Murray Lincoln's Desk - # 2 Now See - http://murraylincoln.blogspot.com/

Monday, March 24, 2008

“Wouldn’t it be nice”…

As I was ‘surfing’ the radio stations on my van’s radio I hit on the following words wafting from my speakers… “Wouldn’t it be nice”… ‘The Beach Boys’ one of my favorites… Oh the memories….

Here I am, 64 years old, bopping to the music again… nodding in a cool way…outside a ‘Shoppers Drug Mart’ while my 87 year old mother goes into get her weekly supply of pills… cool dude in the 1996 Nissan van…just boppin…

Lyrics for you to hum along to…

Wouldn’t it be nice if we were older
Then we wouldn’t have to wait so long
And wouldn’t it be nice to live together
In the kind of world where we belong

You know its gonna make it that much better
When we can say goodnight and stay together
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could wake up
In the morning when the day is new
And after having spent the day together
Hold each other close the whole night through

Happy times together we’ve been spending
I wish that every kiss was never ending
Wouldn’t it be nice

Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true
Baby then there wouldn’t be a single thing we couldn’t do
We could be married
And then wed be happy

Wouldn’t it be nice

You know it seems the more we talk about it
It only makes it worse to live without it
But lets talk about it
Wouldn’t it be nice

The Beach Boys – Brian, Dennis, & Carl Wilson – three brothers along with their cousin Mike Love and close friend Alan Jardine – one of my favourite groups to unlock a world out there… for a 17 year old in my first car with a radio….in 1961. I am not sure why “Surfin USA”, their first song, made a difference to me at 17 – situated in Saskatchewan about One Thousand Five Hundred Miles from the nearest ocean with no idea what Salt Water was all about? But it did.
In recent times I read the more detailed accounts of the Wilson brothers.

Carl died of lung cancer in 1998.

Dennis, the only surfer of The Beach Boys, died by diving one too many times into the water beneath where his boat was anchored – while he tried to retrieve the things he had thrown over and out of the boat over the years. That’s right he dived in and swam to the bottom beside the warf, over and over again, until one time he just didn’t come back up.

Of Brian I read the following…

In the late 60's, Mr. Wilson stripped down his ambitions, composing sweet little songs about puttering around his house, going out to watch sprinklers in the park or staying up late and listening to the radio. But as Mr. Wilson approached 30, his demons overtook him. Often obese, strung out and clearly miserable with life and himself, the Wilson of the 70's and 80's stood in terrifying contrast to the joyous music he had once created. "I'm a cork on the ocean, floating over a raging sea," he mourned in "Til I Die." "I lost my way." (NY Times..)

Reports of Brian’s sinking lower into mental health problems are there. These words describe one reflection of that time states…

Brian Wilson was hailed as a musical genius in the 1960s but became the classic ‘mad genius’ less than a decade later. Even in the USA, where therapy was a way of life, Wilson went beyond the pale – becoming an embarrassment to his fellow Beach Boys. He gradually slipped into a spiritual abyss but, with support, slowly climbed back up into the sunshine. In his autobiography, he described his entry into ‘the dark night of the soul’. Finding himself on a deserted beach, feeling suicidal, he wrestled with the inconsistencies of his life. How could he write beautiful music that enchanted millions, but still suffer confusion and inner torment?

“Feeling shipwrecked on an existential island, I lost myself in the blanket of darkness that stretched beyond the breaking waves to the other side of the Earth. The ocean so vast, the universe so large, and suddenly I saw myself in proportion to that, a little pebble of sand, a jellyfish floating on top of the water, traveling with the current. I felt dwarfed, temporary.” (Clan-Unity…)

WOW!
The realization is slow coming… these old ‘Beach Boys’ are pretty much like their audience that has grown up and out with them. I am surrounded by old Boomers that are boppin outside of Shoppers Drug Marts across the land while either they or their parents get their life sustaining pills for that week.

Oh boy….

But the good news is for The Beach Boy – Brian Wilson – was able to climb out from where he had sunk…and gain a whole new confidence on stage.

I think Brian is my newest hero. Brian should be hailed as one of the “Great Boomers” – and should be bopped to where ever we can.

Brain found his way from darkness – to a new road. Nor sure if that is the same kind of spirituality that I personally know…but it is victory for him. Hey Brian I am impressed.

Today I reflect on some interesting aspects of my aging process. It is kind of a “Life Stock Taking” day.

The one thing that I have found of the Stock on the shelves in my Life – God has been working deeply cleaning up the mess that was there. He is helping me to count the days better and make some good decisions – at least a whole better decisions than the Beach Boys and I did so many years ago.

Happily in this nostalgic moment…
~ Pastor Murray Lincoln !
Sufin USA
If everybody had an ocean
Across the u.s.a.
Then everybodyd be surfin
Like californi-a

Youd seem em wearing their baggies
Huarachi sandals too
A bushy bushy blonde hairdo
Surfin u.s.a.

Youd catch em surfin at del mar
Ventura county line
Santa cruz and trestle
Australias narabine
All over manhattan
And down doheny way

Everybodys gone surfin
Surfin u.s.a.

Well all be planning that route
Were gonna take real soon
Were waxing down our surfboards
We cant wait for june
Well all be gone for the summer
Were on surfari to stay
Tell the teacher were surfin
Surfin u.s.a.

Haggerties and swamies
Pacific palisades
San anofree and sunset
Redondo beach l.a.
All over la jolla
At waimia bay
Everybodys gone surfin
Surfin u.s.a.

Everybodys gone surfin
Surfin u.s.a.

Everybodys gone surfin
Surfin u.s.a.

posted by Murray Lincoln at Monday, March 24, 2008

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home