Beach Boys influence on Beatles post Sgt. Pepper

[brianc]

If we can go post-Beatles, the first Wings album, Wildlife, is very Brian-like.  Just like the post-Smile Brian of Wild Honey and Friends, lowering the expectations everyone had of a masterpiece, playing loose music with friends and family, happy now, after a period of perfectionism, to leave flaws in as part of the charm.  The lyrics simplified but the songwriting still strong, with gorgeous chord changes.  But Paul's concept of what the band Wings was about was soon to change and to go in a very un-Brian direction.

Awesome. I'm glad to see someone giving love to Wildlife. It's one of my favorite Beatles solo albums, for all the reasons you pointed out.

[Roger Ryan]

"Happiness is a Warm Gun"--Three unique song sections hooked together (though recorded all at once I believe).

Compare HIAWG to "She's Goin' Bald". Very similar approach of parodying several music genres, then stitching them together into a single song.

[sly74]

I was listening to Abbey Road the other day, and if "Because" wasn't influenced by the Beach Boys I don't know what was.  It sounds like the Beatles' answer to "Our Prayer".

"Lady Madonna"--The Beatles suddenly take an R&B turn following the release of Wild Honey.

"Hey Bulldog"--from same time frame.  Baroque pop gone, R&B in.  Brian was there first.

Get Back Project--stripped down, back to basics, R&B.  Again, Wild Honey.  If anything Brian felt the urge first and covered this territory over a year before the Beatles.

Abbey Road Project--in general a continued focus on R&B.  Trippy music is gone, experimentation is pretty much gone.

You know, first, I think their R'n'B-sound is likely because they started as a rock'n'roll-cover-band and played alot of R'n'B.
But I always wondered how likely it is that they were influenced by "Wild honey" and the direction Brian and the BBs went into. How well was WH received in the UK ? What about other (big) musicians? I heard WH was Jim Morrison's favorite album, so there could definitely be an influence. 

starting with Smiley Smile, the approach of having little or no reverb seems to have been a new thing then, which the Beatles subsequently starting doing also. i'm sure it goes both ways at times but i do think the Beatles took a lot of ideas more often from the BB's records rather than vice versa.
also, i think it was Smiley Smile, not Wild Honey that Morrison stated really digging. but i could be wrong.

[punkinhead]

i remember reading in 'the Beatles Unreleased' book that PM's Back Seat of my Car was a very BW like song...and I agree

[TdHabib]

i remember reading in 'the Beatles Unreleased' book that PM's Back Seat of my Car was a very BW like song...and I agree

I'm almost certain Paul was influenced by the BB with that song...great one btw...

[Glenn Greenberg]

i remember reading in 'the Beatles Unreleased' book that PM's Back Seat of my Car was a very BW like song...and I agree

Paul brought that song to the "Get Back" sessions and the other Beatles commented that it had a very "Beach Boys vibe" to it.  They were planning to work on it but never got around to it.

I've heard the bootlegs of Paul performing a rough version of the song on piano, presumably during those very same sessions, and it TOTALLY sounds like a Brian Wilson song, even moreso than the finished version that appeared on RAM.

Thanks to YouTube, you can judge for yourselves:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcDXTNHmO8w&feature=related

[sofonanm]

i remember reading in 'the Beatles Unreleased' book that PM's Back Seat of my Car was a very BW like song...and I agree

Paul brought that song to the "Get Back" sessions and the other Beatles commented that it had a very "Beach Boys vibe" to it.  They were planning to work on it but never got around to it.

I've heard the bootlegs of Paul performing a rough version of the song on piano, presumably during those very same sessions, and it TOTALLY sounds like a Brian Wilson song, even moreso than the finished version that appeared on RAM.

Thanks to YouTube, you can judge for yourselves:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcDXTNHmO8w&feature=related

yeah, it sounds like he sat around listening to IJWMFTT for a few hours before writing it.

[XY]

Anyone ever noticed "Waaater...Cool, clear water...waaaaater" in Lennon's 1974 song "Old Dirty Road"

Wouldn't both be inspired by that old country song of the same name?

Certainly. "Cool Water" by Sons Of The Pioneers.
"All day I face the barren waste without the taste of water...", perhaps that's why the CCW demo was titled "All Day" ?


Macca's "Another Day" always reminds me of "Busy Doin' Nothing".

[sofonanm]

this discussion kind of makes me sad that late 60s paul and late 60s brian didnt team up and do an entire album together or something.

imagine: paul and linda, brian and marilyn, the beach boys' voices and musical talents... that wouldve been great

brian and paul alternating piano/bass duties and vocals, smoking lots of paul's grass, marilyn and linda on kitchen duties...   

