40 Year Old Crawdaddy Review of The Beach Boys More True Today

NOTE from Phil>>> "Finally" (a first read for many even though the review is almost 40 years old!), someone who understands the vision and the value of Brian Wilson/Beach Boys music. Williams realizes that "progress" for the BBs is "in terms of the listener, he feels himself moved further (at least I do) by each new album the Beach Boys produce." His insights are more relevant today than they were when first written!

Friends

June 13, 2007

by Paul Williams

Originally printed in Issue 18 of Crawdaddy!, September 1968

Progress, claims GE, is their most important product. What do you suppose they mean by that? Forward movement of some kind, clearly; but forward movement in what context? Industrial progress? Then what would their reaction be if they started to realize that perhaps the next step in human progress is a step beyond the industrial, perhaps even a step incorporating but still beyond western science and its assumptions of causality? Would General Electric manufacture and sell divining rods; if they turned out to be effective at locating underground sources of water in dry areas? Is General Electric committed to some old-fashioned (non-progressive) concept of technological progress, or are they really ready to spring for human progress? I mean, will they move forward even it if means moving out of their starting context?

The Beach Boys, of course, are moving forward all the time. Each Beach Boys album since Pet Sounds has been (or seemed) a little less sophisticated. Retrogression? Not at all, but to prove that, we’d better decide what “forward” is.

Forward is the direction on which time moves===>Click headline to access complete article . . .

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