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Thread: The Beach Boys - GAH Week 6 - 12.10.11

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    Default The Beach Boys - GAH Week 6 - 12.10.11

    Ok. Enough with The Eagles already.

    The Beach Boys have a genuine claim on the title. I haven't actually listened to much of their stuff. I'm going to go in with the mindset that the Beach Boys *are*, in fact, the greatest American band.

    Never been my thing, but I bet there is some generational dysphoria when it comes to certain music. The Abes of the world will just never like the Journeys of the world because of sunspot cycles and so on.

    So it is with me and the Beach Boys of the world.

    But...I'm at a place where I am obsessed with vocal harmony, so this is going to be a good time to revisit.
    Quote Originally Posted by Sting
    "You know cos I just lost my parents--both my parents died in the same year...to this day, people come up to me and say 'my dad died and that album really meant a lot to me,' which is very nourishing {pats heart} for a songwriter to hear that your songs have a utility beyond just their own solace, that it actually helps other people."

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    I asked the "greatest American band" question to another buddy, and his initial response that he could not talk himself out of was The Beach Boys. He has since changed his answer to Aerosmith, but he is probably wrong.

    He shared this song with me, I had never heard it, and I like it a ton. What a catchy song! If they have tons of songs like this, it will be hard not to root for them.

    Quote Originally Posted by Sting
    "You know cos I just lost my parents--both my parents died in the same year...to this day, people come up to me and say 'my dad died and that album really meant a lot to me,' which is very nourishing {pats heart} for a songwriter to hear that your songs have a utility beyond just their own solace, that it actually helps other people."

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    Can someone please get me fired up about The Beach Boys?
    Quote Originally Posted by Sting
    "You know cos I just lost my parents--both my parents died in the same year...to this day, people come up to me and say 'my dad died and that album really meant a lot to me,' which is very nourishing {pats heart} for a songwriter to hear that your songs have a utility beyond just their own solace, that it actually helps other people."

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    Brian Wilson is a genius and the Beach Boys are actually underrated.

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    Quote Originally Posted by aberdien View Post
    Brian Wilson is a genius and the Beach Boys are actually underrated.
    How deep have you gone into their catalog?
    Quote Originally Posted by Sting
    "You know cos I just lost my parents--both my parents died in the same year...to this day, people come up to me and say 'my dad died and that album really meant a lot to me,' which is very nourishing {pats heart} for a songwriter to hear that your songs have a utility beyond just their own solace, that it actually helps other people."

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hawgdriver View Post
    How deep have you gone into their catalog?
    Not as deep as I would like beyond Pet Sounds and Smile Sessions. I love the early surfer singles because the harmonies are amazing. But I'm excited to explore through you!

    Here is a post I found on reddit to maybe build some exitement:

    I’d recommend listening to “Today! (1965)”, which was a precursor/similar album to Pet Sounds in that it’s musically, complexity, conceptually, lyrically, and thematically similar.

    “Smiley Smile (1967)” is a minimalist, stripped down, simple, Lo-Fi, and even more psychedelic version of the maximalist, complex, magnum opus SMiLE. It’s also a amazing record in its own way.

    “Wild Honey (1967)” This one is a mix of soul, r&b, pop, and is very Lo-Fi. It was the second part of the Lo-Fi trilogy made by Brian (Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, Friends) Another underrated album by them.

    “Friends (1968)” This one is much more relaxed, calmer, and is one of Brian’s best works since Pet Sounds (in my opinion). It’s a psychedelic, baroque styled album with some added touches of Bossa Nova.

    “20/20 (1969)” This is my least favorite album by them, personally. It’s a record that has 2 outtakes from SMiLE. It has some highlights like, I Can Hear Music, Cabin Essence, etc (There is even a song written by Charles . You can listen to it, however it would definitely recommend the next album after this-

    “Sunflower (1970)” This is a phenomenal light-hearted, positive, upbeat album by The Beach Boys. It is the bands best group effort and every song on it is great! It is their best album since Pet Sounds (in my opinion). There is even elements of shoe-gaze, dream pop, and chill wave in “All I Wanna Do” and other tracks too.

    “Surfs Up (1971)” Is a album where The Beach Boys go down a dark, existential, and more mature route after completing Sunflower. The last 3 songs on the second side of the album are absolutely incredible, (Day In The Life of a Tree, Till I Die, Surfs Up.) There are some other tracks too on the album, but range from very great to just plain bad.

    “Holland (1973)” This is another phenomenal album by The Beach Boys. It’s a underrated, rustic, Americana masterpiece (in my opinion.) It’s another one of my personal favorites.

    “Love You (1977)” This album is if Pet Sounds was written with crayons. It’s very straight forward with its lyrics. It has a extensive use of mini-moog synthesizers, making it a very synth-pop album. It shares themes with Pet Sounds, but in “sometimes” a much goofier and sillier way. It’s a masterpiece that grows on you more and more the more you re-listen to it.

