It was 40 years ago today

Only in the sense that it influenced Lennon and McCartney.
Pepper was the breakthrough record. "Smile" might have been, but Brian Wilson collapsed in the making of it. "Pet Sounds" is, like Revolver and Rubber Soul, really a collection of magnificent songs still aimed at being hit singles. Pepper changed the way people made albums. (Neither the Kinks "Arthur" nor "Tommy" are possible without it.)

 

True, but the music community always respected Brian Wilson's songwriting and production skills and learned from them; he was the next step in the progression that started with Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly of rockers who controlled all aspects of their songs. Pet Sounds was Wilson's attempt to get serious; it wasn't a mere collection of singles; in fact, Capitol hated having to release the record. They made Wilson put Sloop John B on it, and they released a Beach Boys greatest hits album simultaneously, killing Pet Sounds' chances in the marketplace.

True, the Beach Boys will never be the Beatles, but one would be wrong to say that Brian Wilson, despite his demons, wasn't an influential master.

 

The Beatles tell the story of going to see Hendrix two days after Sgt. Pepper's came out (I want to say it was out on Friday and they watched him perform on Sunday).
Hendrix played the song Sgt. Pepper's, which McCartney said he took as the highest compliment, especially considering he had learned it in no more than two days.

 

Nobody ever said he wasn't.
The difference between the two records is that Pet Sounds' songs were released as singles -- most notably, Caroline, No -- and nothing, as someone noted earlier, off Pepper was. That was the change -- that, and the fact that the Beatles with George Martin were writing and producing their own stuff for two years prior to that.

 

If we're talking favorite albums of 1967, give me the Doors.

 

Sgt. Pepper's isn't the best album with a Beatle singing on it. That would be Back To The Egg by Wings. Maybe Pipes Of Peace. Could go either way.

 

Forgot the blue font, dude.

And Fen, the key is, that it was Brian Wilson and Brian Wilson alone producing since 1962. And Caroline No was basically released as a Beach Boys single by Capitol because it didn't think the record would sell if it were made a Brian Wilson solo release. Capitol's releasing other songs as singles were business decisions, not Wilson's decision. Strangly, Wilson intended his masterwork, Good Vibrations, to be the means to put the Beach Boys back up in the charts. But Pet Sounds had no such commercial inspirations; it was Wilson's message that it was time to put the beach toys away.

 

I don't believe in Elvis
I don't believe in Zimmermen
I don't believe in Beatles
I don't believe in blue font
I just believe in me
Dooley and me
And that's reality

 

Um, uh...not that there's anything wrong with that, granted...buh....buh....


And OK, who doesn't love Arrow Through Me?

 

For my money, while I'm reading Portnoy's Complaint and scarfing down some Malt-O-Meal, there's no song sung by a Beatle I'd rather hear than Whatever Gets You Through The Night by John Lennon. [/LarryKingcolumn]

 

Hey gang, just got done with my higher colonic and man am I cooking with gas...If I could have only one four-sided figure, make mine a rhombus...Free Paris Hilton; I've been supporting her weight for days, and Phyllis Newman's been waiting patiently...Mark it down; Joe Piscopo is the professional's professional...Fred Thompson and I shared a prune juice in Foggy Bottom lately, and believe me, he's running, HAH!...Damn, it's Saturday, time for another wife...That's all for now, a happy ending awaits.

 

When I was editor of the college paper, we had two albums (black plastic flat disc thingys, kids) in the office to play on an old-school case-with handle record player:

1, White Album.
2, Deja Vu.

The theme song of that semester was on the White: "I'm sooooo tired. I haven't slept a wink ...."