Are Good Headphones Essential For Winning BB Converts?

[Dunderhead]

Over time it's been harder and harder for me to figure out the disconnect between The Beach Boys and everyone else I know. Sure, plenty of people I've been friends with have consented that The Beach Boys were really awesome and classic and all that, but I've come to feel like I must be listening to totally different songs than most people for us to react in such different ways. I'm sure everyone out there has made a mix of deep cuts for a friend or a girlfriend and had them come back after listening to it with "oh it was good". "It was good"? That's it?

So I wanted to know, firstly how many of you out there own a good pair of headphones? I've been trying to turn a friend of mine onto Love You for a couple of weeks and last night I went over to his apartment with the sworn intent of winning a convert. I had been listening to Love You all day, wondering why the songs I sent to my friend didn't seem to connect, and then I realized, you really can't enjoy that album fully without a good pair of headphones. You have to be able to feel the drums on Honkin' Down The Highway, or those first few seconds of Let's Go On This Way where the synths really rattle your ear drums. Sure enough, even though he had heard some of the songs before, with headphones Honkin' Down The Highway made him giggle throughout, and he burst into unrestrained laughter at the false ending of Airplane. I'm pretty sure I won him over when I finished with Just Once In My Life and he yelled over the sound of the quiet room, "I need you to put this on a cd so I can listen to it in my car."

I thought I'd just make a thread about this because I think if you're like me at all, it can be very discouraging to see your friends not have the same emotional reaction to Beach Boys' music as yourself, and I'd really recommend from now on forcing people you know to listen to the songs you pick for them on headphones rather than computer speakers or whatever else. If you send somebody a youtube clip of Airplane they're not going to understand the song at all on some tiny little speakers, they're not going to get sucked into the ambiance of it. After last night I'm positive that the primary reason I like The Beach Boys so much whereas my friends like them so little is that I listen to music on a good pair of headphones while most of my friends don't.

So, discuss. What about Brian's production makes headphones so valuable? What's the best way to get a friend into the band? Are headphones required?

[Ron]

I don't think it is... the key to converting people is to get them to connect with the personalities, in particular, Brian Wilson.  If they get to a place where they see Brian for the brilliant, and brilliantly flawed person that he is, it makes the music that much more interesting, and you start seeing all the nuance and personality he put in the songs.  The contributions of Carl, Dennis, Al, Mike, etc. all become more apparent as well, you get to understand them and know them through their relationship with Brian. 

[Wirestone]

I think most of Brian's classic productions were made to sound good on an AM car radio, so they will sound good played on anything -- good headphones, a computer, an iPod, a tin can.

At a certain point, when Brian was no longer producing (much), the sonic detail became much more important. These would be the Desper years (Sunflower and Surf's Up in particular, although albums before and after qualify too). Some of that material does benefit a lot from quality reproduction.

All that being said, I've given up hoping that other people will respond to music emotionally the way I do. People are very distinct creatures, and there's no way to really get into someone's head. At a certain point, I decided that I was just wasting effort. Especially when it comes to the BB's more esoteric stuff -- Love You is definitely in this category -- it's almost impossible for an outsider to appreciate it unless he just likes the sound of the music, plain and simple, or really knows and understands the band's history in a deep way. One of those things you can't make happen, and the other is just too time-consuming.

[Freddie French-Pounce]

I think the simple difference is that, when listening on headphones, otehr things become less of a distraction, allowing your friend to focus more on the music and enjoy it for said reason!

[Dunderhead]

Well I think for me there are just a lot of details that you can't hear on computer speakers that make the songs more enjoyable, like the end of Had To Phone Ya', the snoring in I Went To Sleep, the ambient noise in Airplane, I think those minor details are much harder to notice without headphones, especially for a casual listener.

I also think being able to feel the music is really important, like the starting drum beat of Honkin' Down The Highway. On headphones you can really feel it in a way that lends the song a whole different presence. I also think that it's easy to miss a lot of the instrumentation on computer speakers, and sometimes, especially on 15 Big Ones, synth lines are almost inaudible without headphones.

For me, listening to The Beach Boys on headphones is like a totally different experience. It really brings out a whole vitality that doesn't come across otherwise.

