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Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

You need to "defend" the Beatles because they are only "well liked" all over the world?

What are you hoping for, universal adjulation?

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

You need to "defend" the Beatles because they are only "well liked" all over the world?

What are you hoping for, universal adjulation?

I was not defending the Beatles. I was stating my opinion and sorry you might not agree to it. But your other poster said that others have had a similiar opinion of the Beatles. Is it really that suprising to you that many people feel the Beatles were maybe a bit tad more influential or well liked than the Beach Boys. Not knocking the Beach Boys but those are the facts. I am not one of those fans who think everything the Beatles was great.

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

I was referring to similar posts, not people with similar opinions. There's plenty of people here who are big fans of the Beatles, and although I'm personally not one of them, I don't have any problem with that. (Obviously)

However, there have been some posters here in the past who tried to claim that The Beatles invented genres, etc., which I do have a problem with. And when you came in with a comment like "The Beatles were doing X in the year 1920, way before everyone else!" I sorta thought you were on of those people under a new nickname. My apologies for this assumption.

Now, lets get back to Pet Sounds shall we? I loved that SMiLE version by Purple Chicks by the way Loophole. I replaced a few songs with the better versions I have and it makes for a killer album. :)

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

Neo, I did the same thing.

Used Purple Chick as the base, moved some of the songs around to a more vinyl-friendly order (i.e., two 22-minute sides), replaced a few with DJ Mic Luv, and took that great version of Surf's Up from the "Millennium" edition (not the band Millennium), and voila, a great version of SMiLE. If it were eligible I would put it in my top 20 albums...

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

IMHO, there's no other Pet Sounds, no other album comes anywhere near it.

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

I like this topic : Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Zombies, The Millennium, Harry Nilsson, The Left Banke, The Moody Blues,... The best of '60s pop, some of my favourite artists ever.

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

Neo, I forgot to mention the Mok version of SMiLE. That one is also worth checking out.

Dumbangel, throw a few more names out there....

Maybe it will help Jo's quest.

(And don't forget about the Kinks. I'd put Waterloo Sunset in the same category).

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

Is "Nilsson Schmilsson" a good staring point for someone who is unfamiliar with his work (ie. yours truly)?

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

Sagittarius, HP Lovecraft, Nirvana (not the band of the '90s, the one from the '60), Harmony Grass, Aerovons, The Association, Nick Garrie, Harper's Bizarre, Van Dyke Parks, The Yellow Balloon, J.K.& Co, Montage, The Monkees, Sandy Salisbury, The Free Design, Roger Nichols & The Small Circles of Friends.
That's what I know, but you can go further by searching with allmusicguide or RYM.
And don't forget to listen to "Sunflower" and "Surf's up", the two overlooked masterpieces the Beach Boys have released in the early '70s. Better than "Pet sounds" and better than "Smile" in my humble opinion.

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

Anthony, if you want some great songwriting and beautiful harmony-pop of Harry Nilsson in the way the Beatles or The Beach Boys do, I would recommand to you "Aerial ballet", "Pandemonium shadow show" and "Harry" more than "Nilsson Schmilsson" which is (excepted the two great ballads "Without you" and "The moonbeam song") rawer and more rock sounding.

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

Great! Thanks for the recommendations Dumbangel.

Some other albums to add to the list:

The Hollies – Evolution ("Carrie Anne" is a great pop song.)
The Hollies – Butterfly
The Monkeys – Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

Yes The Hollies ! A very good band who could have been greater if they had written their own songs. I like "Carie Ann" a lot. "Bus stop" is a great track too. And do you know "The air that I breathe", a beautiful ballad from their '70s period ?

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

The Hollies! There's a band I didn't think would be discussed here too often. The Hollies are the band that got me onto Bob Dylan, The Stones, basically everything. I got a Hollies greatest hits album one day, I don't even remember from who, but I listened to it and thought it was great. I then explored some other similar artist which indeed led me to The Beach Boys which led me to the Beatles who led me to Bob Dylan. The rest is, as they say, history. So they have a special place in my music history, although I don't have an album or a song by them in my ranking.

