Since Summer officially arrived a few hours ago, what more fitting tribute to the inclinations of baking in the sun, goofing off, staying up late and wearing as little as possible than playing something by The Beach Boys?

Okay, Summer means different things to different people. Those of us on the West Coast don't really have Summer until some time in October, when parts of Los Angeles have been known to burn down every few years. Until then, we weather through June Gloom and days where it barely breaks out of the 70's, unless of course you're in the Valley, where it is casually known as a "suburb of Hell" until December.

But the Beach Boys, at least on the West Coast, have always meant Summer to a certain degree, or at least an idealized version of it. Probably less now than a generation or two ago, when it was mandatory to have at least one Beach Boys album in your collection, and preferably all the singles.

Tonight it's one of the less instantly hummable Beach Boys songs. The Warmth Of The Sun was written, ironically, as a reflection on the Kennedy Assassination (as legend has it ) and goes under the heading of one of the more introspective of Brian Wilson's songs. Nonetheless, like a lot of their music from the early period (all the way up to Pet Sounds), it offers an aspect of a band that cranked out more than Surf tunes and were, in fact, capable of having something relevant to say.

In the meantime, get ready for insanely long days.

Okay - you're not quite in the mood tonight for Schoenberg and Mahler (via the Mid-Week concert) and don't feel like jumping into something high-voltage, so I was thinking perhaps an excursion over to The Beach Boys and a track off Pet Sounds might be a good antidote for the mid-week madness.

Tonight's track, Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder) is probably one of the lesser played songs off that legendary album, but to me it's always been a gem. And tonight we could use a few gems.

If you have the album, it's track 4 - if you don't . . .tsk,tsk,tsk, where have you been?

I know - too many notes, not enough life. That's why we're here to turn you on to things.

Enjoy.

(The Beach Boys - all wrapped up in a big package of innocent)

When my friend Gary Schneider ran a link to some previously undiscovered Beach Boys performance photos, I got the idea to drag this tape out of the vault and give it a listen. I figured as long as someone was discovering lost photos of the Beach Boys, I might as well compliment the situation by offering a lost concert, right?

It's the classic concert format so prevalent in the 1950's and early 60's. A dozen acts would perform two or three numbers each and an MC kept things rolling. Nobody ever got bored, but nobody ever really got to hear the band play either.

This concert was organized by local radio station KFWB in conjunction with the YMCA on October 19, 1963. Part of it was televised (although I've never seen any videotape of this show or word that it's survived).

What's on here are the last two acts of the show, The Surfaris and The Beach Boys. The Surfaris jam through four numbers, three as a medley and the Beach Boys get to do an extra number because well . . .they're the headliners.

Like all of the Bowl recordings it's raw and not mixed with any thought of history transpiring on the microphone. It's just a record of an event that happened that luckily escaped the dumpster.

With the exception of the impromptu acapela KFWB jingle at the end, no one else has heard this tape, until now.

Think of it as a nod to mid-summer.