Beach Boys 'L.A.' vs Beatles 'Sgt Pepper'

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Rec. wisdom = 'BW lost it after hearing Sgt Pepper' but that's clearly not true because 'Friends' and 'Love You' were better than 'Pet Sounds' and 'Abbey Road'. MY theory = the song that sent him into spasms of hubristic inadequacy (sorry 4 clumsy phrase but what else do you call this? "Why are you depressed?" "Becuz - gurgle, sniff - I-I-I..." "What is it?" "Somebody else made the best album of all time! Snort snort sniff! 23 skidoo, bubble puppies!" Like, this presupposes a belief that making the b.a.o.a.t. is just something you're going to get around to sooner or later, which is somewhat idealistic in itself, but then to go off the deep end because you're GUILTY ABOUT NOT DOING IT!) was actually rilly the 1980 version of "Here Comes the Night", produced by Bruce Johnston and James William Guercio. This thing is a wonder to behold, the production sounds really complicated but that's an illusion produced by their neat parallel method of discofying vox re using them percussively (synthetic perc at that, ie consciously calibrated attack/decay parameters) in addition to the usual symphonically (those triplets at the end!) So BW probably heard this and THEN his dream of being the world's best pop producer went all "There's no basement in the Alamo!" scene from 'Pee Wee's Big Adventure'. Which was needless as maybe the pop thing was unnattainable (and the line "I know you're gonna love Phil Spector" from 'Love You' sounded creepy enough already, the way it's barely audible over the fade - fuck, I hope the latest Spector craziness hasn't sent BW over the edge for good - and if it hasn't, hopefully nobody is thoughtless enough to film a remake of 'Seconds' and release it the week PS goes to trial) but he did classic stuff in other fields like the aforementioned 'Friends' (inventing Air, if Air were the house band for the Satanic snuff-film cult mentioned in 'Atomised') and 'Love You' (inventing the post-pigfuck BBlack>Pixies>Pavement>Trux continuum) I also believe that most of his 'illness' has either been faked or exaggerated by himself or other people (probably for understandable reasons)

― dave q, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 12:09 (twenty-two years ago)

do i get to edit 'Mojo' now

― dave q, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 12:09 (twenty-two years ago)

'Here Comes the Night'is my favourite Beach Boys track,10minutes of disco heaven.I thought it was Curt Boettcher,not James Guercio who produced it.I wish Curt had done more disco material,he had a real flair for it.

― Paul R (paul R), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 14:13 (twenty-two years ago)

'Love you' isn't as good as 'Abbey Road'.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 14:18 (twenty-two years ago)

More fun to listen to though.

― frank p. jones (frank p. jones), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 15:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I wish Curt had done more disco material,he had a real flair for it.

He did. Check out California Music from Poptones. It's very similar to "Here Comes the Night."

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 17:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, I've never heard the L.A. version of the song. The Wild Honey version is a pretty decent little number. To tell you the truth, I can't bring myself to listen any BB album later than Love You.

― William R Henderson (Cabin Essence), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 17:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Best of the Beach Boys Vol 2 isn't as good as Help! (though it's much better than Sgt Pepper).

― Burr, Tuesday, 25 February 2003 18:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Thanks Teen Idol,I'll check it out.

― Paul R (paul R), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 22:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Love you is more fun than Abbey Road, yeah. It's adorable.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 00:19 (twenty-two years ago)

wow! who'd-a-thunk we'd be discussing Abbey Road vs Love You? Two albums recorded at the tail end of rival bands' careers and both adored by the hardcore fans. I'm having trouble deciding myself although I'm v tempted to say Love You.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 01:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Love You is one of my top 10 favorites.

It's so moving...it's like being half-asleep in front of the TV when you're 9 years old...I am in awe of what it took to come up with it. Yes, much more fun than any Beatles album.

― Jess Hill (jesshill), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 02:42 (twenty-two years ago)

When the Light Album was made, the Beach Boys were already pretty independent of Brian Wilson. Love You was sort of a last straw, at least for Mike and Al. Actually, Love You isn't even his most out there stuff, as most of the Adult Child tracks are as instable as any he ever produced.

Anyway, if wisdom says Brian "lost it" after hearing Sgt Pepper, I'd say wisdom was wrong, because he was headfirst into Smiley Smile before it was released.

― dleone (dleone), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 04:53 (twenty-two years ago)

You're right, whoever said Curt Boettcher. (I still think the idea of JW Guercio reminiscing w/ Dennis about the 'revolution' is funny though. For gods' sake hide the silverware! [At least the Scousers would only STEAL it, not cut up film actresses and write on the walls with it!])

― dave q, Wednesday, 26 February 2003 10:36 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

th difference between 'love you' and abbey road, ppper or nny beales record for that matter is hat it was made by a vulnerable, damaged person in pain. sure, brian had car, but--for all his beauty sand genius--he was no george martin.

it's like comparing the majesty of a special olympics triumph (altheltes no less gifted thn their less chalenged peers) with the (not special?) olympics). love you is fun to listen to for while, but-like chilton's sister lover's/3rd, anyone who really istens couldn't possibly think it eas fun to liste to someone struggling to keep the center from flling apart. sure, theyre are BW genius moments...but the subtext of informing most of BW's work on Love You is a brave struggle to create while battling childhood demons that tortured his sold and pinned part of it to that childlike innocence we so admire about brian's 'best' work.

and don't even get me started about phil spector--he was definately no genius--certainly not in brian's league, despite BW's insecurities); he was basicaly a guy with drive who knew he needed REAL talent to make somerthing great--at best he was a great when it came to bringing the right peope together and controlling the atmosphere in order to creat msic magic; my personal opinion is he ws more like a pimp, taking credit for the soaring sound characterized by arrangements HE DID NOT WRITE (jack nitzche did...and were are lack's'genius accolades? nope spector is probably the most over-rated darf in the history of ppular music--mostly because he was an egotistifal asshole who, as i said, pimped ronnie and jack out, gave little credit to his 'wall of sound' players (it was jack's wall of sound; hell, sonny bono probably did more work and contributed more crative ides than spector). Just look at how he raped let it be? for god sakes: spector was a dicttor and brian was an artist.

again as for comparing love you to abbey roda: well, it's pointless discussing something we can only feel when the poverty of our language to express such subtlities is so glaringly obvious.

you don't agree: that's cool. but i think you should listen more and tal less. advice i--admittedly--have just ignored and plan to take now.

ado or die, mark helm

― Mark Helm, Wednesday, 18 August 2004 22:45 (twenty-one years ago)

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