The Beach Boys, Dan Meth Chart, & Childhood

If you know me at all, you know that I love music to the point of obsession.  My habit of singing a line or two of an appropriate song for a given situation has subsided a bit, but there is always a song in my head (right now, it's the theme song from Night Court...a show I never watched but whose song I know well).

It all started with a boombox and two cassettes one Christmas.  I received Amy Grant's My Father's Eyes and The Beach Boys' Made in the USA.  Amy Grant didn't last long, but the Beach Boys are still one of my favorites.  I'm talking here of the original line-up, not the Mike Love -led impostors that make the rounds today.

Every human being in the world agrees that Pet Sounds is one of the greatest pop records ever made.  Brian Wilson's genius shines through and the tragedy of his later life makes it all the more poignant. But it was the early Beach Boys that informed my early years, and I still enjoy them wholeheartedly-- not simply from nostalgia.

Here's a chart of their early music, from a series of Pop Culture charts and timelines that is humorous and informative. Says the site:

"Back before “Pet Sounds”, drugs, and mental breakdowns, Brian Wilson pretty much only wrote about three things: Girl, Cars, and Surfing."

What favorites of childhood do you still enjoy?  What childhood habits do you carry with you?  How does our childhood inform our adulthood?