COLUMN: ‘Beach Girls’ remember man behind ‘Boys’ after Brian Wilson’s death

Miki Fluker first heard the song “Surf City” when she was 11 years old in the summer of 1963. 

No, she wasn’t hanging 10 catching a wave on a surfboard in landlocked Macon. Her toes were clinging to the edge of the pool at Baconsfield Park.

Jan and Dean were singing about a beach where there were “two girls for every boy.’’ It would become the first “surfing” song to reach the top of the national charts.

“Surf City” was co-written by Brian Wilson, founder of The Beach Boys and musical visionary of a generation. The Beach Boys gave the world some of the most fun-loving, sun-soaked music on the planet for more than 60 years. The group sold over 100 million records worldwide and had three dozen Top 40 hits, more than any American band in history.

Wilson, 82, died on June 11 in Los Angeles. The New York Times called him “rock’s poet laureate of surf-and-sun innocence.’’ Wilson  had such perfect pitch that the iconic Bob Dylan once suggested he donate his ears to the Smithsonian.

To Miki, he was the “heart and soul” of The Beach Boys.

She was at her home in Macon’s North Highlands neighborhood last Wednesday when a neighbor texted her, asking if she had heard the sad news. It wasn’t long before her phone was filled with texts from others saying they were “sorry for her loss’’ … as if the R.I.P. was a dear family member. 

She dreaded having to tell her 38-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Causey, who lives with her. Elizabeth has grown up listening to the music of her mom’s generation. 

The mother and daughter’s love of The Beach Boys has created a special bond. Over the past 21 years, they have attended 30 Beach Boys concerts in five states.

 So help them, Rhonda, they get around.

Miki and Elizabeth are self-proclaimed “G-rated groupies.”  They have had backstage passes and front-row seats. Elizabeth has been invited to appear on stage with the band numerous times.

She was asked to join the group on stage during their show at the Macon City Auditorium in 2014. She knew every word to every song when the group last appeared here two years ago. 

But even though Elizabeth has heard the band play “Good Vibrations” in Florida, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?” in South Carolina, “Get Around” in North Carolina and “California Girls” in Tennessee, she has never seen them in concert.

She is blind.

She was born 14 weeks premature on Sept. 22, 1986, and has been visually impaired since she was an infant.

Her introduction to beach music came as a child, “listening” to an episode of “Sesame Street” in front of the TV. The Muppets broke into a Beach Boys tune, and Elizabeth was mesmerized with the words and melodies. 

She soon traded in “Mary Had a Little Lamb” for “Little Deuce Coupe.’’ As she got older, she learned to play the fiddle, joined the choir at the Georgia Academy for the Blind and worshiped the ‘Boys’ on a local “oldies” radio station.

“When she was young, she was puzzled why they were playing Sesame Street songs on 99 WAYS,’’ Miki said, laughing. “That’s a testament to the universality of Brian Wilson. She grew up listening to 1960s beach music, and it wasn’t because I said, ‘Here, listen to this.’  Her peers were listening to rap music. She didn’t like that compared to the harmonies of The Beach Boys.’’

Miki attended her first Beach Boys concert in 1972, when she was a student at the University of Georgia. She didn’t see them again until she took Elizabeth and two of her daughter’s friends from the Academy for the Blind to a concert at Chastain Park in Atlanta in July 2004.

The ushers looked at her like she was crazy when she asked if they could meet the band. The charm worked, and they were escorted backstage. They met Mike Love, one of the group’s founding members, and Bruce Johnston, who joined the band in 1965, replacing Glen Campbell. They were introduced to Randell Kirsch, who played guitar and bass. It was the beginning of a long and special friendship.

The following year, Miki and Elizabeth braved the landfall of Hurricane Wilma in Florida to attend a concert at the Epcot Center in Orlando. From the stage, Kirsch recognized Elizabeth in the crowd. She was dancing to almost every song, and he gave her one of his guitar picks.

They were also befriended by drummer John Cowsill, originally with The Cowsills, the 1960s group that inspired the TV series “The Partridge Family.’’ Elizabeth has a pair of drumsticks that he gave her, as well as a pair gifted from longtime drummer Mike Kowalski.

The more Macon’s “Beach Girls” followed the band, the more the “Boys’’ got to know them as super fans. Miki said they might not always recognize her in the audience, but they never forgot Elizabeth. She has always appreciated the kindness that band members showed her daughter over the years.

“Throughout her life, I have tried to make things happen for her,’’ Miki said.

Although neither of them got to meet Wilson in person,  Elizabeth once talked to him on the phone. On the day after Christmas in 2004, a tsunami in the Indian Ocean killed more than 225,000 people in 14 countries. Among those who died in Thailand was Markus Sandlund, a cellist from Sweden who had appeared with Wilson on tour and in the recording studio. 

When Wilson pledged to personally call anyone who contributed $100 or more to a tsunami relief fund, Miki sent in a donation. A few months later, Wilson called Elizabeth and talked to her for about five minutes. Among the questions she asked the head Beach Boy was why he was not fond of surfing.

Some have referred to Wilson’s death as “the day the music died.’’

“Each day I think about the music he wrote,’’ Miki said. “Each day that goes by is a realization that it’s over. Brian being gone kind of dims the light.’’

Ed Grisamore doesn’t have to go to the beach to have Beach Boys and Jimmy Buffett songs on his playlist.