I kept comparing them to the Beatles, who seemed to have much more control over their presentation. They didn’t change the words to their songs to be in commercials. They didn’t repackage their music to death. They didn’t wear striped shirts and tie themselves to things such as surfing and cars. They didn’t hang out with John Stamos. It seemed the Beach Boys had no shame and nothing was too cheesy to cash in on. I was judging a book by its cover and it wasn’t fair. Most artists I love from the 60s had a rough 80s (and sometimes 90s) and most of them didn’t have a Brian Epstein to keep them in check. We don’t know how some bands would have carried themselves when they were older had they never broken up. What does that have to do with the music anyways?
Elvis Presley is another one I didn’t have much respect for back then. That was mainly because he didn’t write any songs. I didn’t see how someone who just sang other people’s work could be all that important. I still struggle with that today with those singing competitions on TV where, in my opinion, everyone sounds somewhat similar as they work to put as much emotion into the songs as possible. I bring this up because I saw Andy Kaufmann do an impression of Elvis where he sang “I Beg of You.” I really enjoyed the song. I went to my parents record collection to see if they had it and found it on a four-album set called Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits, Vol. 1. When listening to the songs one after another, I was very impressed. It was the first time I was truly listening to these songs as opposed to just hearing them in the background or on the radio. This would happen to me again with the Beach Boys and many other acts I originally dismissed for ignorant or superficial reasons.
Something was happening when my senior year of high school started in the fall of 1997. Suddenly the Beach Boys were being talked about everywhere. VH-1 ran a special on this album called Pet Sounds which was supposedly the greatest thing ever made. They were being spoken of in the most glowing terms possible by people like Paul McCartney, Elton John, Tom Petty, and Lindsey Buckingham. Their leader, Brian Wilson, who was pretty much MIA for a couple decades, was apparently this incredible genius. Are we talking about the same band here? Surfing songs? School spirit? If they were so great, what happened to them? What happened to Brian? I took to the Internet. I somehow found a guy who appreciated my interest and told me he’d send me a cassette of Pet Sounds. He thought I should hear the new stereo mix that was just released on a box set dedicated to the making of the album.
I don’t remember the guy's name, but he sent me the most important cassette I ever got. It was Thanksgiving break, so November 1997, and we were about to drive to Buffalo, NY for my cousin's wedding. I put the tape in, hit play, and laid on my bed. The bouncing guitars of “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” was followed by the bang of Hal Blaine’s drum. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we were older, then we wouldn’t have to wait so long / And wouldn’t it be nice to live together in the kind of world where we belong.” I jumped off the bed and stood there. I was beaming. As they were singing those lines, these accordions were blasting away and this awesome bass line played by Carol Kaye was demanding your attention. Then those classic Beach Boys harmonies kick in. It was sensory overload. This was one of the greatest things I’ve ever heard.
The guy who made me the cassette didn’t just give me the 13-track album; he included some of the sessions from the box set too. I was listening to Brian conduct the musicians through “Sloop John B” and other songs, as well as hearing the backing tracks sans vocals. That alone gave me a whole new appreciation for the work and passion that went into the creation of these songs. Brian taught me to listen more closely to music, especially what was going on underneath the vocals. I went back and started digging into the Beatles catalog and all the music I thought I knew. I was hearing things I never noticed before. Very exciting things. I can’t describe them technically, but you know how they make you feel. It was like everything was new and there was so much to explore. Brian once said, “When you listen to Pet Sounds, use earphones in the dark and you can hear everything.” That is much easier to do with the clarity of the wonderful stereo mix. I started listening to music with headphones all the time and it opened up a new world; making you feel closer to these great creations in more ways than one.
This wraps up part one of my story of becoming a Beach Boys fan.
I will write part two at some point in the near future, but I want to get to some other posts first.
