TheCunningStunt

I already admitted Pet Sounds had more complex arrangements, but as far as Pop records go you don't get much better than Help!

Then again, I've never been that into the Beach Boys and The Beatles are my favourite group. That said, I put fanboyism aside because there's nothing more annoying than a Radiohead fan that wants to talk about how groundbreaking Radiohead are all the time, and no one wants to hear a Beatles fan boy talk about how they invented music all the time. But I think one of The Beatles' least respected albums in Help! is better than one of The Beach Boys' most respected album in Pet Sounds. The songwriting was great, it got better. But as far as Pop Songs go, the chord progressions etc. you don't get much better than Help!

But I guess this could also belong in the Unpopular Musical Opinions thread..



It really is criminal how underrated an album it is, I have a lot of love for Help!

__________________

Last FM

almauro

Fair enough, but the Beach Boys Today, Friends and Sunflower are underrated as well. Also artists like Pete Townsend and Robbie Robertson give Smiley Smile a lot of love, too.

__________________
rock n music blog

bpn

Yes, definitely one of my favorites of theirs.

telepicker

that's quite the opposite for me; I'll listen to Pet Sounds and Smiley-Smile, and that's about all of that lightweight, pretentious, overblown, pasty California dreck that I can stomach.

Saccharine only tastes sweet at first.

There's just no MEAT in much of what the BBs did.

Whereas a song like Yer Blues is HEAVY.

Janszoon

I'm fascinated by the use of the word "pretentious" in reference to the Beach Boys since they're about the furthest thing from pretentious I can think of, unlike the Beatles.

And "Yer Blues"? Seriously? That song is awful.

__________________
A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

telepicker

really?

Brian Wilson conitnuoisly writing songs about the surfer life when he had never surfed a day in his life isn't pretentious?

It just seems like the only true worth they ever had was from '66-'69. Nothing the did, either before/after or as group/solo has any real resonance to me.

It's like they churned out product - ESPECIALLY in the 70's. Like, have you ever listened to L.A?

Absolutely terrible.


I guess you've never been there before.

Good for you.

Some of us don't have a "happy-go-lucky, Mr. California in his Little Deuce Coupe, cruising the strip with his Little Surfer Girl named Babara Ann who he hops to get In His Room so he can show her his Good Vibrations before he has to Get Around to hitting the Surf's Up tomorrow" kind of life.

And if you think it's a "terrible" song, then have obviously never heard the version from Rock and Roll Circus, with John on guitar and vocals, Clapton on lead guitar, Keith Richards on bass, and Mitch Mitchell on drums.

But you probably don't like any of those guys, either.

See...the worst crime in music, to me, is making it boring, safe and predictable.

If music makes me feel NOTHING, it's worse than revolting. It's bland, trite, teenybopper bull****.

The Beach Boys, on the average, were boring, safe, and predictable.

The Beatles, at their WORST, were interesting, unpredictable, and capable of anything.

Not to mention that all 4 Beatles were badassed at their instruments, whereas the Beach Boys couldn't even really play - all their record's are filled with studio cats like Hal Blaine on drums - all their concerts had touring musicians covering their parts live.

I can't believe it's even a question.

The Beach Boys were a pop band - churning out light, safe, predictable teenybopper trite.

The Beatles were musicians who expanded the art of the Musical landscape, changing "rock n' roll" into Rock Music.

Duh.

Janszoon

So you have to surf to write songs about surfing? Odd. Are you also upset that the Beatles never lived in a yellow submarine?

I would say that the fact that the Beach Boys were unabashed pop musicians makes them, if nothing else, unpretentious.

I love their early stuff as well as the era you're talking about but I do agree that they started sucking later on.


Yes, I only like cheery pop music, that's why I'm such a big Swans fan.

You're right, I've never heard it. I like Richards and Mitchell, don't like Lennon and Clapton, so I guess there is about a 50/50 chance of me liking that version.


The Beatles were a pop band - churning out light, safe, predictable teenybopper tripe that had pretenses of being edgy. Duh.

__________________
A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

James

The Beach Boys didn't write Barbara Ann
*smartarse comment of the day*

TheCunningStunt

Shut up Janszoom, I know you enjoy The Beatles music really. You just don't enjoy it as much as you could because you find the fans annoying pretentious c*nts.

But after reading telepicker's comments, I can see why Beatles fans are loathed. I'm with him in the sense that The Beatles were the first group that started churning out interesting music, other's think there were other groups around that time who get less credit who were producing equally interesting music, if not more so I can see both sides.

__________________

Last FM

Janszoon

LOL, I really don't. But you're right that I'd probably be less adamant about my dislike for them if their fans didn't constantly insist they were the best band ever in the history of music.

I'm glad to hear you can see both sides, but seriously whether you love the Beatles or hate them I don't see how you can honestly argue that they were the "first group that started churning out interesting music".

__________________
A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm