No-one could miss the irony of The Beach Boys telling people to avoid the ocean. Having been routinely trumpeted by Capitol as America’s leading surf group throughout the ’60s, they entered the new decade with a more apprehensive worldview. “Don’t Go Near The Water”, the opening track of 1971’s smartly titled Surf’s Up album, sought to address the growing issue of global pollution, not least in the waters off their beloved California.

By the late 60s PEANUTS’ appeal was universal: It was beloved by young and old, by the intelligentsia as well as the masses; While Charles Schulz had existentialist and humanist leanings worthy of Jean-Paul Sartre, his concerns were also that of the youth and especially the recently discovered ‘teenager’. Another California based artist whose concerns very much mirrored those of Schulz was Beach Boy Brian Wilson. In 1966, while the rest of the band was on tour, he wrote and completed what is critically considered to be one of the finest records ever made, Pet Sounds. The complex musical arrangements and lyrics earned Wilson the ‘genius’ tag, deconstructing what is was to be a young person in such turbulent times. The Beach Boys would go on to make a number of records in this period that shared numerous themes with Schulz’s work at the time - ecological concerns, selfcare, mental well being, love and happiness.

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