Sundays Oldies : «Sloop John B.» A Great Song! The Beach Boys…

«Sloop John B.» from the first time I heard it, back when I was a wee lad, and just recently transplanted to the United States, I loved it. The harmonies enticed me, the melody seduced me, the story, well, I did not really understand the story at all, but the words sounded nice and well the song fascinated me and it still does…

I heard it on the Beach Boys seminal album (released in May 1966) Pet Sounds. This album, which pre-dated Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and possibly influenced Paul and the lads, is considered by musicologists to be a concept album with new and sophisticated means and ways of musical production. Brian Wilson, genius behind The Beach Boys, and Pet Sounds introduced intricate vocal harmonies, incorporated elements of pop, jazz, exotic (world beat) and classical music, to create a genuine vanguard movement album. The band was not able to replicate the album live during those years. Now Brian Wilson has…

Pet Sounds allowed for the development of the culture of pop music. This album was absolutely crucial for the development of progressive and art rock and definitely opened the door to psychedelic music which would become very popular after that and lasting through the late sixties. Without a doubt it is one of the most influential albums in rock/pop music. Many have considered it the best album…of that genre…of all times, like the music magazines New Musical Express, The Times and Mojo. In 2003 it was second place in Rolling Stone magazine best 500 albums of all times. In 2004 Pet Sounds was inducted into the National Registry of Recordings of the US Congressional Library. They said it had cultural, historical and tremendous aesthetic values. And in 2015 Acclaimed Music named Pet Sounds as the album statistically more acclaimed of all times.

Here is the version from Pet Sounds:

Here is possibly the «original», if not an older version, which gave Brian Wilson the idea for his arrangement in Pet Sounds. This is by the Kingston Trio:

And here is what 1966 kind of looked like:

Georges Pompidou defeats Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and is re-elected as president of France.

Simon and Garfunkel release «Sounds of Silence».

US President Lyndon Johnson met with his Vietnamese counterpart in Honolulu to talk about the course of the war in Vietnam.

The Australian dollar is introduced at 2 to pound.

The Flintstones airs its finale.

The Rolling Stones release «Paint it Black» in the US on 07 MAY.

Martin Luther King makes his first speech against the Vietnam War.

«It’s a Small World» attraction opens in Disneyland.

US warplanes begin bombing Hanoi and Haiphong in Vietnam.

England won the World Cup in England.

Cheers…