The Smiley Smile Message Board

Last night Gerry Beckley from America did a wonderful solo set at a club in Santa Monica, reminding me again just what a gifted pop craftsman he is.  He played some obscure America tunes that I hadn't heard in over 20 years, and amazingly I found those songs had gotten so stuck in my head back then that I still remembered every last musical detail.  That goes waayyyy beyond "catchy".... Great stuff.

Today, I took a moment to check out one of the America websites, and found myself reading a lengthy, fairly recent interview with Gerry in which he talked a bit about America's longtime association with George Martin.  This excerpt is worth repeating here:
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GERRY:  Through all of those years that there was an invisible hand on those (Beatle) records. I don't want to get started on all of those stories but I'll tell you a couple of interesting things. George has always gone on record that the best Beatles album would have been 'The White album' had they'd been able to edit it to a single record but they couldn't there was just so much material and there was no way to edit it. You know things like that because it's always debated between 'Sgt. Peppers' or 'Revolver' or whatever. Also, we've often talked of music with George because we've spent so much time with him and we would always talk about our influences and he said second to none the strongest influence for him musically was Brian Wilson and if you think about the competition that was going on at that time.

(John) - Oh yeah, especially with 'Pet Sounds.'

GERRY - Yeah with 'Pet Sounds' and how they were listening to each other. It was quite an admission on his part....
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Nothing really new or Earth-shattering, but it was nice to see that!

The full interview can be found at:  http://www.smoothjazznow.com/interview_america.htm

Alan

Pretty cool stuff!

I'm not a huge America fan, but I saw them live a few years ago and they put on a great show.

Did they catch fire and explode at the finale?
Just kidding!

Nearly! :o

It raises an interesting (if off-topic) question- what would your one-LP line-up for the White Album be?  To me, (unlike most other doubles) it's actually much, much stronger than it would be as a single.  And it's far too even to need a lot of pruning.  There are high points on every side, but I don't think there are any low points at all.

Admittedly, though, I love Revolution 9 and have since I was seven years old.

I'll make a prediction that if ten people here give a fourteen-track line-up there won't be two that are the same (unless maybe one guy reads another and just agrees).  That's unlike Exile On Main Street, another great album, but we'd probably make mostly the same edits.

White Album is perfect just the way it is, warts and all. And I dig Rev 9 as well.

'Tis perfect in it's sprawling imprefections, but also fun to mine for the Revolver 2 that's in there!

Elaborate, Wagner.

The album's character is it's erraticism. It's perfect in it's conceptual messiness. The poster goes along with that, and the cover ironically comments in it's blank purity.

But I think a mindblowing and tighter mix of tunes would have made it unquestionably their finest release. Here's mine:

Back In The USSR
Dear Prudence
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
Martha My Dear
I'm So Tired
Blackbird
Julia
I Will
Yer Blues
Mother Nature's Son
Everybody's Got..
Sexy Sadie
Helter Skelter
Not Guilty
Revolution (45)
Good Night

I agree with your list, but I would add What's The New Mary Jane betwixt Revolution and Good Night.

Ach, hate that song.

I love that song's mood.