actusreus, if you like God Only Knows then you might check out an earlier track, The Warmth of the Sun. Written on 11/22/63, it's a beautiful and moving song. It might even serve as an entry way to some of the pre-Pet Sounds material. Regardess, it's gorgeous and worth a listen.
The Beach Boys
I'm a huge fan of classic rock, and music in general, listening to almost all genres from classical to jazz to rock to contemporary pop (very selectively). Don't care much for country and reggae. I've been reading in the latest issue of Stereophile about Acoustic Sounds reissuing The Beach Boys catalog, and the article compelled me to express my opinion on this forum. I'm simply completely, utterly, and overwhelmingly at a loss to understand the acclaim for this band. The fact that "Pet Sounds" is considered one of the greatest albums of all time leaves me speechless. I always considered their music a bit of a joke, good for background when you're in a beach bar in Southern California, in the same vein reggae or mariachi music are tolerable in Jamaica or Mexico, respectively, when one's on vacation. I then heard about them being compared to The Beatles and have been confused ever since. Perhaps a comparison to The Beatles early songs as they were evolving as musicians and songwriters would make sense, but comparing the genius of The Beatles to the "genius" of Brian Wilson is just preposterous, in my opinion.
I would like to hear from those who like or love The Beach Boys what it is about their music that they think warrants the acclaim and their presence in the upper echelon of music. I realize my post may generate quite a bit of controversy and angry responses, but I don't mean to offend or put down anyone's musical tastes. I'm posting as a music lover who is truly perplexed.
I would like to hear from those who like or love The Beach Boys what it is about their music that they think warrants the acclaim and their presence in the upper echelon of music. I realize my post may generate quite a bit of controversy and angry responses, but I don't mean to offend or put down anyone's musical tastes. I'm posting as a music lover who is truly perplexed.
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By the way, Brian in no way considers himself the equal of major Classical composers, though he has been called by some a genius. During the recording of Smile, he would float in his pool in the night, to relax between takes (he had a pro-quality studio installed upstairs in his Bel-Air mansion). One night he was in the pool with Carl, a Beethoven Symphony playing on his outdoor system, and as it ended turned to his brother and said "It's nice to know you're a musical midget". Compare that to the egos of most stars! I hear a fair amount of J.S. Bach in Brian's chords and progressions, but what writer DOESN'T owe a debt to him? Good ol' circle of fifths! |
First, a correction: Pet Sounds was McCartney’s inspiration for not Rubber Soul, but Sgt. Pepper. I get them confused because Rubber Soul was Brian’s inspiration for Pet Sounds, Brian feeling RS was the first album ever with no filler. To put things in context, when Pet Sounds was released, the Beach Boys had already had three low-selling albums in a row---Today, Summer Days (and Summer Nights), and Party. After their last hit album, 1964’s All Summer Long, Rock n’ Roll had begun turning into Rock, and had moved in a decidedly tougher, harder direction. Even more than the Popish Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Animals, The Yardbirds (featuring first Eric Clapton and then Jeff beck on guitar), and The Who were playing more "adult" music based on American Blues and R & B. Dylan's lyrics had completely transformed the nature of the music's lyrics, no longer being about romantic relationships, but about society, morality, hypocrisy, and values. The All-American, squeaky-clean, surf, cars, & girls teenage adolescent sound and image of the Beach Boys had become quite passe’, completely irrelevant to the about-to-emerge counter-culture. Pot had made it into the suburbs, and High School kids were adopting a cynical semi-adult attitude and posture. The Beach Boys were largely forgotten at the time Pet Sounds came out in ’66, already viewed as an Oldies act, as much so as 1950’s entertainers such as The Platters. I didn’t know anyone who bought Pet Sounds when it was released. A new Beach Boys album? Who cares! A lot was happening at that time---a lot of new Groups, Bands, and records to keep up with. But then 1967 came around, and "Good Vibrations" was blasting out of every teenagers’ car radio. Considering how interesting that hit single was, the album it was on, Smiley Smile, needed to be heard. I was astonished when, on my Koss Pro 4AA headphones plugged into my Fisher X-100A integrated tube amp, I heard what was in the grooves of the LP being played by my Shure M44 cartridge mounted on my Garrard SL55 turntable. "Good Vibrations" was just the tip of a very weird iceberg! Gone were the sun and fun of The Beach Boys I had seen live just three years earlier in 1964 (my first concert, one year before seeing The