Pet Sounds - Your reaction the first time you heard it?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by JohnnyQuest, Jul 28, 2014.

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  1. Gems-A-Bems

    Gems-A-Bems Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Duke City
    Almost exactly what I was thinking immediately after hearing it the first time

     
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  2. EdogawaRampo

    EdogawaRampo Senior Member

    I did not like it at all. That was in 1972. I wanted cheery, upbeat early and mid-60s Beach Boys, not reflective, introspective, depressing stuff.
    Ten years later I gave it another chance (via the green label Capitol mono reissue) and thought it was incredible. I have ever since.
     
  3. I know you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover but I was put off the album (before hearing it) by the icky cover photo. My initial reaction upon hearing it was two or three good songs the rest is filler. Unfortunately, that is still pretty much my opinion of it today. I do own the album, in fact I have the often praised DCC, but even this nice mastering fails to elevate the album above 'curiosity' status for me. I hang on to it though believing that one day the light bulb just might turn on.
     
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  4. Uncle Meat

    Uncle Meat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, Tx, US
    I liked it the first time I listened to it, but the more I listened to it, I tended to focus more on the backing tracks (and still do).
    Some of the backing tracks are so beautiful, the best (though they work fine with the vocals as well).
     
  5. Satchidananda

    Satchidananda Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    I think it was a little overhyped for me. I like it, and it's the best Beach Boys album, but I wouldn't put it in a "Top 10 albums of all time" list as it frequently is. I don't know if I heard it first in stereo or mono - but it sounded soupy. I didn't like Brian's emotive vocals.

    This was around the same time (early high school) I was getting into the Beatles and it just didn't register at the same level in my brain. It didn't make me want to start it over as soon as it finished, like Revolver or Sgt Peppers.
     
  6. Sick Sick Phil

    Sick Sick Phil Forum Resident

    i only liked the singles off the album when i first heard it and I still feel that way. I like their early albums and 20/20 far better.
     
  7. JohnnyQuest

    JohnnyQuest Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Paradise
  8. supermd

    supermd Senior Member

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    "Boring." It took be about 5 listens over a year to get it, and now I love it.
     
  9. 905

    905 Senior Member

    Location:
    Midwest USA
    Other than a few songs I didn't think it was that great. Years later I liked it better, but still surprised at all of the hype about how great it is.
     
  10. motionoftheocean

    motionoftheocean Senior Member

    Location:
    Circus Maximus
    zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

    came around about 15 years later
     
  11. nicotinecaffeine

    nicotinecaffeine Forum Resident

    Location:
    Walton, KY
    First purchased it during the Brian Wilson hype of the late 90's and thought, "Okay, this is it?"

    But, after a few listens, I began to really enjoy it. Would now consider it a favorite.

    One thing it did do was made me realize how full of schisse a lot of musicians and actors are when they'd talk about it 30+ years later. They all had the same batch of bulls*** as they do for other artists and albums.

    "I had to stop and pull the car over"
    "Everybody's mouth was hanging open."
    "I heard it and was like 'What is this'?"

    Barf.

    George Martin described it best by referring to it as The Beatles "yard stick". That sounds far more sincere and realistic than the aforementioned drivel.
     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2014
  12. Coricama

    Coricama Classic Rocker

    Location:
    Marietta, GA
    Exactly my reaction. I have learned to like it, but it will never be one of my 'desert island' records.
     
  13. JohnnyQuest

    JohnnyQuest Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Paradise
    What would your top 3 "Desert Island" records be?:shh:
     
  14. michael landes

    michael landes Forum Resident

    I first bought/heard this the year of it's original release. I liked it immediately. My immediate reaction was that it was a little uneven.
    After a few listens I liked it much more, but my feeling that it was a little uneven remained. Specifically, the instrumental tracks hit me
    as filler, filler of a very high order of course, but filler nonetheless. Also two of the other tracks were to my mind weaker than the rest.
    It occured to me that much as I liked the record, I'd like it better without these four tracks and sure enough, I did. I listened to my 9-track
    sub-sequence exclusively, when I craved Pet Sounds, for many years.

    Later I became clear to me that Sloop John B. did not really belong. Lyrically it's anomalous. It' backing track was completed 6 months before Brian started work on Pet Sounds. True the vocals were added during the Pet Sounds sessions,
    but it is an anomaly nonetheless. I now listen to it as part of my Beach Boys '65 mixtape. (selections from Summer Days, + The Little Girl I Once Knew
    + There's No Other Like My Baby and Barbara Ann + Sloop John b.)

    At the same time it became clear to me that work was begun on Good Vibrations was initially part of the Pet Sounds sessions, not the Smile project.
    The only reason it did not end up on Pet Sounds was that Brian ran out of time so if he wanted to complete it as he wished, he had to temporarily put it aside. So, even though the finished track is a very different species of animal from the other Pet Sounds tracks, I've experimented with listening to it as part of that album and for me it works very well indeed. Now losing Sloop John B and adding Good Vibrations changes the overall impression
    tremendously but I quite like it in the sequence I've chosen. So there you have it, one of my very favorite albums, but one that is quite different from
    the release, being minus FIVE tracks and adding Good Vibrations. BLASPHEMY! OK I'm a heretic. b-b-b-but, I like it.
     
