Grapthar's Song of the Day: The Beach Boys 'Here Today'

grapthar (74)in #music • 6 years ago

The Beach Boys - Here Today

Sticking with the theme

of Rock Greats, I figured it would be good to share The Beach Boys, as they are definitely important in Rock History, although they often are relegated to the background, as a "novelty" act, despite the incredible songwriting talent of Brian Wilson. The Beach Boys began as a "boy band", or the '60s equivalent thereof, writing songs about girls, cars and surfing. However, after hearing The Beatles' album Rubber Soul, Brian Wilson was determined to write something unique and groundbreaking himself. While the other Beach Boys were on tour, Wilson wrote, performed, and produced the entire album of Pet Sounds, and upon the bands return, added their vocal parts.

Listen to Here Today by The Beach Boys here.

Pet Sounds was such an impressive

album that when Paul McCartney heard it, he was inspired to write something even more artistic, and thus Sgt. Peppers was created. It's interesting both McCartney and Wilson found inspiration/competition in the other's music, and wound up creating albums that would stand the test of the time. This is probably my favorite song on Pet Sounds; the instrumentation is great, super interesting choices Wilson made during production by combining instruments electronically (which nowadays seems common, but at the time was completely original concept in audio engineering). It's also catchy, which made this album a hit amongst casual listeners and more artistic types. If it wasn't for Pet Sounds and Wilson's desire to push the musical envelope, who knows if The Beatles would have ever expanded their musical horizons, along with generations of bands who followed. Wilson definitely deserves a lot more credit than he gets for completely altering the course of popular music.