The album that got Jeff Beck through dark times: “A great support for me”
Music has always been about more than just a catchy tune. While many people latch onto a song for the hook that gets stuck in their head or a single line that resonates with them, the true power of music lies in its ability to help people through life’s rough patches. Whether dealing with heartache or navigating emotional turmoil, music’s greatest strength is its capacity to heal. When Jeff Beck struggled, he found solace in The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, which helped him through the darkness.
Then again, it’s hard to imagine Beck running into too much trouble with the guitar. From his first time in The Yardbirds to the final show he ever played, Beck seemed to have full command over any guitar in his hand, usually developing his unique chord voicings that can only come from someone with an intimate relationship with their instrument.
But where Beck had a guitar to speak through, Brian Wilson had a piano and the sounds in his head that helped him see the world. Even though half of The Beach Boys’ first few years consisted of songs with lyrics about cars, girls, and sunshine, Wilson knew that there was something they hadn’t yet tapped into.
Rock and roll could be taken much more seriously, and once Rubber Soul by The Beatles came out, Pet Sounds became Wilson’s rhetorical answer. If the Fab Four showed the world that an album could be taken seriously, Wilson using The Wrecking Crew to talk about the pure feelings of love was about as close to perfect as pop tunes ever got, including the ultimate love song ‘God Only Knows’ and stunning ballads like ‘Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)’.
Even though Beck was still in an offshoot of the blues world after leaving The Yardbirds, he admitted that Wilson helped preserve a bit of light left inside him, saying, “That entire album [Pet Sounds] was great support for me in horrible times. I’d left the Yardbirds and regretted it because I had nothing. I bought a stereo and Pet Sounds, and I was just riveted to the spot. I remember it was a great big cure from losing the Yardbirds, having Jimi Hendrix stomp all over things, and losing my girlfriend.”
While Wilson had the same genius sense of melody that had made Beck jealous when seeing Hendrix, there was never a sense of competition there. What The Beach Boys could do was beyond what anyone had ever thought of, and if Beck wanted to be known as one of the best in his field again, he would have to start thinking outside the box, just like Wilson had been doing.
When combing through his subsequent catalogue, that’s exactly what happened, too. Whether on his own or with The Jeff Beck Group, the guitarist’s later output, like Wired or Blow by Blow, saw him expand himself in different ways, including making the guitar sound like the voice of the group rather than having a singer in front of him.
Beck may have had a competitive streak with other artists, but Wilson was never looking to be better than anyone else. He just wanted to make music to make people smile, and throughout every minute of Pet Sounds, all the problems in the world seemed to melt away for a few seconds.
