Re: Poll: Beatles or Beach Boys?

Mackenzie wrote:

>>>> The key difference I see between these two bands is that the Beach
>>>> Boys had one genius while the Beatles had two.
>>> Oh, no, I argue that Love is a powerful & under-rated genius.  :)
>> The key difference I see is that the Beatles and their inner circle
>> (George Martin etc.) were always trying to innovate and be the best
they
>> could be, while Brian Wilson had the other band members and those
around
>> them often pu****ng him to just crank out formulaic hits.
> 
> He was a certainly a nitpicking perfectionist. After the Beach Boys
> had finished touring in '66, he bottled up in his room to write songs
> for "Pet Sounds", which he particulary optimisitic about. It took him
> nearly a year to produce and create the album, which isn't suprising
> considering "Good Vibrations", (one of their classics and my favorite
> song) took nearly six months to produce.

If Brian Wilson was the perfectionist you claim he was then home come he 
mixed down 'Pet Sounds' in *one day* and sounded like it? The reason is 
that he ran out of time. The reason GV took six months and five studios 
is because he couldn't make his mind up about nearly anything. The time 
he took to do so many things was in large part due to the vast amounts 
of 'trendy chemical amusement' that his brain was swilling in. That he 
could still do the job was remarkable enough. He was no real 
perfectionist at all; there are far too many substandard BB songs and 
albums to prove that theory /quite/ wrong.

One other thing - George Martin's real legacy was his ability to make 
good and accurate recordings using fairly limited equipment. Contrary to 
public belief, he was not a world class producer, but a first rate 
engineer.

VDC