When you think about the biggest albums of 1966, two records stand head and shoulders above the rest.
asserted
records → think → rest
The Beatles' Revolver and The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds have tended to overshadow everything else released that year.
asserted
Revolver → tend → everything
But the mythology surrounding the albums has also overshadowed the actual music on the records themselves.
asserted
mythology → surround → records
So, let's dive into the sounds of 66 to get a better understanding for where music was at 60 years ago.
asserted
music → let → where
Oh, I almost forgot the obligatory historical context of 1966: Harold Holt was sworn in as prime minister in January (almost two years before his fateful swim), Australian currency went decimal, The Sound Of Music and Doctor Zhivago dominated the Oscars, England clinched its only FIFA World Cup, and St Kilda won its lone AFL/VFL grand final.
asserted
Kilda → forgot → final
While there was much more to the music of 66 than just Revolver and Pet Sounds, you can't ignore these records.
asserted
you → be → records
They literally changed music.
asserted
They → change → music
In his detailed day-by-day breakdown titled The Complete Beatles Chronicle, Mark Lewisohn wrote: "In 1965 the Beatles' recordings had been progressing quite nicely, but here was a quantum jump into not merely tomorrow but sometime next week."
asserted
jump → title → tomorrow
He was writing about Revolver, but specifically Tomorrow Never Knows, the album's insanely adventurous closing track which, Lewisohn wrote, displayed "an unrivalled musical progression [and] The Beatles' willingness first to observe the boundaries and then smash right through them".
asserted
Lewisohn → write → them
Revolver was a pioneering example of using the recording studio as a musical instrument itself, and nowhere better exemplified this than Tomorrow Never Knows, a whirling hallucinogenic groove unlike anything ever heard before.
asserted
Tomorrow → use → anything
The Beatles weren't always the first to use particular recording techniques attributed to them, but they typically popularised them by combining little-known studio tricks with the canny songwriting skills of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison.
asserted
they → use → Lennon
On Revolver they used such unheard-of or rarely used ideas as tape loops, artificial double tracking, backwards tracking, sampling, varispeed recording, plugging the bass directly into the mixing desk to record it, and the bold move of putting microphones as close as possible to the instruments and amplifiers (something that caused conniptions among the lab-coated technicians at Abbey Road Studios).
asserted
that → use → Studios
All this made Revolver sound unlike any other record, but it meant nothing without the tunes to back it up.
asserted
it → make → it
Taxman, Eleanor Rigby, Yellow Submarine, I'm Only Sleeping, Here, There & Everywhere, She Said She Said, Got To Get You Into My Life and Tomorrow Never Knows are all among the best songs The Beatles ever recorded (and that's not to mention Paperback Writer and Rain, which were recorded during the Revolver sessions but carved off for a standalone single).
asserted
which → sleep → single
Revolver pointed the way towards so many new musical styles by incorporating psychedelia, Indian music, and sampling, and pushed the recording studio to new extremes.
It also just so happens to be a collection of damn fine songs from a band that was quite rightfully the biggest on the planet 60 years ago.
asserted
that → point → planet
The story goes that The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson heard The Beatles' late 1965 record Rubber Soul and decided to top it with Pet Sounds.
asserted
Wilson → go → Sounds
A work of unrivalled beauty in pop music at the time, Pet Sounds saw the band ditch their surf rock roots and beach party vibes for something deeply introspective and hymnal.
asserted
band → see → something
Wilson worked closely with lyricist Tony Asher (and, occasionally, bandmate Mike Love) to compose a suite of songs that hinted at Wilson's increasingly fragile, questioning and insecure state of mind; That's Not Me, I Know There's An Answer, and I Just Wasn't Made For These Times are two key examples.
asserted
I → work → Times
Wouldn't It Be Nice, You Still Believe In Me, Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder), and Let's Go Away For A While
asserted
's → believe → While
are all paeans to devotion, affection and connection, illuminated by the beautiful melodies, harmonies and accompaniments that go with them.
asserted
that → illuminate → them
But perhaps best of all is God Only Knows, generally (and rightly) regarded as one of the greatest songs of all time.
