Yesterday was a hugely significant day.

In the history of popular music. It was the fiftieth anniversary of The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde, two of the most celebrated albums ever recorded, and both released on 16th May 1966. There was commemorative documentary on Radio 4 which unwittingly illustrated the gulf between the two. Pet Sounds remains a sonic and musical masterpiece on which every track is a gem. Blonde on Blonde, in my opinion, isn’t in the same league. Most of its tracks have faded into well-deserved obscurity but fans of each album were given equal prominence. Those who bought Blonde on Blonde were a dreary bunch of folk enthusiasts from Sheffield who never forgave Dylan for “going electric”. Yawn. Whereas the Pet Sounds enthusiasts were cool sounding surf dudes whose adolescence I envied so much it hurt. To be a teenager in California in 1966? Wouldn’t that have been nice?