    After Love You, The Beach Boys go down in quality. They have some moments here and there from 1978 to 1992, but it’s mostly mediocre or bad.

    Also

    “SMiLE (1966-1967)”

    This album is an absolute behemoth in quality. It’s Brain Wilson’s magnum opus, a unfinished pocket symphony.

    It’s structured like classical symphony. Almost every track on this album has multiple sections/movements to them. Brian’s compositions on the album are very complex.

    Another thing I like to note is the editing for the album and it’s tracks. I do believe there were over 30 sections of music made for Heroes and Villains. And Brian had to manually edit by cutting and splicing tape at the right and precise spot. It was a very very time consuming process.

    In my perspective, the album deals with 3 concepts in one album, Americana, existentialism, and the elements of the world (Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water.)

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    https://www.brooklynvegan.com/beatle...op-innovation/

    Beatles vs Stones may be the most well-known rivalry in the history of pop music, but it's a rivalry that always seemed a little superficial, more based on image and stylistic preferences than anything else. It's easy to see why those two extremely popular British bands were pitted against each other, but when it came to innovations in the songwriting, arrangements, and production of pop music in the 1960s, The Beatles' greatest rivals were The Beach Boys.

    Like The Beatles and the Stones, The Beatles and The Beach Boys weren't actually enemies; they were friends and they were both fans of -- and influenced by -- each other's music. Their creative rivalry wasn't invented by the press like Beatles vs Stones partially was; it was a very real competition that existed at every turn of each band's career. The Beatles' Rubber Soul inspired Brian Wilson to write Pet Sounds, which in turn was a massive influence on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and its pre-release, non-album single "Strawberry Fields Forever," the very song that caused Brian to abandon his storied Smile album, claiming The Beatles had already achieved what Smile had set out to do. Pop music was advancing so quickly in the 1960s, and it was largely because its two leading bands were constantly trying to outshine each other.

    1966 - Pet Sounds, Revolver, "Good Vibrations," and the Arrival of Psychedelic Pop

    The Beatles were listening closely to The Beach Boys when they wrote Rubber Soul, and Brian Wilson was listening right back. "Rubber Soul is probably the greatest record ever," Brian wrote in his memoir I Am Brian Wilson. "[It] came out in December of 1965 and sent me right to the piano bench," he said. "It wasn’t just the lyrics and the melodies but the production and their harmonies... [it was] almost art music." The song that came out when Brian went to his piano and tried to top Rubber Soul? "God Only Knows," which Paul McCartney later called his favorite song of all time.

    "God Only Knows" is indeed one of the greatest songs of all time, but Brian wasn't content to stop there. He wanted to make a grand, album-length statement just like The Beatles did, and that statement was Pet Sounds. Brian was fully in the director's chair, handling songwriting, production, arrangements, and the bulk of the lead vocals (with lyrical co-writing by Tony Asher), and the result was a deeply personal, psychedelic, baroque pop album that pushed the boundaries of pop music further than he or anyone else had yet. There's not an ounce of filler, and -- with the help of over 40 session musicians -- it was some of the most intricately arranged pop music that anyone in 1966 would have heard.

    Among those listening? The Beatles of course. The influence of Pet Sounds would fully reveal itself on 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but it already crept into The Beatles music on 1966's Revolver; "Here, There and Everywhere," which was one of the last songs Paul wrote for Revolver, was said to be directly inspired by Pet Sounds. Like Brian Wilson, The Beatles and producer George Martin were growing increasingly interested in string and horn arrangements on Revolver, which showed on the definitive baroque pop of "Eleanor Rigby," the french horn solo on "For No One," and the horn section on "Got To Get You Into My Life." The band and engineer Geoff Emerick were also learning to use the studio as an instrument, coming out with the backwards guitars of the psych-folk gem "I'm Only Sleeping" and the deeply psychedelic "Tomorrow Never Knows." George Harrison was even more into Indian music during the Revolver sessions than he was when making Rubber Soul, as heard on "Love You To," which didn't just use sitar but dove head-first into Indian classical music. The influence of LSD was prevalent all throughout Revolver (and non-album singles "Paperback Writer" and "Rain"). It was the most overtly trippy music that either The Beach Boys or The Beatles had released yet.

    1967 - "Strawberry Fields Forever," Sgt. Pepper's, and the Abandonment of Smile

    As Brian was setting out to top Pet Sounds, so were The Beatles. "Without Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper's wouldn't have been made," George Martin once said. "I played [Pet Sounds] to John so much that it would be difficult for him to escape the influence," Paul said of its influence on Sgt. Pepper's. "If records had a director within a band, I sort of directed Pepper. And my influence was basically the Pet Sounds album."

