"Surf's Up" was to be the album's closing track, and that the song would have been followed by a "choral amen sort of thing." Biographer Byron Preiss wrote that the song was envisioned as part of "The Elements" and was "briefly considered" to be paired with "Love to Say Dada". According to Parks, the song did not have a title until after the touring members of the band returned from a November 1966 tour of Britain. He said he had witnessed Dennis Wilson complaining that the group's British audiences had ridiculed them for their striped-shirt stage outfits, which inspired him to write the last lines of the song and suggest to Brian that the piece be titled "Surf's Up". Brian remembered that when Parks made the suggestion, he felt it was "wild because surfing isn't related to the song at all." However, AFM track sheets indicate that the song had already received its title before the group returned from their UK tour. There is a weak sense of tonal stability throughout the piece; musicologist Philip Lambert's analysis indicates that the composition may contain up to seven key modulations. Wilson commented that the first chord was a minor seventh, "unlike most of our songs, which open on a major – and from there it just started building and rambling". The beginning of the song alternates between the chords Gm7/D and Dm7/G, followed by F/C and other chords that suggest a key of F major, but ultimately ends at D/A. Lambert was unable to determine if the section ends in the key of F, G, or D. During one bar, the horn players perform a melodic phrase that replicates the laugh of the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker. The second movement largely consists of a solo piano and vocal performance by Wilson. Its key suggests E-flat major in the beginning, then traverses to F major before returning to E-flat major and settling at C minor. This part was originally intended to feature a more elaborate arrangement. When asked what he had remembered of the song's second movement in 2003, Wilson responded that it was supposed to feature a string ensemble. In his 2016 memoir, it was written that he was unable to finish the song in the 1960s because it was "too rhapsodic" and "all over the place". Lyrics Lyrics in "Surf's Up" reference artifacts of the patrician period, such as diamond necklaces,