I was just thinking about the great classic rock scene of the 60's. And I realized something.
Paul Simon and The Sounds of Silence.
I was thinking that Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, on Pet Sounds and his serious art work, was doing something completely different from the rock music scene, that had absolutely nothing to do with the folk-rock/blues-rock scene of 1965, with classical music and traditional pop craftsmanship, that was simply integrated into the wider music scene through Pet Sounds's massive influence upon other rock bands and musicians.
And then I thought, but the Beach Boys, starting with 'Good Vibrations', ended up covering the same spiritual territory as so many wonderful, super-genius artists of the time, like the Grateful Dead and The Beatles.
And I realized that, of course, the emotions and spirit of Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations was a massive influence upon The Beatles and the entire embryonic young rising music scenes in London, San Francisco and the newer Los Angeles scene. So of course, they were influenced by Pet Sounds and took it to the same places that Brian Wilson did in Good Vibrations- which then set the emotional and spiritual tone for the rest of the Beach Boys' career- Sunflower, Surf's Up, Holland, Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue, all of it. Including Smile, which then provided the model for the rest of it to follow (Sunflower, Holland and the rest).
Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations influenced the music scene around them.
And then I realized that there was something else that was a huge influence on the emotional expansion of the 60's music scene into Good Vibrations territory.
The Sounds of Silence.
When Simon and Garfunkel first came out with The Sounds of Silence, it was a watershed.
A massive watershed.
Here, for the first time (aside from possibly side 2 of The Beach Boys Today), was the vast emotional and spiritual world of Good Vibrations, Abbey Road and The Grateful Dead.
Here. In The Sounds of Silence.
Simon and Garfunkel were a watershed.
And they would follow it up.
Within a short time I Am A Rock, Homeward Bound and an entire new album of fine music would follow.
Followed by a series of staggeringly brilliant albums in later 1966, 1968 and 1970.
Paul Simon, aided by the divine godlike singing of the great Art Garfunkel (perhaps the finest singer of the 20th Century!), had opened up vast new emotional vistas.
There is a reason for this.
Paul Simon was a huge talent already at the peak of his abilities. He was part of the Folkie scene, and he believed in everything that Bob Dylan stood for.
All of it. The sounds, the activism, the hipster culture.
And he had mastered all of it.
But Paul Simon is something else.
He is a lyrical songwriter. A lover of lyrical melody and beautiful lyrical poetry in the lyrics.
And he is an intimate personal songwriter.
And he integrates all that with all the hipster Folkie social activism and modern poetry.
And by the time he wrote The Sounds of Silence, he had had enough practice to be damn good at it.
And so he took the music someplace no one else had before.
Hipster folkie sophistocation and activism, literary lyrics, with beautiful lyrical melody and poetry and a personal intimacy.
No wonder that he and Brian Wilson took the music someplace it had never been before.
Bob Dylan followed.
Bob Dylan devoted his entire next album, the legendary Blonde on Blonde, to developing personal intimacy and lyricism in his music.
The Grateful Dead, the more intimate moments of The Beatles to come (everything from Hey Jude to She's Leaving Home), the more intimate, lyrical moments of Jimi Hendrix, and a huge emotional expansion of the entire music scene followed.
All from Paul Simon and Brian Wilson, who were working (until The Sounds of Silence came out) completely independently of each other.
Paul Simon and Brian Wilson. Pioneers who opened up whole new worlds for the new music.
Something to think about!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson