LouieB

Not knocking the Beach Boys at all. I just think their accomplishments need to be put into perspective (as do Dylans and any other singer/songwriter/musician.) Most of Pet Sounds is great. There are a handful of masterpieces on it, there are some okay songs and there are a few dogs. I won't back down from my position that Pet Sounds is a great record, but flawed (Sloop John B has no place on the album and isn't brilliant in any fashion.) Back when I still made mix tapes, Wouldn't It Be Nice often went on the tape. I am also very fond of Carolina No and God Only Knows and I wasn't Made

Of all the things you said, I agree with them all (except that all the groups that are influenced by the Beach Boys are great and the ones influenced by Dylan are not, but I know just like everyone here including me you are speaking in hyperbole), but there simply is no way to take the bulk of the Beach Boys (Van Dyke Parks was not a Beach Boy really....Brian also had lyrical help on Pet Sounds from someone outside the group...) material and consider it lyrically equal to Bob Dylan. I have been listening to both my entire life and while the Beach Boys did fun, frothy, and great sounding songs,

I have seen Dreamscape many many times, both in the theater and on video. I got turned on to it by one of Beltman's hero's Pauline Kael when she reviewed it in the New Yorker. So Beltman...rush out and rent the thing, you won't be disappointed. It is cleverly written, genuinely scary, and thought provoking. Each dream sequence is clever and to the point. I have not seen it in a few years so maybe it sucked and my memory is faulty, but minute for minute is far more entertaining than Inception, which became ponderous and stupid and not not so entertaining after awhile. I am certainly not g

Apparently Surf's Up's lyrics were written by Van Dyke Parks, so Brian Wilson doesn't get credit for that. And once again you get no argument from me that Brian Wilson knew how to record stuff better than Bob Dylan, that's obvious. It's a good song. And there are plenty of Dylan inspired singers and writers that were great, including Lou Reed, Patti Smith, the Beatles, and nearly every singer songwriter you can think of including Van Morrison, Tom Waits, and a bunch of people we talka about here every day. Like a Rolling Stone isn't a love song. And despite the lo-fi quality, musicians

Fleet Foxes...(just kidding...half....) Even putting up God only knows next to Like a Rolling Stone doesn't cut it. GOD ONLY KNOWS (Beach Boys) I may not always love you But long as there are stars above you You never need to doubt it I'll make you so sure about it God only knows what I'd be without you If you should ever leave me Though life would still go on, believe me The world could show nothing to me So what good would livin' do me God only knows what I'd be without you God only knows what I'd be without you If you should ever leave me Though life would still go

Actually 90% of the the time when people are BBesque they suck too.... A few years back I listed the Beach Boys Greatest Hits. Put the content of those songs up against any one of the aforemented groups and you will see what I mean. Maybe singing about cars and girls and being at the beach is more important than the miserable crap that Dylan, Neil Young, later Beatles, the Rolling Stones (Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, etc, Van Morrison, etc.) put out, but the fact is, being miserable is what being an adult is about isn't it? I donno, I have been an adult for quite some time and what those guy

I donno.....there is Dylanesque, Beatlesque, etc. It is true that the Beach Boy sound is unique. I don't dispute that. But then so was Phil Spector's wall of sound etc. Part of what makes the Beach Boys distinctive are the actual voices; the guys in the group (a touch whinny), the reverb, and the harmony. I have been derided for this before, but in general, the Beach Boys are "kids music" whereas most of the other groups you mention (with the exception of early MJ and the very earliest Beatles) is far more adult in nature. Even the untouchable Pet Sounds deals with the trials and tribu

I saw this also this weekend. Not bad. Great special effects. Other than that.... For a better time with less expection on the same subject (and far cheezier effects) check out Dreamscape with Dennis Quaid, one of my all time favorite B movies. (Or rent The Heros of Telemark for more snow, skiing and blowing shit up....) LouieB

Actually I think that the Beach Boys were kind of the end of the line on some of this. They took the influences of the quartet singers, soul groups, gospel groups, doo-wop, early rock, including the girl groups and added fun and the sun. After them folks sang less harmony and played guitar a whole lot more. Pinnicale? Obviously!!! This is the reason Pet Sounds is important. But the Beach Boys didn't invent harmony singing. LouieB

Really sad... LouieB

There were many scores of doo-wop, gospel, country, quartet singers and all sorts of other groups before the Beach Boys ever showed up. I am not denigrating what Brian Wilson did, but he didn't invent harmony, that's all. What he DID do was package it in a way that seemed new. And he managed to sell millions of records. LouieB

I like Pet Sounds, even though I don't think it is flawless and I like the harmony and all the rest that is embodied on it, but frankly to say there is nothing else like it in popular music because the Beach Boys sing in harmony ignores a huge body of work by other types of groups that sang complex harmony. Even the Beach Boys did not create their music in a vacuum. LouieB

Sloop John B was a campfire favorite when I was growing up, so it isn't that I don't like it, I am merely sick of it. (See CSNY thread). I always thought it was funny that the Beach Boys, kings of the single, copped this song and made a ton of dough on it. It has absolutely no place on Pet Sounds and is a major flaw in the album because of this, in my humble opinion anyway. Your 5 year old loves it? Why not, it is a song about getting drunk and disorderly. LouieB

Not a big fan of Washington Square, but you are correct that it is better than the last couple. (Minus Townes which was after...) LouieB

I do believe this is an old "folk" song. The Beach Boys didn't write it. It was a big hit single for them though. It also sorta sucks; one of those cuts I could do with never ever hearing again. Sister Ray? Love it or hate it, it is a pretty crazy jam. LouieB

For those of us that do like him....the pre-incarceration albums are also great. LouieB

I think I was listening to this the other day too. LouieB

Really sorry to hear this. LouieB

Comments from anyone who actually saw more groups than I did? I liked Modest Mouse, thought LCD Soundsystem was pretty good for a group without a single original idea and Pavement was fun for what I saw of them (I was helping pack up the LPS during the second half), but thought the crowd was fairly unenthusiasic considering everything (LCD's audience was more alive). The whole fest was a hot, sticky mess, with one downpour. There were alot more bathrooms this time out and no problem getting food and drink. Since I spent most of the time im the merch tent I didn't see all that much, but ha

I think The Mountain is a really weak album in the Earle catalogue. It isn't bad, but it isn't his best either. Needless to say, the Del McCoury band is great all by itself. Apparently after all was said and done the two groups didn't really get along that well. I would agree with those who say that Washington Square isn't so great. I enjoy Townes though, but then again how do you screw up that kind of material. LouieB

Start with the earlier albums. They are all good. Jeff appears on one of them playing guitar. LouieB

LouieB

Wilco can't release a new album fast enough...on their new label of course... (Strangely 17 year old Jayson is missing in action...) LouieB

Back left...and I am a righty. LouieB

That would be me I think...then again I don't think you have read the thread..... Both albums are great, they were great when they were released 40 years ago. Chances are you weren't even alive then or if you were you were a mere child. I have played both albums until they were worn out and have heard many of the songs on the radio in the intervening years. It isn't that they aren't good, there is just a point when one no longer needs to hear such things. If you dig them, that is fine. Oh and actually Neil Young penned Ohio, CSN, they just sang it. And Ohio itself continues to be meani