Sphinx's Music Blog - The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds
Hello everyone!
I hope everyone is continuing to be healthy, both physically and mentally.
Sorry I’ve been M.I.A. these last few weeks - been doing work around my house, been doing my online teaching, decided to pick up and start learning the guitar, and well honestly, this album I’m writing about is a beast in terms of what can be written about it.
It is The Beach Boys and their 1966 album, Pet Sounds. A deep departure from their previous music, which was all about surfing, girls, cars, and California, this album is an in-depth look into the mind of Brian Wilson, a confessional if you will. Brian Wilson is one of the most enigmatic individuals in the history of music, as he has dealt with many mental issues throughout his career. At the time of the album, he had gotten so nervous about performing live (suffering with panic attacks), that he stopped doing them all together, and The Beach Boys had to bring in someone to play and sing his parts when they toured.
This gave Brian Wilson the time to then stay home and work on music projects, and so this album is all Wilson. He’s the writer (with co-lyricist Tony Asher), composer, producer, and engineer of this marvel of an album. In fact, he had so much control over this album that it drove the rest of The Beach Boys away - they had minimum work on it (some tracks they aren’t on at all), they had to repeat takes over and over and over again until Brian got it exactly as he wanted it, and in the end, the band hated the final product. It’s a shame that this album and its beauty would cause animosity within the group, and unfortunately also set up that things would never be the same for the band after this album either.
The master Brian Wilson conducting his orchestra
Wilson felt this album was his attempt to continue what The Beatles had started exploring in 1965 with their incredible classic album, Rubber Soul. Wilson felt that it was the first true pop album, in that it lacked “filler tunes” - songs used to help fill the roughly 30 minutes or so of a completed album (in this era, the 45’ singles dominated pop music markets with a few exceptions). He felt Rubber Soul was a cohesive piece of music, and he wanted to expand on that further. In addition, Wilson now had the time to play around in the studio, and so he also wanted to take what he was hearing from Phil Spector and his famous “Wall of Sound'' production methods (I did a blog on the Spector Christmas Album for those interested here), and extend deeper into that. And that’s exactly what happens here on Pet Sounds. In the absolutely amazing “Soundbreaking” documentary, it was said how painful a process this album was for Brian Wilson, as no one understood what he wanted to create. Lennon and McCartney had each other, but Brian was on his own. Even after its release, people didn’t quite get it, they wanted the hits.
The album “Pet Sounds”, gets its name (is this opinion or fact, I can’t remember) by the diversity of sounds you hear throughout the album - unheard of in any other album before it. At one point or another, the following sounds are emphasized and showcased: harp, accordion, brass band, strings, vocal harmonies, timpani, harpsichord, car/bike horns, church organ, guitar, bass guitar, flutes, clarinets, french horn, vibraphone, saxophones, bells, electric piano, banjo, tuba, trombone, guava, bongos, and finally the electro theremin (famous in the track Good Vibrations, that was recording shortly after this album). That’s 23 different sounds that take center stage at one point or another in this album. Unbelievable.
Hearing these different sounds can also sound different to the listener depending on what version you listen to. The era of time is right around the transition from mono to stereo recording, and so many albums were produced in both ways, including Pet Sounds. My CD of this album includes the mono and stereo versions back to back, and there is a big difference in how it sounds. Stereo is more balanced with syncing the sounds together, and mono is a little deeper and places more focus on the vocals in the forefront. I think I prefer the stereo version, but both are great.
When talking about the themes of this album, it mainly falls under much deeper and more personal love songs that you would hear out of popular music at this time. I mean, even in 2020, this album is intense. When Brian sings “I wanna cry” in “You Still Believe In Me” your heart aches with his. In “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”, a classic track (and probably my favorite Beach Boys song), the level of maturity in his love lyrics are top notch.
That level of maturity continues in “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)” and possibly the greatest lyrics ever written in a pop song with “God Only Knows”. I mean here’s a quick take from that tune:
I may not always love you
But long as there are stars above you
You never need to doubt it
I'll make you so sure about it
God only knows what I'd be without you
But as I previously mentioned, this is a super confessional album for Brian Wilson too. In “That’s Not Me” he talks about how he “soon found out that my lonely life wasn’t so pretty”. With “Here Today” he realizes:
She made me feel so bad
She made my heart feel sad
She made my days go wrong
And made my nights so long
You’ve got to keep in mind love is here today
And it’s gone tomorrow
It’s here and gone so fast
And in the also autobiographical “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times” Wilson’s confidence is absolutely shattered, as he just wails “sometimes I feel very sad” over and over. Finally, in “Caroline, No” in the bridge they sing:
Break my heart
I want to go and cry
It's so sad to watch a sweet thing die
Oh, Caroline why
Obviously this is a stark transition from The Beach Boys we know.
The last thing I want to bring up is how there are two instrumental tracks from this album, one on each side. The first “Let’s Go Away For Awhile” is a very soothing sound that sounds like a sunset on the beach. The second one is called “Pet Sounds” which sounds like a song for a James Bond movie…..because that’s exactly what it was intended to be. It was originally called “Run James Run”, and was influenced by Wilson watching the classic Bond film Thunderball (which I discussed in much detail on my podcast Last Action Podcast).
This is an album that I checked out when I was much older, but The Beach Boys were a huge part of my childhood. My Nana (my mother’s mom), was a huge fan, and I remember being at their house with their cassette player listening to the group over and over again in the spare bedroom they had. At home, I put on the headphones in my dad’s stereo and listen to his greatest hits CD, singing “Barbara Ann” and “I Get Around” as loud as I could like the weird little kid I was. As I got older, many tracks have stood out in their catalogue as the band being much more mature than I give them credit for, including this entire album, and tracks like “In My Room”, “Will I Grow Up To Be (A Man)”, and “Help Me Rhonda”.
To put a close to this album, it’s important to realize one last time that this is an album that could never be reproduced live at the time. This obviously didn’t matter to Brian, who was done with touring, but knowing that can get you a better idea of how the band was not happy by this album. Pretty much after this album ended the original line up; Brian continued to have major mental issues, and eventually just stopped being a part of the band. Carl, Brian’s brother, took over, and unfortunately the band would never again reach the level of fame they had in their early days. And even more unfortunate, the band would have a series of horrible events happen to them. Dennis Wilson, middle brother and drummer of the band, drowned in 1983. Carl, the youngest brother, died of lung cancer at only 51 years old in 1998. Oldest brother Brian, the architect of this album, is still around today and actually is touring in his later years (but only a handful of times with former members Mike Love and Al Jardine).
However, this is the peak of The Beach Boys, and a fantastic record to be heard by anyone. This album had such an impact on The Beatles, that they have named it their major influence in their masterpiece album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The things Brian Wilson did in the studio turned the studio into an instrument in and of itself, and dramatically changed music forever.
TOP TRACKS: Wouldn’t It Be Nice, Sloop John B, Only God Knows, I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times, Caroline No
Have opinions on this album, or on The Beach Boys in general? I’d love to chat about it! Send a message either on social media or on the Gamezilla Media discord. In addition, if you love gaming and movies, check out the five podcasts on Gamezilla Media, and consider being a patron on Patreon! You can find me on the Last Action Podcast or the Noobs and Dragons podcast.
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Sphinx