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

The songs on "Butterfly" and "Evolution”" were written by the group, weren’t they?

Haven’t heard the song "Bus Stop" (it seems I need to further investigate their non-album singles.)

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

The Hollies were a great pop-rock band great vocals and a very underrated drummer.
Without them no Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young either.

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

Anthony, You might find this interesting (if you don't know about it already). It's about the connection between The Hollies and Radiohead. The first part of The Hollies version of "The Air That I Breathe" sounds A LOT like Radiohead: Radiohead Heart the Hollies?

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

Embarassingly, in my internet travels, I've never stumbled across that before. Thanks Loophole.

I'll check it out when I get home from work (which is in about, oh, an hour.)

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

So it looks like we can get from the Beach Boys to Radiohead in only two steps.

Beach Boys to Hollies to Radiohead.

There's got to be some kind of game in there.... Six degrees of Graham Nash, anyone?

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

Wow, there's loads of things to check out now, and some interesting points. Thankyou to everyone.

I much prefer the original SMiLE recordings too. My favourite one is far from the best version, but it was the first I listened to so it's now what I think of as the album.

For the person being defensive about the Beatles, don't worry. There's no presumption here that any of these albums are particularly influenced by Pet Sounds more than anything else, or necessarily sound the same, just that they have similar qualities, such as the production and the use of vocal harmonies.

With regards to baroque, I meant that as a difference between the Zombies and Beach Boys, I personally don't relate Pet Sounds with baroque music other than the use of counterpoint, whereas O&O sounds quite baroque. I see the label more commonly applied to artists such as the Doors and Scott Walker, with their solemn baritones.

Now to get listening!

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

Jo, can you give me an example of what you mean by "counterpoint" on Pet Sounds? I'm a big fan of music, but I don't play any instruments, and I've never been in a band or anything. But I'm fascinated by the construction of music.

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

Emitt Rhodes - Emitt Rhodes
Sagittarius - Present Tense
Roger Nichols & The Small Circle of Friends

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

Well, ain't that just a coincidence...

I picked up the first Emitt Rhodes album yesterday after reading a well-written blog entry about it; up until then, I'd never even heard of the guy. They say it's the best album Paul McCartney never made, and it sounds about right. I was hooked after the first song.

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

I think Pet Sounds is unique. No other album (even any other Beach Boys album) sound like it and that's probably why it's AM #1.
The sound, the production are incredible.
None of my very favorite songs are in Pet Sounds (in fact God Only Knows and Sloop John B are respectively #265 and 277 in my top 300), maybe because when listening to them they sound like fish out of their aquarium.
But they managed to create a musical universe of their own.
"Rock Bottom" by Robert Wyatt has nothing to do musically with Pet Sounds, but it is also a cohesive and a successful attmpt to make a different sot of music.

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

ChrisF,

With regards to counterpoint,

A lot of modern songs are composed with thought to the harmony (notes played at the same time, such as in a chords played in a song), and the melody, the line of single notes that you'll be whistling after hearing a catchy song.

Counterpoint on the other hand is where two or independent melodies are played at the same time. You still have harmony when the notes from the different melodies are heard at the same time, but you can distinctly hear the different melodies moving independently, and they would be written separately.

The interlude or the ending section of God Only Knows is an example.

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

That should be 'two or more'.

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

Emitt Rhodes a great pop artist. Just listen to "somebody made for me", it's a instant classic.

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

I read this about Rhodes on a website:

"He got sucked in and spat out by signing a cockamamie record deal with ABC/Dunhill that stated he had to put out two records per year. This was ridiculous because the debut took nine months to make. By 23 the industry burned him out."

I guess Music's fun until it becomes your job.

Re: Can any AMer who loves Pet Sounds...

That's too bad - he was a true talent. His debut is still on heavy rotation on my iPod ("With My Face on the Floor" had a catchy stop-start rhythm that I can't get enough of.)