Quadrogenarian Symphony To God, Just Now

[Surfer Joe]

Please pardon the personal digression- promise I'll be on topic in two sentences. Came in from a very, very rough day- got some bad news- and was pulling some easy listening discs from my large and bizarre collection to put on my Dad's computer when I go over there tomorrow.

About seven years ago- before most of you were born- my copy of disc 1 of the Pet Sounds Sessions went missing.  I thought for sure I had loaned it to my brother, who went through a divorce, moved, and still has a couple cubic acres of stuff in storage four states away. I've nagged him silly about it for years.

You can't imagine the nightmare for an undiagnosed OCD barely-competent-to-cross-the--street basket case like myself.  It's been like walking around with a pine cone in my shoe for seven years- ten percent of my life, probably. Every time I walk past the music closet I cringe.  There's the not quite-full box.  It's looking at me.  Can't buy a new copy- what will I do with my old one? Mix and match?  Then what will I do with the new one? As a result of the horror, haven't heard Pet Sounds in seven years, except in dreams that become nightmare.

Back to tonight.  For Dad, pulled my copy of the two-disc collector's edition of the OST for The Sound Of Music-  containing the infamous extended dance mix of "The Lonely Goat Herd (Disco Version)" - and out falls one of the discs.  Why?  Because there were two discs on top of each other.  The other one- you guessed it.  Another goat-related disc.

It was like the final scene of "Lassie, Come Home"- a tearful reunion, me weeping shamelessly, disc 1 licking my face and barking joyfully;  marred only by my neighbor banging on the ceiling and yelling "shut up up there!" (My response: "This is my happening and it freaks me out!").

That thing hid from me through three moves. Hearing Pet Sounds in stereo once more, right now, for the first time since my second-grader nephew was born.  I've finally decided I'm a mono guy on this one, but lots of chill-bump moments, especially in "Wouldn't It Be Nice"...

[Aegir]

You hadn't heard Pet Sounds in 7 years? That's amazing.

[Surfer Joe]

I thought about it while typing that post, and I honestly don't think it had been in my player in that long. Possible exception: I moved twice in that span (maybe three times, I 'd have to figure it) and I have a ritual since college of always blasting Pet Sounds first in a new place, as soon as the stereo is hooked up.  So now that I think of that, I probably did play it once in March 2004.

But the album is so in my head now I can hear it without actually playing it. Got stuck in the Burbank pokey two days before Christmas once (1992)- (don't ask, misunderstanding over an unpaid ticket)- and I "listened" to Pet Sounds twice through in my head while pacing in a freezing cell; didn't miss a note or an overdub.

You have to understand- I've had the album, starting on vinyl, since 1982, and for years and years I went to sleep every night to side one or two.  In high school I occasionally substituted in Anthony Phillips' The Geese And The Ghost.

Boy, though- years of searching eBay and Amazon with no luck for an orphan copy of disc 1- over.