—“The Endless Summer of the Beach Boys” by Samuel B. Walton, from the October 1976 issue of The Saturday Evening Post
Brian Wilson’s falsetto voice was like a pied piper leading everyone to the little American dream. It was an industry. Movies, surfboard wax, baggies — those bathing trunks that fit like potato-chip sacks — suntan oil, Hawaii, and cars dubbed beach buggies or Woodies, most of all California, and the music industry.
“I think we had a lot to do with the population rush to California,” says Beach Boy Al Jardine. “People hearing the Beach Boys’ songs envisioned California as sort of a golden paradise where all you did was surf and sun yourself while gorgeous blondes rubbed coconut oil in your back. Maybe we did a great disservice, getting everybody out here. Now it’s not like it was,” he adds wistfully.
This article is featured in the September/October 2026 issue of The Saturday Evening Post.
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