So okay, I guess its time to put up or shut up. So obviously the “Lost Popularity Period” (66-71) is my key period as to why the Beach Boys are my number one band. I would begin by saying if you didn’t live through the late 60s you might not be able to fully grasp how insane things were during that time. Everything was changing, especially music. And the changes that were happening then laid the foundation for almost everything that has followed. And smack dab in the middle of all this was The Beach Boys. Their unspoken rivalry with The Beatles was like watching two behemoths slugging it out across the ocean, each topping the other, each album redrawing the boundaries for what an album could be. As I said before, it started with The Beach Boys “Today!” album to which The Beatles responded in Dec. 65 with “Rubber Soul” which wasn’t just a suite of songs, but an entire album that was meant to be played as a whole. Brian was knocked back a bit, but went into the LA studios with every intention of topping it. There are many stories as to how Brian was driven to record the things he could hear in head. The difference was he was actually able to create what he heard and get it down on tape. After months of heavy labor, sometimes demanding over a hundred takes, Brian finally delivered the album to Capitol Records in May 1966, called Pet Sounds (so named because Mike Love was said to have hated it so much he thought only dogs would listen to it). Regardless, Pet Sounds contains some of the best pop music every recorded, by anyone, anytime, anywhere. And if you think that’s outrageous hyperbole, remember that Paul McCartney cried the first time he heard it. Pet Sounds is a landmark album like Sgt. Peppers, Highway 61 Revisited, Music From The Big Pink, Astral Weeks, What’s Going On, London Calling, Joshua Tree, Nevermind and OK Computer and should be approached as such. One of the things to remember is that Pet Sounds is a pop record not a rock album. It’s a heartbreaking tale in which Brian was bidding farewell to the innocence of his earlier work. Brian put everything he had learned from writing and arranging into one package, using the LA giants like guitarist Barney Kessell, bassist Carol Kaye, and drummer Hal Blaine and the Beach Boys harmonies like a maestro conductor. He has been called the Mozart of the late 20th century and its no wonder. And Pet Sounds also contains great songs, 4 or 5 of which I would put on a list of the 20 best songs ever, and the rest album isn’t too far behind. Brian called them “Teenage Symphonies To God” and they include string sections, bicycle bells, harpsichords, flutes, theremin, Coca-Cola cans, barking dogs, and a one legendary upside-down Sparklett’s bottle (on the intro Caroline, No).
Some of the awards that have been given to Pet Sounds include:
18th greatest album of all time (Q magazine)
3rd best album of all-time (VH1)
2nd best album of all-time (Rolling Stone)
The Greatest Album Ever Made (MOJO magazine)
Best album of the 20th Century (Spex magazine)
Though it has sold consistently for 40 years (1.6 million to date) and charted as recently as 2001, Pet Sounds didn’t sell well in 1966. In 1967, the Beatles responded with Sgt Peppers, which really upped the ante, adding tremendous pressure onto Brian’s somewhat fragile shoulders. On top of that, the band (particularly Mike Love) were less than enthusiastic about the album. Still, Brian entered the studio determined to top even Sgt Peppers. “Good Vibrations” was released as an earlier single and pretty much reinventing what a single could be and was number one in the entire world. Critics began to leak information about the coming album called Smile, making wild statements as to its greatness. And then… no one knows for sure, but between the pressure, the drugs, (including LSD), Brian either had a mental breakdown or went totally insane. Whichever, he would not really be able to function anywhere near normal until the late 90s. For the next few years he would help the Beach Boys record, but by 1972 he had completely retreated into his inner world, weighing over 300 pounds and refusing to leave his bedroom for three years where he had his piano placed in a sand box. (the Barenaked Ladies song “Brian Wilson” documents these years well, which Brian now performs as his opening song). And so the Smile project was permanently shelved, creating the greatest unreleased legend of all-time. The band, unsure what to do, went into the studio and with Brian’s shaky help recorded a quick little album called, “Smiley Smile.” Some of the songs from Smile were on it, but it was an altogether different album. The Beach Boys themselves played the instruments and it has a home recording feel. It’s a light child-like goofy little charmer. In the years since it has developed quite a devoted following (I like it, not love it), but to the press and rock fans of 1967, after the grand promises of Smile, it basically bombed. Music was changing in the 1960s, but things were going crazy in 1967: Jimi Hendrix, Monterey Pop Festival, the San Francisco bands, and on and on. Smiley Smile arrived into this cauldron and barely made a ripple. Carl Wilson later famously said, instead of a home run, it was more of a bunt. It began a decent (sales wise) for the Beach Boys that would affect their popularity for years to come. Brian was involved with the albums, but not like before. From 1967 to 1971 they released Wild Honey, Friends, 20/20, Sunflower and Surf’s Up. These albums are true group efforts and though they are wildly inconsistent, they contain moments which are some of the band’s best music. Songs from the Smile sessions are sprinkled through these albums which fed the Smile legend even more. (Super nerdy trivial includes the fact that a Beach Boy song is actually co-written by a one Charles Manson, who was hanging out with Dennis Wilson before he went to the desert and got his followers to starting killing people). Sadly by 1970 the band could barely could crack the bottom of the Top 200, which is a shame because Brian pulled it together long enough to help release the excellent album “Sunflower.”
With 1971’s Surf’s Up album things began to turn around for the band and eventually led to what I have called their Come Back Period. So, why are the Beach Boys my number one band? Two reasons: Pet Sounds and the best songs leading up to it and trailing after it. With this run the Beach Boys went from pop idols with cute hit singles to major pop craftsmen influencing thousands of bands. The Beach Boys sound has permanently infused pop music, from The Beatles to They Might Be Giants to Belle & Sebastian. And then there are the bands that I would call “extremely influenced” by The Beach Boys: The High Llamas, Super Furry Animals, Apples In Stereo, Teenage Fanclub, Mothers Hips, Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Honey. Their songs have been covered by everyone from The Ramones to Pennywise to Pere Ubu. People who have written songs about Brian Wilson include: Velvet Underground’s John Cale (Mr. Wilson), Tears For Fears (Brian Wilson Said), Elton John (Since God Invented Girls), Jackie DeShannon (Boat to Sail), Daft Punk (Teachers), Marillion (Cannibal Surf Babe), The Magnetic Fields (You and Me and the Moon), Snow Patrol (Batten Down the Hatch), Pete Yorn (Murray) and Weird Al Yankovic (Pancreas). Queens of the Stone Age never perform without a photo of Brian Wilson taped to their bass amp. Writer Paul Quarrington based his novel “Whale Music” on Wilson’s life; as well as Dana Spiotta’s novel, “Eat the Document.” Bon Jovi (hey Melissa) mentions him in his song “Last Cigarette” with the line “You always lose the girl, in a Brian Wilson world.” And so for any of you that have stayed with me to the end, I hope this was fun and if not, blame Eric Wakeling for suggesting it. There many many people much much more informed about the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson than me. Some good books I’ve read include: “Wouldn’t It Be Nice (Brian Wilson and the Making of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds) by Charles Granata or “The Beach Boy Pet Sounds: (The Greatest Album of the Twentieth Century” by Kingsley Abbott, “Dennis Wilson: (The Real Beach Boy)” by Jon Stebbins and “Smile: (The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece)” by Dominic Priore. So that’s it, number one, over all my other all-time favorites: The Byrds, The Band, The Kinks and yes even The Beatles.