OK Bob, I'll try.... van dyke parks has said that all the songs for SMiLE
were supposed to be about Americana... as a historical extension of the
Beach Boys' usual themes... heroes and villains in the cantina, the
railroads, over and over the crow cries uncover the cornfields, lighting
lamps, home on the range... it doesn't really work its way through all of
the songs though, I would be hard pressed to link Wind Chimes and
Wonderful to these themes... but the song Surf's Up seems to be full of
music hall and operatic images, and I will need to find my annotated set
of articles that accompany the vigotone SMiLE boot that was out back in 93
or so, there is a detailed account of such things interspersed with the
lyrics... I will say for now that the ending seems to go refer to the
earlier beach boys music, looking back at it from the far more complex
world of 1967... "surf's up, board a tidal wave, come about hard and join
the young and often spring you gave" I think is looking back at brian's
past accomplishments perhaps as an antidote to the pain that is apparent
earlier in the song.
