[May 16th
marks the 50th
anniversary of the releases of Pet Sounds
and Blonde on Blonde, two iconic
1960s rock albums. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy those artists and other 60s
rock icons and songs. Please share your own rocking responses (or hazy
memories) for a righteous crowd-sourced post!]
On two distinct
but equally inspiring models of artistic innovation and growth.
By the time he
released Blonde
on Blonde (1966), his seventh studio album, Bob Dylan was
well-established as America’s preeminent rock ‘n roll poet. He had been
building elements of that reputation since his 1962 self-titled debut, but
that album, like Dylan’s next few, sounded more like traditional folk music; it
was in the two albums prior to Blonde,
Bringing
It All Back Home (1965) and Highway
61 Revisited (1966), that
Dylan had added electric guitars and a more thoroughly rock ‘n roll sound to
the mix. While Dylan’s initial moment of plugging in produced a great
deal of controversy and division among his fans, in hindsight it feels like
a perfectly natural artistic progression, and Blonde like a culmination not only of that trilogy of rock albums
but of all Dylan’s works to that point: a wedding of his lyrical intricacies and
his poetic and philosophical voice to an evolving and compelling mastery of
rock ‘n roll musicianship and power.
By the time they
released Pet Sounds (1966),
their eleventh studio album, The Beach Boys were well-established as America’s
undisputed kings of summer fun rock ‘n roll. Their trio of surfing debut albums
(1962’s Surfin’
Safari and 1963’s Surfin’
U.S.A. and Surfer
Girl) had immediately defined the band in that way, and the trend had
very much continued through their tenth album, Beach
Boys’ Party! (1965). To say that Pet
Sounds represented a serious shift from that long-term trend, both in tone
and in sound, would be a understatement. Brian
Wilson had stopped touring with the band in late 1964 in order to focus on
his own songwriting (among other complex personal
reasons), and although Pet Sounds
was technically still a Beach Boys album (with one single, “Caroline, No,” credited
solely to Wilson), it was dominated by Wilson’s writing and voice far more than
any of the prior ten records had been (a fact reflected in Wilson’s current
solo headlining of a 50th anniversary tour for the album). From
its use of Wall
of Sound production to its many unusual instruments (including, to name one
striking and telling example, barking dogs), as well as in its more intimate
and often downbeat subjects and perspectives, the album marked a significant deviation
from the Boys’ works and career to that point.
So in many ways,
these two critically acclaimed albums (both are consistently ranked among the
top rock albums in history) reflect two widely divergent models of artistic
growth: one in which new elements are added to prior ones, creating a
combination of past and future; and one in which the new elements represent a
departure from, if not indeed a contrast with, what had come before. (It’s not
coincidental that Wilson became increasingly separate from the band, in both
work and life, in the years after Pet
Sounds.) Yet at the same time, I would argue that both albums embody great artists
working to carry forward elements of their core identities and perspectives in
the face of and engaged with new reailties. Rock and roll was evolving in the
mid-1960s, and Bob Dylan allowed those evolutions to impact and shape his
music, while maintaining his lyrical and philosophical goals. And American
society was of course evolving even more fully, and Brian Wilson worked to link
his band’s good times vibe to some of those more complex and dark shifts and
issues. It’s precisely because they model such grounded evolutions, in distinct
ways to be sure, that Blonde on Blonde
and Pet Sounds remain two of the most
significant 60s rock records.
Next
RockStudying tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Responses to this post or other RockStudyings you’d share?
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