I saw Van Dyke Parks being interviewed one time and he talked about how the
other Beach Boys came to him behind Brian's back and asked him what his
lyrics to Surf's Up meant. What did he mean by "columnated ruins domino?"
Parks couldn't explain it then and those lyrics still don't mean anything
now. Regardless, it's a gorgeous song. Brian Wilson always felt that one of
the reasons he wasn't as honored as the Beatles is because the Beach Boys
lyrics weren't as strong as theirs. I think that's probably true. He
thought he was entering a loftier realm by hooking up with Van Dyke and his
stream of consciousness poetry. Surf's Up is a very beautiful album and most
of the other songs on it make very good sense and many have an achingly
beautiful existential anguish.
I saw Brian get interviewed in this documentary "Theremin" that you can rent
and which I highly recommend. The theremin gave that spooky haunting quality
to Good Vibrations. Brian seems a bit crazy in this interview and talks
about how the theremin had a scary sound that was "scary, like sex." I was
surprised to read in a recent interview in Vanity Fair that he only took LSD
twice, which if you ask me, is not nearly enough.
- Clark
NP: Eurythmics, 1984
