A song from the legendary performer Bob Dylan was dubbed a “poetic” masterpiece by The Beach Boys‘ Brian Wilson.
The late songwriter behind hits like God Only Knows and Wouldn’t it Be Nice had plenty of praise for Dylan, whose work featured on a list of his favourite songs. One such song he would listen to “over and over“, though for Dylan it was a different story. Praise for Dylan’s discography came in another interview with The Beach Boys’ songwriter, with Wilson declaring one piece of Dylan’s body of work a “poetic” powerhouse. In sharing his favourite songs, which included efforts from Chuck Berry and Bill Haley and His Comets, Wilson noted that one of Dylan’s best songs was a favourite.
Speaking of Mr. Tambourine Man, Wilson said: “Poetic is the word.” Wilson shared his favourite songs during a conversation with Rolling Stone Magazine. Further recommendations from the Pet Sounds mastermind were included in the interview. Where Wilson has credited Berry with sparking the formation of The Beach Boys and Dylan as one of the all-time greats, it was a classic twelve-bar blues track released in 1952 that caught his attention.
Wilson’s obsession over a song he wished to hear “over and over” was shared during an interview where the God Only Knows songwriter shared his love for the track. He said: “I remember the first time a friend of mine played this for me on the phone. I just wanted to hear it over and over.”
The song in question, Rock Around the Clock, was written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers. Rock Around the Clock was a favourite of Wilson’s, who featured it on his list alongside Mr. Tambourine Man and (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones.
Berry’s Johnny B. Goode and the Four Freshmen track You Stepped Out of a Dream were also included on the list. What was missing from Wilson’s favourites was a song from The Beatles, with the Fab Four and The Beach Boys engaged in a back-and-forth during the 1960s.
Paul McCartney shared: “McCartney shared: “The Beach Boys I think was a big influence on the harmony. There was a little intercontinental rivalry. Mainly Brian. His writing, I think he’d heard one of our albums and thought ‘I’ve got to do better’ and that was Pet Sounds which I loved.
“It’s still one of my big albums. It was so atmospheric and different and yet it was The Beach Boys still and we heard Pet Sounds and thought ‘right, we’ve got to do something better than that,’ so we did Sgt. Pepper’.“
The Wings frontman was also full of praise for Wilson, and told The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood: “Wilson proved himself to be a really amazing composer and I was into chords and harmonies and stuff at that time and we ended up, it was kind of like a rivalry.
“We’d put a song out, Brian would hear it, and then he would do one, which is nice. It’s like me and John [Lennon]. You try and top each other all the time.”
