Brian Wilson
Manuscript lyric sheet for "Catch a Wave" by The Beach Boys, handwritten by Brian Wilson, ca. 1963
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October 24, 04:38 PM GMT
Estimate
50,000 - 75,000 USD
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Description
9 1/2 x 9 1/2 in. 1 p, 18-line manuscript in blue ballpoint ink on a single page of Western Recorders letterhead and printed master recording sheet.
Autograph draft manuscript for "Catch a Wave" and a lyric fragment from "Little Deuce Coupe"—as recorded at Western Recorders and released on the Beach Boys 1963 album Surfer Girl. Complete song in 3 stanzas.
With an accompanying blank recording sheet dated "6/12/63."
Surfer Girl Capital records 1990 CD reissue liner notes.
Wilson pens the lyrics for two of Surfer Girl's best-loved tracks and produces for the first time
Surfer Girl marks the debut of Brian Wilson the producer laying the groundwork for his later immense success crafting the harmonies and arrangements of songs that would be known as "teenage symphonies to God."
The lyrics here, in Wilson's hand, are for another hymn to SoCal surfer culture, "Catch A Wave." They are the essential final lyrics as recorded and released as the second track on their seminal 1963 album. Wilson saw this song as an important milestone in achieving the sound he was looking for, the band and vocals a cohesive whole, crashing over and immersing the listener:
"[It] was more rhythmic. The guitars were more clean and driving as if to say they didn't wanna stop. The piano was played by me and it was perfectly synchronized with the guitars. The 3 different sounds combined to make one unique sound. I was ecstatic about this."
On the reverse Wilson begins to craft one of the Beach Boys best loved singles, the drag racing ode "Little Deuce Coupe."
In black ink ("Catch a Wave" is written in blue) Wilson jots down the following lines:
"Well I'm not braggin' babe so don't put me down
Just a little deuce coupe with a flat
She's got a competition"
Each of these would each eventually become the opening lines of the song's stanzas, which suggest that this is perhaps the very beginning of
the song lyrically. A very early working draft of one of The Beach Boys best loved and most performed songs.
It was a track that was the band's most successful B-side and one that Wilson himself was very fond of:
"We loved doing 'Little Deuce Coupe'. It was a good 'shuffle' rhythm, which was not like most of the rhythms of the records on the radio in those days. It had a bouncy feel to it. Like most of our records, it had a competitive lyric. This record was my favorite Beach Boys car song."
Of additional note are expenses that Wilson has penned on the reverse of recording sheet, with amounts next to "Dennis [Wilson]" and "Al Jardine."
Substantial lyrics or arrangements in Brian Wilson's hand, especially from the band's golden age, are almost unknown on the market.