8. The Beach BoysPet Sounds
Oh, the Beach Boys. That was the first concert I went to on my own, without having a parent or anything with me. The first thing I saw was Beach Boys. And I think that was at the Finsbury Park Astoria or it might have changed its name to The Rainbow, I don’t remember, but it was it was magical, because of their melancholy within a hacky band. When I was a kid and bought singles, I used to turn them over to the B-side which invariably had a sad song and I would play that on my guitar. I was drawn to the melancholy and the melancholy Beach Boys songs are mind-blowingly good. Brian Wilson isn’t just fun, fun, fun and surf safari. It really is a beautiful, beautiful record and I still put it in my top five albums of all time.
Selected in other Baker’s Dozens: Rufus Wainwright, Yusuf/Cat Stevens, Brix Smith-Start, Sarah Cracknell, Tom Tom Club, Jeff Lynne
