Harmony

In last week's Music Friday post, we featured a harmony-rich track from the '80s supergroup Chicago.

We offered a side link to a Beach Boys track as another example of the genre producing exquisite harmonies...which didn't get a lot of clicks.

I get it...you're in a hurry and the supporting links often get left along the wayside. But...this one is too perfect not to repeat.

The Beach Boys were, quite obviously, fairly omnipresent on the radio in my youth. But, it wasn't until college that I actually connected with their richly harmonic ballads. Part of that was living in a fraternity mostly populated with prep school guys.

In a ritual that is undoubtedly different today, a select crew of music aficionados would hole up in a room to create the "mix tape" (on cassette) for our upcoming lounge parties. These evenings would consume roughly 5 hours of alcohol-fueled revelry to create a 3-hour party tape (our campus policy only allowed parties to last 3 hours). We were recording from record albums in real time...and there were the obligatory debates over segues, order of tracks and funkiness. I still have some of the scribbled playlists, the legibility getting worse as the night progressed.

The Public School brothers would push for a growing crescendo of funk to close the night; Kool & the Gang, the Ohio Players, the Isley Brothers and Marvin Gaye. A hot, sweaty mess on the dance floor was what we thought would create the ultimate pay-off.

The Prep School Boys would always lobby for "God Only Knows," which, to the rest of us, seemed like the ultimate buzz kill.

Damned if the girls that had been wallflowers all night didn't hit the floor. And, the Prep School bros just winked at us.

I've had a soft spot for the Beach Boys ever since...and Memorial Day Weekend screams for those harmonies.

On this holiday Music Friday...it's "God Only Knows."

Party on.

 

Comments

[LT]

Party on indeed!