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aprusso View Drop Down
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Points: 312 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Are the Beach Boys prog?
    Posted: February 24 2006 at 11:50
... probably not. Even though all the records from Pet Sounds (1966) to Holland (1974) are much more experimental of many other mainstream bands in their age. And in any case, I absolutely fell in love with the Beach Boys and co. some years ago, and it didn't go away. And it is a cheerful addition to my otherwise "heavy" musical tastes. After listening to Pawn Hearts, Larks' Tongues in Aspic or Animals, you do want to have your share of Good Vibrations. The personal history of the band and of the leader Brian Wilson in particular is the greatest unwritten American novel. The musical talent of Brian is above any other musician I know (maybe except Zappa?) and his sweet madness is beyond belief. I have seen three times Brian Wilson live since then, and I loved every single second of it. The last time in Barcelona he played the whole "The Beach Boys Today!" album, 1965. The El Pais newspaper wrote a fantastic review: (brian) was in barcelona, but he had the voice somewhere at the Balears islands, the gaze in America, and the thoughts lost somewhere in the middle of the galaxy....
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Points: 295 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2006 at 11:59

There is more going on in the 2 and 1/2 minutes of Good Vibrations than in most 25 minute songs.

I've never been a Beach Boys fan but I do agree that Brian Wilson is a musical genius.

 
“Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.”

~Jack Kerouac
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Points: 613 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2006 at 12:09

in a word,

NO

I think that if the beach boys go on here the site will loose all credibility



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Points: 1864 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2006 at 12:10
Proto-Prog, _perhaps_.

Perhaps.

Probably not, though.
Pure Brilliance:
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Points: 3118 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2006 at 13:24
NO WAY
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Points: 16130 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2006 at 13:31

Not really no, but they did inovate. I've grown to respect them more with age.

Pet Sounds and Smiley Smile are pretty good albums. Good Vibrations is kind of proto prog and IMO one of their best songs. I also really like Heroes and Villains & Vegetables. The latter was the only incidence, I'm aware of' where the crunching of raw vegetables made up part of the rhythm section..

Interestingly one of the reasons Bruford left Yes, was that he wanted to play in a band that sounded less like The Beach Boys..
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Points: 19943 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2006 at 13:45
Originally posted by Blacksword Blacksword wrote:

Not really no, but they did inovate. I've grown to respect them more with age.

Pet Sounds and Smiley Smile are pretty good albums. Good Vibrations is kind of proto prog and IMO one of their best songs. I also really like Heroes and Villains & Vegetables. The latter was the only incidence, I'm aware of' where the crunching of raw vegetables made up part of the rhythm section..

Interestingly one of the reasons Bruford left Yes, was that he wanted to play in a band that sounded less like The Beach Boys..


Smiley Smile is pretty awful (Good Vibrations aside) - you need to hear the proper Smile. By the way, did you know Paul McCartney did a bit of vegetable crunching?

Anyway, Brian Wilson is one of the great geniuses of music and the BBs probably deserve a place in proto-prog for inspiring the Beatles to greater heights, but they aren't prog.
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Points: 4411 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2006 at 13:47

Heroes and Villains and Good Vibrations: always liked these songs!!!

If they're prog? No!

If they made some prog? Maybe...I have to check it out, though!



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Points: 32995 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2006 at 13:59
Well if ir wasn't for Pet Sounds, Sgt Peppers would never have been made. That doesn't answer the question though.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2006 at 14:06
WHAT ARE YOU F$#KING CRAZY
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Points: 1695 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2006 at 15:00
Originally posted by ginnyman ginnyman wrote:

WHAT ARE YOU F$#KING CRAZY



I was wondering when someone was going to come up with an opinion like that!

Proto maybe on the later stuff, but Surfin USA? Forget it!
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Points: 339 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2006 at 15:14
 I wouldnt classify them as prog, but their arsty tendencies did indeed influence alot of our favorite artists. Paul McCartney openly cites Pet Sounds as a major influence on Sgt Pepper. Prog or not they still have some of the best vocal harmonies ever recorded.
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Points: 7003 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2006 at 15:16
Progressive rock, no, but they were as progressive as pop ever got - Brian Wilson was as inventive and innovative in his field as Zappa was in rock music. The albums from the mid 60s to the early 70s contain songs complex and imaginative enough to satisfy any progger.
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ANDREW View Drop Down
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Points: 3064 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2006 at 15:40

Originally posted by dralan dralan wrote:

 I wouldnt classify them as prog, but their arsty tendencies did indeed influence alot of our favorite artists. Paul McCartney openly cites Pet Sounds as a major influence on Sgt Pepper. Prog or not they still have some of the best vocal harmonies ever recorded.

