From Greg Earle Sent Tue, Jan 27th 1998, 14:04
From Greg Earle Sent Tue, Jan 27th 1998, 14:04
[ Jumping in late here, sorry ]
>> since pop records were
>> recorded for AM radio. Synthesizers were only used by academics. MIDI?
>> SMPTE? Digital effects? Wilson took the possibilities of the recording
>> studio of his day as far as they could go.
>
> I know what the 'feel' is like, but to me, in this kind of pop music,
> 'feel' doesn't mean that much anyway. Feel needs to be given room to
> breathe. In the traditional pop song, for me, it often isn't. In the
> case of The Beach Boys, the production techniques are almost irrelevant,
> and are just a way to justify liking their music (which I'm not
> suggesting that you need to do). IMO, any production subtleties are
> bludgeoned to death by the nature of the songs. Likewise for The Who ...
Ignoring wells' ignorant little rant (yeah, much better to listen to Nurse
With Wound; groundbreaking new stuff there wells, flame me now big boy) ...
Irony of ironies:
The next-to-last time I was up in SF, I went over to Dropbeat Records (home of
the Dropbeat label, and a damned good little store) with Ambient list
listmeister Andy Thomas. And just what was the in-store stereo pumping out at
this paragon to the Kinda New, Kinda Now, Kinda WOW! in music?
"The Who Sell Out".
Now THAT was fucking cool.
There's a vague handwaving definition out there; it's one that takes the word
"popular" out of "Pop" and substitutes something different: it's the
crystalline perfection of the 3-minute single, the expressiveness and
compactness of a tiny slice of perfectly arranged and played music ... I'm not
gifted with the gift of florid prose but I'm sure most of you know what I mean.
My definition of "Pop" is populated by records like Wire's "Map Ref." or
"Ahead" or Joy Division's "Dead Souls" or "Love Will Tear Us Apart" or just
about any Buzzcocks single or Elastica's "Connection" (to quote a more
recent recording) or a Curve single or ... well, I'm sure you get the idea.
And I think "The Who Sell Out" - as an album - stands up there with all of
them. This has fuck-all to do with IDM at this point, but I have to stick up
for records like this and "Pet Sounds" ... truely Landmarks in Modern Music ...
(Not to flog this dead horse into the ground, but you better bet your ass that
The Beatles, The Stones and The Who all rushed out to get every Beach Boys
album that came out as soon as it hit the shelves ... both The Beatles and
The Stones have said that "Pet Sounds" *massively* influenced them - namely
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" & "Their Satanic Majesties Request" -
and The Who used to regularly cover "Barbara Ann" in their shows from the '66
to '68 period)
- Greg