Not So Fun, Fun, Fun

I was watching the Brian Wilson biopic, Love & Mercy (2015), on Amazon Prime the other day, so my head is still full of Beach Boys music today.

There's some great music in the film, and one can't help but sing along.

Back in the '80s, I used to walk around the office with earphones connected to my Walkman (remember those?), off-tune lyrics spilling out of my mouth, just a-rockin' and a-rollin' ...but that's not what I wanted to talk about.

Anyway, Brian Wilson is played by two good actors: Paul Dano (Wilson in the '60s) and John Cusack (Wilson in the '80s). The movie covers a lot of his healing relationship with Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks), his second wife. Y'know, Elizabeth Banks is such a pretty woman ... but that's not what I wanted to talk about.

Paul Giamatti played 40-something-ish Eugene Landy, Brian's psychologist, who looked a little weird with long curly hair. He quickly got on Melinda's (and my) nerves with his controlling manner ... but that's not what I wanted to talk about.

Umm ... you know how you sometimes get into singing along with the radio or audio clip, just swinging with the lines of a popular song? I do that all the time. And sometimes I get the words all wrong.

Like I thought it was "She drives me crazy, like long blonde hair," when the British group, Fine Young Cannibals, was actually singing, "She drives me crazy, like no one else."

Which finally brings me to my point: Ever since the Beach Boys released "Fun, Fun, Fun" in 1964, I've always thought the accompanist rift line was (and always sang it as) "You're shooting the line, shooting the line!"

Good thing I turned the closed captions on when I watched Love & Mercy. I was shocked to learn that the actual lyrics were, "You shouldn't have lied, shouldn't have lied!"

A light bulb went on in my head. Her daddy took her T-bird away! Why? Because she told her daddy she was going to the library, but went to the hamburger stand instead. She lied; she didn't shoot the line. I should have paid closer attention to the lyrics and not just the music.

Wrong, all these 50+ years, and no one corrected me. I feel so stupid.

And that's what I'm talking about.