The rock classic Tom Petty preferred over ‘Sgt Pepper’: “It still sounds great to me”
If there were such a thing as the International School of Rock and Roll, Tom Petty would have graduated with flying colours in his prime. Petty was known to follow in the grand tradition of every great rock band that came before them, and whether it was backing Bob Dylan or listening to The Byrds for the hundredth time, Petty was more than happy to strum his guitar and tip his hat to the glory days of rock. He did have his preferences when it came to the classics, and he ended up picking The Beach Boys over The Beatles as time went on.
While the Fab Four usually get lumped in with The Rolling Stones when talking about the major feuds going on at the time, there’s a better case to be made that the true rivalry was between The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Both bands started off as teeny-bopper acts, but once they figured out what the studio was, they decided they needed to one-up each other.
When looking at both of their masterpieces, though, Sgt Pepper and Pet Sounds wouldn’t have existed without each other’s influence. Brian Wilson only began working on Pet Sounds to keep up with what The Beatles did on Rubber Soul, and once Paul McCartney heard what Wilson came up with, he got the idea to put together Sgt Pepper.
Though Petty acknowledged that both albums have earned their place in history, Pet Sounds may be better at standing the test of time, telling Playboy, “I like both. But these days, I’d probably play Pet Sounds. I can hear Sgt. Pepper without playing it, but frankly, I don’t think it wears that well into the Eighties. Pet Sounds still sounds great to me”.
Then again, complimenting an album like Pet Sounds is more of a celebration of Wilson’s talents than anyone else. Say what you will about Mike Love and Al Jardine chipping in on some of the greatest songs, but Wilson was in a class by himself on this album, usually taking the crux of his inner pain and channelling it into glorious rock and roll hymns.
Even after years in the spotlight, Petty still considered Wilson somewhat underrated, saying, “Brian Wilson is the greatest. The root of his personal problem was that he did genius work and never got recognition for it from the man in the street. He took a real artistic risk. It’s a brilliant album”.
Although Petty’s music was still rooted in the sounds of acts like The Byrds and especially The Beatles, there are still plenty of Wilson-isms in his songs if you know where to look for them. The ballad ‘You Can Still Change Your Mind’ feels like it’s ripped directly out of Wilson’s playbook, and when the band got around to making albums like Wildflowers, Petty was interested in making textures the same way those original Beach Boys records did.
The heartland rocker even got to rub elbows with his heroes, including getting Carl Wilson to sing background vocals on the song ‘Hungup and Overdue’, which would eventually turn up on the soundtrack to the film She’s the One. It’s hard to really deny how well Sgt Pepper works as a whole, but it’s still slightly confined to its time. Pet Sounds, you can still put on today, and no matter what circumstances, it still works.