The Beach Boys

To those who aren't familiar with the Beach Boys, you may just think of Kokomo and Surfing USA. In 1966 they released the art rock album Pet Sounds, and in 1967 began constructing the proto prog album SMiLE, before mastermind Brian Wilson collapsed mentally. They became a borderline art-rock group for several years before becoming an oldies style rock group in the late 70s. In the late 80s, they came under the leadership of Mike Love, whose pop tastes are quite blatant. They stopped recording albums in the 90s, after a string of gutter quality records. Brian Wilson came out of his mentally disturbed haze and in 2004 completed SMiLE and released it under his own name. His albums of new material have been a mixed bag, although his 1988 album was quite good, despite him being controlled by an infamous pop psychologist at the time (Eugene Landy) [The beach boys got a court-ordered separation arranged, and Landy was kicked out of even the lower-levels of the profession he was in]. The Beach Boys reunited just a few months ago and are coming out with a new album in June, headed by Brian Wilson for the first time since the Beach Boys' last borderline art rock album The Beach Boys Love You in 1977.




Surf's Up, Their Greatest Song



One of the Progish linking parts of Smile

^

LOL. That video makes my day.

That is a take on the old Charles Atlas or whatever thing. Great! 10cc has a funny song along those lines too.



10cc was influenced by the Beach Boys






Edited by RoyFairbank - May 07 2012 at 11:09

Beach Boys is one of the most significant bands in rock, adn Pet Sounds sat a certain standard in art pop, which never have been betterd after it, and Smiles is not far behind

OT Räihälä wrote: I've listened to The Smile Sessions for umpteen times recently, and all I can say is that it would be considered a brilliant proto-prog album, were it A) not compiled in 2011 when it can't be proto-prog anymore and B) a Beach Boys album.  It is a fantastic, progressive compilation with a few fine musical themes running through a big part of the album. Had it been released when it was supposed to (summer 1967), it would have been much more ground-breaking than the musically rather average Sgt. Pepper.

Agreed, but Srg. Peppers is much more direct and brutal.... I think Wilson was overwhelmed by how confident and together it was when his sessions were going chaotic.....

The first true progressive rock band, and proved that rock could be more than what it was.

God Only Knows is one of my new favourite songs. 

^ I've got pretty immersed in this album long before getting to be a progressive rock freak. 

HolyMoly wrote: I recently bought the "Endless Summer" best-of album, just because I thought it'd be nice to have those old hits, and my daughter would like it.  It's fun, but some of those songs are really a bit lightweight for my tastes.

Edited by ClemofNazareth - May 10 2012 at 11:27

RoyFairbank wrote: Pacific Ocean Blue is fantastic and sometimes almost proggy. There is a sax part that reminds me of Van Der Graaf... ....you killed the man but you couldn't kill the dream..... something His voice is almost benefited by drug use, unlike his brother Brian's, whose voice was ruined. His vocals are rough but full of emotion and pain.

Yes, absolutely!

And that hard living certainly helped his voice achieve that wonderful roughness as you say, definitely