Dude...if Brian Wilson called me I'd never get rid of that phone. Being totally serious. I'm beyond jealous.
The Week the Music Died... Brian Wilson gone at 82
- Thread starter pourcyne
- Start date
Dude...if Brian Wilson called me I'd never get rid of that phone. Being totally serious. I'm beyond jealous.
I'm not sure how much $ my friend had to donate to the charity for it. When I saw this news I just called him joking about my "stolen valor" of taking all the reward for his charity.
I think about this a lot too. I'm a fanatic of british music, both british invasion and new wave...and even britpop a little. But it is kind of crazy when you say "BAND" how much it favors them over Americans. There are even some like Fleetwood Mac and the Pretenders where it's a blend of American/British. Also leave out the bands where it's a super heavy front man vehicle like Springsteen or Tom Petty.
A few I always think of flavored heavily by my own tastes:
The Beach Boys
REM
The Pixies
The Talking Heads
RHCP
Blondie
GNR
Yeah I know I left off some legendary ones like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Metallica and The Eagles but that's a few of mine haha. Years ago I'd have put The Doors up there but lately I just like them more than being a fanatic about them, less appeal as i get older.
In terms of chart success and sales I'm sure it is those. I know The Eagles had some absurd sales for a while.
My list is more who I like artistically (but had some chart/sales success) and who I still love listening to after many decades as if it still sounds new. I've gone through phases of liking all those and the Doors but just kind of "over" them personally other than the Beach Boys where Pet Sounds and some other singles still blow me away as if it's from another planet. I wouldn't be surprised if RHCP is closer to those you listed than people think, they have had a ton of sales and tours for a looooong time now and are massive internationally. They're also very uniquely American for a rock band imho drawing more from funk than copying british bands.
Funny how the Doors, the outwardly "profound" ones, get less and less interesting by the year.
Meanwhile the Beach Boys... yeah those blonde guys singing songs about cars and girls and surfing and California you know teenager stuff... keep becoming more and more interesting.
I've probably listened to Pet Sounds more than any other album throughout my life.
I'm talking 50+ times.
I still pick up new things every time I put it on.
SATFS came to my mind, too. Maybe it's natural to think of that more readily with Sly's death so recent.
I was thinking of how it could be defined.
The categories you listed seem worthy of being in the mix.
Top-of-head ideas I had - some overlap with yours:
Longevity ... sustained output, no real definition of "number of years"
Influence/impact ... how it has affected the direction of music style and its inspiration for other musicians.
Popularity (sales/hits/width of "reach")
Endurance ... kind of a combo of the first 3; has the music maintained it's appeal for an extended period?
Some of that is vague/subjective, not easy to quantify.
Again, I'm sort of thinking aloud (digitally).
I see that album mentioned a lot but I guess I just don't see the massive appeal. I tried listening to it Sunday and got bored but I know I'm in the minority.
I’m sure some of it is because the Beatles and lots of others started using a lot of the grand production of Per Sounds almost immediately after. Also it’s about as far from guitar rock as anything can be and still maybe be “rock” so that’s not for many. Most of the band wasn’t into it as they recorded per everything I’ve ever read or heard.
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A few others I haven't seen mentioned...
Steely Dan -- precise musicianship, blurred the lines between rock and jazz, released plenty of strong albums, but not much of a live group and could easily be accused of pretentiousness
Southern rock bands like the Allman Brothers or Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Punk bands... Black Flag, the Ramones, The Clash, Green Day, etc.
I'm still sticking with the Beach Boys, though CCR is probably the strongest challenger I've ever heard. Both have the "problem" of having one main guy (Brian with the BBs, John Fogerty with CCR) who did most of the heavy lifting during their classic era though the other BBs did bring some talent to the table.
CCR was essentially Fogerty's backing group during their brief heyday.
Steely Dan -- precise musicianship, blurred the lines between rock and jazz, released plenty of strong albums, but not much of a live group and could easily be accused of pretentiousness
Southern rock bands like the Allman Brothers or Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Punk bands... Black Flag, the Ramones, The Clash, Green Day, etc.
I'm still sticking with the Beach Boys, though CCR is probably the strongest challenger I've ever heard. Both have the "problem" of having one main guy (Brian with the BBs, John Fogerty with CCR) who did most of the heavy lifting during their classic era though the other BBs did bring some talent to the table.
CCR was essentially Fogerty's backing group during their brief heyday.
Only one criticism of Pet Sounds has ever really landed for me -- the scoring of the orchestral backgrounds sounds very much like something out of Old Hollywood and not what we're used to hearing post-1970 both in pop music and film scores. Way more Max Steiner than John Williams or Hans Zimmer. You sometimes "feel" the same effect even watching the best films of the 1950s and into the late 1960s.
It takes a few tries until its idiosyncratic brilliance really sinks into you.
There are a small number of albums out there standing outside time and place and genre for me. They're not even rock albums. I could make a longer list but albums like these ones...
Pet Sounds
Music from Big Pink and The Band
Thriller
******* Brew
...came to mind. Even the best Beatles albums sound like 60s rock albums (with the possible exception of The Beatles with its genre experimentation... Sgt. Pepper's is the most hippy thing ever).
Compare this notion to great *RAWK* albums... three or four chords and turning it up to 11 like Machine Head or Sticky Fingers or Master of Puppets or so many others out there.
It's just a different sort of appeal.
This is great point of sound of the orchestra in pet sounds vs those instruments in some of the highly produced rock and pop that followed it with orchestra sounds.
I like it, but I can see how it could sound slightly corny.
Sometimes it takes.a while to sink in. At least that's been my experience.
Pet Sounds and Music from Big Pink are both giant albums (of American music) in my book.
God Only Knows has been thrown around a bunch this week with regard to the greatest song ever written. It has a really strong argument for sure. That said, I've always argued Wouldn't It Be Nice is actually the greatest song ever written (and certainly greatest ever recorded..). Nothing remotely sounds like it, at that point and since. The hard snare hit to open after the intro is beyond iconic, and to write a song about the simplicity of wanting to not have to say goodbye at night to the person you love...so simple and yet presented in a way that nobody has before or since. Harmonies that literally sound like they are from God himself... Its just genius.
So to have two songs on the same album with legit consideration for greatest song ever recorded is more wild than I have words for.
So to have two songs on the same album with legit consideration for greatest song ever recorded is more wild than I have words for.