Beatles), replaced by a very dark, very odd, introverted creepiness. Hearing it in the dark made me feel like I had descended below ground (perhaps through a tree trunk, as did Peter Pan and the lost children), now being in a small earthen cave, dimly illuminated by candles, where none of the assembled persons spoke. The "songs" featured highly unusual chords and chord progressions (one subject discussed by Bernstein during the special, as well as Brian’s melodic and harmonic sophistication) played mostly by muted piano, harpsichord, bass, and snare drum. On top of that was surreal lyrics being almost whispered by strange hushed voices, very, very odd harmonies and lots of counter-point, primal chanting, and sound effects. It actually scared me, and still does. Very spooky, like walking into a Victorian mansion with a very musty smell at twilight, eerily quiet except for an old clock softly ticking off in the distance. It made the "experimental" Bands popular at the time seem very normal, very ordinary. I played the album for all my close friends (musicians, artists, intellectuals, weirdos), and Smiley Smile became the favorite album of the smartest people I knew---an elite club sharing a secret known only by it’s members. The album became a test for new friends; "get" the album and you were in. Having heard Smiley Smile (though without yet knowing the whole Smile saga), it was only natural to go back and listen to Pet Sounds. Though not nearly as strange and interesting as SS, it too was a very welcome discovery. It’s songs are more formal, classically-structured Pop songs, and some real, real good ones. As much as I like them (especially "God Only Knows" of course!), I find Smile/Smiley Smile a more important/amazing album. Smile was never completed or released (Brian, as Icarus, flew too close to the Sun---via LSD etc. He had a complete mental/emotional/physical breakdown without completing the album, intended to be a musical representation of the American Manifest Destiny. Rather ambitious! His bother Carl patched together Smiley Smile for release in it’s place), but it’s bits and pieces were recently assembled into what it was to have been, and is available in a number of configurations. I find the 6-CD boxset a bit much for most people, and recommend the 2-CD version. |
Another recommendation to you Actusreus, if you're into jazz, is Antonio Carlos Jobim (Tom) the driving force of Bossa Nova from the early 60's and IMHO one of the most original pop/jazz composers of the 20th Century who collaborated with many of the jazz greats. Truly timeless music and well worth exploring if you haven't already. The catalog of his music is rich and deep. |
Thank you all for absolutely fabulous responses rather than dismissing my post outright; I enjoyed reading all of them and came out much more educated. This is truly a terrific community. I represent somewhat of a younger crowd on Audiogon, from my understanding, as I'm in my early 40s so perhaps my musical tastes are to a degree a function of my age. I was exposed to The Beatles as a child and have loved them ever since only expanding and deepening my musical knowledge and exposure as I grew older. From what was once an unpalatable pile of noise to me, classic jazz has become my favorite genre of music and I'm in awe every time I listen, humbled by the talent and genius of the jazz greats. Based on that experience, I now always approach music with an open mind. The Beach Boys fail to evoke the same feelings other great music does in me, but I certainly understand much more why they are held in such high esteem after reading your responses. P.S. I do agree "God Only Knows" is one of the most beautiful songs ever written. I just wish the rest of The BB catalog connected the same way with me. |
This guy Brian Wilson went from scoring a local hit with Surfin' in 1962 to cranking out Pet Sounds four years later. How? Pet Sounds had four hit singles on it--Wouldn't it be Nice, Sloop John B., God Only Knows and Caroline, No. Another tune, an instrumental, was written (but not used) for a James Bond film. In between those you get amazing musical explorations of the weirdness of growing up and having relationships in the U.S. in the 50's and 60's. You can sort of hear it coming with tunes on the previous few albums but it's still an amazing achievement for someone who did it all seat-of-the-pants in just a few years. Whereas Burt Bacharach had deep classical training and sort of an internship (not to slight him--he made amazing music). What Brian achieved is matched only by the Beatles' work from the same period. And no, there's no beach music or car songs on Pet Sounds. It's a whole other thing as opposed to the early records. 50 years later it holds its ground against all comers. But nothing's for everybody--some folks don't like Beethoven and some don't like the Beatles. YMMV. |
"The fact that "Pet Sounds" is considered one of the greatest albums of
all time leaves me speechless. I always considered their music a bit of a
joke, good for background when you're in a beach bar in Southern
