(Credits: Far Out / Album Cover)
Sun 12 October 2025 13:34, UK
The late Brian Wilson was born with a superhuman gift for songwriting, which nobody could replicate, even if they spent their life putting in thousands of hours into the craft.
Bob Dylan once said of Wilson’s unmatched knack for melody, “Jesus, that ear. He should donate it to the Smithsonian. The records I used to listen to and still love, you can’t make a record that sounds that way.” With that quote, Dylan pinpointed the precise skill that made Wilson great, while also making his peers green with envy.
For a time, when Wilson was in his imperial phase, The Beach Boys were a hit factory, and their material from the mid-1960s, such as Pet Sounds, remains a crucial moment in the history of contemporary music. Yet, not everything they touched turned to gold. Although Wilson was operating at a godlike level when at the peak of his powers, even he occasionally made mistakes with his songwriting, missteps that proved that he is human, after all.
When the Californian group released their debut album Surfin’ Safari, they were still kids honing their craft, and Wilson was years away from reaching the apex of his artistry. At the time, he was only 20 years old, and most people that age don’t even know the occupation they want to pursue, let alone have a major record deal to fulfil.
The album, with a running time of less than 25 minutes, still managed to boast 12 tracks in total, and it was a steep learning curve for Wilson as he familiarised himself with working in a studio setting.
According to the album credits, Nick Venet produced Surfin’ Safari, but the duties were predominantly carried out by Wilson and his father, Murry. Prior to the album release, The Beach Boys already had amassed a buzzy reputation following their debut single ‘Surfin”, which created excitement around the band ahead of their debut LP.
The hype continued to build with follow-up single, ‘Surfin’ Safari’, their first nationwide hit, which peaked at 14 on the Billboard Chart. However, despite the industry enthusiasm for the new kids on the block, the entire album failed to deliver.
‘Ten Little Indians’ is unquestionably the most regretful moment on the record. Wilson based the track on the nursery rhyme of the same name, and not only is it not very good, but he also repeatedly sings the racial slur “squaw” throughout the song. The word is used to describe a female Native American and has derogatory connotations attached. In 2021, “squaw” was declared racist by the United States Department of the Interior as they announced plans to remove it on a federal level.
Speaking to Consequence in 2022, former Beach Boys member Al Jardine looked back at this stage in their career and admitted the song, released as a single, was a failure on every metric.
When talking about Surfin’ Safari’, Jardine commented: “Well, it was our third single. What can I tell you? We just came off a bomb, a huge disaster called ‘Ten Little Indians.’ The label didn’t know what the hell it was doing and thought that it would be a new direction for us. Obviously, it wasn’t. So, ‘Surfin’ Safari’ bailed the group out. We thought it was over.”
While Jardine got his dates mixed up as ‘Surfin’ Safari’ was released before ‘Ten Little Indians’, his point about the song being a “disaster” remains valid. Although the song charted in Sweden, it barely made a dent in the Billboard Chart and could have undone their previous good work.
Thankfully, The Beach Boys had enough cache in the bank to circumvent the ‘Ten Little Indians’ saga, and soon enough, they had enough hits behind them that the sorry episode was ancient history. Their debut album, while far from being anywhere near their best material, was also strong enough to ensure The Beach Boys would continue with Capitol Records.
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