Grapthar's Daily Hive Music Feature: The Beach Boys - 'Diamond Head'

then you'll know I've been a fan of The Beach Boys for as long as I can remember, having been introduced to them by my dad as a toddler. I have vivid memories of him driving me to school and singing along with a "singles" compilation, the "Endless Summer" CD specifically. As I got older, I came to appreciate more of their full discography, expanding beyond the catchy, poppy, early stuff (which I do still love) to their much more experimental, genre bending stuff, and into their more "adult" oriented tunes from the '70s, though my favorite era is far and away the mid to late '60s, where Brian Wilson was arguably at his creative peak: pushing boundaries with his songwriting, production, and instrumentation, and inspiring countless other artists that followed. It was only in the last few years though that I really discovered their 1968 album Friends; compared with the two before it, it is definitely a very stripped down album, recorded at Brian's home studio mostly, but the songwriting on it is very cool and complex, and harmonically features some of their coolest ideas. This is the 2nd to last tune on the album, an instrumental, and has such an awesome beachy vibe, arguably the most surfy, beachy song they had done up to this point.