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Wednesday, January 26, 2005Music Expiration
The comments on my stray Beatles post have grown into an interesting discussion. I'd love to hear more comments on Brian Wilson's SMiLE. I'm interested in hearing it, but haven't given it a listen yet.
Perhaps I'm a little stalled because after years of hearing everyone say that Pet Sounds is one of the top pop/rock records of all time, I decided to give it a listen. Not really my cup of tea. When I listened to a Beatles' album for the first time as an adult, I was always struck by the songs on the record that WERE NOT hits. These end up being my favorite songs: "I'm Only Sleeping," "And Your Bird Can Sing," "Sun King," "Cry Baby Cry," etc. While at the same time, the hit songs don't seem over-played -- even though they clearly are. Only a couple songs: "Taxman," "Back in the U.S.S.R.," "Birthday," don't do it for me on repeat listens. And on a final note, I heard a guy in his early 50s say something to the effect of "If I never hear another Beatles song that will be okay with me." And he wasn't talking from a Beatle-haters point of view; he was talking about this concept that music could, possibly, have an expiration date. Which could mean that SMiLE has an advantage of being released now. Funny. In the age of digital music, will the over-consumption that I'm witnessing now add to this expiration or delay it? Or will it make music more (even more?) fleeting? // posted at
10:39 AM //
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5 Comments:
But then it was always the more obscure Beatles material that was their best. I mean, you'd think that Sgt. Pepper, the White Album, and, for God's sake, Rubber Soul were the only albums the Beatles ever recorded. A good bit of their more obscure material holds up very well in a modern context - and much of it does not.
Another much-maligned album I absolutely love is Let It Be. "Across the Universe" is worth buying the album for on its own. But several songs many people have never heard on this album are great - "One After 909", "Two Of Us", "Dig a Pony", and the fantastic "I've Got a Feeling". This album, an epitaph for the group, reminds us that these guys can still rock when they want to, and the music was much more raw and accessible than Abbey Road (not to malign Abbey Road, which is itself a sublime achievement).
I am avoiding discussion of the ...Naked version of the album since I have not really studied it carefully. I happen to like the original release very much, and have not invested the time to judge the re-release.
For the record, my mother, who had excellent taste in 60s classic rock, absolutely loved Pet Sounds. I have not listened to it. I intend to, however, because of the way the Beatles and the Beach Boys were influencing each other during that era. This discussion has revived my curiousity about it.
Hmm... I seem to have forgotten to get to the poitn in my last post. It's an interesting concept - an "expiration date" for music. I don't think that great music - truly great music - has any such thing (note that I am not necessarily lumping the Beatles into the "great music" category, although I'd argue that the song that started this discussion, "I'm Only Sleeping," will never expire).
As hijacker of the previous thread, I will indulge again.
SMiLE is basically 3 suites, each consisting of multiple songs that blend together more or less seamlessly. Whereas Pet Sounds is roundly acknowleded as the pinnacle of the Beach Boys' catalogue, SMiLE, to me, really sounds nothing like Beach Boys music at all, although it clearly builds upon ideas laid out in Pet Sounds. As I commented to Mike off line, SMiLE is an opus that has taken me a great deal of effort to listen to. I can now identify with the many Tull fans who thought the same of A Passion Play, which I always considered quite easy to listen to. There's a lot of inane, even infantile lyrics (which, I found out, came courtesy of Van Dyke Parks, not Wilson). However, the sound is so interesting that "OOH OOH OOH" would have passed as acceptable lyrics for much of the album. And that's Wilson. I do not wish to appear to worship his toenail clippings, but what else would you expect from a man who is deaf in one ear but can still write, record, and mix up to 20 vocal tracks onto a single song?
But back to the original point, as I listen to SMiLE, I cannot help but wonder how Lennon/McCartney may have written Sgt. Pepper had this been available to them as a reference / influence. I would certainly agree that much of Sgt. Pepper would be up for "expiration". But SMiLE, I'm not so sure. In fact if it had come out as itended in '66-'67, I can see how it would have gotten no airplay at all -- and possibly even spelled the end of the Beach Boys. But it all seems to have worked out.
By the way, I had not known previously that it was not a theremin that was used on "Good Vibrations", but rather a tannerin. There's a difference.
I'd like to clarify a bit about "expiration date." When I was a kid, one of the first albums I had was Kiss Alive II (actually I got Dressed to Kill when it was released, but for whatever reason I didn't LOVE it like Alive II).
There was a period (when the magnetic tape of Alive II became totally destroyed) that I just didn't listen to it any more. This period was probably close to 15 or more years. Expired.
I just got Alive II again, and it's like falling in love all over. I know every word, every note, every beat. And I want to listen to it every day. Call it UN-expired.
Will I get sick of Alive II? Probably. Probably very shortly.
Now that I think of it, perhaps a better word would be RETIRE. There are definitely some songs that NEED to be expired -- I can't believe that I actually listened to Motley Crue's Theatre of Pain -- EXPIRED! While other, truly great songs and albums, do -- and should -- get put away a while, go into personal music retirement, until they are ready to return in their glory.
Because I listened pretty much only to the Beatles for most of my youth, it was refreshing for me in high school to be introduced by a great and wasted friend of mine (where are you Kevin Duffy? My apologies to Kris Kristofferson) to Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. It only took a couple of days before I was rid of the Beatles. A few years ago I started re-listening to the Beatles, and it was with great pleasure that I found that the music sounded both new and old to me - like renewing an acquaintance with an old friend after ten years. Even the very early stuff - pop, yes, but perfectly-crafted pop, and with actual musicians playing the music - sounds great to me nowadays. I agree with Jim that some of the stuff does not hold up to repeated listenings - although I would not list Taxman in this group - but that most of it does. Now it's most of Zeppelin I can't take - but the Beatles stuff lives on.
It's amazing how great music can be upon reintroducing yourself to it. I had a similar moment with Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" when it was re-released in 1999 or so. What a great album - and it was like it was new to me.
Jim, I withdraw my concern re: your original comment about "expiration dates." Clearly you are right about it, at least if understood in the sense of your last post.
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