[SamMcK]

I never paid too much attention to the Little Deuce Coupe album but as I found out recently when you listen to those harmonies on good headphones loud it is unbelievable! Listen to Car Crazy Cutie for example!

[Iron Horse-Apples]

Good headphones and a big spliff.

[LostArt]

But if I have these headphone things covering my ears, I won't be able to hear the sound of the Beach Boys coming out of my nice big old speakers.

Well I think for me there are just a lot of details that you can't hear on computer speakers...

Oh.....well....there's your problem right there.

[rab2591]

Good taste is required

Only if someone is an audiophile, I doubt that good headphones would do the trick. It takes a deep connection with the music to truly appreciate it....that connection can be found in feelings of nostalgia, relation to BW's problems, or your love of harmonies. With good headphones however, if they're an audiophile, they would LOVE a stereo Pet Sounds or Sunflower.

[hypehat]

I think saying 'good equipment is required' is putting the horse before the cart, so to speak. I fell in love with Pet Sounds listening to it on a tinny CD player. It's not really relevant, I think.

[Alan Smith]

I could listen to the BB's through an empty bucket, which in fact, I sort of did; as an 11 year old in '82, spinning a BB maxi-cut Greatest hits LP through dad's PYE 3 in 1 4watt stereo (maxi-cut records had twice number of tracks squeezed on a side at the cost of sound quality, kinda like mp3s).

Bought Surfin' Safari/USA, PS/SS LPs, Rarities on cassette, Santa delivers 10 Years of harmony on tape just before birthday 13, nailed down and played 'Love You' to death a year later - much better source quality, but still the same old stereo, and it did not get in the way of me getting obsessed with this stuff.

I picked up a decent rig in my '20s which obviously made things sound heaps better, but didn't change the way I felt about the strength and appeal of those songs (most of them  )

I think the best way to get convert your pals is start with the obvious stuff and then slowly build them up to full catalogue - see how you go 

[UK_Surf]

Good context is essential - that may or may not include headphones. If you're in a situation talking music and taking it seriously, and genuinely engaged in a discussion rather than forcing your ideas down someone's throat, then the music will win anyone over who's so inclined. It's always better to let people discover things on their own terms, but a good guide can really make that discovery all the more rewarding.

But equally, there are those who won't come around, and no headphones are ever going to change that. Meh....

[hypehat]

To take this ridiculously OT

UK_Surf, have you heard the new Spiritualized album yet?

[Awesoman]

So, discuss. What about Brian's production makes headphones so valuable? What's the best way to get a friend into the band? Are headphones required?

Nah.  Just good taste in music. 

[UK_Surf]

To take this ridiculously OT

UK_Surf, have you heard the new Spiritualized album yet?

Yeah, I streamed it on the Guardian site.

Ummmmmm. Hm.  Well. I'm a massive fan of Spiritualized, and the production is certainly back on track here, and there are some vintage riffs and melodies scattered throughout it. But for me it doesn't get back to their best, which I think they managed with the second half of Amazing Grace (Rated X, cheepster, etc), and haven't really done since. I applaud the inventiveness and trying to break the mould (some BB-type moments in there, he said, on a desperate attempt to get back OT!). Pierce's voice seems pretty fine. But the lyrics have been on a downward spiral for a while and I'm finding it harder and harder to get past that these days. I really wanted to like this album, especially considering what a hard time he's had lately, but it may be that it'll take a while. It did with AG, so there's a chance here.  Have you heard it?

[Disney Boy (1985)]

How to get a non-BB loving friend into the Beach Boys? Well, i'd say Love You is probably about the worst place to start, as if any album requires a real knowledge of Brian Wilson - and his personal and emotional situation at the time - it's this one. Yes, we love the child-ish/like lyrics and the farting, squelchy synths, but then we know the history.