asserted
Knows → know → time
Like other songs on the record it combines typical rock and orchestra instrumentation, plus some unusual ones such as harpsichord, accordion and sleigh bells, all working in service of Carl Wilson's angelic vocal performance, and Brian Wilson and Asher's tender heartfelt lyrical ode to eternal undying love.
asserted
all → combine → love
Wilson would later use the term "teenage symphony to God" when describing his unsuccessful and unfinished follow-up Smile, but the words fit just as beautifully as a descriptor for Pet Sounds.
asserted
words → use → Sounds
Painstakingly crafted, the songs remain among the most harmonically and melodically rich of not just the 60s, but any era in music.
asserted
songs → craft → music
While Pet Sounds sounds decidedly square compared to the likes of The Beatles, Dylan and The Rolling Stones, it set a benchmark for beautiful pop music and was an important step in its evolution.
As Paul McCartney put it, "no-one is educated musically till they've heard that album".
Rockin' in the USA
The mid-60s were a strange time in music, particularly in America.
asserted
mid-60s → sound → America
Jazz was still big, the crooners (Frank, Tony, Dean and co) still held some sway, and one of the biggest bands in America was Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass.
asserted
one → hold → America
Meanwhile rock music was 10 years old, the invasion of British bands had started to peter out, folk music was still popular though morphing in new and strange ways, and everyone still wanted to be The Beatles three years on from their worldwide explosion.
Seriously, it's crazy how many albums from 1966 featured a Beatles cover.
asserted
albums → start → cover
But the end result in the US was a wild melting pot of sounds, perhaps best exemplified by these six albums.
asserted
result → melt → albums
The folk duo of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel had effectively broken up in mid-1965.
But then a forgotten song on their 1964 debut album Wednesday Morning, 3AM became a belated surprise hit.
asserted
song → break → album
The Sound Of Silence, with new added rock'n'roll overdubs, went to number one and became the title track of a thrown-together follow-up album released by the hastily reunited Simon & Garfunkel in January 1966 to capitalise on their new-found success.
But it was the follow-up album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme, released in October 1966, that really showed the breadth of the duo's talent and fittingly catapulted them to fame.
asserted
that → add → fame
From the haunting medieval beauty of Scarborough Fair/Canticle to the jazzy The 59th Street Bridge Song, from the pretty For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her to the sad longing of Homeward Bound, it's an album that packs a lot into its 29 minutes.
uncertain
that → find → minutes
Just about every rock'n'roll trope can be found in the short but influential career of The Mamas & The Papas.
asserted
trope → find → Mamas
But more importantly, their first album helped shape the California sound and the following year's Summer of Love with its sunshine harmonies, jangly folk guitars, beat rhythms and teen-targeted lyrics about "somebody groovy" and hanging with the "in" crowd.
asserted
album → shape → crowd
The big singles are Summer of Love anthem California Dreamin' and the Grammy-winning Monday, Monday, both of which helped propel If You Can Believe… to number one in the US and top five on the NME and Melody Maker charts in the UK, but in between are decent Beatles homage Straight Shooter and the freewheeling Go Where You Gonna Go.
asserted
You → win → between
By his seventh album, Dylan had well and truly gone electric.
asserted
Dylan → go → album
He'd also dispensed with his spokesman-for-a-generation mantle and was deep into building his own mythology.
asserted
He → dispense → mythology
Blonde On Blonde is stacked with material that's kept Dylanologists busy for 60 years, as he paints incredible lyrical images and dips in and out of his own relationships from one song to the next.
asserted
he → stack → next
Featuring the much-acclaimed Visions Of Johanna, the aching Just Like A Woman, the high-as-a-kite Rainy Day Women #12 & 35, and the epic romance of Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands, this hefty double album is one of Dylan's best, capping off an incredible trilogy of rock records after Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited.
asserted
album → feature → It
Within five days of meeting they were playing at a top Hollywood club.
asserted
they → meet → club
Within a few months they had a record deal.
asserted
they → have → deal
…and 158 more, not listed.
The Aporia