western civilization’s last sigh

“Columnated ruins domino.” Even if you factor in Pet Sounds, the Beach Boys’ “Surf’s Up” — written just a few months later for the Smile sessions — is still a revelation. Brian Wilson singing about an inner emotional world is one thing, but a wistful/bitter, apocalyptic lullaby to bourgeois decadance is another entirely.

A blind class aristocracy

Back through the opera glass you see

The pit and the pendulum drawn

Columnated ruins domino

Decline and Fall, indeed. Wilson’s partnership with Van Dyke Parks was inspired, and this song is the shit. Even after the rest of the Boys ghoulishly resurrected Brian’s original, ghostly demo and spliced various arrangements and overdubs over it for this “official” version (the title track of the 1971 Surf’s Up album), the result is still the shit. That said, it’s Brian’s original and slightly off-tune double-tracked vocal in the second half that’s the true killer, and it’s one of those rare Beach Boys moments that benefits from brother Carl shutting up. I can just feel our folly of a civilization sliding into the sea. If the surf is up, it’s the tsunami that smashes everything. You want more surf songs, Mike Love? ‘Ere you go. Magnificent. This is Ben from Antipopper, signing off.