Sgt.Pepper special on PBS

Another way to gain insight into Brian Wilson’s talent, particularly the making of the Smile album (which was envisioned by Brian to achieve what Sgt. Pepper instead did, though Smile on a much higher musical level), is to read Paul Williams’ book Outlaw Blues. The book is a compilation of Paul’s writing in the original Crawdaddy magazine, the first magazine containing writing about Rock ’n’ Roll from an adult perspective (Rolling Stone followed it by two years).

Three chapters of the book are reprints of what Williams was writing about the making of Smile, as it was happening. The absolute best stuff ever written about Brian, and Smile, by a mile (thank you VDP ;-).

Fantastic! The best sections are where the host sits at a piano, explaining the technical construction of the songs. There is a video on You Tube of a musical theorist sitting at a piano, explaining and demonstrating the construction of Brian Wilson’s 1965 song, "God Only Knows".

My only beef is with the hosts assertion that what Lennon and (especially) McCartney were doing musically was heretofore unheard of in Pop music. Brian Wilson had been using Classically-informed compositional techniques in his songwriting for two years before the Sgt. Pepper album. McCartneys rapid growth as a songwriter and bassist (the use of inversion, in particular) was in fact the result of hearing the Beach Boys 1965 Pet Sounds album, a record the existence and significance of which the host ignores, not citing it as a source of some of the musical ideas and techniques found in the Sgt. Pepper album. They can be traced directly back to Pet Sounds, which McCartney has unashamedly acknowledged.