    It's easy to hear how Pet Sounds' baroque pop and The Beach Boys' harmonies directly impacted Sgt. Pepper's (and Paul has said Pet Sounds also influenced his melodic basslines on the album), but as they always did, The Beatles took it further. They continued to explore Indian music, folk music, harder-edged acid rock, circus music, vaudeville, and much more, and the way they fused it all together was seamless. The first single to be released from the sessions was a non-album, double A-side single "Penny Lane" / "Strawberry Fields Forever," and it was hearing "Strawberry Fields Forever" -- along with mental health issues and pressure from Capitol Records, Brian's father Murry, and Mike Love -- that caused Brian to abandon his much-hyped Smile album. As legend has it, Brian was driving with his friend Michael Vosse as "Strawberry Fields Forever" came on the radio. He pulled over, listened, and said to his friend, "They did it already - what I wanted to do with Smile. Maybe it's too late."

    As we all now know, it wouldn't have been too late, but Brian was not to wrong to interpret "Strawberry Fields Forever" as yet another leap forward in this pop music race. It packaged together everything that was great about mid-to-late '60s Beatles in one song, from the baroque pop string and horn arrangements to the droning Indian influence to the vivid psychedelic imagery to the soaring, sunshine-y vocals. It's one of the most innovative and most gorgeous pop songs ever written.

    It's one of pop music's greatest tragedies that Brian abandoned Smile. If he hadn't, there may have been another tie for album of the year in 1967... or maybe Smile would've won. We know now that Smile was as ambitious of an album as "Good Vibrations" was a single, and that it arguably did surpass Sgt. Pepper's in terms of pop music innovation, because the songs trickled out over the years, various versions of Smile were bootlegged and traded between Beach Boys fans, and then Brian released his own re-recording of the album in 2004 followed by the long-awaited release of the original Smile sessions in 2011. But in 1967, the only thing The Beach Boys had to show for it was Smiley Smile, a scrappy home-recorded album that included raw, stripped-down versions of songs from the Smile sessions, a few newer ones, and the single version of "Good Vibrations." (It also allegedly featured a recording of Paul McCartney chewing celery on "Vegetables.") The album was a commercial failure, and many who did hear it considered it an artistic failure too. But this eccentric album had its supporters (like The Who's Pete Townshend), and it went on to become hugely influential on the lo-fi psychedelic pop scene of the '90s and 2000s. Smiley Smile was followed in late 1967 by Wild Honey, which was cut from a very similar cloth but added in a soul/R&B edge (and a Stevie Wonder cover), and is also a lo-fi pop gem. Pop music history as we know it might've been a lot different if Smile came out, but everything happens for a reason, and Smiley Smile and Wild Honey have become a crucial albums of their own, even if most people in the 1960s didn't think they would.

    Because Smile does now exist in just about complete form, it's impossible not to wonder what might've happened if it was released in 1967 as originally planned. It's truly the pop masterpiece that Brian always promised it'd be. It helped pioneer the use of song cycles within pop music (and was written with help from Van Dyke Parks, who named his own likeminded 1967 album Song Cycle), with multiple songs that flow directly into each other, songs within songs, and recurring musical and lyrical motifs throughout. It's full of breathtaking highlights like "Surf's Up," "Heroes and Villains," "Cabin Essence," "Wonderful," "Wind Chimes," and more, but it's really an album that you have to hear start to finish. Made up of countless recordings pieced together with extreme attention to detail, as well as some of the most complex arrangements pop music in the 1960s had seen, Smile was far more ambitious than Pet Sounds, and I'd say it was more ambitious than Sgt. Pepper's too. But with Brian's ear for melody and the trademark Beach Boys harmonies intact, it was just as accessible as both of those albums.

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    The Eagles have better harmonies than the Beatles. Just sayin. The Beatles are the better band, true.

    The Beach Boys have the *best* harmonies. Period.

    On "Wouldn't It Be Nice" you have four part harmonies singing deceptive and difficult chords. These days, I wonder something.

    Ok. Miles Davis used to tune his shit a few cents up or down depending on exact sound he wants. What I mean is that everyone in the world making music now is using TeT-12 frequencies for musical notes. A4 = 440hz, A#4 = 466.16hz.

    Miles was known to tune his shit a little bit different at times to find a distinctive sound. So for a particular recording, he might have his A#4 be 470hz. Something like that, you get the idea.

    The greeks used to use a tuning system called Just Intonation which was focused on Pythagorean ratios. Our modern system began from this but made compromises so that we could freely change key (equal temperament).

    I wonder if The Beach Boys harmonies are closer to "by ear" Just Intonation rather than note-perfect Tet-12 frequencies. Just a weird thought. They sound so damned good.

    Quote Originally Posted by Sting
    "You know cos I just lost my parents--both my parents died in the same year...to this day, people come up to me and say 'my dad died and that album really meant a lot to me,' which is very nourishing {pats heart} for a songwriter to hear that your songs have a utility beyond just their own solace, that it actually helps other people."