[Rocker]

i remember reading in 'the Beatles Unreleased' book that PM's Back Seat of my Car was a very BW like song...and I agree

Paul brought that song to the "Get Back" sessions and the other Beatles commented that it had a very "Beach Boys vibe" to it.  They were planning to work on it but never got around to it.

I've heard the bootlegs of Paul performing a rough version of the song on piano, presumably during those very same sessions, and it TOTALLY sounds like a Brian Wilson song, even moreso than the finished version that appeared on RAM.

Thanks to YouTube, you can judge for yourselves:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcDXTNHmO8w&feature=related

Yeah, around 1:00 min you can hear someone saying "Beach Boys"

Still I wonder how much it was influenced by the "Pet sounds"-era stuff or the WH/Friends-style

[sofonanm]

Yeah, around 1:00 min you can hear someone saying "Beach Boys"

Still I wonder how much it was influenced by the "Pet sounds"-era stuff or the WH/Friends-style

Sounds more Today/Pet Sounds to me than WH/Friends (neither of which really have ballad-like songs like this).

Besides, around 1:30 when Paul is doing percussive noises with his mouth, it has a very Brian Wilson feel to it, like the drums on IJWMFTT, and then Paul's low voice sounds like he's hearing Mike Love or Dennis in his head.

[buddhahat]

i remember reading in 'the Beatles Unreleased' book that PM's Back Seat of my Car was a very BW like song...and I agree

Paul brought that song to the "Get Back" sessions and the other Beatles commented that it had a very "Beach Boys vibe" to it.  They were planning to work on it but never got around to it.

I've heard the bootlegs of Paul performing a rough version of the song on piano, presumably during those very same sessions, and it TOTALLY sounds like a Brian Wilson song, even moreso than the finished version that appeared on RAM.

Thanks to YouTube, you can judge for yourselves:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcDXTNHmO8w&feature=related

Cheers for posting - love that song

[The Song Of The Grange]

i remember reading in 'the Beatles Unreleased' book that PM's Back Seat of my Car was a very BW like song...and I agree

Paul brought that song to the "Get Back" sessions and the other Beatles commented that it had a very "Beach Boys vibe" to it.  They were planning to work on it but never got around to it.

I've heard the bootlegs of Paul performing a rough version of the song on piano, presumably during those very same sessions, and it TOTALLY sounds like a Brian Wilson song, even moreso than the finished version that appeared on RAM.

Thanks to YouTube, you can judge for yourselves:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcDXTNHmO8w&feature=related

Thanks so much for that Beatles demo.  I had never heard it before and I thought I had heard just about everything from the Get Back sessions.  VERY Brian Wilson.  I think Brian (along with guys like Paul Simon) was very much in Paul's head in 69.  When I heard Friends for the first time I thought "this sounds like a Paul McCartney record," but really it is Ram, Wild Life, Red Rose Speed Way and Band On The Run sounding like a Beach Boys record.  "Blue Bird" off of Band On The Run could be a Friends outtake.  Plus, the pastoral aspects of Wild Honey and Friends show up in McCartney and Ram.  Call me crazy but I see it.  It's not just wishful thinking. 

I too thought for sure there was no way Lennon had Brian and the BB's on his radar.  But these days I'm not so sure.  Those high flying harmonies in "Because", there is just no trace of that in Beatles music post 1964 (with songs like "Yes it Is" and "This Boy").  Standard thinking would be that Lennon was just too cool to dig the BB's, but he had a softer side that he kept guarded.

[lance]

My impression--and I think I may have read it somewhere but it's possible that I'm just deducing it based on solo work-- was that those harmonies in Because were more a McCartney thing. Yeah, the basic melody and chords were John's, but the harmonies were largely McCartney/Martin's arrangement, probably with feedback and help from John and George.

[Bicyclerider]

I'd Love Just Once to See You has a sound and vibe that is echoed in lots of McCartney's acoustic things for the white album.  And his later solo albums.

The backing vocals on  Here comes the sun sound BB inspired to me (doobe doobe?).

[Rocker]

The backing vocals on  Here comes the sun sound BB inspired to me (doobe doobe?).

I think so too.

But what about "Flying"? I think it sounds like a "Fall breaks" or even more like a "Passing by". Compare yourself:

Passing by
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXz3N3RGEtw

Fall breaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-kid344Acg

Flying
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqs83A_wN-Y

[Rocker]

This thread and the Lennon-Lonely sea-discussion made me wander if there was a pre-Pet Sounds-influence of the BBs on the Beatles. "Back in the USSR" for example clearly is inspired by the BB's earlier work and not by Pet Sounds. Then we got a Lennon-quote about "The little girl I once knew" and the possibility of him playing "Lonely sea". But what else?Did the Beatles even bother listening to the Beach Boys? After all they were one of the biggest groups in the world...