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  15. Manalishi

    Manalishi With the 2-pronged crown

    Location:
    New Hampshire
    Where's the guitar? Or was that Smile? Other than that, pretty good actually....
     
  16. Coricama

    Coricama Classic Rocker

    Location:
    Marietta, GA
    I think you just figured out your next thread title, J.Q.! :righton:
     
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  17. JohnnyQuest

    JohnnyQuest Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Paradise
    :unhunh: But I've already done that thread. ;)
     
  18. Coricama

    Coricama Classic Rocker

    Location:
    Marietta, GA
    I guess I'm falling behind. Spent the weekend setting up a computer for Hi-Res music from the DAC in my OPPO. I had a lot of help from one of our fellow members.
     
  19. TonyR

    TonyR Forum Resident

    Location:
    Atlanta GA
    My first copy was bought in a garage sale circa 1978, when I was 16. It was the US Capitol vinyl. I was underwhelmed. I liked the two hits ("Wouldn't It Be Nice" and "Sloop John B") and the rest did nothing for me. At that time, I thought it was like muzak. I gave it a few more spins over the years, but still nothing. I had many other Beach Boys albums that I was quite fond of, but not this one.

    Then sometime in 1997-98, I was in Best Buy, looking at some box sets that were on sale. I joked with my wife about a Debbie Gibson box set that was cheap. My wife picked up the Pet Sounds Sessions box and said, "how about this?" It was marked at $10, apparently in error. I snatched it up, took it home, and was blown away by the stereo mix, and by the isolated instrumental and vocal tracks. The box set made the album come alive for me, and it is now one of my favorite albums. I even like the mono mix.

    I think my original vinyl issue just sounded flat and murky, and because of this I could never get into Pet Sounds, until the Sessions box set.
     
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  20. Kill Uncle Meat

    Kill Uncle Meat Forum Resident

    It was about 10 years ago (I was 20), so I was quite late to the party and already knew it was considered a great classic. I loved it on first listen and thought 'hey, I like this better than Sgt. Pepper's', though I thought it was clearly influenced by The Beatles. When I learned that it was the other way around it just blew my mind.
     
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  21. Chuckee

    Chuckee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Upstate, NY, USA

    Well it was influenced by Rubber Soul, so it is somewhat true.
     
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  22. brianvargo

    brianvargo Senior Member

    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    I bought the 1990 CD with money I got for my high school graduation, not really knowing what to expect beyond the singles. I loved the music, but I thought the CD sounded dull. At the time, I had no concept of mastering, no-noise, or any of that; I just assumed that the music wasn't terribly well produced. I didn't really care if it sounded awful, though; it was great music that resonated with me from the start.

    Since then, I've purchased a great many copies, and have come to appreciate it for its sonic qualities, as well. But great music is great music, even when it's presented less than optimally.
     
  23. Kill Uncle Meat

    Kill Uncle Meat Forum Resident

    Doesn't sound like it. I would say it was inspired by Rubber Soul, not really influenced.
     
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  24. Michael P

    Michael P Forum Resident

    Location:
    Parma, Ohio
    1966 will always be a special year musically for me. That was the year I joined The Boy Scouts. It seems like every song I heard on the radio going to various camps from the spring of '66 through the fall of '67 got "attached" in my memory. The Beach Boys (especially Good vibrations) were among the artists I liked from that era, however it would only be the singles played via the radio. It would be several years later before I started listening to albums and buying records. Since the age of 5 I was attracted to records and stereo systems. I always wanted to hear everything in stereo, not knowing that was not always the best version. So I get to high school and joined the amateur radio club. There I met Al, the president of the club. He was a big Beach Boys fan in an era where they BB's fame was waning (this was the fall of '69). He was a senior my freshman year, the following year his younger brother Dave was a freshman and a musician (also a big BB fan thanks to his brother's influence). I wanted to "make records" so I hung out with all the musicians. After I graduated Al and Dave would help me build a recording studio in my house. It was Al who introduced me to Pet Sounds and the superiority of mono (because Brian mixed in mono). Al tried to impress on me to listen to the separation of the instruments in the mono mix. I would listen to genuine mono pressings of Pet Sounds wherever I could find them until I got my own copy via "Carl and The Passions...So Tough". The original Capitol catalog was mostly out of print during my high school days.

    So my initial impression of Pet Sounds was from a technical viewpoint. I still would not learn to appreciate a good mono mix for years later, I stubbornly clung to my love for stereo (but not Duophonic).
     
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  25. Chuckee

    Chuckee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Upstate, NY, USA

    Well some of the songs on Rubber Soul were more personal, so I would say that is where some of the influence or inspiration comes from.
     
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