I think it's a truism that your dad heavily influences what kind of music you listen to as an adult. My dad never liked the Beatles (though he did like McCartney's Wings, oddly) so I grew up with lots of Southern Rock, blues, Seventies Rock and proto-metal (one of my first memories as a child is the terrifying opening riff of "Black Sabbath" that made me cry- I love Sabbath to this day) but because my dad was also a not Beach Boys guy, I have never "got them" either.
Once again, an interesting glimpse into a world I'm not terribly familiar with, written in a fun and lively way. That lack of familiarity means I don't have much to add, other than latching on to the aside about Michael Chabon to say that you (and the commentariat) should go read Kavalier and Clay if you haven't already. In general I love how he's clearly a big genre geek, but also approaches it some seriousness and literary finesse. I guess he's kind of like a classier, more skilled China Mieville in that way. Plus, he's given us an example of the very rare middle grade sports fantasy genre in Summerland, which is an important inspiration for an upcoming project of mine. Anyway, I had no idea he was a songwriter too, but I guess it makes sense with how multi-faceted this guy is in his interests.
Everything seems to be converging. I was listening to Pet Sounds the other day. I just wanted to hear it. And now today (or yesterday?) this news comes out.
And then today I got curious about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi anyway there’s a whole Beach Boys subplot in the history of Transcendental Meditation where the Beach Boys teamed up with the Maharishi for a tour and things went very badly.
I think it's a truism that your dad heavily influences what kind of music you listen to as an adult. My dad never liked the Beatles (though he did like McCartney's Wings, oddly) so I grew up with lots of Southern Rock, blues, Seventies Rock and proto-metal (one of my first memories as a child is the terrifying opening riff of "Black Sabbath" that made me cry- I love Sabbath to this day) but because my dad was also a not Beach Boys guy, I have never "got them" either.
Once again, an interesting glimpse into a world I'm not terribly familiar with, written in a fun and lively way. That lack of familiarity means I don't have much to add, other than latching on to the aside about Michael Chabon to say that you (and the commentariat) should go read Kavalier and Clay if you haven't already. In general I love how he's clearly a big genre geek, but also approaches it some seriousness and literary finesse. I guess he's kind of like a classier, more skilled China Mieville in that way. Plus, he's given us an example of the very rare middle grade sports fantasy genre in Summerland, which is an important inspiration for an upcoming project of mine. Anyway, I had no idea he was a songwriter too, but I guess it makes sense with how multi-faceted this guy is in his interests.
I also had a resistance to any music my dad ever tried to introduce me to.
Eventually I realized that his recommendations were all amazing, and that I had been a disagreeable idiot for many years.
I loved this essay! Must add that the Bee Gees are also sublime
Everything seems to be converging. I was listening to Pet Sounds the other day. I just wanted to hear it. And now today (or yesterday?) this news comes out.
And then today I got curious about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi anyway there’s a whole Beach Boys subplot in the history of Transcendental Meditation where the Beach Boys teamed up with the Maharishi for a tour and things went very badly.