In “Echo in the Canyon,” Tom Petty says he can’t see anything in Mozart that is better than Brian Wilson. An overstatement? Yes, but not a ridiculous one.
When I was growing up, I had little use for the Beach Boys, because I thought their vision of sun, beaches, surfers, hot women, and convertibles was irrelevant to the everyday life of the vast majority of Americans, including me. Today, I enjoy those songs for precisely the same reason.