Weekend Music Twofer -- Waves And Vibrations

 

The only "wave" we're hearing about today is from the Beach Boys, and the vibrations we're getting from the mid-terms are pretty good.  "They'll eat their words with a fork and spoon"... you know who they are.  Hope you enjoy.

Weekend Greatest Album Twofer

Man, this was a great week 50 years ago if you were buying rock albums!  Two (20 percent) of the top 10 albums in Rolling Stone magazine's top 500 greatest albums were released this week in 1966 (May 16 to be exact).  The two albums were "Pet Sounds" (#2) by the Beach Boys and "Blonde on Blonde" (#9) by Bob Dylan.  Here are a popular cut from the former and a less played cut from the latter.  Enjoy.

Weekend Summer Birthday Song

Here in the northern hemisphere, tomorrow is the first day of summer.  Today happens to be the 72nd birthday of Beach Boy genius Brian Wilson (btw, who would have guessed 30 years ago that Brian would be the surviving Wilson brother!?).  In honor of him, and to usher in the summer season, what better song to play than one of the earliest Beach Boys hits, lyrics by Wilson (with the tune creatively borrowed from Chuck Berry), "Surfin' USA."  We especially like the name checks of the great surfing beaches - "Haggerty's and Swami's, Pacific Palisades, San Onofre and Sunset, Redondo Beach, LA..."  Enjoy your weekend.

Weekend Song

The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" album from 1966 has long been considered one of the great albums of all time.  It was the Beach Boys' musical response to the Beatles' "Rubber Soul" album, and in turn was one of the inspirations for the Beatles' masterpiece album, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."  One of the often overlooked cuts on "Pet Sounds" is "Caroline, No," which features only Brian Wilson and studio musicians.  (You'll hear in the last 30 seconds or so of the song various sound effects, including dogs barking -  those would be Brian Wilson's two dogs Banana and Louie. ) Enjoy this lovely and rather languid (for the Beach Boys) song: