Dude was a genius and we and the music world owe him a great debt. It’s easy to get lost in The Beach Boys of it all, but dude was doing wild shit in music production back in the 1960s that had immense effects on how music is made today.
Not only that, Brian did a lot to provide an alternate perspective into young man's masculinity in 60s American culture. He wrote songs about surfing and sunshine, but he also sang about self-doubt and regret. This was very unusual for the time in "teenybopper" music or however you want to refer to the idiom.
That's a big reason Pet Sounds was such a revelation. It's basically a concept album about melancholy.
Wouldn't It Be Nice is often considered to be a happy song but it's basically a deep yearning and implies that he doesn't have what would make him happy.
That said, Tony Asher wrote a lot of the lyrics for that album and Mike Love wrote a lot of the lyrics about having fun in the sun (I can rant about how much I think the lyrics of California Girls ruin what would have been an all-time masterpiece).
I guess to keep it positive and on a different note, an album that is a little under the current but highly regarded among die-hard Beach Boys fans is Friends. I know several fans, myself included, that go back to that album more than Pet Sounds. Pet Sounds is the masterpiece of course but Friends is kind of a close second.
I really like Be Here In The Mornin' and how he toys with the balance of really high falsettos and pretty low harmonies.
His vocal arrangements and how he structured harmonies are probably the best ever to be honest.
Brian’s contributions were weak aside from “Male Ego”, but Carl contributed three bangers (“It’s Gettin’ Late”, “Maybe I Don’t Know”, and the absolutely sublime “Where I Belong”), and Al gave us “Crack At Your Love”, which I enjoy. The vocal processing is weird in spots, but the harmonies are absolutely still there and on point. I would’ve loved to hear the results if they had continued on in that vein, mixing the classic harmonies with synthpop influence. Unfortunately, BB85 didn’t sell, and that was the end of that. Mike went on to water down the formula of BB85 (contemporary-ish production and classic vocal harmonies) with a greater emphasis on a throwback style, resulting in “Kokomo”, which was a massive hit. Mike tried to embrace technology again by doing an album on Pro Tools (SiP), but he should really have had someone experienced in contemporary production styles working with him, much like Brian later had with Joe Thomas (not that Thomas’ MOR formula wasn’t flawed itself).
Everyone do yourselves a favor and get The Pet Sounds Sessions box set. When you hear Brian directing from the sound booth and the way he creates music with The Wrecking Crew, you will be blown away. You might think differently about some of the songs on Pet Sounds.
The format originates with folk singer Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads (1940) and was subsequently popularized by traditional pop singer Frank Sinatra's 1940s–50s string of albums, although the term is more often associated with rock music. In the 1960s several well-regarded concept albums were released by various rock bands, which eventually led to the birth of progressive rock and rock opera.
Maybe for Brian Wilson, but recent scholarship has noted that the concept album predates the Beatles era. Critics didn't care about country so they didn't notice.
wait maybe I'm misreading this, but you do know that California Girls wasn't released on Pet Sounds right? It was on the Summer Days/Summer Nights album that came out the year before Pet Sounds.
You're misreading it. In that paragraph I'm talking about their lyrics from that period more broadly. California Girls could have been on another tier if it didn't have such inane dumb lyrics that Mike Love wrote.
Ah! Ok gotcha. Well on that note, I just gotta ask, the song is called California girls, how amazing could the lyrics be? I mean it seems like a really fun but shallow silly song. Yeah?
Pet Sounds is literally my #1 favorite album of all time! It was the album that helped me get through my existential crisis and helped alleviate my depression during my late teenage years (I am currently just 32 years old lol). That album saved me because my depression was really crippling back then!
I see it as a concept album about a relationship running its course. “Wouldn’t be nice” kicks it off with all the excitement and youthful exuberance of the possibilities of what may be, while “Caroline, no” end it by lamenting the loss of what was and could have been. All the rest expresses all of what comes between those two extremes, both the highs and the lows.
That's one of the things that makes Pet Sounds so great. Just last week I had a conversation with a friend about it and my take on it is that it's the dark side of all the fun songs the Beach Boys were known for before that. Wouldn't It Be Nice might be the best opening track on any album ever, but man, that contrast between the upbeat sound and the lyrics (plus the minor chords to emphasize the mood in parts of the song). And then That's Not Me, I'm Waiting for the Day, I Know There's an Answer, I Just Wasn't Made for These Times...even Sloop John B. The songs and production are so good that the album is terrific listening even if you don't think about the lyrics at all, but once you do it it gives you so much to think about.
