance, turning in a memorable take on a Wings-ian pop tune with “Emily,” among many other fab contributions to the new album (like the Bowie-esque “Key to Life on Earth”). Surf indie pop purveyers Fuzzysurf are back with a new record, Sweet Tooth, and it’s more of the same good synthesis of old and new poprock influences that carried their earlier work. “Do You Like Us Now” has a strong 1960s guitar stamp, with a nice cleaned-up garage vibe. Ready for dancing? Definitely. I first heard Chuck Prophet with the Green on Red recordings but then missed his early solo work, checking in finally with the fantastic Night Surfer LP. Since then, I’ve paid closer attention to his releases. Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins is a good as it sounds like it will be. And Prophet’s brand new The Land That Time Forget is another winner. “Best Shirt On” is a lovely well-crafted tune with such subtle hooks and an overall feel of mid-1960s low key lushness. Brooklyn’s fuzz pop band Dead Stars grind out a slow burn melodic treat with “Dreams Don’t Come True” from their recent Never Not Here. This one works turned down low or blasted from the car stereo. The band The Ern Malley Affair are almost as mysterious as the fake poetry scam they take their name from. The internet turns up only out-of-date MySpace pages and nary a mention of the group’s work from back in 2009. But apparently they have new material out now and it carries on with their earlier ‘dirty folk’ sound. Words like ‘jaunty’ and gently ‘spirited’ come to mind listening to the delightful “It’s This.” Love the mellow organ and hooky shuffle.

Declan McKenna “Emily”
The Ern Malley Affair “It’s This”

God how I’ve missed Ben Kweller. The guy’s got a way with sneaky earworm tunes that get in your head and you find yourself humming them for days. He’s been pretty skint about new material over the past half decade (his last album was 2014’s Go Fly a Kite) but 2019 saw the release of a few new singles and now a new LP Circuit Boredom seems imminent. If “American Cigarettes” is anything to go by, it’s going to be a very good time. The song’s got his signature cool low-key swagger, bolstered by some nice but oh-so-subtle melodic shots in the chorus. Feel the sway of gentle jangle propelling The Embryos “I Wanna Be Your Sam” from their recent EP SCV3. They sound like The Church or The La’s in very mellow mood and that is totally cool. Sydney, Australia’s The On and Ons so nail the 1966 poprock sound – again – this time on a tight little EP called Menacing Smile. “Don’t Want to Talk About It” particularly exudes a strong Mickey Dolenz/Mike Nesmith vibe. Now if you want a rush of poppy guitar goodness, The Lolas always deliver. “The Wrecking Yard” glides along with a melodic ease aided by lightly ringing guitars and nice harmony vocals. Bodyheat produced a fab self-titled debut EP back in 2015 that contained some really winning tunes like “Talk It Over” and “Poor Girl.” Now a new EP is forthcoming and Indoor Music gets a promising start with a single like “Phonographic Memory,” which reminds a little of The Silencers and a host of other great 1980s indie guitar bands.

Ben Kweller “American Cigarettes”

Finally some Canadian content. Montreal’s Elephant Stone are the working the psychedelic seam of the sixities revival sound on their fab recent album Hollow, showcased nicely on that album’s first single “Hollow World.” But personally I’m digging their stand-alone election-era single, “American Dream,” with its muted jangle, harmonica and healthy caution about all things U.S.A. in 2020. ‘Gee, Ma, I want to go back to Ontario’ indeed. While they self-describe themselves as farkle wiki pop, when I hit play on Phoenix’s Diners all I heard was capital-F fun. From the light glam guitar to the cheesy fun fair organ, “Big Times” won’t fail to put a great big grin on your face with its Apples in Stereo-like cheekiness. I bought Irene Para’s “I Won’t Back Down” as a cool take on Tom Petty but quickly switched allegiance to the b-side, a Para composition called “Own Sweet Time.” There’s something slightly majestic in how this song builds throughout. A real earworm. Signals Midwest member Maxwell Stern’s solo album Impossible Sum is out and making the charts. Just a taste of single “Water Tower” suggests deservedly so. Here Stern’s punky inclinations (more in evidence on Signals Midwest material) are smoothed out by driving acoustic guitars, reverby lead lines, and punchy yet sweet vocals. And now we end with a bit of a happy ending. I say bit cuz it involves just a quarter of one of the most tragic bands in rock and roll history, Badfinger. Lone survivor Joey Molland has outlived his compatriots to collect his share of the royalties and make what should be a triumphant return to niche poprock love. “Rainy Day Man” is the advance single from Molland’s upcoming album Be True to Yourself and it hits all those Beatles, ELO and Badfinger marks we rightly expect it would. A lovely little slice of expert popcraft.

Almanacs are big things, you can’t necessarily get through them in one sitting. Don’t worry, these 20 original should-be hits from our 20 original should-be stars will be here for your continued consumption throughout the fall season.

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