The Beach Boys

July 28, 2021 johnadmin Comments 0 Comment

Wouldn’t it be nice if everything we put on our schedule happened just as we planned it to? Take for example our trip to see The Beach Boys the other evening at the Champaign County Fair. Re-wind eighteen months ago when we purchased the tickets for a July 2020 concert. Well, COVID canceled that concert which was rescheduled for 2021. Now imagine telling your 4 or 7-year old that you’re going to Disneyland next year, that’s what it was like living with Suzanne. Through all that she encountered and endured these past eleven months, she kept telling me “it’s only – – – more months till the Beach Boys”. And I just kept telling her Don’t Worry Baby, Everything will be alright.

We are both Beach Boys fans with a Pandora station and all our albums (yea we still have them) available online now. It was when we got married back in 1989 The Beach Boys released the song Kokomo about being in the Florida Keys. We wore that song out driving to Key West knowing We’ll be falling in love to the rhythm of a steel drum band Down in Kokomo. It wasn’t till later that we learned that the song invisioned Kokomo as a place off the Florida Keys, but there really is no Kokomo in South Florida. Bummer!

Music is usually based on reality and it was about three-quarters of the way through the show when I heard If you should ever leave me. That was the point when all the fun slowed down for me as I was drawn into that song in a way I never had before. This past year has been a roller coaster of emotions and you never know what will trigger them next. The lyrics talk about the love the singer, in this case, me; has for the person in the song; Suzanne, and as long as there are stars above you” . . . I’ll make you so sure about it

In an instant, the mood changed as we all started singing about California Girls. Every Beach Boys fan can sing right along with this one but there comes that line when I had to reach out and touch Suzanne The mid-west farmer’s daughters, really make you feel alright.

And of course, as I’ve shared before my love of songs about Dance, The Beach Boys have one as well. It didn’t make my initial post so I’m glad to reference it here. With no instrumental introduction, the vocal jumps right in with the question Suzanne gets tired of hearing from me: Do you want to dance and hold my hand? At a wedding, a conference reception, even in our kitchen, she can’t get away from my relentless Do ya, Do ya, Do ya, Do ya Wanna Dance?

For two hours, song after song, Suzanne was in a special place as so many memories flooded her thoughts. Just like the song In My Room, she was in that place where she could lock out all my worries and my fears. For me, the evening was pure pleasure. To see the one I love having so much fun after the year she has had, I know now what it would be like to Catch a wave and you’re sitting on top of the world