Great song.
There are plenty of significant dates in the ol' rock 'n' roll calendar.
January 8.
March 20.
October 9.
October 18.
February 3, aka
The Day the Music Died. But let's focus for a minute on April 9. Yes, 4/09, the day I spent trying to ignore how awesome it was outside until I could peace out and go, y'know, fly a kite and stuff.
Before it was an area code in southeast Texas, before it was a kitchen cleaner, "409" was a huge hunk of metal, a 409-cubic-inch Chevrolet Big-Block engine that dominated stock car racing and the hot rod market in the early 1960s. I could point out how the proliferation of said engines might have an impact on today's balmy weather, but I'd rather focus on its impact on pop music. Feast your ears on The Beach Boys' tribute to the Chevy's mean machine, aptly titled "409." This sunny li'l nugget of pop 'n' roll, drenched in classic doo-wop-inspired harmonies, was the B-side to their first smash hit, "Surfin' Safari," in 1962. As an ode to a fast car, it's nowhere near as complex as their later work (forgoing the easy target, Pet Sounds, just skip a couple tracks down the Surfin' Safari LP to "Heads You Win"), but daydreams of summer were made for these expressions of teenage exuberance. Most contemporary "teenager" songs have to do with another kind of lust, and that's all well and good, but there's a special power in the longing for independence portrayed in this song.
Find a couple of additional "409"-related gems after the jump.
