Beach Boys Riding an Unending Wave

SAN DIEGO —  It jolts one’s sense of the order of things to learn that a member of the Beach Boys lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., where there’s plenty of sand, but where one can wait a very long time for a decent set of waves.

Yet, guitarist-vocalist Al Jardine, a founding member of the Beach Boys, has kept a home there since the early ‘70s, and both his depiction of the desert lifestyle and his comments about life as a member of California’s legendary rock ‘n’ roll band provide a logical explanation for his symbolic separation from the beach culture of Southern California.

Jardine and the other touring Beach Boys (lead singer Mike Love, guitarist-vocalist Carl Wilson and keyboardist-vocalist Bruce Johnston) plus a backup band that includes keyboardist Billy Hinsche, of Dino, Desi and Billy fame, and television actor John (Full House) Stamos on drums will descend on San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium on Sunday for their 10th post-Padres concert. The Beach Boys’ much-acclaimed and controversial creative font, Brian Wilson, is concentrating on a solo career, and no longer performs with the band.

“You know, as you get older and you look in the mirror, the first thing that comes to mind is ‘lost youth,’ ” said the good-natured Jardine by phone from Scottsdale earlier this week. “But living out here really rejuvenates me. The weather’s great, it’s sunny and clear and uncrowded, and life is simple. Arizona today reminds me of what Southern California was like in the ‘50s.”

Jardine, who turned 49 Sept. 3, certainly sounded rejuvenated. And he answered questions in the thoughtful, articulate and friendly manner of one who is sincerely interested in every topic that relates to the famous band. But the landlocked product of Hawthorne who co-wrote the environment-conscious “Don’t Go Near the Water” for the Beach Boys’ 1971 album, “Surf’s Up,” hasn’t taken that title’s imperative literally. Jardine’s second home is a ranch in Big Sur, where he has built a recording studio. Still, when his query about the weather in San Diego elicits a report of a gloomy summer, Jardine recalls his original reasons for at least partly abandoning the coast.

“I left L.A. because it was always so overcast in the summer,” he said, adding that he frequently found himself squinting into the bright haze of sunny-cloudy weather. “It never occurred to me to wear sunglasses, and the glare really bothered my vision. Then the smog factor got so bad in the early ‘70s that I just had to get out of there.”

If Jardine is comfortable in oceanless Scottsdale, he has other reasons for contentment. In 1988, the Beach Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and their recording of “Kokomo,” a breezy ditty written for the Tom Cruise film “Cocktail” gave them their first No. 1 hit in many years. Recently, the Beach Boys were asked to participate in a tribute to the music of Elton John (record and video due Oct. 14), and their inclusion in a project that features younger hit makers as disparate as Wilson Phillips and Guns ‘N Roses pleases Jardine.

“I guess Elton is an unabashed Beach Boys fan,” he said. “He’s always coming up to us after shows to tell us how much he loves our music. For this project, he wanted us to sing his song ‘Harmony,’ but we said we’d feel more comfortable doing something a little less downbeat, something more in our idiom, so we ended up doing a Beach Boys interpretation of ‘Crocodile Rock.’ We were told the other day that it will be the first single released from the tribute, and, considering the competition, that made us feel pretty good.”

This summer, the Beach Boys have been celebrating their 30th anniversary with a coast-to-coast tour sponsored by the snacks division of Borden Inc. Proceeds from the unfortunately named “Snackin’ USA Tour” will benefit the Better Homes Foundation, which assists the homeless. Of course, the San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium presentation will add its own colorful twist to the Beach Boys’ appearance. Included in the post-game festivities are a demonstration by a Frisbee dog team known as the K-9 Comets, and performances by the Torrey Pines High School Dance Team and about 200 area high school cheerleaders.

