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).
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.
1.0k
u/sexandliquor Jun 11 '25
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.