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The Beach Boys by a mile.
The reason being that The Beatles had this sorta fake evil thing going with Lennon, but not really. Then you have The Beach Boys as the really nice sweet band, but they are all emotionally damaged people.
What I love is that their is a really weird, immature, backwards longing for normality in the Beach Boys that is totally lacking in The Beatles. All those cheesy Brian Wilson lyrics have a very dark edge when you understand that actual emotional dynamics of the Wilson Family. Here is a person that is absolutely screwed up trying to write his way out with this seemingly innoculus music. It is the longing for a perfect American life that is so great, that those records are documenting this Californian fantasy world.
The brilliance is that Brian Wilson was being sincere when he wrote things like God Only Knows, Don’t Worry Baby, or Wouldn’t It Be Nice. They are so childlike, they are masterworks by a genius whose emotional life was absolutely stunted by an abusive father. It is so utterly American.
It is all cliched, but Brian Wilson was the superior talent. On a track by track basis the Beatles never touched Good Vibrations.
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mt (via waitingformagritte)
I do feel that The Beatles did have tracks on-par with “Good Vibrations” and “God Only Knows”, one could argue “Elenor Rigby”, “Day in the Life” and even “Tomorrow Never Knows” were, but I love the middle of this quote regarding Wilson writing to escape and to somehow conjure this American Dream that no one could really aspire to. Maybe that’s why “In My Room” drove me to tears when I heard him sing it on Wednesday!
(via cheapocheapo)
Source:
ilxor.com
