Don’t Go Near The Water by The Beach Boys
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, sought to address the growing issue of global pollution, not least in the waters off their beloved California. “It was all about being aware of your environment,” explains co-writer and lead singer Mike Love. “Leave it in a better condition than you find it. That’s the message.”
“Don’t Go Near The Water” arrived against a wider backdrop of Vietnam and civil protest in the United States. “Society was changing so quickly,” says Bruce Johnston. “There had been terrible riots at places like Kent State University in Ohio, where people were shot, and trouble at the Chicago Democratic Convention too. We were still young guys at that time –I don’t think any of us were even 30 years old – and all of it filtered into our songwriting.”
Just as the song captured the turbulent shifts of the times, so The Beach Boys were undergoing their own difficult evolution. Songwriter Brian Wilson was still recovering from the breakdown that had followed the abandoned project several years
