teenage symphonies to god.

i apologize for walking out on this journal and forgetting to shut the door behind me. i suppose that with my return to this and the radio, i am reclaiming my 2006 life. much of my time has been occupied by this and that, but regardless 'no nino rota' has reinstated me as 'only guy here.'

and with that, hello to all. this is going to be long and somewhat autobiographical.

paul mccartney believed that the title 'greatest song ever written' belonged to brian wilson's 'god only knows.' While you read this, try to remember that i am in the wild, passionate throes of a white album renaissance (since the summer it has dominated my music listening). Paul's comment incited within me a hectic sorting out of my attitudes, when you realize the way you think about one thing should be in the context of many more things.

unfortunately, and perhaps tragically, my generation is one of the first for which it will be impossible to construct enough of the context around the beatles and the beach boys that will be required to appreciate them in totality. it's overwhelming to even to put them in the context of each other, to think that at one time they were doing something similar to answering one another with music. Wilson fired off Pet Sounds, the Beatles answered with Sgt. Pepper's, and Wilson in turn wrote Good Vibrations, Surf's Up, and went to bed for a long time.

and here i am, listening to both albums with some degree of regularity, never really putting them together.

my associations with Sgt. Pepper's mostly revolve around my junior year of high school. i guess we did, perhaps unknowingly, make an effort to experience it on its closest terms: most of the time on vinyl, much of the time on drugs (except for me because pot can't touch my brain?). this is where 'lovely rita' lives in my head, next to things that fell by the wayside a long time ago (I can say with confidence I will never see Requiem for a Dream again). this was the first beatles album that i considered very carefully.

pet sounds was a bit more circuitous. my brother sang 'sloop john b' in chorus sometime when i was in middle school. pet sounds in its entirety comes with my living on my own out here by the great lakes. i thought about buying it on vinyl somewhere in toronto but i settled on just downloading it.

now paul mccartney's comment would, in a perfect world, shift my perspective on these two bands. it's clear these two were writing songs back and forth. this dialogue should enrich my listening. it's clear that 'god only knows' and the white album's 'i will' are companions and they are all the more beautiful side by side. they tell a similar story sung similarly soft and sweet. it's really wonderful. figuring that 'i will' is both lovingly original and a very, very deft response to something else lovingly original is a big big thought.

and i guess what i am getting at is, even with that in mind, 'sloop john b' is my favorite song on pet sounds. not because i can find it in a grander scheme of things, but because my brother used to sing it all the time in our basement. and even though i think the songs on the white album are maybe better than those on lonely hearts club band, the latter is still what i would call my favorite beatles album. these are judgments based on my own arbitrary set of associations, my own frame.

mccartney et al had their own frame to apply to their music. And to appreciate anything they produced in its totality, that is, and to precisely know this frame's dimensions. which i would hold to be impossible for many, many reasons but the most obvious being the separation of time, that john lennon was dead before i was born. this makes my frame quite a bit different. but then, now that i know our frames will never fit, i learn 'sloop john b' may as well be my favorite song from Pet Sounds.

i think there's nothing wrong with this whole situation. it's just weird is all.


{Jonathan Coulton covers 'I Will.' He is friends with John Hodgman and quite talented.}
{Brian Wilson sings 'God Only Knows.' accompanied by photo montage.}

for those of us who are dismayed at the fact that you will never appreciate art entirely if you are out of its time, i sympathize with you. i read chaucer. a lot. i want to believe in the timelessness of things too.

for revolver apologists: as you can see i am not one of your number. it's middle of the pack on my beatles album depth chart.