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Credit: Far Out \/ APA Agency \/ Dina Regine<\/p>\n
Sun 21 June 2026 18:15, UK <\/p>\n
I have a theory that we use the word \u2018genius\u2019 so widely because it helps to sustain the illusion that life is a meritocracy. When it comes to popular music, Jimmy Page<\/a> certainly thought that was the case. He recognised that a load of lucky four-chord peddlers have perhaps been graced with outsized adulation. <\/p>\n \u201cThe only term I won\u2019t accept is \u2018genius\u2019,\u201d the Led Zeppelin guitarist explained. \u201cThe term \u2018genius\u2019 gets used far too loosely in rock and roll. When you hear the melodic structures of what classical musicians put together and you compare it to that of a rock and roll record, there\u2019s a hell of a long way rock and roll has to go.\u201d<\/p>\n Interestingly, Leonard Bernstein, a revered classical musician,<\/a> made it clear that there are a few exceptions to this rule. As the great American composer said of pop during a seminar in the 1960s, \u201cThis new music is much more primitive in its harmonic language. It relies more on the simple triad, the basic harmony of folk music.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Adding, \u201cNever forget that this music employs a highly limited musical vocabulary; limited harmonically, rhythmically, and melodically. But within that restricted language, all these new adventures are simply extraordinary.\u201d <\/p>\n This, for Bernstein, was typified by the Beach Boys classic, \u2018Surf\u2019s Up\u2019. As the composer declared at the time: \u201cThere is a new song, too complex to get all of first time around.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He glowingly continued, \u201cIt could come only out of the ferment that characterises today\u2019s pop music scene. Brian Wilson, leader of the famous Beach Boys, and one of today\u2019s most important musicians, sings his own \u2018Surf\u2019s Up\u2019. Poetic, beautiful even in its obscurity, \u2018Surf\u2019s Up\u2019 is one aspect of new things happening in pop music today. As such, it is a symbol of the change many of these young musicians see in our future.\u201d<\/p>\n This is something that Jimmy Page and George Martin certainly agreed with. \u201cIf there is one person that I have to select as a living genius of pop music,\u201d Martin declared. \u201cI would choose Brian Wilson. Without Pet Sounds, Sgt Pepper wouldn\u2019t have happened. Pepper was an attempt to equal Pet Sounds<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n Given who he worked with, that is high praise indeed for The Beach Boys\u2019 mastermind, but it is easy to see why he reveres Wilson so much. Even McCartney added: \u201cI figure no one is educated musically \u2019til they\u2019ve heard Pet Sounds.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet, his answer is surely ratified by the fact that Page, with his wariness of lofty reverence within the pop structure firmly established, also proclaimed, \u201cThe man\u2019s a genius<\/a>!\u201d Maybe this is because the Led Zep rocker realised that, similar to his own ambitions within classic rock, Wilson\u2019s songwriting was actually aligning with the complex vocabulary of classical music.\u00a0<\/p>\n As he added, \u201cActually, when you hear other people doing his numbers, it makes you appreciate just how good those original songs are.\u201d<\/p>\n They\u2019re not just good, they\u2019re timeless masterpieces that changed music forever. And fortunately, most musicians that you\u2019ll ever meet seem to agree.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Classic Rock Newsletter<\/p>\n