Eric Carmen On The Beach Boys

Bob,

Your review gave me chills!

I, for one, have discussed, many times, with many people, the idea that Brian is, perhaps, the Mozart of our generation. I love the Beatles. I love the Stones. I love the Who and the Byrds. But "Pet Sounds" and "Sunflower" blew my mind. There are moments on those albums that transcend anything I have ever heard before.

My Dad's sister was the first woman George Szell ever hired. She retired, after forty-three years, as the senior member of The Cleveland Orchestra. I grew up as their "mascot." I got to sit on stage while the greatest symphony in the world rehearsed at Severance Hall. Very heady stuff. I hid in a cello case, one day, and caused the entire orchestra to stop rehearsing to look for me. It was a very special childhood.

I had the great honor to tour with The Beach Boys, both as part of The Raspberries in 1974, and as a solo act in 1976. I can remember standing in the back of the hall listening to them play "Surfer Girl" every night, and, literally, getting tears in my eyes every time they came to a stop after... "Do you love me, do you surfer......." Then the spotlight would hit Al Jardine as he would sing ...."girl." It was really an odd feeling to be brought to tears, almost every single night by such a simple song.

We stayed in the same hotels, on tour, and I remember walking past one of the Beach Boys hotel rooms, and hearing them rehearsing acapella vocal parts. It stopped me in my tracks, and I walked backwards, literally stunned, listening to the complexity and beauty of those vocal harmonies. To this day, I have never heard anything that could compare.

McCartney has been very generous in his admission that "Pet Sounds" inspired him to push the Beatles to create "Sgt. Pepper." He thought the Beach Boys were kicking his ass. He's also acknowledged the fact that he thinks "God Only Knows" is, perhaps, the greatest pop song of all time. As a huge fan of both the Beatles and the Beach Boys, I can only say that it is surely genius.

Anyone who has ever listened to the "outtakes" of Brian directing the studio musicians during the "Pet Sounds" sessions knows what a genius Brian was. He took instruments that never had been heard on "pop" songs" and blended them into the vocals, unlike anything we had ever heard before. Clarinets, bassoons, french horns, baritone saxes. Every singer in the Beach Boys was an instrument. Mike Love was a baritone sax. Carl Wilson, a french horn, Al Jardine occasionally a banjo, or a trumpet.

No other band in history has ever influenced me as much as the Beach Boys. Brian stands alone as the genius of my generation, even though I, like many others, was late to catch up with him.

I challenge ANYONE to listen to "This Whole World" ( which changes keys every 8 bars ) or "Until I Die" and find anything comparable in pop music. But you don't have to delve into the "modern" Beach Boys to find pure genius. Just listen to "Warmth Of The Sun, " circa 1966. I had to go back and do my homework to hear the genius stuff Brian created BEFORE "Pet Sounds."

To me, there has never been anyone, not even The Beatles (and I LOVE The Beatles) that could match the sophistication and brilliance of Brian Wilson in 1966.

I've always loved John and Paul, and Burt Bacharach, and Goffin and King, and all the other great songwriting teams that churned out hit after hit during the time I grew up. But nobody, and I mean NOBODY, could match the brilliance of Brian Wilson, who not only wrote the songs, but arranged and produced them. He didn't have a George Martin to help. It was all Brian.

I met Darian Sahanaja, when I was living in L.A. He's the leader of the Wondermints, who are now Brian's backing band, and prominently featured on the current Beach Boys tour. I heard a demo tape he had made, that included a song called "Tracy Hide", which, to me captured the essence of what Brian was doing during the "Pet Sounds" era. It was startling to hear Darian nail Brian, right down to the bass sound.

It's no coincidence that Darian ended up being Brian's musical director, and a driving force on the "Smile" album. I've also had the supreme pleasure of having worked with Mark Linnet, the superstar engineer who has been archiving every Beach Boys recording, and turning analog to digital for two decades. If you haven't heard the "40th Anniversary Pet Sounds" recording that Mark remixed, you have a real treat in store for you. I heard things in that remix that I had NEVER heard before, not even after listening to "Pet Sounds' a thousand times.

The world takes its toll on very sensitive people. I've seen it many times in my forty years in the music business. The more brilliant and sensitive, the more likely you are to be a basket case by the time the managers, agents, record labels, etc., get done with you. Very few people I have known have escaped being bludgeoned by "the business." Brian is no exception.

All I can say is I've never met a serious songwriter or musician that doesn't understand that Brian is a genius of the highest magnitude in a time of multiple geniuses. Mick and Keith. John and Paul. Page and Plant. Clapton and Bruce.

To me, there will never be anyone that can compare with him, and, by the way, that in no way diminishes my esteem for Mike Love, who, truth be told, was HUGE, and underrated in the whole Beach Boys paradigm. And Bruce Johnston, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson and Al Jardine are not exactly "chopped liver", either. I've known all of them and each one possessed more talent than anyone I hear on the radio these days.

I've got my tickets to see them next Wednesday. I wouldn't miss it for the world. You don't often get the chance to hear genius these days.

Eric


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