| December 21st would have been the 79th birthday of Carl Wilson, lead guitarist for The Beachboys. Carl was instrumental to the group’s early success with his backup harmonies and Chuck Berry influenced strumming. He later sang lead on the seminal Beachboys songs “God Only Knows” and “Good Vibrations”. After his older brother Brian left the group, Carl became the leader. Tragically, Carl died of cancer at the age of 51 but thankfully left us with many great memories. In honor of Carl, let’s explore a very interesting aspects of 1960s music: The synergistic relationship between The Beachboys and The Beatles. Most rock fans assume that the Rolling Stones were the Beatle’s chief competitor, but the Beatles identified their most significant competitor as The Beachboys. The California band became popular in the early sixties with upbeat surfing and car songs including “Surfin U.S.A.” and “Little Deuce Coupe”. The group combined Chuck Berry type rhythms with doo-wop harmonies. Meanwhile The Beatles were delighting Europeans with hits like “Please Please Me” and “Twist and Shout”. In 1964, The Beatles topped the U.S. charts with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and then triumphally appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.” They immediately caught Beachboys’ leader, Brian Wilson’s attention: “It was like a shock went through my system. I immediately knew that everything had changed.” Brian had already grown tired of The Beach Boys’ schtick and wanted to explore new frontiers. He brought in Phil Spector’s accomplished studio musicians and soon recorded the Beachboys’ first Number One hit “I Get Around.” It was Brian’s most ambitious composition yet with multi-layered arrangements and complex harmonies. Meanwhile, The Beatles began their evolution after a 1964 meeting with Bob Dylan in New York. Dylan’s influence can be seen in the 1964 “Beatles for Sale” album with songs like “I’m A Loser,” and “Every Little Thing”. When The Beatles released “Rubber Soul”, rock music was forever changed. Before “Rubber Soul”, albums typically contained many filler songs to help groups sell albums rather than singles. When Brian Wilson heard “Rubber Soul”, he observed the album “went together like no album ever made before”. Later, Brian remarked, “Rubber Soul is probably the greatest record ever,” “[It] came out in December of 1965 and sent me right to the piano bench” The song that resulted from Brian’s trip to his piano was “God Only Knows” which Paul McCartney later called his favorite song of all time. Five months later, “Pet Sounds” was released and included tracks such as ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ and the aforementioned “God Only Knows”. McCartney said, “Pet Sounds” blew me out of the water”. Within three months, The Beatles responded by releasing ‘Revolver’ ‘which featured sophisticated lyrics and classical string arrangements. McCartney admitted that Revolver’s “Here, There and Everywhere,” was directly inspired by “Pet Sounds”. Two months later, in October 1966, The Beachboys released Brian’s highly ambitious single “Good Vibrations.” It had taken an astounding seven months to produce the complex epic. The following Spring, the future of the Beachboys took a fateful turn. Brian was struggling to complete his group’s’ “Smile” album” when his mental health issues became intolerable. While driving under the influence of drugs, Brian heard the Beatle’s newly released ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ Brian thought ‘They did it already – what I wanted to do with “Smile”. He decided he couldn’t compete with ‘Strawberry Fields “and abandoned “Smile”. Brian never attempted anything that ambitious again. Meanwhile the Beatles were developing ‘Sgt. Pepper”, another Beatles concept album inspired by ‘Pet Sounds’. Beatles producer, George Martin, stated “I believe that without Brian Wilson’s inspiration, Sgt. Pepper might have been less of the phenomenon that it became. Brian is a living genius of pop music.” The Beatles continued their unprecedented run with “The White Album”. The opening song “Back in the USSR” is a friendly parody of the Beachboys’ “California Girls”. Beachboy’s lead singer, Mike Love gave Paul some input for the parody. Because of Brian Wilson’s debilitation, Love and his bandmates became the group’s composers. Unfortunately. they would never be able to replicate Brian’s brilliance. Fortunately, the music of both bands lives on. Wishing you Happy Holidays and Good Vibrations. I’ll be back blogging in January. Last chance to get online to buy a last minute Christmas gift that trivia lovers will relish. Check out www.tedcurtinstories.com for links to order “Get Smarter-Be Amazed”. |
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