California..." The above quote would indicate to me that the OP has never heard Pet Sounds. It certainly is NOT gimmicky "beach music". The album was lushly instrumented by the famous "Wrecking Crew", who were astonished at Brian Wilson's abilities as an arranger and producer, and considered it a monumental achievement. |
The Beach Boys had a vision -- "if everybody had an ocean/everybody'd be surfin'/surfin' USA". When that song came out Kennedy was still president, riots in the cities hadn't started and although Vietnam was unfolding, it wasn't in the news. In a few short years everything would change, but the image of young people having fun in the sun will never change. And that's true even though Dylan wrote "The Times They are A Changin'" less than a year later. |
As someone who has never particularly been a Beach Boys fan (although I’ve certainly never disliked them), I nevertheless want to extend kudos for the excellent responses above. I would have to say that I’m now more of a fan than I was a few hours ago :-) A tangential point that I found striking in reading Rich’s outstanding post was the discrepancy between Cashbox’s listing of 1963’s top recordings and the corresponding Billboard list, as well as with respect to how I recall the hits of 1963. The Billboard list, btw, had "Surfin’ U.S.A." as no. 2 for the year. A couple of possible explanations for that discrepancy can be inferred from the Wikipedia writeup on Cashbox. But none of that affects Rich’s underlying points, of course. One unrelated bit of trivia I recently became aware of, that was of interest to me as a basketball fan, is that Mike Love of the Beach Boys is the uncle of Kevin Love, the star power forward who currently plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers, alongside LeBron James. Kevin’s father/Mike’s brother, Stan Love, was also an NBA player. Thanks again. Regards, -- Al |
It's funny how when I was in grade school and listening to the Beatles and all of he great groups coming out of the sixties, I thought the Beach Boys made simple sing-songy music for unsophisticated tastes. They were beneath my 6th and 7th grade mentality. I just didn't get it. I neither hated them nor liked them. I just did not understand why one of my friends (and it was only one out of many) liked them so much. I thought that perhaps it was because he had bad taste in virtually everything including music. Finally, when I was a senior in high school in 1974, I purchased Endless Summer (because I did like "Don't Worry Baby") and listened. All of a sudden, even in the midst of my time listening to the Who, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Van Morrison, Crosby, Stills, etc--- I got it. Two albums worth of songs were virtually all unforgettable. Beautiful harmonies. Great music. Suddenly, the lack of sophistication turned into a childlike directness and innocence. If you surrendered, it also transported you right to a sunny carefree California. I soon went about backing some of their live albums into my collection and some studio albums including Pet Sounds. It didn't hurt that McCartney was a huge fan as I was a devoted Beatles fan. Today, I am happy to call myself a fan. I have been purchasing some of the vinyl reissues by Analogue Productions (often in mono and stereo) including, of course, Pet Sounds. They are very nice reproductions. I believe Uncut recently found Pet Sounds to be the greatest pop/rock album ever made. To my recollection Rolling Stone had it in the top 4 or 5. While I'm not sure it ranks that high on my personal list--it is certainly in my top 20. I was with Actusreus until Endless Summer in 1974. It is possible to listen to the Beach Boys under the right circumstances and, all of a sudden, get it. |
From a pop songwriting standpoint, I'd argue that one great challenge of the '60s was merging traditional western song craft with "pure" rock n roll (read Chuck Berry, for short). Early Rock n Roll almost entirely eliminated the single most essential element of Western music (harmony) and featured only rhythmic drive and melodic energy. The result was a very idiosynchratic art form with limited commercial potential for mass audiences. You can make a fair case that Brian Wilson - more than anyone else - pioneered the fusion of then new rock n roll with the more traditional (and captivating) harmonies that most people want in their music. Chuck Berry famously sued them for appropriating his songs and won. Yet, a lot of folks who hear Chuck Berry as pure Rock n Roll would describe The Beach Boys as pure pop. Therein, IMO, lies the great genius of Brian Wilson. This (per their own telling) hybridization spurred Lennon/Macca and either created the greatest band in Rock n Roll or hopelessly diluted Rock n Roll, depending on your personal point of view. Either way, without The Beach Boys, there are no Beatles. As a purely separate matter, Brian Wilson has IMO produced some of the simplest, most beautiful pop music (see God Only Knows, etc) and some of the most intricately arranged, bizarrely instrumented pop/rock hybrids (see Good Vibrations) of the last fifty years. None of this means that you need to like The Beach Boys, but I hope it goes some way towards explaining why some folks (like me) both love their music and hold them in such high esteem. |