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    All that nerd shit you just said that I didn't understand makes me believe you will nerd out when you listen to the Smile Sessions.

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    Acapella Wouldn't It Be Nice is wonderful

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    The degree to which Murry fleshed out his goals through his infant children was in fact peculiar. He tried to transform every quaint babble and snatch of gurgling from his baby boys into songs, pounding a Hammond piano beside Brian's playpen for hours and giving his son the kind of playful pep talks that betray, at best, a budding stage father: "That's my new song! Did you like it? Of course you did! You loved it! Now I'm gonna teach you the words! Someday you're going to sing your father's songs and make us both famous! Okay, here we go."
    Quote Originally Posted by Sting
    "You know cos I just lost my parents--both my parents died in the same year...to this day, people come up to me and say 'my dad died and that album really meant a lot to me,' which is very nourishing {pats heart} for a songwriter to hear that your songs have a utility beyond just their own solace, that it actually helps other people."

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    Many stories of physical and verbal abuse surfaced, including a supposed incident where Murry hit Brian in the head with a 2×4, resulting in the permanent loss of hearing in his right ear, and another occasion in which he disciplined Brian by forcing him to defecate on a plate.
    I might need to rethink my stable parenting model.
    Quote Originally Posted by Sting
    "You know cos I just lost my parents--both my parents died in the same year...to this day, people come up to me and say 'my dad died and that album really meant a lot to me,' which is very nourishing {pats heart} for a songwriter to hear that your songs have a utility beyond just their own solace, that it actually helps other people."

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    America's greatest rock band
    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/o...test-rock-band

    A critical reappraisal of the Beach Boys’ output between the mid-1960s and the early 1970s has rightly restored their reputation as one of the greatest, most innovative, and versatile musical acts of the 20th century. The eventual 2011 release of what was left of Smile proved that the Beatles’ place in history at the top of popular music was a product of contingency, not destiny. And if it’s too late to rewrite that history, it’s nonetheless appropriate to recognize the greatness of what the Beach Boys did release.

    If you associate the Beach Boys only with their juvenile-but-catchy early releases, you’re a victim of selection bias — specifically, the selection of your local oldies-station DJ. When the band started in 1961, Wilson’s abusive father, Murry, was their manager, and Brian, brothers Carl and Dennis, cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine adopted surf rock as a strategic way to get on the radio. Songs such as “Surfer Girl” and “In My Room” suggested artistic ambitions, but the band’s music never developed. Then the moody Wilson, sick of touring and of the band’s one-note image, started staying home, smoking marijuana, and writing more complicated music.

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    lol. that moment when you realize that you and Brian Wilson are kindred spirits.
    Quote Originally Posted by Sting
    "You know cos I just lost my parents--both my parents died in the same year...to this day, people come up to me and say 'my dad died and that album really meant a lot to me,' which is very nourishing {pats heart} for a songwriter to hear that your songs have a utility beyond just their own solace, that it actually helps other people."

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    Ok.

    This is probably the heart of it.

    This also gets to the dogfish paradox.

    https://www.brooklynvegan.com/beatle...op-innovation/

    The song that came out when Brian went to his piano and tried to top Rubber Soul? "God Only Knows," which Paul McCartney later called his favorite song of all time.

    "God Only Knows" is indeed one of the greatest songs of all time, but Brian wasn't content to stop there. He wanted to make a grand, album-length statement just like The Beatles did, and that statement was Pet Sounds. Brian was fully in the director's chair, handling songwriting, production, arrangements, and the bulk of the lead vocals (with lyrical co-writing by Tony Asher), and the result was a deeply personal, psychedelic, baroque pop album that pushed the boundaries of pop music further than he or anyone else had yet. There's not an ounce of filler, and -- with the help of over 40 session musicians -- it was some of the most intricately arranged pop music that anyone in 1966 would have heard.
    Brian Wilson was Steely Dan before Steely Dan, and all their pretentious wonky Naked Lunch bullshit aside, was Steely Dan.

    And this really gets to the heart of it.

    If the Beatles were the greatest, and it seems incontrovertible that this was a Brian Wilson vs. John/Paul clash...

    If The Beach Boys were the whetstone The Beatles (and all of the London music production scene) honed themselves against...because nothing else in the freaking world pushed them to evolve...when they were at their most plastic and evolutionary stage...without which they would have been just another band like The Eagles...

    If all this is true, then must it also be true that The Beach Boys were really the greatest?
    Quote Originally Posted by Sting
    "You know cos I just lost my parents--both my parents died in the same year...to this day, people come up to me and say 'my dad died and that album really meant a lot to me,' which is very nourishing {pats heart} for a songwriter to hear that your songs have a utility beyond just their own solace, that it actually helps other people."

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