Time for another song to motivate our poem writing. Sort of. One musical group seems synonymous with summer. The American rock band, the Beach Boys, epitomized the youthful exuberance of the beach and surf culture.
Endless Summer is their compilation album, released on June 24, 1974. A collection of hits from the band’s 1962–65 period, Endless Summer was compiled by their old label Capitol Records while the Beach Boys were contracted with Reprise Records. Its unexpected success bore immediate consequences on the band’s then-progressive musical direction.
Four months after release, the album reached #1, and reclaimed the band’s commercial glory in the United States, spending 155 weeks on the Billboard album chart. It became the group’s second chart-topping album in the US, being certified 3x platinum by the RIAA for shipping over three million copies in the US.
The playlist for the album tracks reads like this:
Side A: Surfing’ Safari – Surfer Girl – Catch A Wave – The Warmth of the Sun – Surfin’ U.S.A.
Side B: Be True To Your School – Little Deuce Coupe – In My Room – Shut Down – Fun, Fun, Fun
Side C: I Get Around – Girls On the Beach – Wendy – Let Him Run Wild – Don’t Worry Baby
Side D: California Girls – Girl Don’t Tell Me – Help Me, Rhonda – You’re So Good to Me – All Summer Long
Bonus Track: Good Vibrations
Adopt one of the Beach Boys song titles above as the title/inspiration of your poem and write of your Endless Summer !
POETIC BLOOMINGS 
Responses
CALIFORNIA GIRLS
(Girls On the Beach!)
Forgotten acquaintances foregoing
fun, fun, fun to head for the warmth of the sun
would be nice, wouldn’t it?
I’ve been busy doin’ nothin’
but thinking about the fairer part
of this sad kokomo I have become.
It was a sin how lady Lynda
found the need to break away and say nothing,
a sorry soul more lost than I had become.
God only knows why I chose to be
the hero and villain in her serial life.
But, would I do it again? You bet I would!
And is it possible to forget Caroline?
No! I was amazed how one woman
could make this space we shared a better
place than was served up on this platter
of life. She would have been a great wife,
but she liked the ocean, she was free flowing and
growing impatient with my muse.
I’m waiting for the day when I can say
I no longer miss her. I would kiss her
in a heartbeat were she here, the dear.
Then there’s the darlin’ Barbara Ann.
When I get around to her, I can hear music.
That’s why God made the radio!
But she was another of those California girls,
free of spirit and on life’s surfing safari
with nary a care in this whole world.
When I said “Don’t worry Baby” she must have
taken it to heart. A wild honey.
I always thought that when I grew up to be a man
who needs a woman, it would work its way around
to happening. I wonder. Please, let me wonder.
So help me, Rhonda. I can never learn not to love.
Isn’t it time I come out from in my room for you?
Don’t fight the sea, sail on, sailor!
This child of winter needs you here with me.
(C) Walter J Wojtanik
Hmmmmm…. sounds like life in a serial bowl. Makes me envious, actually.
I wish they all could be… you know the rest, William!
You got to wonder–were they all real, or only names pulled out of thin air for the purpose of meter and rhyme?
It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? The names are real, who knows about the women themselves, Barbara!
Really enjoyed all the blending of the names and titles in this piece. With all the girls though, you think they would have had a Walterina!
Thanks Toni. But Walterina? I’ll pass. I’m not that put out by it! 😀
With the questions about made up names, I had to add a real made up one. I do know, I knew a lovely girl in high school name of Christopher, after her father. And she was gutsy enough to go by Christopher.
My dad’s name was Walter (Wladislaw) ad was my grandfather’s. But, my grandmother’s name was Wladislawa (the feminine of Wladislaw) it roughly translated into Charlotte (Lottie) So I guess I already had the feminine name lined up, Toni!
So. let me get this straight and I hope I get it right, you are of Polish descent? It is good to know the Wladislawa translates to Charlotte. One of our neighbors was named Cecylia. She and my mother were the same age and my mother’s name is Celia. They loved having the “same” name. Great neighbors, great food.
All her official documents list Wladislawa as her legal name. I only knew her as Grandma Lottie. I had found her on Ancestry.com as Charlotte in one of the censuses which made sense.So I come from a longer line of Wlads that even I imagined, Toni!
We’ve been southern for so long. Ancestors were rowdy Vikings and crazed Irish. Settle on the NC coast in late 1600’s on land grant land (still in the family). So….long line of drawlers. No Olfs or such but still many ericssons.
In My Room
This room is a dainty whim.
Its north light dimmed
through lacy sheers.
And against the wall
an old soft chair,
covered in ivy green —
it holds the corner with
photos, frames, books boxed
and scattered, and a stuffed
lizard with a bored grin.
A room for dust held tight,
here where life is unseen.
It’s a dainty whim,
this lonely place where
the past never fades.
~
© Misky 2016 – p.s. this is not my room.
This is effective writing; it left me with a heavy feeling.
Thank you. Alka Seltzer might help for that heavy feeling.
I like the lizard with the bored grin. Nice sounds laced through this.
Me, too. I want one.
We all do, Marilyn! A room to call ours!
That stuffed lizard with the lazy grin. Forever he lives in this timeless room. I really like the sounds in this and room’s contents.
Delighted you enjoyed this one!
ALL SUMMER LONG
The high heat makes me burn and perspire
and it makes clouds of dust of the mire;
how I wish for the shroud
of a passing grey cloud
but the sun will not deign to retire.
