If there is one person I would have to select as a living genius of pop
music, it would be Brian Wilson.
Without Pet Sounds, Sgt Pepper wouldn't have happened . . . Pepper was
an attempt to equal Pet Sounds.
[on Phil Spector's controversial overdubs to the "Let It Be" record] It was so uncharacteristic of The Beatles. It went against everything The Beatles wanted to do with the record. He tried to use the same techniques that he used on other people's records, and it didn't work. I could understand why Paul (Paul McCartney) got so mad over it.
Tape and electronics have brought enormous new feel to music. It's surprising what you can do once you have a sound recorded on tape.
[on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"] Looking back on Pepper, it was quite an icon. It probably did change the face of recording so it became a different kind of art form.
[on "In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins] One of the best pop songs, I think, ever written.
The very first records we made were just on two-track and then we had the great advance of four-track. We were able to actually overdub and start putting secondary voices on and guitar solos at a later stage and that kind of thing.