It's true, "Pet Sounds" influenced BEATLES's "Sgt. Pepper", it could be classify as a proto-prog album, but they were famous to be a surf-pop band. Anyway Brian Wilson is a genius
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Points: 27802 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2006 at 16:19

Prog???          ;     NO.

But Wilson was/is a musical genius,and his talent for harmonies is unbelievable.


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Points: 16329 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2006 at 16:44
Beach Boys is the poster-boy for being really NOT PROG
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Points: 7559 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2006 at 17:07
Originally posted by ANDREW ANDREW wrote:

Originally posted by dralan dralan wrote:

 I wouldnt classify them as prog, but their arsty tendencies did indeed influence alot of our favorite artists. Paul McCartney openly cites Pet Sounds as a major influence on Sgt Pepper. Prog or not they still have some of the best vocal harmonies ever recorded.

It's true, "Pet Sounds" influenced BEATLES's "Sgt. Pepper", it could be classify as a proto-prog album, but they were famous to be a surf-pop band. Anyway Brian Wilson is a genius

"Pet Sounds" influenced the Beatles conceptually - the music is otherwise unrelated to Sgt Pepper.

It's progressive in its use of "homely" or "pet" items to make sounds, and use of the Theremin, but the songwriting itself is above average to excellent - and not really progressive in that the structures break no boundaries, there's not a lot that's progressive about the beautifully catchy melodies, those infectious surfing rhythms are more restrained on the whole - but there's no real interest in the rhythmic interplay.

The harmonies (as always with the BBs) are superlative though - I'll give it that.

So maybe Prog-Related at a distance... but I wouldn't include them here if it was my choice.



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aprusso View Drop Down
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Points: 312 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2006 at 20:02

Originally posted by marktheshark marktheshark wrote:

Originally posted by ginnyman ginnyman wrote:

WHAT ARE YOU F$#KING CRAZY



I was wondering when someone was going to come up with an opinion like that!

Proto maybe on the later stuff, but Surfin USA? Forget it!

Listen to the first side of "Friends" or some songs or "Sunflower" and then tell me this isn't experimental music. And always remember that Yes did "The rhtyhm of love", Genesis did "That's all" and Pink Floyd did "One slip"
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marktheshark View Drop Down
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Points: 1695 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 25 2006 at 02:22
Originally posted by aprusso aprusso wrote:

Originally posted by marktheshark marktheshark wrote:

Originally posted by ginnyman ginnyman wrote:

WHAT ARE YOU F$#KING CRAZY
I was wondering when someone was going to come up with an opinion like that! Proto maybe on the later stuff, but Surfin USA? Forget it!


Listen to the first side of "Friends" or some songs or "Sunflower" and then tell me this isn't experimental music. And always remember that Yes did "The rhtyhm of love", Genesis did "That's all" and Pink Floyd did "One slip"


Vocally the BBs were well ahead of the game. 3,4 or 5 part harmony were no doubt even ahead of the Beatles. But the Beatles had a compositional edge over the BBs. Bob Dylan's folk influence to take their lyrics more seriously kept the Beatles in a more serious and thoughtful limelight. Writing something as auto biographical as Help by Lennon didn't come from any influence by the BBs.

And while Paul may shoot his mouth off about Sgt Pepper influenced by Pet Sounds, we seem to forget that there were 2 other parties involved in that album too. John, George and Paul too ackowledged Frank's Freak Out as a contributor as well.

This business of Pet Sounds influencing Sgt Pepper has been so overplayed. No doubt it has had "some" influence. But John has always maintained that his songs, Lucy, Mr Kite, Good Morning, Day In the Life have had no connection whats-so-ever on it. They were just good songs that just happened to click with the whole thing.

Sgt Pepper has always been looked at in 2 ways for me in the 39 years I've listened to album. Great song writing and production. And a great coincidence! Fate played a great part in that album as well.

Pet Sounds may have contributed to the "color" of the album, but not the substance.



















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Points: 10616 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 25 2006 at 03:56

The Beach Boys influenced the Beatles a bit, and vice versa, so maybe they're proto-proto-prog or something like that . They're prog-related because of the intricate song structures and some epics. Maybe they're distant relatives, prog and the Beach Boys, but their is a relationship.

Brian Wilson's Smile is very much prog related. The album consists more or less of three long epics. Many prog fans will like this, highly recommended! It's the best new album I heard in the last three years.
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