In my personal experience, the best way to convert a non-BB loving chum into a BB-loving chum is with a surprising Beach Boys album, by which I mean an album that sounds different to what the casual music fan would possibly expect i.e. Surf's Up's psychodelic experimentation (as worked with Robert Downey Jr in a music article in the Observer, in which he claimed to dislike the BB's, listened to Surf's Up, and professed himself utterly surprised and amazed!), or - and this is always a winner in my experience - Wild Honey. Next time you wanna convert a friend burn 'em a copy of Wild Honey - it works, trust me! To date, i've had three friends and two relatives get back to me after lisening to it exclaiming 'Wow, that was an amazing album! Gimme more!' Whereupon you unleash Holland, Sunflower, Friends, etc. And once you've got 'em, then start to wean them onto the earlier stuff from which they'd previously considered themselves immune. Cue enlightenment.

And then you burn them a copy of Love You.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

I used to favour the mix tape as a way of conversion. Then move to albums later to finish the assimilation process.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I just lash them to a convenient tree and bore them into submission.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

I just lash them to a convenient tree and bore them into submission.

Yes, that also works!!

[Ron]

.... see, if you listen, see how the Key changes in the MIDDLE of the third verse?  Nobody else does that.... but Brian Wilson.  Usually it changes BEFORE the verse.  See how Mike's voice goes up?  The Key changed!


(Usually that's about the time they jump out of the car on me)

[cube_monkey]

I think its the songs and their singing for the most part.  However, once you get into audio or recording and mixing and are a certified BB nutjob (like me),   you start hearing the little things and you are just sucked in even
more.   as much as (to me) the drums on Here She Comes were about the best live sounding drums on a record I have heard,  I have to wonder who the hell mixed that song!   that vocal lead  can be missed depending on
where you are standing in the room.   I like that about it, but  they should of probably been up in the mix.  I don't know if anyone cared about phase cancellation.

the liner notes on Holland and Surfs Up  and maybe Sunflower talk about how they didn't just pan an instrument, it was recorded in its "space" and all that.   As it says on Carl and the Passions, "recorded in center channel
quad, the way Brian heard it" ( If I remember).   i think thats a "its really mono" joke.   Like the RIAA joke on the liner notes of the Stones Sticky Fingers album.   snicker.

[Dunderhead]

What do you guys think makes an obsessive? Do you just have to be a certain type of person to begin with?

[Andrew G. Doe]

What do you guys think makes an obsessive? Do you just have to be a certain type of person to begin with?

Yeah, it's in the genes. Take me, for example: if something grabs my attention, I feel impelled to find out as much about it as I possibly can, and I usually do in pretty short order. Currently my other obsessions are:

Georgian cricket...
Jack the Ripper...
Butch Cassidy (the real person)...
the movies of DW Griffith...
actually, silent movies in general...
cryptozoology...
family history...
maps...

... and a couple you probably could do without knowing.  

[Dunderhead]

What do you guys think makes an obsessive? Do you just have to be a certain type of person to begin with?

Yeah, it's in the genes. Take me, for example: if something grabs my attention, I feel impelled to find out as much about it as I possibly can, and I usually do in pretty short order. Currently my other obsessions are:

Georgian cricket...
Jack the Ripper...
Butch Cassidy (the real person)...
the movies of DW Griffith...
actually, silent movies in general...
cryptozoology...
family history...
maps...

... and a couple you probably could do without knowing.  

You got me, I only have two. The Beach Boys and Goethe.

[Amy B.]

I think the initial conversion is like trying to convert someone to a religion. To really "see the light," the person really has to have an emotional reaction--it has to come from within them. Otherwise, it's just, "Yeah, this is a catchy song with good harmonies." And then they go back to listening to something else and don't really care to hear more BBs music.

And you have to pick the right songs for the right person. Love You probably isn't a good album for conversion. I remember sending "Solar System" to a few friends, and their reaction wasn't conversion or even apathy. It was "This is terrible." They hated Brian's voice, thought the lyrics were juvenile, etc. It was just too different from what they considered good pop music to be, and way too different from what they LIKED about the BBs--beautiful voices. i had thought it was a good idea to send something completely unexpected, but I should have sent something somewhat unexpected but still graspable. Surf's Up is a good one because it still has that beauty that people expect but it's not Little Honda by a long shot. My sister was impressed when she heard Surf's Up 1967 from the box set. But she still wasn't converted. She didn't have the emotional reaction. It just wasn't in her.