50 years of Pet Sounds
There was much talk about Pet Sounds last week. The landmark album by the Beach Boys is now 50 years old and Brian Wilson, the then 24- year- old genius who created it, was releasing a new edition and taking the classic songs on the road again. Pet Sounds is now considered one of the most influential albums of all time but it flopped with a mighty sound heard around the world when it was released on May 16, 1966.
Maybe it was because fans were not ready yet to relinquish the Beach Boy image of surfing, cars, girls and the sunny California sound in favor of serious stuff in the first rock concept album ever heard. It was not fun, fun, fun anymore. In fact, with some songs, it was more of a pained meditation.
Maybe Pet Sounds did tax the listening capacity of fans with its sophisticated arrangements, elaborate harmonies and wall of sound mix. Like what were choirs doing in a Beach Boy album? Or bells? A uke? What was Wilson thinking? But no matter. Pet
Sounds, produced and largely performed by Wilson to the chagrin of the rest of the Beach Boys, has now been gloriously vindicated.
For one, it was finally honored with a Gold Record Award 30 years after its release in 1996. Yes. It took that long. Then it was named by Rolling Stone Magazine as the second greatest album of all time. Voted as the greatest was the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. And best of all, Pet Sounds is now preserved in the National Recording Registry by the US Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”
Pet Sounds is made up of the following cuts: Wouldn’t It Be Nice, You Still Believe In Me, That’s Not Me, Don’t Talk ( Put Your Head On My Shoulder), I’m Waiting For The Day, Let’s Go Away For A While, Sloop John B, I Know There’s An Answer, Here Today, I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times, Pet Sounds, Caroline No and the gorgeous love song, God OnIy Knows.
The Beach Boys then was made up of the brothers Wilson, Brian, Carl and Dennis, Mike Love and Al Jardine. Dennis, the true surfer boy of the group, drowned in California in 1983 when he was 39 years old. Carl, the lead guitarist, died of lung cancer in 1998 when he was 52. Mike Love remains active as a Beach Boy and still constantly at odds with Brian. It was Brian’s experiments with Pet
Sounds that initially caused their rift. Al, joined by his son Mark, is part of Brian’s touring and recording group.
But what do you know, alongside that bit of news about Pet Sounds came another one. Blonde On Blonde, the also landmark album by Bob Dylan, the greatest American songwriter of the pop era, was also released in 1966 and is now 50 years old. The very first double album in rock music history includes
the classic tunes Just Like A Woman and Visions Of Joanna. It completed Dylan’s now legendary trilogy of rock albums. Released earlier were Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited. Not only that. It turned out that 1966 was such a great year for popular music as an outstanding crop of young talents churned out one great collection after another. Some of those which I am sure generations will continue to listen to forever are:
Revolver by The Beatles; Aftermath by The Rolling Stones; Sounds Of Silence by Simon
& Garfunkle; River Deep Mountain High by Ike and
Tina Turner; Boots by Nancy Sinatra; Up Tight Everything’s Alright by Stevie Wonder; If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears by The Mamas & Papas; The Monkees by The Monkees; What Now My Love by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass; and And Then…. Along Comes The Association.
It was also in 1966 when lovelorn souls made Somewhere My Love with its balalaika accompaniment from the epic romance Dr. Zhivago their personal theme song. It was when the great Frank Sinatra received his very first Gold Record Award. Note that this did not mean that Sinatra made no big hits before. It was just that no Gold Records were being given out during Sinatra’s early years. This was for the song Strangers In The Night that was used in the movie A Man Could Get Killed starring James Garner and Sandra Dee. And as 1966 neared its end there came Ennio Morricone’s Theme From The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. It was a new sound that introduced the Spaghetti Western and an exciting star in Clint Eastwood.