It's A Beautiful... Surf...

Music is Art, and Art is open to interpretation of all kinds.  So here I go, remember, I may be over-interpreting but it's only my personal take on it.  I can't help but remember Brian's advice to listen closely to TCR, and flatter myself to think I'm hearing some of what he MAY have meant...

After many gleeful listens, I am convinced that Surf's Up School's Out (SUSO) is intended to be an autobiographical, celebratory response to It's A Beautiful Day (the 2nd "ensemble" version) and additionally, is intended to emerge from the ashes of the introspective Unlisted Track which follows it on the Made In Heaven CD (has anyone given that a more convenient title yet?).  I've always felt that track very effectively paints the aftershocks and memories of the painful loss of Freddie.  But enough time has passed now, and maybe some of the scars of that loss have healed a bit...

To my ear, SUSO sounds like it's based on the chug-chug-chug-chug guitar riff that emerges from the Unlisted MIH Track...   But after years in a something of a "reflective coma" have passed, and Paul has come into Roger & Brian's lives, they've found their artistic lives re-ignited on stage and in the studio... a new reason to live and create music again!  So add some of that unmistakable cello-y May guitar and a hard beat from Roger and the fun begins again!  YEEEAAAAH!!!!  (not my favorite moment of the track, but I GET IT and it fits).

IABD (the first solo version) was Freddie's solo version and was perfect and inspirational in its simplicity.  
IABD (the ensemble version) illustrates how much greater the band was than any one of the parts.  
SUSO is the May-Taylor-Rodgers response to that ensemble IABD.  And as the song progresses, check out how they use the pastiche "kitchen sink" sound layering as they also did in the climax of IABD, too. 

Look, I know I'm a bit wacky, so if you disagree that's fine... but does anyone else actually agree with any of this?

Peace,

MAN:  One day I played Black Sabbath at 78 speed.

DUDE:  And then what happened?

MAN:  I saw God.

I wouldn't have gone as far as you have in your explanation, but I do believe that there are elements of that intro that do sound like IABD. It's quite interesting and while I'd thought about it a little, I hadn't really pursued the reasoning behind the idea of it. But yeah, maybe there is something to the thought that it's a reemergence from IABD into what Surf was. Interesting thought.

Adam.

Hey that's a great mashup... you discovered it more than a month before me and even went a step further... well done!  The mashup shows there are definite musical similarities and I think there's symbolic meaning in the lyrics, too... even the placement in the song order of each CD sort of hints at it doesn't it?  (the penultimate track on both releases).  I dunno, I'm more and more convinced we're supposed to notice this!

Cheers,

Is the woo hoo in the song Freddies voice it sounds like it

One of the first things I noticed about Surfs Up.. was the similarities with IABD, and I think your summary is a fair interpretation

Cheers

Queen Matt, the "woo hoo" in the song is Roger.

I noticed the similarities to IABD (reprise) as well.

... and C-lebrity is similar to Old Men, Lay Down (ever see a man with a wild eyed smile ...).

Has anyone noted that both the 'mystery track' on MIH and SUSO are Track 13 on each album ?

A.

Bingo... I swear it's all quite intentional... and I bet we've unearthed less than half of it yet.  This is a bunch of clever dudes, including a Doctor of "interplanetary dust", that we're dealing with here, after all!  [img=/images/smiley/msn/regular_smile.gif][/img]