Who's gonna hear this shit?" Beach Boys singer Mike
Love asked the band's resident genius, Brian Wilson, in 1966, as Wilson
played him the new songs he was working on. "The ears of a dog?"
Confronted with his bandmate's contempt, Wilson made lemonade of lemons.
"Ironically," he observed, "Mike's barb inspired the album's
title."
Barking dogs -- Wilson's dog Banana among them, in fact -- are prominent
among the found sounds on the album. The Beatles made a point of echoing
them on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band -- an acknowledgment that
Pet Sounds was the inspiration for the Beatles' masterpiece. That gesture
actually completed a circle of influence: Wilson initially conceived of
Pet Sounds as an effort to top the Beatles' Rubber Soul.
Wilson essentially made Sounds without the rest of the band, using them
only to flesh out the vocal arrangements. He even considered putting the
album out as a solo project, and the first single, "Caroline, No,"
was released under his own name. The deeply personal nature of the songs,
which Wilson co-wrote primarily with lyricist Tony Asher, further distinguished
the album from the Beach Boys' typical fare. Its luxurious sound convey
a heartbreaking wistfulness, as songs such as "I Just Wasn't Made
for These Times" and "I'm Waiting for the Day" bid farewell
to the innocent world of the early Sixties and to the Beach Boys' fun-in-the-sun
hits.
Unfortunately, Capitol Records proved no more enamored of Pet Sounds
than had Love; the label actually considered not releasing the album at
all. Not yet vindicated by history, Wilson withdrew further into his inner
world. "At the last meeting I attended concerning Pet Sounds,"
Wilson wrote in his autobiography (which took the name of the album's
opening track, "Wouldn't It Be Nice") about his dealings with
Capitol's executive brain trust, "I showed up holding a tape player
and eight prerecorded, looped responses, including 'No comment,' 'Can
you repeat that?' 'No' and 'Yes.' Refusing to utter a word, I played the
various tapes when appropriate." (Rolling Stone)
Total album sales: 1.6 million, Peak chart position: 10
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This is a record that embraces adult themes of love and spirit. It embraces
you the listener inviting you into its world of love, beating hearts,
lost relationships and resting a head upon the shoulder of a loved one.
Its an album with impeccable state of the art production. Well, by twenty
first century standards the production is no longer state of the art,
but given the studios in which Brian, Mike, Al, Carl, Bruce and Dennis
worked with this is the state of the art, unsurpassed even today.
Brian didnt use studio trickery in so much as he simply knew how
to use the studio. He knew where to place a microphone and which microphone
to use. Well, all good record engineers do know these things of course.
Brian wasnt unusual in that respect. What was unusual is how all
of his choices were just right. And, bear in mind, Brian wasnt
really a producer or an engineer. Hed not taken any college courses
in sound re-production or record production. Everything was learnt cutting
those simple early Beach Boys records, watching trusted lieutenant Chuck
Britz in the control room and beating off the overbearing advances and
attempted domineering of his father.
I should talk about the actual record.... Ill get round to it in
a second. The impact of Pet Sounds deserves some discussion
first. Upon release, people within the music industry the actual
musicians, producers etc recognized Brian had put his heart and soul into
Pet Sounds and that it was indeed something special. They
fell in love with the record and people such as Glen Campbell, producer
Terry Melcher even John Cale of The Velvet Underground are responsible
partly for Pet Sounds never being forgotten. The fans of Pet
Sounds spread the word, spread the message. Capitol Records famously
were lukewarm about the whole thing and quickly released the first of
many greatest hits packages and generally treated Pet Sounds
without any respect whatsoever. Hence it only charted top
ten in the US, only spawned two top ten singles although
it was a huge hit in England where Brian and The Beach Boys still have
a very loyal and loving fan-base right through to today.
Personally, Ive had troubled relationships ( havent we all?
