Pet Sounds at 45

I was in a Beach Boys phase around the time I was a freshman at the University of Texas, way back in 1985. The only thing I'd ever heard off of Pet Sounds was "Sloop John B" and, of course, the majestically, bittersweet-fully beautiful "Wouldn't It Be Nice." But I knew it was the album Paul McCartney had credited with inspiring him to do Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and it was usually ranked high (number one or two) on "greatest rock album ever" lists. So I had to have it. Back in those days, it was difficult (believe it or not) to find a copy of Pet Sounds on record or cassette. Being in Austin that fall of '85, I was finally (joyfully) able to find a copy of the record at one of the record stores (Waterloo Records) on the Drag.

"Tidal Wave"

Some dude named Lane Steinberg took a fairly obscure Beach Boys instrumental track recorded around the time of Pet Sounds and added a pretty cool vocal part. He sounds uncannily like Brian and/or Carl at times. I first heard the original track, called "Trombone Dixie" (which I love), on the original CD release of Pet Sounds back in 1990, but it has also appeared on at least the huge, multi-disk set Pet Sounds Sessions in 1997. Here it is, in it's beautiful, Wall of Sound-inspired brilliance:


And here is Mr. Steinberg's awesome collaboration/tribute, which I like more each time I listen to it:


The video seems stranger and stranger each time though...

"Don't Worry Baby"

So, "God Only Knows" was supposed to be the first use of the word "God" in the title of a pop song? I'm guessing "Don't Worry Baby" has one of the first (if not the first) instances of the word "worry" showing up in a song for teeny boppers. This song is possibly the beginning of Brian Wilson's songs dealing with more mature and serious issues, other than just cars and surfing. I've always loved Brian's voice on this. It is a little disconcerting though for such a high-pitched voice to be coming out of so big of a dude:

And how does one explain the way a song about such relatively "macho" subject matter succeeds so well with a vocal line a full octave above any normal male singing range, sustained in falsetto completely throughout? (source)

From Rolling Stone:

Wilson wrote "Don't Worry Baby" for Ronnie Bennett, hoping she'd cut it as a follow-up to the Ronettes' "Be My Baby," a Phil Spector production he listened to so much he wore out the grooves. From the opening drum riff (played by Hal Blaine, also heard on "Be My Baby"), "Don't Worry Baby" is sheer homage but also vintage Beach Boys, with one of Wilson's finest falsetto-punctuated lead vocals.

And how about those background vocals? They wash over the listener like a huge wave at high tide. That third verse (after the guitar "solo") is something! I think the song transcends at that point.

"I Just Wasn't Made for These Times"

Partial Wikipedia entry:

"I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" is a song by the Beach Boys from their album Pet Sounds. It is the eleventh song on the album. This song is notable because it is the first use of a keyboard-controlled variation on the theremin - later named the Electro-Theremin or Tannerin - in a rock record. Shortly after this track was recorded, Brian Wilson used the Tannerin on the "Good Vibrations" track.



the boys - a capella (wow)

"Heroes and Villains"

From the Wikipedia entry:

"Heroes and Villains" is the title of a song co-written by Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys and Van Dyke Parks. Originally intended as the centerpiece of the fabled but ill-fated SMiLE album (which was not completed until 2004), the song was recorded in a number of versions by The Beach Boys during 1966-67.

Composed in early 1966, mostly in a large sandbox holding a piano built in Wilson's living room, "Heroes and Villains" was the first collaboration between Wilson and Parks. It is reported that when Wilson first played the melody to him, Parks devised the opening line on the spot. Various musical themes in the song recur in numerous other songs and musical fragments which Wilson recorded for SMiLE.



Here is the live version from 2005's Brian Wilson Performs Smile. The band Brian Wilson has is amazing. Even the percussionists are incredible musicians. Wilson looks like he's having a great time. He even looks straight into the camera and smiles a couple of times. The video:

"The Little Girl I Once Knew"

From the Wikipedia entry:

"The Little Girl I Once Knew" is a song written by Brian Wilson for the American pop band The Beach Boys. It was released in November 1965, as a single 45 rpm, and reached #15 on the Cashbox chart, #20 on Billboard. The last new original song the group produced before the album Pet Sounds, it was not included on any regular Beach Boys album, but has since been collected on several anthologies and as a bonus track on reissues of Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!).

