“We wanted to sound big”: the anthem that inspired The Beach Boys’ sound
Rock and roll has gone through various changes since its early days, spawning countless different subgenres and distinct sounds. The 1960s, in particular, was an incredibly productive time for rock, thanks largely to innovative young artists like The Beach Boys, whose surf rock anthems came to define a generation. Despite not being surfers themselves, the California outfit found a global audience for their sun-soaked sound, and they owed a great deal of gratitude to their trailblazing influences.
Like many young rock bands of the early 1960s, The Beach Boys got their start by recording cover songs and taking heavy inspiration from the first wave of rock and roll stars from back in the 1950s. During those early years, Brian Wilson’s group were at the heart of criticism for emulating the rock sounds of Chuck Berry a little too closely, so much so that he was listed as a songwriter on ‘Surfin’ USA’ due to its musical similarity to Berry’s anthem ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’.
For the most part, however, The Beach Boys’ sound was not forged out of plagiarism but out of inspiration. After all, California during the early 1960s was bursting with emerging artists and new music, and this wealth of inspiration clearly had an impact on the surf rockers. In particular, the band took heavy inspiration from the pioneering sounds of the Bostonian guitarist Dick Dale.
Honing his craft in the rockabilly and country music clubs around Massachusetts, Dale became an incredibly skilled guitarist during the late 1950s and early 1960s. As a Lebanese-American, his traditional influences of Arabic and Middle Eastern folk music blended seamlessly with American rock and roll, creating an expansive and captivating new sound. Eventually, this sound would come to form the basis of an exciting new subgenre of rock and roll named surf rock.
Dale’s 1961 single ‘Let’s Go Trippin’’ marked the beginning of the surf rock revolution, introducing widespread audiences to the endearingly optimistic and effortlessly cool riffs of the legendary guitarist. What’s more, the performer had a special partnership with Fender, who used his individualistic playing style to test many of their guitars and amplifiers. As a result, Dick Dale became a colossal figure within the world of 1960s rock, with countless young artists hoping to follow in his musical footsteps.
Among those young artists were The Beach Boys, who found that Dale’s surf rock style on ‘Let’s Go Trippin” suited them perfectly. David Marks, the band’s founding guitarist, once told Goldmine, “Dick Dale influenced our sound. We wanted to sound big like him.” Although the band never overtly stole the sound of Dick Dale, they did attempt to emulate his work through any means necessary, down to using the exact same equipment that he employed on his recordings.
“We didn’t sound like him musically, although we tried,” Marks recalled. “But we got our Fender equipment based on what he used to try to emulate that Dick Dale wall of sound.” The pioneering surf rock guitarist also provided The Beach Boys with a lot of their early concert material in the form of covers. “In the early days of The Beach Boys, we didn’t have that many original songs, so we filled our sets with covers,” Marks shared, “and we did just about all the songs on Surfer’s Choice. We even recorded a few on the Surfin’ USA album.”
Of course, The Beach Boys eventually eclipsed this surf rock sound, going on to craft groundbreaking, revolutionary records like Pet Sounds, thanks to the songwriting skill of Brian Wilson. Nevertheless, their early obsession with Dick Dale and surf rock cemented the band in the popular culture of the United States, earning them a widespread audience that followed the band through to their more experimental offerings.