), Ive had doubts about religion and also periods of discovery concerning
spirit and religion. This isnt a religious record as such but Brian
and Carl reputedly held prayer sessions concerning the success of the
album and one song, 'God Only Knows' in particular. Before all of that
however we have 'Wouldnt It Be Nice'. Two and a half minutes in
length, the lyrics written by advertising man Tony Asher and directed
by Brian are a step away from previous Beach Boys material. Basically
wouldnt it be nice if we were older, if we were in love,
if we were married. Its a fantasy and the fantasy is supported by
those wonderful Beach Boys harmonies of course. Musically the most notable
aspect of the song is the section where it slows down, the track is stripped
back and the singing just soars upwards to the heavens. After that, the
song pretty much just ends. It hardly matters as you are still awestruck
by whats just happened. Everything in the right place an
up-tempo, impossibly sophisticated pop song. The next three songs are
something of a sandwich. We have 'Thats Not Me' a simple song on
the face of it that is transformed purely by the playing and production,
the sound of the bass guitar like a heart beat. Together with the drums
its a sound used especially well on 'Dont Talk
' Its
actually used to follow a particular lyric and reinforces the idea of
Pet Sounds as a loving emotional album able to present the
emotion of love out to the listener, rather than just stories and songs
about love. 'You Still Believe In Me' was reworked from an earlier song
called 'In My Childhood'. Its all double lead vocals from Brian ( on the
mono version of the album at least ) and he showcases his heartbreaking
falsetto very well.
You may be thinking at this point, this Pet Sounds doesnt
sound very, um, Rock n Roll!. Youd be right. This is hardly
Rock and Roll, this isnt early Beach Boys influence Chuck Berry.
Brians Idol Phil Spector, now, you can hear his influence. The same
musicians that Phil recorded with were used during the Pet Sounds
sessions after all. The nearest we do get to rock music as such is 'Im
Waiting For The Day' and 'Sloop John B'. Sloop features exciting piano,
rock rhythms and impossibly simple sounding yet complicated melodies that
send me giddy. 'Im Waiting For The Day' again is a fairly simply
song, but simple isnt bad. Its only actually simple in sound. The
melody and chord changes, the production and mixing are far from simple.
Every effort was made to get the right sounds, Brians Pet
Sounds hence the albums title.
'God Only Knows' is of course one of the most beautiful records ever
made. Oh, but of course! Well, I say that myself and I believe that myself.
Many other people believe it to be true and Brian has been playing the
entire Pet Sounds album during recent solo concerts. 'God
Only Knows' was sung by Carl, chosen by Brian after he rejected himself
for the lead and deciding something wasnt quite perfect. Remarkably,
it was only brother Carls second ever lead on a Beach Boys record. Hed
provide many important and great lead vocals the years after 1966, but
never really would match that first ( well, second ) love of his 'God
Only Knows' vocal work. 'I Know Theres An Answer' has lyrics that
were re-written by Mike after he expressed doubts concerning Brians
original Ego lyrics. The importance of the musical tracks
on Pet Sounds the fact that they turn a great record
into a masterpiece genius record is emphasised by 'I Know Theres
An Answer'. The new lyrics are slightly clumsy, slightly corny. Fortunately
the musical backing is one of the most exotic on the entire record, full
of strange noises and held together by wonderfully melodic bass-playing.
Im going to finish this review now. I havent even mentioned
'I Just Wasnt Made For These Times', the two instrumentals and the
beautiful solo Brian 'Caroline No'. The instrumentals provide variety.
The title track is ridiculously joyously silly and really should raise
a smile 'Lets Go Away For Awhile' matches its title in its
musical description of places to achieve a state of joy and relaxation.
'Caroline No' fades out with the sounds of a train going past behind dogs
barking. Pet Sounds, indeed. We are all fortunate Brian shared these sounds
with us all. One of the greatest albums ever made, as simple as that.
No, its not rock and roll
.not really. It renders categorization
difficult, actually. Just forget everything Ive said. As the song
goes, listen, listen, listen
.
(Adrian Denning)
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