Brian Wilson in '65
The song is notable for innovative use of two dramatic periods of near-silence lasting several seconds each. Although one of the Beach Boys' most exuberant songs, it was poorly received by radio stations preferring to avoid dead air time, which may account for its relatively low chart rating among their other singles of the period, including "California Girls" and "Barbara Ann". It is still rarely heard on oldies radio.

Capitol Records' rushed release of "Barbara Ann" in December ruined any chance "The Little Girl I Once Knew" had of continuing up the charts. Just after its release, John Lennon gave it a favorable review; another what-if for the Beach Boys.

So, poorly received by radio, given the stamp of approval by the "smart Beatle," the "last new original song" the Beach Boys recorded before Brian began working on the tracks for Pet Sounds was "The Little Girl I Once Knew." With the song divided into sections as it is, one can really hear the genesis of "Good Vibrations," and the other "sectional" types of things done for the scrapped Smile project. And to me, the music in this has always sounded very Pet Sounds-like. This was a preview of the main theme of Pet Sounds (i.e., "growing up is hard to do"), and a precursor to the real stand out on that album, the sad, yet so beautiful, "Caroline, No":

What if the Beach Boys had done a James Bond title song?

I'll never listen to the the title track of Pet Sounds quite the same way, ever again. It turns out that Brian Wilson had originally titled the song ("Pet Sounds") "Run James Run" and had intended for it to be used as a James Bond film title track. Pet Sounds was released in 1966, so the next possible Bond flick would have been You Only Live Twice, released in 1967. If this is true, there must have been lyrics, but I've never seen them. It's nowhere near as cool as the actual, Nancy Sinatra sung title track, but it's interesting to think how different the opening credits sequence would have been. I can definitely imagine "Pet Sounds" being used, especially after seeing this. All the dramatic guitar chords make a lot more sense now:

"Little Saint Nick"

Saint Nick
Santa Claus and "the Beach Boys" appeared on MSNBC's Imus in the Morning program last week. They were there to promote Mike Love's "Santa's Going to Kokomo" single and video.

They did a bang-up job of recreating numerous Beach Boys classics, including "Little Saint Nick" (from 1964's The Beach Boys Christmas Album):



John Cowsill of The Cowsills
Watch someone's Christmas lights display to the tune of "Little Saint Nick":



See the real Beach Boys perform it here.

Hang on to your ego

Fellow Beach Boys fans at Bedazzled! and PCL LinkDump (who just linked to me!!!) have done posts about this, and I will too, because I think it's so awesome something like it gets manufactured:

Here's part of the official spiel from Brian Wilson's site:

Don't miss this special opportunity to purchase the Brian Wilson 1966 figure! Meticulously crafted, this highly realistic figure captures Brian exactly how he looked and dressed in 1966, in outstanding detail.

It's basically Brian's look from the photo shoot for the cover of Pet Sounds, and it's a beautiful thing. The 300 signed editions are $150, non-signed for $75. Wouldn't it be nice if you had that kind of money to burn? Perhaps you do. I'm very tempted.

Sgt. Petsound’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

UPDATE 9/08/06: The guy who made this mashup is being sued by EMI, The Beatles' music publisher. EMI may be going after those who downloaded any tracks as well.

Via boingboing, this is a must-blog type of thing. I simply have no choice. It's a mashup of two of my favorite albums, The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It's fairly brain-twisting (Track 1: "Wouldn’t Sgt. Petsound Be Nice?"! Wow! and Ouch! My brain!).

Check out the track listing:

01. "Wouldn’t Sgt. Petsound Be Nice?"
02. "You Still Believe in My Friends"
03. "That’s Not Lucy"
04. "Don’t Talk (Get Better)"
05. "I’m Fixing It, Dayhole"
06. "She’s Going Away for Awhile"
07. "Being for the Benefit of Sloop John B!"
08. "God Only Knows What I’d Be Within You"
09. "I Know There’re Sixty-Four Answers"
10. "Today, Rita"
11. "I Just Wasn’t Made for Good Mornings"
12. "Sgt. Petsound’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprieve)"
13. "A Day in the Life of Caroline"
14. "Runout Groove"


Brilliant stuff, in places. My fave is "God Only Knows What I’d Be Within You".

Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson

"Heroes and Villains"

Released July 24, 1967, from the album Smiley Smile (the watered down Smile).

Composed in early 1966, "Heroes and Villains" was the first collaboration between Wilson and Parks, and it is most likely the first song written specifically for Smile. On this version, the version the cover art above was used for, one can get a good sense of what Van Dyke Parks, Brian Wilson's Smile-era collaborator, called their "American Gothic trip." Here it is:

"Heroes and Villains"

Around the time of writing "Heroes and Villains", Wilson and Parks also wrote something called "Barnyard." If anything shows what I think Brian Wilson was going for with Smile, it's this one. Here is the version recorded for 2005's Brian Wilson Presents Smile:

"Barnyard"

That's a little slice of aural heaven, I think. Do you understand "American Gothic trip" now? Imagine an entire album of that kind of thing. That's what Smile was to have been (I feel). Audio, musical cartoons.

This is a really interesting and thorough dissection of "Heroes and Villains" someone did:

....the ZEN interpretation............HEROES AND VILLAINS..... ..


Here is another little clip from the excellent documentary The Beach Boys: An American Band. First, Brian Wilson talks about how "they got into a very strange bag" around the time of the making of Smile (1966), as footage from the 1966 CBS special is shown, featuring Brian pounding out a melody used on a Smile-era song called "Do You Like Worms." Next will be some stop-motion, film experimentation with Carl and Dennis (Wilson), the soundtrack being a bit of the studio work that resulted in "Heroes and Villains."

"Surf's Up"

If you have an issue with men who sing with a high, soprano voice, do not watch this video. It is difficult for me to handle, sometimes, but when Brian goes into the "surf's up" section of this, it's sort of magical.


The November 8, 1971 single version cover art
Wikipedia entry:

"Surf's Up" is the title of a song written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks. The song was intended as the centerpiece for the aborted Beach Boys' album Smile, which was begun in late 1966 but shelved in mid-1967.

The original studio recording of the song was never completed. A fully finished (or near-complete) backing track for the first section was recorded in late 1966 and early 1967, and other vocal and instrumental segments were also recorded, but a final edit was apparently never made. Wilson also recorded a complete 'demo' solo performance of the song in late 1966, accompanying himself on piano; this was apparently made for a CBS television special on pop music hosted by composer Leonard Bernstein.

Here are the Van Dyke Parks (the flamboyant dude at the end of the video) lyrics the other Beach Boys (other than Brian) weren't too crazy about:

A diamond necklace played the pawn
Hand in hand some drummed along, oh
To a handsome man and baton
A blind class aristocracy
Back through the opera glass you see
The pit and the pendulum drawn
Columnated ruins domino

Canvass the town and brush the backdrop
Are you sleeping?

Hung velvet overtaken me
Dim chandelier awaken me
To a song dissolved in the dawn
The music hall a costly bow
The music all is lost for now
To a muted trumperter swan
Columnated ruins domino

Canvass the town and brush the backdrop
Are you sleeping, Brother John?

Dove nested towers the hour was
Strike the street quicksilver moon
Carriage across the fog
Two-Step to lamp lights cellar tune
The laughs come hard in Auld Lang Syne

The glass was raised, the fired rose
The fullness of the wine, the dim last toasting
While at port adieu or die

A choke of grief heart hardened I
Beyond belief a broken man too tough to cry

Surf's Up
Aboard a tidal wave
Come about hard and join
The young and often spring you gave
I heard the word
Wonderful thing
A children's song

It's a long way from "She's real fine my 409" to "Columnated ruins domino".

"Orange Crate Art"

From the Wikipedia entry:

"Orange Crate Art is a 1995 album by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks released on Warner Bros. Records, where Parks has been contracted since 1967.

Nearly 30 years after their legendary collaboration on the ill-fated Smile project, Wilson and Parks teamed up again for this Orange Crate Art, which in essence, is really a Van Dyke Parks album, full of his dense, complex songwriting and lush orchestrations, while featuring Brian Wilson on vocals. The album's title refers to the sun-drenched, idealized paintings that grace wooden fruit crates, and its theme is a nostalgic view of the history of California.

