Simple. You tell him that today is the 70th birthday of Mike Love of Beach Boys fame. How can the original forever-young icons of sixties american pop music be 70 years old? It just shouldn't be allowed.
I mean, look at that album cover. Surf dudes don't get old. There is clearly something very wrong with a universe that allows that to happen. The Beach Boys aren't everbody's cup of tea, but along with the Beatles, they transformed rock/pop music forever. Until that time, pop stars recorded other people's music to other people's arrangements, performed by musicians they rarely got to meet. Simultaneously, the Beach Boys in the U.S. and the Beatles in the U.K. changed that mould - they wrote and performed their own music and they were not afraid to experiment with new sounds. They helped push recording technology in new directions and laid the seeds for pop & rock to be done differently. And for the better.
It is only right and fitting to mark this occasion with one of the Beach Boys' best tracks - 'Good Vibrations'. This song just oozes experimentation, including the use of an electro-theramin (played by the bearded Mike Love in the video), a harpsichord and a cello. It also features Glen Campbell playing guitar (not in the video). It is claimed that they used 90 hours of tape recording to achieve the desired effect and it is credited as being the first pop song to effectively use the studio as an instrument. Probably my favourite Beach Boys' track. Apologies for Mike Love's beard - which made him look 70 years old back in 1966. He should never have inflicted that on the public. Feel old and enjoy!
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