i'LL START WITH THE MOST Recent
I rented a house this past 4th of July on the NH coast. I got tix to a Beach Boys Show. I show up with my girl and it is mostly geezers. But the vibe is kind of electric. The beach boys are kind of being held alive by mike Love (kevins uncle) and one other dude but they have stage musicians.
2 songs in she says to me HEY IS THAT JOHN STAMOS. And I have been watching this guy cause he has been electric on the guitar and backup vocals but I cant "see him" cause after 4 years my lasic is 80 % and I say no.
She says your fucking blind ( I now wear glasses) and goes up and gets a selfie with John fucking Stamos.
Show I expected like a 6. I grade it like a 9.7 Mike Love was on point and the musicians they had there were awesome studio musicions and stamos was GOD. That night I learned he was in the kokomo video and has been touring with them on and off since he was on general hospital in 1986.
After the show I went out back with the ladies I was with as well as about 500 fans(max 200 club?)
There were 2 private SUVS
All these broads wanted stamos. Whole night after I knew it was stamos destroying the guitar and backup vocals I wish I went the night before at the same place to see Bob Saget. Heard he was god
Anyhow Stamos walks out. I was about 7 feet from him. Looked him in the eye kind of laughing and he was with his wife/gf who was mint. He looked scared and his car got STORMED.
They drove slowly through the crowd and I watched them take a 5 min walk to the edge of the lot before I turned to the other vehicle.
Other vehicle was occupied by Mike Love (kevins Uncle) and during the show when Mike gave stamos some speaking time stamos gave so much + talk and gratitude to Mike Love for holding together what was left of the beach boys.
Now a lot of people (even people my age who are 40) probably wouldn't get this trivia question right. If I were to ask YOU which USA band has the most impact on any type of music I think Elvis would come up?
But I think it is the beach boys
like 4 decades or 5 with a #1 hit or top 10 album and they have sold like 100 million
Around the time when I got the tickets I started reading a lot about them because I am a history buff. Members have sued other members and won as much as 20 million for royalties.
great inovative act. In their prime their lead dog who was their creative leader would not go on tour with them (brian wilson). He just kept writing shit. His obsession was to catch the beatles. Ironically the last album they released which he wrote at the time got shit on and now is one of the most critically albums ever acclaimed by any top musicians. Even Paul Mccartney said it was probably the best and most influential album he heard till this time.
Pet Sounds
just unreal
Sold less than 1 million copys which was a failure then but now so progressive for the time
Babara ann which I post below was the first song in that era to have like 10+ instruments on the track and the beatles took this and
PAUL: "The early surf records...I was aware of them as a musical act, and I used to like all that, but I didn't get deeply interested in it---it was just a real nice sound...We used to admire the singing, the high falsetto really and the very sort of 'California' lyrics.
"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.
"The other thing that really made me sit up and take notice was the bass lines on Pet Sounds. If you were in the key of C, you would normally use---the root note would be, like, a C on the bass (demonstrates vocally). You'd always be on the C. I'd done a little bit of work, like on 'Michelle,' where you don't use the obvious bass line. And you just get a completely different effect if you play a G when the band is playing in C. There's a kind of tension created.
"I don't really understand how it happens musically, because I'm not very technical musically. But something special happens. And I noticed that throughout that Brian would be using notes that weren't the obvious notes to use. As I say, 'the G if you're in C---that kind of thing. And also putting melodies in the bass line. That I think was probably the big influence that set me thinking when we recorded Pepper, it set me off on a period I had then for a couple of years of nearly always writing quite melodic bass lines."