Wouldn't It Be Nice?

I am a wanderer on the internet. I can spend, literally, hours surfing the web's high seas wandering wherever whimsy takes me. Of course, such wandering brings much flotsam and jetsam into my consciousness. Most is just read and discarded. Some is stored in the attic of my hard drive, thought to be useful and never used until a spring cleaning will throw them in the trash.

Sometimes, though, I find something that just sends a chill up my spine and it compels me to tell everybody I know what it is. Today, one of those spine chillers happened. I came across a series of YouTube entries that, in their brilliance, relatively few have seen.

In the middle part of the 1960's, the Beach Boys were one of the best selling music groups in the world. They helped define the California sound of sun and surf, and their ability to harmonize vocals was praised by fans and other singers. Even their critics gave begrudging props to the group's singing that became the Beach Boy sound. The other best selling group at the time were four men from England, The Beatles. To say they revolutionized pop culture is now an established fact. But in the mid 60's, though fabulously popular, their claim to be the best band in the world had not been established fully.

Beside the American vs. British rivalry, both these bands were on the same recording label in the United States. Capital Records was actively promoting both bands, and they were raking in the profits as the Beach Boys chief writer and arranger, Brian Wilson, and the Beatles' writing team of John Lennon and Paul McCartney were seemingly plying a one up turf war. For a few years, these two bands were alternating hit singles. After the Beatles recording of the Rubber Soul LP, Wilson went to work and delivered the lush sound and amazing vocal harmonies of Pet Sounds. The Beatles would later counter with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and by doing so, capture the imagination of a generation. However, Pet Sounds remains Brian Wilson's masterpiece and The Beach Boys' apex as a group.

In 2008, a then, 18 year old, third year shop fitting apprentice from Brisbane Australia named Scott MacFarlane, took this acknowledged top album of all time and stripped away all the instrumentation. In doing so, he has left only the vocals on the Beach Boy's classic, Pet Sounds. If you thought the sound of the Beach Boys' harmonies were amazing with instrumentation, prepare yourself to be astounded.