Given the history of its principals, the album came with high expectations, but upon release it received mixed critical reviews and had lackluster sales, failing even to chart. Nonetheless, Orange Crate Art still remains an interesting curio for most Wilson and Parks devotees."
The footage is from Brian Wilson - I Just Wasn't Made for These Times, a program The Disney Channel (of all channels) played during one of their free preview weekend deals. And guess who taped it?


Speaking of orange crate art, this site has five pages of examples you can see and buy.

"In My Room"

The Boys in their Pendletons. The guy in the lower center, right above "ACH" is David Marks, who was later replaced by Al Jardine.
"In My Room" came out in October 1963 and went to #6 on the American charts. I'm not sure what TV show they are performing this on (something in late '63 or early '64; the suits would suggest post-British Invasion, so, probably early '64), but before it begins, there's a few seconds of the interview done with Brian while he was in bed, circa 1979-ish.

"I Just Wasn't Made For These Times"

I was familiar with "Wouldn't It Be Nice," from The Beach Boys album Pet Sounds, but most of the tracks I'd never heard, the first time I listened to it all the way through. I really like it and am amongst those who think Pet Sounds is one of the best and most important pop/rock albums ever made. I think the key to feeling that way about it is to have heard it for the first time while "coming of age". If one was to hear it for the first time as an adult, it would be an entirely different experience.

Of the many great songs, the one that stood out upon first listening, and the one that led me to feel that the songwriter, Brian Wilson, and I were operating on the same wavelength in more ways than I'd like to admit, was "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" (this version, by the way, is a different mix and arrangement than found on the album). There are many songs that better express angst, but I can't think of many that so encapsulate the feeling of fatigued whininess and frustration everyone has felt, at least once.

This is footage of "The Boys" (with Brian) and their wives/girlfriends riding motorcycles, swimming, and frolicking through grassy fields in Hawaii, circa 1967. It's an interesting juxtaposition--the melodrama of the song with the seeming jubilance of the activities captured on film.

I love when complete sentences are used for such huge titles: I-Just-Wasn't-Made-For-These-Times. Titles like it are ridiculous in a way I find appealing. It's like a title for the kind of songs people used to write in the 30s, 40s, and early 50s, singers like Sinatra sang. Examples would include:

"In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" (poetic)

"I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" (that's pushing it)

or

"Baby, Won't You Please Come Home" (it's got a freakin' comma, for pete's sake)

U2 is another group who likes to use l-o-o-o-ng titles:

"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"

"Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World" (obviously missing a subject)

"Where the Streets Have No Name" (no predicate; what happens where the streets have no name?)

"If God Will Send His Angels" or "If You Wear That Velvet Dress" (what will happen? no predicates; still, long for song titles)

Cocktail culture meets counterculture

The Beach Boys performed their 1965 single, "California Girls", on The Jack Benny Program that same year. Watch for the awkward skit with Benny and Bob Hope at the end. Boy, thank goodness for canned laughter, huh Jack and Bob? What would your careers have been without it!? Brilliant idea, Jack Benny Program producers and writers--schedule the Beach Boys, then write a skit in which they and their culture are mocked...


The attitude of scorn and contempt in that reminded me of this "meeting" between Dean Martin and the Rolling Stones on a 1964 episode of The Hollywood Palace. At least Dino is kind of funny.

Pet Sounds promos

Brian-hanging on to his ego
Here is footage taken from two promotional films made for The Beach Boys 1966 album, Pet Sounds. Both are in the excellent Beach Boys documentary The Beach Boys - An American Band.

The first video is for the album's classic opening song, "Wouldn't It Be Nice". At the beginning, you'll see Brian Wilson (the "fragile genius" and heart of the group) being interviewed in bed, a place he rarely left during the 1970s:

This video is accompanied by "That's Not Me". It features footage of Brian and his first wife, Marilyn (the inspiration for "Caroline No"), swimming in their Bel Air pool. "Joining" them for the swim are Banana (the beagle) and Looie, the dogs you can hear at the end of Pet Sounds: