Declaring that the 60s pop group, The Beach Boys “unenlightened straight-male privilege, white privilege, beach privilege,” Ben Ratliff observes in the New York Review of Books that “time and social change have been rough on the Beach Boys.”
Ratliff is the kind of person that cups and smells his own farts, taking careful note of the proper mix of methane and hydrogen sulfide to produce that sharp eye watering experience that lingers long after release.
The Beach Boys grew up in Hawthorne, California, a poor working class town not even close to the beach. It’ s a shit hole now. Carl and Brian also lived with an abusive father who never encouraged them, as well as suffering bullies in high school who tagged them hoth as fat nerds. Their cousin Dennis was the only one in the group who ever attempted to surf and was not very good at it. Brian Wilson’s mental illness was inherited, as it ran rampant throughout his blood line and it destroyed a brilliant career as a songwriter. Pet Sounds is consistently rated in the top three albums of all time by musicians despite his pathetic life, so this asshole has a warped sense of what constitutes privilege or he’s just an ignorant fuck.
Modern version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLbqIC4iRSw
Hope that NY Times POS likes this better than the original.
Why are so many lib journolists self-loathing?
This guy should be on a suicide watch.
@Gwenn – Excellent points all!
They worked their butts off to succeed and entertained millions!
The idiot who came up with that warped view s clueless.
You mean…this ISN’T from “World News Bureau”?!?
On display here with Ben RATliff we have an ignorant, unaccomplished, nose-picking, finger-licking, fart-cupping asshole who couldn’t wind a watch without his personal assistant-personal trainer-house-keeper and cabana boy, a consultant or two and few psychiatrists, who as a result of insane jealousy simply desires to bring highly successful people down to his own personal level of suck!
Let me guess: Ratliff was one of those fatherless, suburban white kids who grew up listening the gritty angst riddled tales of the death and poverty in urban cities, as told by black kids from the suburbs of Atlanta. Either that or he had a preteen crush on Kurt Cobain.
I thought it wuz Kurt Kaboom…
Beach Boys rule! One of the best Rock and Roll bands of the sixties. The proof is in the vinyl. They kicked ass at the T.A.MI. show and showed the Stones how to do a proper rave up. Took them to school.
@Norman Einstein- I hope that Lib journolist is on suicide watch on Nov 9th !!
Didn’t James Watt when he was Reagan’s Sec. of the Interior try to ban the Beach Boys from the 4th of July celebration on the Natl. Mall in the mid 80’s because he said they were controversial? Which is almost as bad as J Edgar Hoover thinking the song Louie, Louie by The Kingsmen was subversive. Louie, Louie wasn’t subversive, it was just the stupidest song of the early 60’s and still is.
Ben Ratliff according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Ratliff :
“He teaches cultural criticism at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study.[5]”
I think middle name is Dover. Ya. That’s it. Dover.
I love the Beach Boys. I grew up not far from them in Gardena, CA and their wonderful music is a big part of my childhood memories. White privilege, my ass. F**k Ben Ratliff and the horse he rode in on.
@Gwenn is spot on. They did not grow up in any kind of privilege. Their childhodd was more horror show than Ozzie and Harriet. Mike Love is an ass but Brian, Carl, and Dennis made some great music.
Anonymous was me.
@Gwenn – small correction to an otherwise excellent rant…Dennis Wilson was Brian and Carl’s brother, not cousin. Mike Love is their cousin.
Hey, Ben Ratlips… God only knows you’re a little douche coupe.
The Beach Boys are loved and will be loved forever. They were genius.
The liberal loser needs to tear down the successful with an avalanche of PC mumbo jumbo. It’s the only way they get dumb liberal chicks.
A bit of Beach Boys trivia – did you know that Dennis Wilson wrote (and performed) You Are So Beautiful, later popularized by Joe Cocker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyawpzgLpAs.
Ann Thracts; good one!
Please let me wonder why Ben Ratliff hates to have fun, fun, fun.
Ben Ratliff is Phil Specter’s pen name from the slammer right? He was always jelly of Brian.
America LOVES The Beach Boys.
Their music captured the spirit of American youth and optimism, plus the composition and arrangement of Brian Wilson are absolute genius.
This critic can suck it.