Brian Wilson on the Beach Boys’ ‘Rivalry’ with the Beatles and Flying Solo

The Daily Beast ^ | 4/04/2015 | Jeff Slate

[z taxman]

The Beach Boys frontman opens up about his new solo album No Pier Pressure and alleged ‘rivalry’ with The Beatles. “Rubber Soul inspired Pet Sounds, which inspired Sgt. Pepper’s and that inspired me to make Smile,” Brian Wilson tells me, recalling his 1960s game of one-upmanship with the Beach Boys’ so-called rivals The Beatles.

“It wasn’t really a rivalry, though. I was jealous!” Wilson says with a hearty laugh. “It was really just mutual inspiration, I think. I would get to hear their records before they came out and I was totally blown away by Rubber Soul. And Sgt. Pepper’s? I was totally blown away by that. But it was inspirational, too. Then I did “Good Vibrations” and Smile and it was exciting. I got into it and really produced my head off.”

Wilson, 72, is still going strong, and his eleventh solo studio album, No Pier Pressure, featuring former Beach Boys bandmates Al Jardine, David Marks, and Blondie Chaplin, as well as a host of younger artists, including Kacey Musgraves, Fun.’s Nate Ruess, She & Him’s Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, Peter Hollens, and Capital Cities’ Sebu Simonian, will be released Tuesday. While he originally intended it to be a follow up to the Beach Boys’ 50th anniversary release That’s Why God Made Radio from 2012, he changed course.

[TigerClaws]

Check out the documentary THE WRECKING CREW (also a book) about the band that played on many great classic songs, including those of the Beach Boys.

[Bobalu]

The Beatles album "Rubber Soul" is a true masterpiece!

Perhaps equaled years later by the Fleetwood Mac album "Rumours".

[Cold Heat]

In 1966, the American musician and bandleader Brian Wilson's growing interest in the aesthetics of recording and his admiration for both record producer Phil Spector's Wall of Sound and the Beatles' album Rubber Soul resulted in the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds LP, which demonstrated his production expertise and his mastery of composition and arrangement.[25][nb 1] The author Thomas MacFarlane credits the release with influencing many musicians of the time, with McCartney in particular singing its praises and drawing inspiration to "expand the focus of the Beatles' work with sounds and textures not usually associated with popular music".[29] He thought that his constant playing of the album made it difficult for Lennon to "escape the influence", adding: "It's very cleverly done ... so we were inspired by it and nicked a few ideas."[30] Martin stated: "Without Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper never would have happened ... Pepper was an attempt to equal Pet Sounds."[31]

[Cold Heat]

IMO, Brian’s genius was to the music of the 60s, what the Moog synthesizer was to the 70s.

He influenced the entire genre for a period of years and you can still hear it today.

That’s my opinion..

[plain talk]

I think Brian Wilson, Pet Sounds and his influence are way overrated. Genius? Lot of hype. I like his stuff but it’s not even close to being in the same league as the Beatles.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Won’t call it the greatest Beach Boys song,...

That would be "Don't Worry Baby", IMHO.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

I like Brian Wilson but he really exaggerates his influence. If Brian Wilson had never lived there would have been a Sgt Pepper’s.

Maybe, but it would have been a different album. At least Paul McCartney thinks so:

"I played it (Pet Sounds) to John so much that it would be difficult for him to escape the influence. If records had a director within a band, I sort of directed Pepper. And my influence was basically the Pet Sounds album. John was influenced by it, perhaps not as much as me."

[DennisR]

We have seen them several times. They put on a fantastic show...enjoy!

[TChad]

Feel Flows, still my favorite Beach Boys song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh1YKIZlXWs

[sparklite2]

Zooey’s big eyes and bangs have attracted me for years. I would have enjoyed That Girl except the writing was so atrocious, I never watched it past the first episode.

[sparklite2]

“That would be “Don’t Worry Baby”

Agree completely.

[TChad]

when I built the Cobra for Dennis to go drag racing I had to go to Brian for the money

This Cobra?

http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/texas-cobra-club/119502-dennis-wilson-beach-boys-track-may-1966-a.html

[free_life]

Rubber Soul, Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper always get mentioned as the best in that era, but the Beatles Revolver blow them all away imo.

[dalereed]

That's it.

I'm the blond crew cut with the 2 stripes down my shirt, Dennis is in the blue drivers suit, and my partner is in the brown cross hatch shirt and his hands in pockets.

[Mean Daddy]

I’m a huge Beatles fan, but I recall reading an article where Brian Wilson would compose a song and he could sit at a set of drums and lay down the track for it. He would then come in and lay down the guitar, piano etc. tracks and it would perfectly line up.

[4yearlurker]

I think “If I Needed Someone” is a Harrison tune. Just saying. He could hold his own with the other guys.

[NCC-1701]

According to Paul, the way the Rubber Soul album picture came to look stretched is that while looking at slides of the photo shoot, they used a card the size of an album. When this cover pic came up, the card tilted back slightly and the picture looked stretched. They said that looks good and could the photographer do that. He said he could and that’s how the cover became what we see today.

[Skooz]

Feel Flows, still my favorite Beach Boys song

Same here. An amazing piece of work.

[Skooz]

Rubber Soul, Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper always get mentioned as the best in that era, but the Beatles Revolver blow them all away imo.

I agree. Revolver is probably the best Beatles album and also probably the best album of the era. Very little in rock n roll's catalogue even comes close.

[plain talk]

musicians have lots of influences. Pet Sounds is nothing like Sgt Pepper.