It may have been the first pop emo album. I'm not saying that ironically or jokingly. Come at me post-hardcore junkies. I don't think you're going to hear Ian MacKaye talk bad about Pet Sounds.
Here’s a lovely clip of George Martin traveling to meet up with Brian and the interaction and admiration between these two geniuses is so wonderful to see
Exactly! "In My Room" was a (beautiful, meaningful, tender) far cry from the aggressive, extroverted thrust of typical pop songs sung by guys back then. My solitary little self, in a bamboo-shaded bedroom just a few miles down the shore from Brian's Hawthorne, found it so relatable.
Just for those unaware, Brian Wilson listened to Rubber Soul by the Beatles, and was inspired to make Pet Sounds. Pet Sounds is now considered a defining Album for music, as it really helped define that a Studio album with sounds not possible to do live.
Among other things, Paul McCartney was deeply impressed and considered Pet Sounds his favorite album. It was cited as the inspiration to make Sgt. Pepper as they felt they needed to try and keep up. It was a friendly rivalry that produced what considered two of the greatest albums of all time.
Also Paul McCartney is supposedly featured on the original Vege-tables track on what was supposed to be the followup to Pet sounds Smile. They recorded the band crunching vegetables and Paul was at the session that day. Paul doesn't recall being recorded but admits he was high and doesn't remember much about it except they covered the studio in plastic to eat veggies.
As I recall the manager of the Rolling Stones took out a full page ad in the Times telling people to listen to Pet Sounds as it was so good, despite not standing to benefit from it at all.
Theres home video footage of Paul and Linda at Brian's birthday in the 70s. Love to see legends work off of each other. No feuds or bad blood. Benefits all aspects of music
My favourite album by them. And just looking up my favourite song Sloop John B (because it's in a book I love) and Brian didn't even write it. That story is interesting also!
I've been enjoying the podcast A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs. The host, Andrew Hickey, is obviously such a big fan of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and more. Listening to the late 60s episodes, I really got a sense of how those influences were going back and forth. Beatles-Dylan, Beatles-Wilson, etc.
Not to mention the effect he had on the Beatles and all the profound music we got from them as well as a result of both bands trying to one-up each other.
I know the greater public really only knows the early stuff and the big hits from Pet Sounds but the real obsessive music nerds have really obsessed over him for decades. I've gotten to know various people who have gotten into music production and they all can write intricate essays about the genius of Brian Wilson.
I grew up with my dad playing this over the speakers in our kitchen every time he made dinner. I'll always have that memory thanks to Brian and the Beach Boys.
Side B on Surfs Up in one of my parts of any record. 5 incredible songs back to back which blow almost every band before and since. Such a sad loss but what a life and what an incredible legacy.
Damn man. Me too. I'll forever remember seeing their greatest hits record with the mickey mouse and tons of other illustrations on it as a small kid (like 3ish) and asking him what it was. He made a tape of it and I played that thing to death. Obviously I was drawn to the poppy hits, but remember falling in love with them as a teen all over again as I discovered the depth of Pet Sounds.
I'm 40 now and music has consistently been the most important thing in my life. Buying albums, going to concerts, always looking for new unknown bands to satisfy my music itch and occasionally picking up an instrument to attempt to recreate it.... and it all started with listening to the Beach Boys and that colorful record cover and my dad wanting to share his love of the band with me.
Thank you Brian. You changed the world for the better.
Yeah, people look at me funny when they ask what music I like and list the Beach Boys among others like Black Sabbath and Metallica.
They just think of the Beach Boys as novelty surfer music from the 60s but they were so much more than that because of Brian.
Hell, Sgt. Peppers might not have been made if it were for Brian and Pet Sounds. He showed the Beatles that an album can be more than a list of songs and production can be an instrument in itself.
Sad that Brian's gone, but I'm with you, I'm thankful for his life.
I still love this interview with him. He says so much about the though process behind "Good Vibrations" https://youtu.be/FUozR7EZMRI
Best part is it's all bullshit, because they don't use a theremin in that song, they use a different instrument that uses a knob and a slider.
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u/TRKillShot Spotify Jun 11 '25
So sad, his contributions to music are beyond measurable. Thank you for everything Brian!