The following are essays written by Jeremiah James

Pet Sounds Vs Revolver
The Beach Boys VS The Beatles

I write this in the hope that it will harden opinion and create an arena of thought and objectivity. Those of you who don’t wish to educate yourselves or engage can remain sitting on that barbed wire fence of mediocrity. I’ll begin by wondering out loud why in every “Greatest ever album” poll, The Beatles “Revolver” is always considered a better album than The Beach Boys/Brian Wilson’s “Pet Sounds. I’m focusing on these two records because I believe each one to be their creator’s respective masterpiece and well, let’s face it. The latter is the greatest album ever recorded, bar none. The Beatles were a cultural phenomenon that gave birth to the idea that a group of ‘ordinary’ people could make the world stop doing what it had been caught up in for so long, and look into their individual, and collective creative, and private worlds just by being honest and playing music. As the Beatles shifted from cuddly mop tops to bespectacled arty weirdo’s, so their music changed from raw passionate sing along rock ‘n’ roll/r ‘n’ b, to pensive structured studio articulacy. As amazing as it is even now to think how four leather clad beat music tearaways turned into bearded open minded LSD munchers it still leaves me with the distinct feeling that their mid period is often over praised and rarely evaluated correctly. Sgt. Pepper is most definitely the most over hyped underwhelming white elephant of an album I have ever heard. That’s not to say it’s a bad record. It just seems a little daft that so many accolades and superlatives have been dished out to an album filled with songs about Meter maids, fixing holes, and little girls running out on mammy and daddy. None of them works of staggering social commentary. Brian Wilson was 23 years old when he started and finished pet sounds. He had already written, performed and produced the vast majority of ten albums and countless singles. Not bad for a shy slightly overweight nervous young man. Brian Wilson is a genius, and the story of pet sounds is a story of love, innovation, insecurity, innocence and furious self belief. His band turned against him, his audience was baffled by him, and the Beatles and Phil Spector were more than a little jealous of this unstoppable young man.

Revolver opens with a rocking little George Harrison tune all about how poor rich rock stars have to pay lots of tax on the huge profits they make from their overproduced overpriced new albums. We slide gently into a lovely little ditty about a non person and a priest who sews up battered old socks. “I’m only sleeping” is a great song, simple, direct, and full of charm. Georges next song, well what can I say, George soon gave up playing the sitar not long after he started messing around with it because he said he couldn’t devote enough time to learning it properly I can’t help but put forward the idea that he put it away because he realised a little too late that he had absolutely no affinity with the instrument as this song can testify. “Here, There and Everywhere” is one of the most beautiful songs ever written and the only recorded evidence as far as I’m aware that Paul McCartney could be sincere and not come across as unbearably arrogant and all knowing. “Yellow Submarine” is three minutes of sub Mr. Blobby type annoyance. “She said she said” and “Good day sunshine” are two of the most pedestrian and uninspired songs to come out of the golden age of popular music. “And your bird can sing” is wonderfully catchy yet somewhat seething at the same time with that incredible Lennon snarl inviting you to take him on. “For no one” is gorgeous, but unfortunately on this one Mr. McCartney does come across as unbearably arrogant and all knowing. The next two songs are the nadir of both the album and the Beatles professional recording career. I won’t even credit them by mentioning their names here. “Got to get you into my life” is Chas ‘n’ Dave produced by Barry Gordy. Not good in my book. “Tomorrow never knows” is credited as the first real foray into dance/big beat music. Be that as it may it doesn’t alter the fact that Lennon talked a lot of bollocks when he wanted to. I hope I didn’t give the impression that I don’t like “Revolver”, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s a fine little album, but if you try and mix it with the best, you have to deliver and far too often the Beatles hid behind their public persona’s rather than making a truly great album.

Brian Wilsons’ “Pet Sounds” on the other hand is timeless and of it’s time. It will never be surpassed. Its crystalline beauty and shimmering transcendant uncertainty will forever be the yard stick that every other album of recorded music will be measured by. The album opens with a young man yearning to be accepted into an adult world that he knows will always be just outside his reach. “You still believe in me” is a hymn dedicated to undying faithfulness. Whether it be from a friend or a partner it’s forever a reminder that no matter how brave we think we are it’s always easier face those hard times that come to us all when someone stays closely by our side. “That’s not me” is a stern reminder that no matter how old and wise and knowing we feel we might be it’s sometimes easier swallow our pride and return to what we thought we had to prove ourselves against. Whether that be our families, jobs partners, whatever. "Don’t talk” for me is the second greatest song on this album. The weary existential woe is caught immaculately. There is so much love in the vocals on this track that I sometimes feel it was delivered unspoilt and untainted from a universe ruled solely by compassion and understanding. It is absolutely no coincidence that on the line “Listen to my heartbeat” the bass plays the most tremulous and beautiful little “Heartbeat”. “I’m waiting for the day” is for me one of the saddest songs on the album. This may seem a strange song to think of as the saddest song on the album as there are many quiet and seemingly far more melancholy moments. It’s a song about loving someone so much that you’re willing to wait for them for as long as it takes for them to be hurt enough to start loving you. It’s worth noting at this stage of the piece that every melody, instrument, performance, and vocal nuance on this album is tailored specifically and meticulously to make the listener feel loved and cherished and the most incredible thing of all is that it succeeds gloriously and effortlessly. “Let’s go away for awhile” is the first of two instrumentals on the album. It gives us a glimpse of just how spectacularly gifted this group of musicians actually were and how lucky Brian Wilson was to have them at his disposal. It’s a beautiful piece of music. The arrangement and the sound are both superb. “Sloop John B” is I believe an old West Indian folk song rendered impossibly lively and sweet by the bands incredible vocal harmonising. “God Only Knows” is the best song on pet sounds. Brians younger brother Carl delivering his best ever vocal performance on a song about expressing sincerely how much that special person in your life actually means to you. “God only knows what I’d be without you” Gorgeous. “I know there’s an answer” I feel owes a debt to Dylan’s wonderful paeans of weirdly personal spirituality a great song with probably the best lyrics on the album. “Here Today” has without a doubt the most amazing organ parts I have ever heard on a popular music album. The song itself explores the brittle hold we all have on love and happiness “Love is here, today and it’s gone tomorrow. Its here and gone so fast.” The next song “I just wasn’t made for these times” could only have been written by Brian Wilson. It highlights the pain of a man searching hard to find an audience who will be open minded and spiritual enough to get what he needs to articulate through whatever medium he utilises, stunning. The next song is the second last song on the album and the second instrumental. Not quite as beautiful and far reaching as the first instrumental on the album but still a wonderful piece of music. The final song is the hardest hitting and biggest tearjerker on the album “Caroline No” is genuinely heartbreaking. Where does all the innocence of new love slip away to? Why can’t we stay in love forever, why do beautiful things have to die? Popular music has never and will never get anywhere near to what Brian achieved with “Pet Sounds” Brian Thank you so much.

So there it is The Beatles music is for the head and Brian’s is quite simply for the heart.

Thank you for reading.
Love and mercy to all