Beach Pet's

I know I been a little slow on certain artists on this blog. It's not that I don't like them, but It's hard to talk about them with people. They either love them or hate them and if they love them they know so much about them and can actually write a biography about them if you give them time. Their knowledge is great and wish I could retrieve facts such as that about these artists. I also like these artist they like, but I still feel a little apprehensive about talking about them because I know I will get a fact wrong or a story from their past wrong.

The band that always is has a long and interesting history is the Beach Boys. They were my fathers favorite band growing up. He was out of High School by the time they got popular, but he told me he religiously would buy their singles and their albums. He lived in the east all his life, but he loved the fact that the Beach Boys talked about carefree things and loved talking about what the life of a young adult was in California. He liked that the songs had a mini story to each of them and most of he liked that they had a song about his car he drove. "409" is about a a 1962 Impala 409. The car is a marvel. My dad bought this car new and added a few touches and the car would fly down the major and minor roads where he was brought up. This car had the quickness like no other. My father even told me he beat a 57 Chevy with a Corvette motor in it. Those are the stories of legend.



The music of the Beach Boys told those kind of stories too. They talked about the Beach, Surfin, girls and cars. These stories were fun and quite unique but they were wonderful little three minute ditties. I could talk about the friendly little war between Brian Wilson and the Beatles, but that is what the internet and good history is for. I want to talk about my experience with the Beach Boys. My experience was going through my fathers albums. I had no prior knowledge about them for a while. I wanted to hear them, but my dad would only play the hits. I was not sure if I liked it or not. I liked what I heard, but I wanted to hear and know more. I asked my father and he only knew about the albums that were full of the surf sound. He had one from 1967 called Wild Honey and he did not like it at all. It had no focus he said and it was just odd.

I took my chances with that and decided to explore some more. I went after most of that music from that era and really liked it. It was not about their early stuff it was more about the time that they were in. It gave some moments of greatness, but it also showed their maturity as a band. One day I went to my local record store and saw a Beach Boys album neither my father or I had in our collections. It was called Pet Sounds. The story of Pet Sounds was clear and the lore about it was great. The guy at the record store did a great job educating a young and naive kid such as myself about the history of the album. I decided to pick it up. It was a near mint mono mix and I grabbed it without really know much about it. Yea, that my sound odd to you, but I was a 17 year old kid who knew nothing except what his father had in his collection. When I got home I put it on the turntable and was so involved with this album. The music was fresh and wonderful. I loved every song from start to finish. Why was this not talked about before? Why was this album not even in my father's collection?



The music was more then a welcome addition to the growing collection of mine. It showed a few things in my collection. One thing it showed I can listen to just more then King Crimson and the Beatles. It showed that there is great music out there still to be heard. The music was wonderful and really fresh to my ears. After a few listens I put the album away and bought the CD. The CD had great notes on the history of it and helped with great understanding to the learned person such as myself why this album I was holding is one of the best ever.

Massively influential upon its release (although it was a relatively low seller compared to their previous LPs), it immediately vaunted the band into the top level of rock innovators among the intelligentsia, especially in Britain, where it was a much bigger hit. (AM) That describes it well. To me it was an album that opened my eyes to so much more. I am glad that I actually got a chance to hear this for myself without someone going totally nuts over it and hounding me how great this album is in the history of Rock and Roll. I know it's great and when I first heard it I can see why. The album is wonderfully fresh and to new ears it will be something they will remember for a long time. The music is timeless and for that it should be in everyone's collection. If you own it, play it again. If you don't, get it and hear why this album is the one. Classic in every sense. Enjoy!!

Wouldn't it be nice if we were older
Then we wouldn't have to wait so long
And wouldn't it be nice to live together
In the kind of world where we belong

You know its gonna make it that much better
When we can say goodnight and stay together

Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up
In the morning when the day is new
And after having spent the day together
Hold each other close the whole night through

The happy times together we've been spending
I wish that every kiss was never ending
Oh Wouldn't it be nice