Greil Marcus' desert island selections - c. 1979

[jbohdan]

The audience for Pet Sounds was always there, but it sure took awhile for everything to align. The Brits loved it, a cult following grew through the 1970's, so much that Dave Marsh (the politically liberal but musically conservative rock critic) started trashing it in the Rolling Stone Album Guide. I think the first edition said it was a rip-off of Sgt. Pepper, but apparently someone informed Marsh that it came BEFORE Pepper, which prompted a slight rewrite for the next edition (which still had its share of Marsh boners - Michael Jackson's "Betty Jean Is Not My Lover" anybody?)

Then "Doonesbury" had that Pulitzer Prize-winning run where a man dying of AIDS listens to it in his final hours (they reprinted the whole thing for that impressive Pet Sounds Sessions box set), which I think came a few years before that Mojo poll, and I know Entertainment Weekly and other mainstream periodicals were hailing it as a masterpiece by the the mid-90's - EW pegged it as one of the 10 best CD's of all-time in 1994 as part of some contest promotion where you win the 100 best CD's of all-time as chosen by their staff.

Dave Marsh never said Pepper preceded Pet Sounds. This is the actual quote from the first edition: "Pet Sounds was the band's first commercial failure, mostly because Wilson was attempting to create the sort of pastiche the Beatles popularized with Sgt. Pepper before there was a market for it." Moreover it was hardly a thrashing; Marsh said the music "was strong but spotty", giving it 3 stars out of a possible 5.

The Billy Jean misquote in the second edition is kind of funny though; maybe Marsh was thinking of Chuck Berry's cool Betty Jean.

I remember reading the Doonesbury strip on Pet Sounds and cutting out the part of it and putting it into my CD copy of the album where it resides to this day, if I am not mistaken. Anyway finding out about the reproduction of the strip is one more reason for me to get the box set!

[Xenu]

I'm a little bit sick of all of the Pet Sounds mania...the album now roundly suffers from Pepperitis (i.e. overpraised disease), but has been marketed in ways that Pepper has soundly Not Been. For example, unless I missed it, I don't recall Pepper being released four or five different times over the past few years.

I like Pet Sounds, I really do. I've never loved it as much as some others obviously do, but I enjoy it and recognize its importance. That said, many of the myths surrounding it (the primary one being the "Brian=Perfectionist" problem) have...well, really robbed it of some of its joy, I think.

[MK]

You've gotta block that shit out. It's like the Beatles, they were my favorite band and still are, but some of this syrupy nostalgia, baby-boomer-Beatlemania shit really gets on my nerves.

Lennon was NOT a saint, being a Beatle isn't the same as being Mother Teresa (who probably will be canonized eventually). They may have been the best, but there were plenty of great groups AFTER them and TODAY. It sucks they broke-up, but they went out on top, and after the first year or so post-Beatles, most of their solo work was shit. Etc., etc., etc.

Having said that, Pet Sounds should've been kept to the box set, one stereo/mono CD, and the occasional boutique issue like DCC's gold CD. That would've been perfect. And it's still in my top 10 of all-time.

[jbohdan]

Pet Sounds should've been kept to the box set, one stereo/mono CD, and the occasional boutique issue like DCC's gold CD. That would've been perfect. And it's still in my top 10 of all-time.

Isn't that the way it is now apart from the first CD issue? Have there been other issues of Pet Sounds apart from the original CD issue? I've got the mono/stereo single CD, am thinking of getting the box and would snap up a DCC in an instant given a reasonable price.

[/i]

[lukpac]

There *was* the non-HDCD twofer, FWIW.

[MK]

Pet Sounds should've been kept to the box set, one stereo/mono CD, and the occasional boutique issue like DCC's gold CD. That would've been perfect. And it's still in my top 10 of all-time.

Isn't that the way it is now apart from the first CD issue? Have there been other issues of Pet Sounds apart from the original CD issue?

Yeah, a standalone stereo/mono CD that didn't match the box set's version, then a third stereo/mono disc reissue two years later (and another variation), plus a DVD-A that may or may not be out-of-print...possibly some older CD issues (ask the collectors). All this between 1996 and 2001.

Personally, you only need the box set and the gold CD. The standalone stereo/mono CD is a budget option, but none of them match the box set version - instead you get improper HDCD flagging/encoding or Love's later demands, etc.

I was talking about Capitol releases in general, and they've been re-doing this a number of times in recent years. It's overkill. The box set should've been the last mastering, and there was even a promo of the new stereo mix (with the mono mix) that they could've stuck with as their mono/stereo CD - it was a clone of the the box set mastering.

[Mike Hunte]

You've gotta block that shit out. It's like the Beatles, they were my favorite band and still are, but some of this syrupy nostalgia, baby-boomer-Beatlemania shit really gets on my nerves.

Well said. I think that's the bottom line. I got into albums like Pepper and Pet Sounds when I was in my early teens...a little earlier for Pepper. To me, they were and still are wonderful albums. All this other crap about "greatest," "most influential," etc... is just window dressing. The fact that these records have been dismantled under a microscope by obsessive fans and know-it-all critics, or hyped and "sold" for a new market, shouldn't really play into whether or not they are good albums. They stand on their own terms. One either likes them...or doesn't.

[MK]

BTW, just so we're CLEAR about everything, when I say "you need the box set," that's just for diehards and libraries. If $ was no issue, 99% of the public would only need the gold CD. Just the original mono mix, mastered right. Since $ is always an issue, any stereo/mono CD will have to suffice, flaws and all.

[Andreas]

Pet Sounds was released on digital formats in
1987 (first Japanese CD),
1989 (Pastmasters CD),
1990 (first US release),
1993 (DCC),
1997 (box set),
1999 (twofer),
2000 (mono only CD),
2001 (twofer reworked)
2003 (DVD-A).
Not to forget "Brian Wilson presents Pet Sounds Live", released in
2002 (CD) and
2003 (DVD).

[Rspaight]

And in case that's not enough, there's a "40th Anniversary Edition" coming soon with what sounds like the DVD-A packaged with yet another remastered CD.

http://www.albumvote.co.uk/news/news?id=792

Ryan

[MK]

If they don't stop soon, that master tape is going to crumble from overuse.

Actually, they already lost the original, so who gives a shit...