“Surf’s Up” is the Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks song that closes the Beach Boys’ 1971 album Surf’s Up.
The song began during the ambitious Smile sessions in 1966, when Wilson and Parks were developing an unusually poetic and structurally complex piece. Smile was abandoned, leaving “Surf’s Up” unfinished for several years. Brian and his brother Carl later completed the recording for the 1971 album.
Its placement was especially significant because the song became both the album’s finale and its title track. The title is not a straightforward reference to riding waves; Parks used it in connection with the group moving beyond its familiar surfing-image identity. The lyrics are dense, surreal, and often interpreted as reflecting cultural collapse followed by renewal.
Listeners sometimes confuse the answer with “Til I Die,” another major song on Surf’s Up. “Feel Flows” belongs to the same broad period but appears on Sunflower, while “Long Promised Road” is Carl Wilson’s song and does not close the album.