VEGANGELICA

Discussing which band's music was more complex would be a good way for me to learn more about their songs.

First, we'd have to agree on a method for judging musical complexity if this is to be a meaningful debate. I measure complexity in songs by looking at the conceptual depth and originality in the lyrics, and at the number of different musical techniques used.

I haven't done this analysis for all Beach Boys' and Beatles' songs, only those I've heard, yet based on those I conclude that the Beatles' music overall *is* more complex than the Beach Boys' music (but I still prefer the body of music created by the Beach Boys).

Perhaps we can have a "complexity" song-off to decide which band's music is more complex: one person gives an example of a Beatles' song that has certain complex qualities, and then someone offers up a Beach Boys' song that offers the same. Then vice versa.

For example, The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby," like many of the Beatles' songs, does not revolve around the topic of simple romantic love and has instead a broader concept behind it, in this case a commentary on the loneliness and separateness in human lives. The lyrics use a combination of metaphor ("Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door") and descriptive, concrete examples of aloneness ("Look at him working, darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there") to build the song's meaning.

Finally, like some other songs by The Beatles', "Eleanor Rigby" uses the compositional technique of counterpoint, where the main tune and the cello play distinct, different melodies, to add musical depth to the music:


Eleanor Rigby- The Beatles - YouTube

The question I have is this: what is a Beach Boys' song that uses a more complex musical technique than just creating a melody with harmony, and does not involve the idea of romantic love in the song? If there is such a song, then The Beach Boys and The Beatles would each get 1 point and would be tied in the "complexity song-off."

Then we would just continue on, matching song to song, until we run out of songs! The band that fails to offer up an equivalent match would be the the one whose music overall is less complex.

^ This is my idea of great fun. I'd do it if I had unlimited time.

"Don't Talk (Put Your Head on my Shoulder)" doesn't sound at all complex to me, being about romantic love like almost all other songs pop artists write, and using (as far as I can tell) only a basic melody and some harmony, without any complex compositional techniques or unpredictable chord progression.

Like the person above said, whether one gets hit emotionally by a song is a very personal reaction and a song's emotional power can't be analyzed like "complexity" can.

All I know is that The Beatles' "Girl" does nothing for me emotionally, Il Duce, and rather annoys me, especially when Lennon with his thin little chilly and whiny voice says, "And I think of all the times I've tried so hard to leave her, and she will turn to me and start to cry," then goes on to describe the ways she humiliates him. (Maybe that's why you like it! ) I want to tell him, "Just leave her and be done with it!"

I do, however, like the Greek musical influences in "Girl." And apparently the concept behind the song is that it was a jab at Christianity and the way belief in Christianity makes people suffer.

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