Being of a certain age and demographic, I grew up listening to bands that made their mark while I was too young to know who they were, but by the mid-70s figured out that the best or most popular bands were arguably the Beatles, the Stones, the Who, Led Zeppelin and the Beach Boys. My top five.
Boss-girl, God bless her, did not know who the Beatles or the Stones were before getting out of China in '91. We fixed that with a couple Maxell XL90 party mix tapes that she played in her Miata. More to the point, she and our son have both been to shows with the Who, the Stones, Paul Macartney, and Robert Plant (with Communist girl saying "can't we see Jimmy Page too?"). This leaves for me the fifth iconic band of my youth, the Beach Boys as an act they should see, but just haven't. Until tonight, here at the socially-distanced Saint Augustine Amphitheater.
So I get them to hear the fifth "biggie" band of my misspent youth. Very cool! However, I'm disregarding some other bands that made it big after 1968, which is or isn't understandable depending on your age and/or point of view. For me, the whole Punk & New Wave thing was as big as those pioneers of classic rock, since they were contemporary with my high school and college years. Unfortunately, bands like the Clash, the Pistols, the Ramones and others didn't live on as long as some of the classic rock stalwarts mentioned above.
So... long story long - we're at the Beach Boys concert tonight, and they start playing Rockaway Beach by the Ramones. Damn, that was a curve ball, but boss-girl doesn't miss a beat, and smiles at me knowing it's the Ramones and keeps dancing and laughing at the irony of the Beach Boys covering the Ramones. Considering we were able a few minutes earlier to slow dance to a couple of the classic ballads from Pet Sounds to the band live, this just perfected an already very groovy musical experience.
Just happy to hear live music again, and wanted to share. Been something like 35 years since I've seen the Beach Boys live, but it was much more fun to be able to share it with my wife and son.
Please excuse the title, but until tonight I never thought of the Beach Boys playing punk. My mind has been expanded!
