BEACH BOYS EMPHASIZE THE POSITIVE, AGAIN.

On the day America suffered its worst terrorist attack, Beach Boy Mike Love agreed to talk about his 40 years in America's band. School had been canceled for 5-year-old daughter Ahmba and 13-year-old son Brian. So had the three scheduled Beach Boys performances for the week of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

From his home in Lake Tahoe, Nev., Love looked forward to today's performance at the Los Angeles County Fair and the weekend performances at the Sun Theater in Anaheim. He said his band's music plays an important role during troubled times.

``Beach Boys music has always offered a sonic oasis. It's been a source of pleasure, enjoyment, maybe even escape for millions of people for going on 40 years now,'' he said. ``I mean, right in the middle of the Vietnam War, we did 'Good Vibrations.' Our thought was to focus on the positive things in life, accentuate the positive rather than dwell on the negative.''

The Beach Boys formed when brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson teamed up with their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine. They recorded ``Surfin' '' using money fronted by Jardine's mother. The Boys' unique vocal harmonies, catchy tunes and teen-oriented subject matter made them ambassadors for the Southern California lifestyle.

``The first thing we did was identify a situation in Southern California that nobody else ever sang about, and it was called surfing,'' Love said. ``We realized, however, that not 'everybody had an ocean across the USA,' but we did know that everybody, at least in our age bracket, was fascinated by cars, the '55-'56 Chevy's, the T-birds, the Corvettes, all the great and powerful cars of the day, up to and including the 409s and GTOs. We'd do surfing on one side of the record and a car song on the other side.''

The Beach Boys kept to this formula for their early top-10 singles, releasing ``Surfin' Safari'' with ``409'' and ``Surfin' USA'' with ``Shutdown.''

By the time of the Beach Boys' 1964 LP ``Surfer Girl,'' the group had expanded its subject matter. Brian Wilson, the group's musical arranger and chief songwriter, started using more complex musical ideas and studio techniques. In 1965, he ceased touring with the Beach Boys in order to spend more time in the studio creating new tracks.

``Our first record, 'Surfin' ,' was done on a two-track recording machine, and our next few were done on four-track recording consoles,'' Love said. ``Very quickly, it evolved to the point where 24-track machines were all over the place in the mid- to late '60s.''

The studio techniques reached their apex in the 1966 LP ``Pet Sounds'' and the harmonically adventurous single ``Good Vibrations.'' The band's popularity and Brian Wilson's groundbreaking studio work put the Beach Boys in competition with the Beatles for American audiences.

`` 'Pet Sounds' inspired Paul McCartney and John Lennon to get really into it and come out with some really great product,'' Love said. ``It was a healthy competition actually. We always liked the Beatles as individuals as well as admiring their creativity and talent.''

The two bands followed similar spiritual paths. In 1968, Love was in India with the Beatles, studying transcendental meditation with the Maharishi. Love said his contact with McCartney at the Maharishi's place had a noticeable effect on at least one Beatles song.

``Paul came down to the breakfast table one morning playing 'Back in the USSR' on his acoustic guitar,'' Love said. ''I suggested that in the bridge, the middle part, he ought to talk about the girls around Russia. Me being there in India got Paul thinking about the Beach Boys genre and songs like 'Fun, Fun, Fun.' ''

Beginning with the line ``Ukraine girls really knock me out,'' McCartney's bridge to ``Back in the USSR'' seems a campy reference to the Beach Boys' fun-loving tunes, particularly ``California Girls.'' Love said ``California Girls'' is now the Beach Boys' concert opener.

``The intro to 'California Girls' is almost symphonic; it's just a beautiful opening,'' Love said. ``I don't think there's any better opening in pop music. The first few bars of that song are just an incredible prelude of what's to come in the concert.''

What's to come is 90 minutes of the paeans to surfing, cars and girls that made the Beach Boys famous. Every concert also includes the slow ballad ``Surfer Girl,'' and indoor gigs frequently include ``In My Room'' and several songs from ``Pet Sounds.''

``We either do three or five 'Pet Sounds' songs; it varies depending on the arena,'' Love said. ``Outdoors, at the fair, we'll be doing more up-tempo numbers, and we'll do 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' and 'Sloop John B' (from 'Pet Sounds'). In the Sun Theater, we might do five numbers from 'Pet Sounds' because it's a theater with proper acoustics.''

Love is the only original member in the group that now calls itself the Beach Boys. Dennis Wilson drowned in 1983, and Carl Wilson died of lung cancer in 1998. Since Carl Wilson's death, the surviving three members have had fractious relations.

Love's description of the group's current situation is simple: ``Carl died, Al sued and Brian soloed.''

Bruce Johnston, who replaced Brian Wilson on the road in 1965, sings alongside Love in the current Beach Boys. Other members include Mike Cowolski, who occasionally filled in on drums for Dennis Wilson, and Adrian Baker, who sings the falsetto parts.

``The thing about music is that if you've got someone who can sing or play an instrument well, then a song can be replicated,'' Love said. ``Emotionally, you can't replicate your cousins, but, for people who are more objective, they don't identify with that as much as they identify with the great songs and the time they had when those songs were on the radio.''

Love had a hand in creating the lyrics to those songs, and in the early '90s, he took Brian Wilson to court over it. Love said he now maintains a good relationship with his cousin and the two talked about collaborating as recently as last Thanksgiving.

``I'm open to working with Brian, because he's got these innate musical skills, and I've got these lyrical abilities that complement him,'' he said. ``In the last several years, he hasn't had the benefit of my collaboration with him, because he's been steered in other directions. 'Kokomo' established that I can be involved with a hit record.''

Written and released in 1988, ``Kokomo'' is the Beach Boys' most recent No. 1 hit, and it appeared on the soundtrack to the Tom Cruise movie ``Cocktail.'' Love wrote the song with John Phillips, formerly of the Mamas and the Papas. He said having a No. 1 record in 1988 was different from having one in 1964.

``The music world is more fragmented now, and there's more competition,'' he said. ``I think it's a lot more sophisticated business, and probably, a tougher business.''

While the business might be tougher, Love gave two reasons why Beach Boy concerts continue to draw people.

`` 'Good Vibrations' and 'Fun, Fun, Fun,' '' he said. ``It's not necessarily those songs, but those feelings; the fact that the Beach Boys' music creates such a good feeling. It's a warm atmosphere, a good atmosphere.''

THE BEACH BOYS

When: 8 tonight.

Where: Los Angeles County Fairplex, 1101 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona.

Tickets: Free with fair admission; $15 for reserved seats.

Information: [phone].

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(1 -- 2) Mike Love, the only remaining original member of the Beach Boys, and Bruce Johnston, below left, who replaced original member Brian Wilson in 1965, perform tonight at the Los Angeles County Fair.