Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2003 - 8:06 p.m.

Lo, How the Mighty Have Fallen

As I write this from my computer at home, I can hear the music of the Beach Boys. No, not a recording of the Beach Boys. Rather, I'm listening to a Beach Boys concert live and in person. They're playing a few blocks away, at the Lane County Fair. The Lane County Fair is exactly what it sounds like: a Ferris wheel, other rides, cotton candy, game booths, the works. Yes, the world renowned Beach Boys, the staple of every oldies radio station, have been reduced to a carnival sideshow.

I remember when I was a child, I watched a televised address by President Reagan who was touting a softening of US enemity with the Soviet Union. He spoke of possibilities for cultural exchange. He said, "the Soviet Union could send us the Russian Ballet, and we could send them the Beach Boys." I wondered if the Beach Boys were consulted in this, or if they were as surprised as everyone else that they were about to be drafted for this purpose. Was Reagan just suggesting short tours, or was this trade to be permanent? I imagined the Beach Boys playing every night for the rest of their lives in a snowbound tavern in Siberia. Wouldn't it be nice? And weren't the Soviets getting cheated in this exchange?

They just played a cover of "California Dreaming", another favorite of Reagan's. Now they're playing "Kokomo", a pleasant song about a cheap holiday in other people's misery. In other words, they lack a class analysis and a critque of colonialism, cultural appropriation, and white supremacy. Contrary to popular misconception all their songs are not about surfing; half their songs are about cars. And it's a fact that Charles Manson, leader of the 60's cult of hippy serial killers, wrote one of their songs.

So this band went from being a pawn in international superpower summit talks, and selling all their songs to television commercials, to traveling the carny circuit in just one lifetime.

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