"Pet Sounds or Sgt. Pepper's?" Topic

Pushing 50 and never listened to either.

this YouTube link

x42

This is a case where a poll from five years ago can still make some kind of sense. Irrelevant to wargaming, of course, but that's an old argument, long settled.

McCartney said "Pet Sounds" came as a revelation to him. I can appreciate the influence--I was just never into the Beach Boys, despite the genius. "Sergeant Pepper" came as a revelation to me.

To continue the snark element, though, I nominate this:

youtu.be/_CKUvljDdss

I haven't listened must to pet sounds m but Sergeant pepper is one of the new iconic albums that actually live up to its reputation.

Pepper, without doubt. (And the anniversary reissue is masterful.) Pet Sounds doesn't move me or stay in my head, apart from a couple of tracks.

Funny thing is, I was never into concept albums.
I listened to the songs played on the radio and judged them independently and individually.
Although I liked Sgt Pepper songs, the album struck me as the Beatles being full of themselves.
Sloop John B immediately became one of my "all time favorite songs", but the rest of the album was forgettable.

Basically, this "debate" is completely, to me, a fuss I cannot understand at all.
The whole concept of a concept album was foreign to me.
Albums that took months to produce and record always struck me as pretentious, particularly with "artists" who were stoned 24/7.
Frank Sinatra could go into the studio Tuesday morning and by midnight have a classic on his hands.

Not to take away from the Beach Boys but Sloop John B is a cover song. link

I think it's as much about technology as art.

As a matter of fact, Winston, it was in large part the "concept album" that allowed Sinatra to resurrect a moribund career:

link

link

beginning with his first from his new label,Capitol:

On through the first full LP:

And one of his biggest:

Many credit him (and Nelson Riddle) with coming up with the very concept of the "concept album",at least in pop music.

I think it's as much about technology as art.

Fusilier Dan, I think you've nailed it. Each album utilized an extensive amount of sound and recording equipment and techniques that produced two unique products.

Also, by the middle of the 1960s, The Beach Boys and The Beatles had each firmly established enough of a formidable fan base that either of them could release just about anything to potential commercial success, at least within their own circles. At that time, the youth culture (a.k.a. "Baby Boomers") around the world was undergoing what must have been perceived as a "startling" change by the standards of older generations, so much that their taste in music would be open as well. These two facts meant that the two groups now had the freedom to experiment with their initial creative formulas and greatly expand their respective musical styles.

Oh, I know it was a cover song. Nothing wrong with that.
As for Sinatra's concept albums, I already said that I heard songs individually and independently. I acknowledge the concept, but I never heard them together.

"It was later…it was Pet Sounds that blew me out of the water. First of all, it was Brian's writing. I love the album so much. I've just bought my kids each a copy of it for their education in life---I figure no one is educated musically 'til they've heard that album. I was into the writing and the songs."

Paul McCartney

"Without Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper wouldn't have happened… Pepper was an attempt to equal Pet Sounds."

Paul McCartney

"If records had a director within a band, I sort of directed Pepper. And my influence was basically the Pet Sounds album."

Paul McCartney

"Pet Sounds" was/is a technically perfect album and musicians loved it. It took the public a long time to warm to it. Brian Wilson was a musical genus and "Pet Sounds" was his magnum opus. Possibly the greatest recorded album in American music. The record company didn't like it but I loved it. Still do.

I don't believe "Sgt. Peppers…" was the Beatles best album but it was a milestone. It sold so much more than "Pet Sounds."

"Sgt. Peppers…" broke new ground with the use of an odd assortment of instruments and recording techniques which broke new ground.

It is a great piece of writing and editing. So much of the credit should go the 5th Beatle, Sir George Martin. He was nearly as brilliant as Wilson. It was a great album. Not only the music but the album cover was a iconic symbol of the late sixties.

Pet Sounds is a great record, one of the very few Beach Boys albums I'm passionate about.

But, Sgt. Peppers is more emblematic of its time, though it's reach goes far beyond 1967. It brought psychedelia out of garages and into the open. It also leaves a clear dividing line between the Beatles' "safe" music and what would come after--even though they'd been experimenting with sound, texture and drugs since Rubber Soul.

After working one to many all Beatles weekends on the radio in the 70's – I would prefer pet sounds (as in dogs, cats, birds, and the like).

Yes, once the rock press got a hold of the buzzwords "concept album," and all the imitators and copyists wanted a piece of the action, there were certainly a lot of dreadful "high concept" LPs by groups in way over their heads. And psychedelia encouraged this. But I don't denigrate the idea in and of itself, that rock/pop music was capable of more than radio-friendly, danceable 2-minute pop combo tunes. A steady diet of that would be as tiresome as those 30-minute guitar noodles in prog rock.

I'm glad that some of the more adventurous artists, most notably starting in the Sixties but as Hafen VS notes, going back even further than that with Sinatra and his producers, began to think in terms of extending a song or song-cycle into something more grand (potentially), and something that was more substantial and substantive than a piece of fluff for the teenybopper set.

John Lennon never liked the concept album idea, anyway, and went along with Paul's ambitions for Pepper but later had no hesitation in saying that Pepper wasn't a real concept LP, "it doesn't go anywhere" apart from the initial tracks,and then the reprise tacked on, and that his own songs had "nothing to do with Sgt. Pepper or this other band." But Paul and George Martin particularly liked the idea of playing around with an extended piece of music (side 2 of Abbey Road is perhaps the best example of this) and introducing classical composing themes and tricks to build up an artier sound and musical statement. I can't fault anyone for that, and even some of the notorious "concept album" miscues are fascinating.

Exhibit A in the miscue category (IMHO):

youtu.be/8VNWkpPqM78

youtu.be/DWxa5Zbxbg8

A few more!

Hey,I had that Fool album!

What's the matter with Salty Dog?

A bit late but YouTube link what is wrong with salty dag

Now that right there ain't the fault of Procol Harum.

In fact,if they'd known what the song was about, I doubt they'd been able to keep their faces straight.