We’ve been getting “teasing” rain overnight. Wake up to the muggies and drought conditions. A break from the heat would sound good right about now, Bill!
We had a lovely soaker last night but now the humidity and heat makes it feel like walking around in a bowl of hot oatmeal. Excellent rhymes in this.
I GET AROUND
Taking liberties with verb tenses,
myopically, this old man looks back
at a lost time when I GOT around,
wishing I still GET around,
but these shaky legs of mine
once sturdy as the mighty oak
remind me I’m no longer
a young cool head, more an old bald head
who loses his balance when,
yeah, he turns around, turns around,
and God help me if I hear those Boys
break out in 156 Beats per minute.
My wife begs me again not to get up and dance.
I get around, I get around, I get around,
thinking: Hey, once upon a time
I never missed yet with the girls I MET.
I gotta find a new place where the kids are hip.
“This is the A & P,” Sharon says,
but I tell her, “Don’t worry, Baby.
I can do this all summer long.”
Out of breath, chest tight as Dennis Wilson’s drum,
my legs nearly felled like forest timber,
I stagger towards the meat and fish aisle,
happy as a clam I can still GET around,
get around. Yeah, I GET around!
#
What a delight. All I ever got from verb tenses was tension, but this piece is pure fun.
delightful…and, yes, unfortunately, everywhere now seems to be the A & P
*grins*
As long as we’re able, Sal, getting around is crucial! Fun play on the song from your perspective!
What a fun poem. My husband are known to do ball room dancing in the store aisles when it isn’t crowed. We get around too.
Best music ever! Who doesn’t want to dance, rolling down the highway, to the whole thing? Yet…
California Girls
Where are they?
The California girls
like me. Where
do the freckled, fat
and short hide
from camera sneers,
averted eyes?
Are they, like yeti,
sometimes found existing
in dim hours, doughy and gray
and trailing attic webs
like long, silver,
dusty hair. What
did their mothers
say to them? How
did they learn
to disappear?
Yes, like Sasquatch! Rumored to exist, but no one knows, do they? They were probably drawn off by Pavlov’s Ice Cream truck just as the shutter falls!
I learned to be invisible at an early age, though I wasn’t fat and freckled. Ninja stealth mode I guess. But I was way shorter than everyone else – still at 64 I’m only 4’10” and still invisible. One does wonder where all the unacceptable disappear?
I was invisible all through high school. (Debilitating shyness) And the I found poetry. All the folks that never knew I existed, read my poetry now and are fans! The few that saw me when I was invisible read me all along!
This speaks for lots of folks besides Californians.
You’re So Good to Me
You’re so lucky,
I said.
Why,
she asked.
Because
you have had me
to love.
She laughed.
No, really,
I am so in need
of love, and you
have loved so well.
I tried,
she said.
Oh, way more than try.
You did so well.
And now?
Who will you love?
Me,
she said, at last
Very nice! I like the both people loving and needing to be loved.
Spot on!
Haiku for today:
red tomatoes bask
under the warmth of the sun –
juicy ripe delights
Yes, they are best just off the vine, even warm.
Especially when you pull one and bite into it warmed by the sun!
reminds me of my gardening days, when we did not pick the corn until the water was boiling
Oh yum. Nothing much better. We did the same thing.
[…] Posted at Poetic Bloomings.where we are given titles of songs of the Beach Boys to pick one and use as inspiration. https://poeticbloomings2.wordpress.com/2016/07/18/an-entertaining-summer-day-18-endless-summer/ […]
Fun, Fun, Fun
I had no beaches growing up
Never once did I see the ocean
Just potato fields and woods
Cows and horses eating grass
Long cold winters were the norm
Springs and summers a delight
Changing leaves meant autumn’s near
Some would think my life a bore
We had a drive-in movie theater
Bowling alley and skating rink
A 9-hole golf course for the old men
Who sometimes dared bring their wives
We bought old cars and supped them up
Rebuilt motorcycles into choppers
Took road trips on down to Woodstock
Woodstock, New Brunswick, that is
We listened to every Beach Boys’ songs
And dreamed of places far away
That we would one day hopefully see
With beaches and surf and girls and fun
Meanwhile we had fun on our own
Just growing up in rural America
No beach, no surf, just girls with no tans
A country boy’s version of fun, fun, fun
© Earl Parsons
An endless summer
Would deprive us of autumn
And the changing leaves
Flirting With The Lifeguard
Closest thing we had to bronzed,
blonde-haired surfer boys
of California notoriety,
were lifeguards. There they sat,
white tower, white cream
on noses, commanding
whistle around their necks.
We spread our beach towels
next to their stations. Glorious
summer, lying on our stomachs,
chin up to catch their attention.
An occasional wink set off fits
of giggling, and much wiggling
to adjust our bathing suits
just right. Biggest thrill was when
their shift ended. We watched
them descend onto the sand
hoping for a smile, a few words.
They were not California surfers,
but then, we were not California
girls.
you were close enough, though
Somehow, I think you were probably better!
Good Vibrations
Way cool jazz
at the local lounge
Summer nights
Sultry voice
Shared good vibes with the beauty
who’d become my wife
[…] Prompt: Endless Summer […]
Good Vibrations
I was attracted to him for two years
But wouldn’t admit it to myself
Since he was my boyfriend’s best friend
But after four years of going together
Our relationship finally faded
And one night in their college dorm room
The lights were low
We danced to the music
And I was picking up good vibrations
We dated for five months
Then I went to Wyoming
Met my future husband
Some things aren’t meant to be
Good vibrations or not