Hi Joe. I like ballsy statements like this one. In my opinion, one of the reasons why this record is so highly regarded is not so much as exhibit A of psychedelic rock (because, I agree with you, it’s not), but rather, because it brought some psychedelic elements to the mainstream. My two cents!
Yes, there’s that as well. It was indeed a marketing move, I believe. Not saying it wasn’t genuine. But there was also a change in their image, looks, and yes, in their brand. It was a psychedelic statement, more so perhaps than a psychedelic record.
Regardless of what we (or anyone) call it, the album was a product of its time, and that alone makes it momentous. I think Paul and John (however calculatingly "market-aiming" they may have been) were anxious to flex their songwriting (and arranging) muscles with all these new sounds and influences floating around, "Pet Sounds" chief among them (as you so rightly remind us, Joe)!
So, "psychedelic/schmychedelic".....it's the album we got from the most prodigious artists of the time, and the mirror they held up to the world (from December '66 thru April '67) with all its cultural, humanitarian, and pop cultural angst. Magical? Maybe not, but certainly momentous!
Hi Joe. I like ballsy statements like this one. In my opinion, one of the reasons why this record is so highly regarded is not so much as exhibit A of psychedelic rock (because, I agree with you, it’s not), but rather, because it brought some psychedelic elements to the mainstream. My two cents!
Very true but, The Beach Boys, brought psychedelic sounds to the mainstream a year earlier in 1966.
Same with the 13th Floor Elevators.
I think it might have been fancy marketing by the Beatles to jump on the Psychedelic bandwagon so to speak.
Yes, there’s that as well. It was indeed a marketing move, I believe. Not saying it wasn’t genuine. But there was also a change in their image, looks, and yes, in their brand. It was a psychedelic statement, more so perhaps than a psychedelic record.
Regardless of what we (or anyone) call it, the album was a product of its time, and that alone makes it momentous. I think Paul and John (however calculatingly "market-aiming" they may have been) were anxious to flex their songwriting (and arranging) muscles with all these new sounds and influences floating around, "Pet Sounds" chief among them (as you so rightly remind us, Joe)!
So, "psychedelic/schmychedelic".....it's the album we got from the most prodigious artists of the time, and the mirror they held up to the world (from December '66 thru April '67) with all its cultural, humanitarian, and pop cultural angst. Magical? Maybe not, but certainly momentous!