‘Kokomo’: The maligned black sheep of The Beach Boys
The cultural perception of The Beach Boys tends to fall into two distinct camps. On one side are those who see Brian Wilson as a genius and the band as pioneers who helped redefine pop and rock music. On the other side are those who dismiss them as nothing more than cheesy surfers or a twee fad, likely hearing ‘Kokomo’ in their head as they arrive at that conclusion.
For those in the prior camp, the masterful anthems that loop in their head are tracks like ‘God Only Knows’, ‘Good Vibrations’, ‘In My Room’ or any other of Wilson’s in-depth and adventurous compositions. They’re the fans who appreciate how vital their music, and especially Pets Sounds, is to sonic evolution. On that one 1966 album alone, Brian Wilson single-handedly launched an incredibly adventurous undertaking—a brand-new stereo sound that The Beatles would carry forward on Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and the touch would be passed to the generations of acts that have been inspired ever since.
The Beach Boys’ music is predominantly joyful and catchy. It’s easy listening, but Wilson is proof that it takes a lot of talent to make songs sound so seamless. Songs like ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ or ‘I Get Around’ are prime examples of the skill it takes to make a great pop song and the depth and textures that go into making something sound easy and fun.
Arguably, ‘Kokomo’ is another example. You only really need to hear that song once to have it stuck in your head forever. That’s the reason why it performed so well, giving the band their first chart-topping single in over 20 years and even helping to promote Cocktail, a truly awful film, into a box office hit.
But still, people hate ‘Kokomo’. It’s picked up a reputation for being a meaningless, depthless example of limp pop or personality-less dad rock. It’s never held within the leagues of the band’s best work despite being one of their biggest and best-selling tracks. It’s the antithesis of radical and proves to some that there is more to art than mere competence.
Sure, maybe the song lacks some of the textures of their earlier efforts. It doesn’t have the countercultural, psychedelic sheen, but it was released in the 1980s. By then, the trippy era was gone, and Wilson himself had clawed his way out of it through addiction, mental breakdowns and the grief of the loss of his brother partially due to the impact of the notorious ‘60s cult leader Charles Manson. Wilson was desperate to leave those sounds and memories behind and move with the times when he decided to come back to work after a period of being a recluse.
Maybe that’s part of the issue. Music fans are always more than happy to look back on 1960s pop and label it cool or retro, but the ‘80s isn’t granted that same rose-tinted revisit, as people are more likely to consider songs from the era cheesy or dated. Maybe in 20 more years, that will change, and ‘Kokomo’ will suddenly become a vintage timepiece that the masses love to revisit.
But for now, the song feels doomed to exist as the band’s black sheep, mocked by the same fans who call the band genius while being blind to the fact that making a song as easy-breezy as ‘Kokomo’ is as much a marker of greatness as any of their finest work.