Rich said a lot, the most important being that if one doesn’t hear "it", then one doesn’t hear it. Two who DID hear it in the music of Brian Wilson were Paul McCartney and Leonard Bernstein. Paul proclaimed Pet Sounds the best album ever made at the time of it’s 1966 release, and was his inspiration for Rubber Soul---an album with no filler songs. If a listener doesn’t hear something very, very special in "God Only Knows" (which I consider the "best" song I have ever heard), I am at a complete loss as to what to say to that listener. Bernstein made "Surfs Up" (a song to be included in the then-upcoming Beach Boys album Smile; the album was ultimately shelved, and remained unreleased for four and a half decades! Smile acquired legendary status over the years, and was eventually released as a 6-CD boxset. The complete album was also performed live in a single performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall, people coming from all over the world to hear it. Paul was there.) the centerpiece of his 1967 television special on the then emerging newly sophisticated music from the Pop/Rock field. The special included a film of Wilson playing the song unaccompanied on the grand piano in his living room. You may want to see it, and in fact the whole special. There is video on YouTube of a music professor sitting at a piano, breaking down "God Only Knows", explaining and demonstrating the extremely sophisticated compositional skill it’s writing required and reveals. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean the song will therefore be liked by all who hear it, but the video may help those who don’t particularly like the song (how that can possibly be the case is a complete mystery to me, but...) to understand and appreciate why others do. I truly feel sorry for anyone not utterly devastated by "God Only Knows". It’s an absolute masterpiece. |
I agree with Rich, listen several times closely to Pet Sounds. There is really so much to hear in those very original arrangements that still hold well today. If you still don't get it, that's ok too. There are many BB fans that certainly don't hold this album in as high regard as some of us always have and will. |
Two sayings come to mind ... the first is 'I guess you had to be there' and the second would be 'either you get it or you don't.' Leaving it at that though, would be dismissive and that would not be my intention. The comments that you have made about the Beach Boys, others have made on this site about the Beatles and Elvis Presley. Though whether it is the Beach Boys or any other musical act that is the subject of the acclaim, I believe that is essential to place the musical act in its historic context. When the Beach Boys first charted a Cash Box Top Single (1963) with 'Surfin' U.S.A.' (#16), we should look at the state of pop music as represented by the Top 5 singles for that year: 1) Limbo Rock (Chubby Checker), 2) Go Away Little Girl (Steve Lawrence), 3) End of the World (Skeeter Davis), 4) Blue Velvet (Bobby Vinton) and 5) Telstar (Tornadoes). The Beach Boys were making different music ... music 'realized in energetic melodies, cheerful repetitions, and magical harmonies' which captured early sixties California life. And that was the formula for the group's first dozen or so albums. With Pet Sounds, the move was away from fast cars and California girls to an exploration of the mind. Drugs and psychedelia were just down the highway in San Francisco. It may help to view Pet Sounds as a symphony with complex orchestrations. Songs like 'Wouldn't It be Nice' and 'God Only Knows' and 'Caroline, No' and 'Don't Cry, Put Your Head on My Shoulder' ... are not only a break from the commercial formula that the Beach Boys had been following, but arguably stand heads and shoulders above what any other group was doing at the same time both musically and lyrically. This music was possibly the equal to what the Beatles were creating with 'Yesterday' and 'Eleanor Rigby'. It certainly holds together 50 years later. I was 9 years old and a Brooklyn-ite at the time when all this was going down in 1966 and I can tell you that the Beach Boys were as important to the musical culture as the Beatles, Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, and the Rolling Stones were. Hendrix and Cream and Woodstock and Altamont and the loss of innocence were yet to happen. I am a major fan of 'Pet Sounds' and it is not because of nostalgia. I invite you to listen to the album and listen closely and listen several times and listen to the album as a single piece of music and then judge. Use real headphones, not $5 buds. Get the SACD version. If you don't get the beauty and magnificence of both the structure and execution of the songs ... you don't get it. Certainly no crime. It doesn't mean that it is not there though. Credit to Lillian Roxon's 'Rock Encyclopedia' (1969) for the Cash Box statistics, as well as help in organizing my thoughts. Rich |
