Pet Sounds, released
in 1966, is where we see the Beach Boys following the growing trend of adding Psychedelic-ness
to their music. So begins the age of psychedelic rock. Before Pet Sounds the Beach Boys was known for
their “surfing music,” of which we remember today, with their earlier releases.
Brian Wilson was a founding member of the beach boys, and has fulfilled many
roles while in his career with the Beach Boys. While Wilson started out playing
bass, he moved to piano/keyboards, along with providing a lot of the lead
vocals, and also harmonizing using falsetto. Behind the scenes, Wilson served
as the bands producer, composer and arranger. In his producer role, he quit
touring with the band some months before the release and Pet Sounds. Brian Wilson was heavily influenced by The Beatles Rubber Soul album. This album struck him
so much that he felt challenged to make a great album and prove to the world
that he could do it. Pet Sounds used
multi-studio recording to get Wilson’s desired sound for the album. The album
also used very unconventional instruments such as bicycle bells, trains,
Coca-Cola cans, dog whistles, and barking dogs with their usual flow of guitars
and keyboards. Wilson often mimicked Phil Spector, and in this album he used
the “Wall of Sound” technique along with studios that had echoes and
reverberations naturally.
Pet Sounds adds to
the growing psychedelic rock genre of the time. It shows that unconventional
means can be used to create a great album. Wilson felt challenged to make a
great album by the Beatles Rubber Soul,
it shows, like many other instances, that when a person is challenged to do
something, they will strive to overcome that challenge. It started the use of
reverberation just like the Beatles Revolver
used compression. In all older albums, you can hear the starting moments of
techniques that are commonly used today in music production.
Upon listening to both the mono and stereo versions of Pet Sounds, I find that the stereo most
definitely has the higher quality of sound, with the mono having static during
silence, with the stereo not, plus with stereo, you can have more control of
the instruments in terms of how the listener hears them.
Edwards, Bob, The Bob Edwards Show, Peter Ames Carlin,
August 13, 2009
This post was magnificent Roland you got into The Beach Boys transition to the psychedelic rock area and the impact it had on young America. The Beach Boys made great contributions to the music industry and your post proves it.
ReplyDeleteLaman Richards