Surf's Up (Stereo Remaster) [Original recording remastered]

The Beach Boys | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 9, 2012)
• Original Release Date: 1971
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B008LA7RF2
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #47,548 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

2012 digital remaster of this classic 1971 studio album from the beloved '60s Pop band featuring both the mono and stereo mix of the album. Digitally remastered by Mark Linett.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy this if you're expecting a better sound October 16, 2012

By J. Ford

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is not a review of the album, which is excellent. It is a review of the remastering.

I am a huge fan of this album. Had the vinyl, the cassette, an earlier CD, and downloaded the combined Sunflower / Surf's Up from a few years back.

I ordered this, hoping it would bring something new to the table. It is virtually identical to the Sunflower / Surf's Up version.

Just sayin, so ya know.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Album....and the Stereo Remaster October 18, 2012

By John Lonergan

Format:Audio CD

First, the album. The Beach Boys were hardly flavor of the month when Surf's Up was released. I had been to my first Beach Boys concert not so long before this came out. They played for just 50 minutes to a half-full (I'm that kind of guy) venue in Melbourne. Even then there was a focus on greatest hits, though Cottonfields was a current Australian chart entry.
But I digress...
Surf's Up is a great album with a couple of shockers that nearly had me giving it 4 rather than 5 stars. In an attempt to be cool and current, the boys included 3 tracks that were/are environmental/political. The first - "Don't Go Near the Water" - nearly works. The tune is excellent, but the lyrics have had just too much syrup applied. Pity.
The second - "Student Demonstration Time" - is close to embarrassing. I skip it each time I play the album - and that is quite often. Mike Love took the Leibler-Stoller hit "Riot in Cell Block Number 9" and rewrote the lyrics, making it a song about campus volatility in the late 1960s.It sounded lame then, and it sounds lamer now.
And that's where the bad news ends. The other environmental song - "A Day in the Life of a Tree" - is an existential masterpiece. I remember Neil Young singling it out as one of his favorite Brian Wilson compositions.
Bruce Johnston's "Disney Girls" - superbly covered by Art Garfunkel a couple of years later - is more than acceptable.
Cameron Crowe used "Feel Flows" twice in "Almost Famous," (great soundtrack by the way) and "Long Promised Road' is one of Carl Wilson's best ever songs.
But the best is last, well, last 2 - "'Til I Die" is so beautifully haunting it is eerie. And given that Brian was more a composer than a lyricist, he really rises to the lyrical occasion on this one....
This is all my opinion of course, so I might as well go right out onto the skinny branches of Brian's tree and opine that "Surf's Up" is the best song in the Beach Boys kitbag.
So, a superb album.
The remaster? I can't hear anything I haven't heard before. If you already own the album - I have several versions, including the "twofer," I'm not sure you need this one.
There are no cover notes, production details, commentary of any kind - so no non-music reasons to buy it either.
So please buy it for sake of completion, but not for the sound. Read more ›

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A relatively unheralded classic October 9, 2012

By Ronald J. Begley

Format:Audio CD

"Surf's Up" is a seriously underrated recording that is among the Beach Boys' greatest, even if it isn't among the band's most popular. Over the years it has cemented its relatively obscure status because, despite its title, it has no songs about surfing and fast cars and because the title track features the gloriously impenetrable lyrics of Van Dyke Parks.

It was released in 1971, when the Beach Boys were at a commercial ebb and were in conflict over which direction the group should take. The band's commercial influence was represented by Mike Love, Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston while its less pop oriented, artistically creative side was represented by Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson.

"Surf's Up" has no songs that will end up at the top of any list of the group's most popular, but has several that more casual fans of the group should find extremely worthy. Among them are the title track, "Don't Go Near The Water", "Long Promised Road", "Feel Flows", "'Til I Die", "Surf's Up" and the oddly charming "A Day In The Life Of A Tree", which features a wavering lead vocal provided by Jack Rieley, the band's manager. As always, those trademark Beach Boys' vocal harmonies are all over this album.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars brian's farewell December 6, 2012

By L. Monstuart

Format:Audio CD

Several years back I remember a very lively discussion on The Independent's (UK) chat site about which were rock's best two consecutive album tracks. Can't remember all the votes but remember someone suggesting Night Swimming and Find the River from REM's Automatic for the People (good indeed) and I suggested what have to be Brian Wilson's last masterworks: Til I Die and Surf's Up.
Interestingly, while living in Woodstock I heard an amazing, brilliant version of A Day in the Life of a Tree, which has to be sole winner of Most Obscure Cover.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Beach Boys Sound October 27, 2012

