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| From | Marty Rudnick <mrudnick@marturo.com> |
| Subject | Peeling the Beach Boys onion |
| Date | Sat, 28 Apr 2007 11:42:39 -0700 |
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I've been reflecting on the recent Beach Boys thread, I can understand
being underwhelmed or turned off by certain aspects of the band. There
are many faces of the Beach Boys. If you scratch the surface, you will see:
The boss Top 40 surfin' hit machine
Lawsuits, infighting, drug abuse, and incredibly strange behavior
Endless Endless Endless Summer reissues and traveling road show
The trendy "Pet Sounds as a religion" poseurs
If you encapsulate that, I can understand the ambivalence or turnoff.
But there are album tracks that are so absolutely magical, it would be a
shame to simply dismiss the band altogether without getting to know
them. You wouldn't judge The Beatles, The Kinks, The Who, or bands from
any era based merely on their hits. So, if you've never heard Marcella,
Let The Wind Blow, Funky Pretty, This Whole World, 'Til I Die, and
countless others, you're missing the best part.
Having said that, you do need to have a certain "suspension of
disbelief"-type mechanism to not let the negative aspects ruin the
positive ones. If you can do that, it's so worth it.
If you want to explore the wonderful road less travelled, I highly
recommend the Sunflower album.
Marty
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