As in past stadium shows, the Beach Boys will play selections from that early-’60s cache of surf and car hits that have become forever associated with summer in Southern California. The only surprise there is Jardine’s revelation that the band actually rehearses such songs as “Little Deuce Coupe,” “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” and “Fun, Fun, Fun.” These are songs that the Beach Boys have performed untold thousands of times, that they can play in their sleep, that have become so embedded in the American pop consciousness that even the band’s fans could probably perform them note for note.

“You have to rehearse even the old hits because they begin to assume a life of their own,” Jardine said. “For example, we’re always correcting vocal parts that, unconsciously, we’ve begun to re-interpret. I’m merciless about that, and not long ago Carl (Wilson) corrected me on a part in ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ that, shoot, I’ve been singing wrong for years!

“I would have sworn on a stack of Bibles that I sang it that way on the original recording session,” he continued, “but we listened closely to the record, and the part wasn’t there. So we constantly have to be on guard against getting too far ‘outside’ when we play even our most familiar material.”

By playing mostly their earlier, singable, danceable hits, however, the Beach Boys have come in for some criticism that they’ve settled into the soft chair of being a “nostalgia” act. Their last album of new material was released in 1985, leading one to speculate that the band’s creative momentum has ground to a halt. It’s a notion not necessarily shared by Jardine.

“We’re always working on music in our heads, it’s always percolating in there,” he said. “But when five people go through life together, as we have, you get to know each other very well, and just being together gets to be a challenge. Working on an album means being together--I mean, really being together--as much as 10 or 15 hours a day, as we recently were while working on the Elton John tribute.

“I think it’s a testimony as much to our endurance as to our creativity that we can continue to record and perform together in our 30th summer,” he continued. “We might seem less productive to you, but there’s still a lot of group activity. It just doesn’t manifest itself in three or four albums a year like it once did. Things happen on a different level of activity as you get out there in the twilight zone,” he added, laughing.

Apparent creative stasis notwithstanding, Jardine acknowledges that, within the band, a movement has been afoot to broaden the stage repertoire to include more of the material that Beach Boys aficionados yearn to hear live. Jardine himself is pushing for the revision.

“The perspective you get on the Beach Boys by hearing us in a baseball stadium is legitimate, but it’s only a fraction of what we are,” he said. “What I’d like to see us do in our 30th year is explore our own catalogue and add some of the more interesting songs to our show, back off of the medleys and the more predictable stuff that you can hear on the radio any day. I think it’s important to give people some of the esoteric songs they’ve grown up with.”

Jardine claimed they’ve already begun that process by adding to the set list such songs as “And Then I Kissed Her” and “You’re So Good to Me.” He said more additions are in the offing, including one beauty from the landmark 1966 “Pet Sounds” album whose title momentarily escaped him. Jardine hummed a melody.

“I can sing it but I can’t remember the title. It’s one of Paul McCartney’s favorite Beach Boys songs.”

Then he sings some. “I know perfectly well I’m not where I should be, I can’t help how I act when you’re not here with me . . .’ Oh, it’s ‘You Still Believe in Me.’ But that would take real vocal gymnastics, it was a very difficult song to record because it took so much agility.”

Because Jardine has built a recording studio, there has been speculation--and at least one erroneous newspaper report--that he’s planning a solo album. He dismisses that though.

“I built a studio, so it’s incumbent upon me to get off my rear end and do something with it. And, as you mentioned, the Beach Boys aren’t doing a lot of recording these days,” he said, laughing. “But having a studio mainly affords me the time to indulge my interest in country-rock and folk-rock. I love that rockabilly kind of thing, and it’s something I’d like to work on with a couple of friends.

“The Beach Boys have been so good to me, and for me, that it has become easy to ignore my own musical interests. But I’m not planning to put together a band, or anything--I’ve got one already. And being in the Beach Boys is still a very creative and fulfilling experience.”

The Beach Boys will perform immediately after Sunday’s Padres-Giants game at San Diego Stadium (barring extra innings, the concert should begin around 4 p.m.) Combined admission to the game and concert is $13. Tickets are available at the Padres ticket office and all Teleseat locations or can be charged by calling 452-SEAT.