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

I was disappointed because I had already read too much hype

 

I didn't think it quite lived up to its reputation, though it almost did. eventually it all made sense. In some alternate benevolent universe perhaps there is a version with "Sloop John B" replaced at the end of side one with "Guess I'm Dumb"

 

Dude, are you implying that the same guy that made sure "Bull Session With Big Daddy" made the album cut just a year or so before Pet Sounds didn't have heavy themes in mind ALL the time ?
Look at his food theme here..French fries, Kosher Pickles, Malts, cheese sandwiches . Does he have to hit you over the head with it ?

Seriously, I agree that at the time of release I don't remember much blabber about Pet Sound themes and such. It was just another pop album. After Paul McCartney started talking up Pet Sounds as a masterpiece, the legend started to grow.

 

Well he sang Don't Worry Baby which is a bit closer to Pet Sounds.

 

Gotta agree with our host.... I've tried so hard with this album but i just can't hear what others hear in it. Bar the couple of hit songs i remain unmoved.

I'm interested to learn that we have Beatle Paul to thank for this record's leap into the pantheon.

However.. are we supposed to use terms such as 'revisionist BS'. ? Quis custodet custodes??... as Beatle John would almost certainly have said.

 

I was and still today not impressed with it.

 

I had known 4 of the songs since I was a kid. I got the album in junior high. I loved the album from Day 1 and still do. Of the songs I had not previously heard, the tune that really blew me away was "Don't Talk."

 

Glad to read that I'm not alone in the Pet Sounds non-believer crowd. 35 listens in, I still don't get the hype.

 

It saddens me to see so many people knocking Pet Sounds.

 

Gotta say, I find it fascinating that many have heard it, not really thought much of it, shelved it only to "rediscover" it and have it unfold as one of their favorites. Cool thing would be to discover the average age of those who have given it a thumbs down.

 

Wasn't too impressed with Pet Sounds but was bowled over by the Wild Honey album.

 

I loved it instantly. I was about 9 in early 1974, my best friend and I at the time were major Beach Boys fanatics- right before Endless Summer came out!
My sister was listening to it and turned us onto it. No critical analysis, it hadn't been a revered classic yet, there was no hoopla written about it then. I just loved it all: the songs and the arrangements.
As i got older I understood the feeling of the album and it changed with me as I got older. It's a part of me.

 

First reaction: "I don't get the hub-bub"

Now: "Amazing"

It took me a bit of maturing before I got it.

 

I agree with our host that there's no theme on Pet Sounds (for that matter, the songs on Sgt. Pepper's don't fit a theme, either). I think Van Dyke Parks introduced the idea of a concept album when he started working with Brian on SMiLE.

The thing that ties Pet Sounds together is the arrangements--a collection of Brian's "pet sounds".

 

I kind of went backwards with this album. I dont know why but the first time I heard it was when I purchased boot of the stereo version and vocal only harmonies came out a few years before the Sessions boxset. I was heavily into buying Stones and Dylan boots. For some reason I decided to pick it up also.

I had no idea about stereo vs mono mix at that time so kind of odd and unique from others that my very first exposure was the stereo mix. This was in the 90s I believe. Being a choral and vocal guy however; I was totally blown away and hooked on the vocal only tracks.

I think I might have listened to the proper stereo album from the cd maybe once or twice but continually listened to the accapella stuff. Then I got some print outs of the guitar chords and tab for four or five songs and learned them and put my own flavor to them. I never thought of the album at that time nor a long time afterwords.

A few years later a relationship went bad and thats when I grabbed the Pet Sounds boot by chance from a pile of cds at the side of my matress on the floor and put it on with earphones in the dark while blubbering about some girl. Thats when it struck me. Its a totally different album in the dark. Im not sure any album took my emotions and nerves on such a tender gentle heartwrenching wonderful journey as that album did at that time. I listened to it for weeks and nothing else. It became a part of me in a big way. Quiet a healing.

Later I got the DCC and rediscovered the album in mono. Also, I learned what I had been missing in the mystery. Its an album in which the instrumentation needs to remain ethereal with a golden spook about it. Only in mono does it have that.

I know its kind of cliche to say Pet Sounds is a favorite album of mine here at SHF because so many go on and on about it. But it was a part of me long before there was a SHF. Its just the most amazing kind album Ive ever heard. And was a good friend to me during a difficult time. Will always be partial to Pet Sounds. I still play it 10 or so times a year.

 

Same here. Amazing song.

 

I was 17 years old in 1966 and listened to a transfer I made of it to my portable 5" reel-to-reel recorder all the way on a school bus trip to NY. I was so thrilled I wanted to screw every girl on the bus (not unusual anyway) A very romantic, astounding album.

 

Besides, the first real "concept album" was The Colorful Ventures, beat Pet Sounds by 5 years. All the tunes had titles about colors, so the concept was color, and so was the album title. If you look at the cover, you see Don Wilson and Bob Bogle wearing colorful shirts and holding a colorful balloon. Moreover, the bullet points to the left and to the right of each song title are in the matching color of the title, thus underscoring the theme of color. Or colors.

See for yourself:




An all encompasing, unifying color concept long before Pet Sounds or Tommy or any of that. I haven't read any analyses of meaning, but I am sure this was more than just instro rock 'n roll by a couple of squares. I believe Red Top suggests the theme of opening the door to human joyfulness of spirit in life using a brew of winter crops.

 

No, this is the first real concept album:

Beat the Ventures by 21 years.

 

The interesting thing is that the revisionism, the legend, was created by the Beach Boys themselves with this reissue (and the So Tough 2-fer).




The cover was redesigned to present the work in contemporary minimalist relief… no more clowning around in Samurai Kimono get-ups!

It was something of a first in my mind – the whole idea of an overlooked cult classic being re-framed for consumption by a new generation; an album whose stature grows with the passing years.

 

I was thinking that Frank Sinatras "In The Wee Small Hours" was the first concept album.

 

Well it's clear now why it might have taken five more years for anyone to think doing a concept album might be cool.

 

Did that come out before Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs? Edit. Nevermind. I checked. It did