The Smiley Smile Message Board

What is the one piece of recorded music that you draw the greatest musical inspiration from?  It can be an individual track, a single, an EP, an LP, a CD album, anything goes.

I'll start:

Strawberry Fields Forever (the individual track)
This song became a part of my life when I was pretty young, probably 5 or 6.  I remember that for a couple weeks, I listened to the 1993 Blue Album CD set every night in bed.  Usually I would fall asleep near the end of disc 1, but every night after my routine bedtime prayer, I would hear the unique 1993 stereo version of Strawberry Fields Forever.  Everything about that recording saturated my subconscious and shaped the way I hear and play music.  The drumming, the recording technique, the lyrics, the chord progressions, the melody, the orchestration, the bass playing, the groove, the backwards tag at the end, the singing, the vocal harmony...  When I listen to SFF, it triggers a profound response of creative energy and "spiritual love", as BW might say.
Now that the original mono mix is accessible to me, I prefer listening to that for reasons that have been discussed ad nauseum across the internet.

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Wouldn't It Be Nice

It has been my favorite song ever since I first heard it in 1966. I doubt that there is one day that I have not played it at least once.  Well, there may have been a few days over the past 46 years that I didn't listen to it, but you get where I'm coming from.

Halah by Mazzy Star

Wouldn't It Be Nice (stereo track w/ background vocals)

The beauty of the harmonies, the complex chords, the complex arrangement....I mean, the lead instrument is an ACCORDION and Brian makes it sounds like an instrument that came straight from the hands of God! :-D

Brilliant song that inspires me all the time.

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Hmmm. I'd have to say Getcha Back, the THICK harmonies are really like nothing else.

The work of Spiritualized. The best sounding, best arranged modern records. And I am making modern records by virtue of the date. He also says so much bang-on stuff in interviews and has so much good taste.

Does Brian like; Be My Baby, or Rhapsody In Blue more?
That is the question!

The Beach Boys - All I Wanna Do

It takes me to another place, away from the world.

I'm a backround singer, too scared to sing lead.  ;D

I also listen to Husker Du's "No Reservations" a lot too.

Don't laugh...

Dancing Queen - ABBA
The Winner Takes It All - ABBA

I get chills up my spine just hearing the opening chords from both of these songs.

SAME!

I can sit replaying this song at max volume on my studio headphones for hours at a time (yes, I've done this before). Just over and over and over again. Everything about this song is pure perfection.

Great topic!

For me it would be 'You Get what You Give' by the New Radicals. It floored me when it was a minor hit in 98 (or was it 99) and I've listened to it (and their lone Maybe You've been Brainwashed Too? album) ever since...

Totally love that song!

Cool posts!  I was hoping to get some responses like these - a great variety of styles.

nice pick, what a great production!

Haha, I am definitely familiar with WIBN - amazing song, I've certainly been inspired by it (I'll try listening to the backing track with backing vocals more, too)

I hadn't heard of Mazzy Star before - definitely going to keep listening to that song, sounds great so far

At My Window - YES!  Thanks, RangeRover, for getting me back into Sunflower... One of the greatest sounding albums I've ever heard (props to Stephen Desper)

Getcha Back - that's cool to hear, have you experimented with trying to produce vocals like that?

Cool, I'll check that out

Another Sunflower track - that album is the bomb

Dancing Queen is no joke - that is one solid record!  Especially the drums

Wow, I wasn't expecting that one, but now that you say so, that was definitely one of the best singles of the 90s.  Listening now

Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell Version (can listen to it over and over without ever tiring of it)

Surf's Up.

Good Vibrations or Paperback Writer

My new album's lead single has some very "Getcha Back"-esque backing vocals!

Sonic Oasis - Start with Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, and if you prefer the noisier bits, head backwards in their discography, and if you prefer the sweeter stuff, head towards the present.

I'd have to say the first set of Smile sessions I got hold of in late 1989 or early 1990.

It was listening to some Beatles rehearsal sessions in 1986 (Get Back sessions from Twickenham) that told me "You can do this," but it was those Smile sessions that said, "You HAVE to do this!"  

:afro   :thewilsons :3d

Mine in reality probably becomes All Day And All Of The Night by The Kinks.

The actual reasons for this lie, less in the drumming on the track, but the importance it has played in my drumming life. It was the first song we actually set our sights on properly in my first band, and by jove we played that thing to death. I haven't played it exactly the same since I ditched the tab early on,(ah, early days), but it's loose enough for me to adapt my changing drumming style to fit it in every way. 

The song itself isn't half bad either - I remember the first time I found the single in my dads 45's (it was actually his sisters) I couldn't believe my luck!


However, the song I must say I've probably listened to on loop the most is probably, in truth, Lets All Make Believe by Oasis. The moment that vocal kicks in, you're somewhere else completely!

I think I'd go with:
The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us by Sufjan Stevens. I think he's about as close as we're going to get to a young, modern day Brian Wilson. His arrangements are so wonderful, and there's always so much emotion. Definitely a gift to my life.

That is an amazing song.

Heck yeah!
Have you seen this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th0utuYAjzA
It blows me away.