By ron

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is one of my most memorible Beach Boys albums.The Beach Boys deliver a variety of sounds on this album,from soothing classic BB (don`t go near the water) to hard hitting(student demonstration time).Every song on this album has a message,and the Beach Boys deliver the message with true talent.These are not the songs from a Greatest Hits album,they are more than that,these songs represent the times.Loved the album ,had to get the cd.thanks Amazon

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars After the Party ended January 14, 2013

By Joey D

Format:Audio CD

Having been a huge BB fan while growing up in the 60's, but losing touch with them after "Heroes & Villians", I was intrigued when this album appeared in the early 70's. That album cover with the battle scarred Indian warrior was the convincer that this might be a more mature band than when last I heard them. Each time I play this, I can still remember my first thoughts: "Don' Go Near the Water"-This should be interesting. Then I heard the opening lines: Don't go near the water/don't you think it's sad/ What's happened to the water/ our water's going bad. Ouch! Peeuuw! This is high school freshman songwriting. I think I made a big mistake buying this. 30 seconds in and I'm cringing. Maybe I can return this. "Long Promised Road" : with the stench of the first song still wafting through the air it took a bit for my ears to adjust to this number. Wait a minute. This is good. This is very good! I'm going to play it again. Maybe there's hope. "Take a load off your Feet": Oh no! This may be worse than the opening track. What happened to the Beach Boys? This is drivel. I'm embarrassed for these guys. "Disney Girls": this is the litmus test for the album. Some people don't like this at all. Not me. It makes me wonder: here's this guy (Bruce Johnston) in what has been a very successful band, internationally. Dames, money, fame. And he's longing for another time, a simpler time. Some time other than now. Hhhmmm. And he means it. His singing is so plaintive and sincere. "Student Demonstration Time": again, it's the lyrics. On the one hand this is a great idea. And it sounds great. Lots of muscle in that sound. But the lyrics: ".....stay away when there's a riot going on" With so many college age/draft age students actively involved in protesting the war, Mike Love seems to be addressing either high schoolers or adults. However, it jumps right out of the speakers with a big beefy sound and Love's vocals come at you with a megaphone-like filter. Not a popular stance for sure, but well produced.
Side Two- "Feel Flows": Now this is what I was expecting. Surreal, dream-like, laid back and mystical with a cool instrumental break that takes its time. As with "Long Promised Road" a Carl Wilson/Jack Reilly number. Excellent. "Looking at Tomorrow (A Welfare Song)": Mercy, mercy me, this is a good song. But the production undercuts its meaning, with its gimmicky, filtered vocal
detracting from the story of a guy out of work and out of luck who refuses welfare assistance: "Now Bess and me were feeling bad/and all the good jobs they were had/I had to take to sweeping up some floors/Well I don't mind that so much/or the changing of my luck/ but I know I could be doing so much more." Wow! Unfortunately the song is really short, produced like a throwaway. I think something much more could have been made of this. "A Day in The Life of a Tree": what is this????!! and who is singing? Is it Brian? Has his voice deteriorated that much? (I believe it's Jack Reilly). But wait, the singing fits. An ecological song that works. A lament of a once mighty tree laid low by pollution. Co-written by Brian, I can't help but wonder if this is a metaphor for Brian himself as a once mighty force in music. With it's startling pipe organ and world weary off-key singing this is almost depressing, disturbing. It certainly is unique. "Till I Die": if the previous song made everything feel hopeless, this lush, beautiful number by Brian brings hope amongst the sad undertones: "I'm a cork on the ocean/floating over the raging sea...I'm a leaf on a windy day/pretty soon I'll be blown away" leading to a gorgeous coda of Beach Boys harmonies "These things I can be until I die" over and over and over. Just magnificent. The album could end here. I'm satisfied. But hold on, there's one more number. And it's by Brian (and Van Dyke Parks). "Surf's Up": how do you describe this? How do you explain this? It's intriguing, beautiful, but what is it and what does it mean? I can't blame Mike Love for confronting Parks and demanding that he explain what "columnated ruins domino" means, and blowing a fuse when Parks replies, "I don't know". Well neither do I, but it sounds heavy, or illogical or both. But I do get the feel of it.
There are some undeniable clunkers on here, but the stuff that works sticks to me and its my favorite post PET SOUNDS album. Very different from the 60's joy-filled music. I only wish "ENDLESS SUMMER" hadn't happened when it did and they had pursued this avenue a little longer. Read more ›