Pet Sounds

For other uses, see Pet Sounds (disambiguation).
Pet Sounds
The Beach Boys at the zoo feeding various goats. The header displays "The Beach Boys Pet Sounds" followed by the album's track list.
Studio album by The Beach Boys
Released May 16, 1966 (1966-05-16)
Recorded July 12, 1965 (1965-07-12) – April 13, 1966 (1966-04-13)
Studio United Western Recorders, Gold Star Studios, CBS Columbia Square, and Sunset Sound Recorders, Hollywood
Genre
Length 35:57
Label Capitol
Producer Brian Wilson
The Beach Boys chronology
Beach Boys' Party!
(1965)		 Pet Sounds
(1966)		 Best of The Beach Boys
(1966)
Singles from Pet Sounds
  1. "Sloop John B"
    Released: March 21, 1966
  2. "Wouldn't It Be Nice" / "God Only Knows"
    Released: July 18, 1966

Pet Sounds is the 11th studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released on May 16, 1966. It met with a lukewarm critical and commercial response in the United States, peaking at number 10 in the Billboard 200, a significantly lower placement than the band's preceding albums. In the United Kingdom, the album was hailed by its music press and was an immediate commercial success, peaking at number 2 in the UK Top 40 Albums Chart and remaining among the top ten positions for six months. Pet Sounds has subsequently garnered worldwide acclaim from critics and musicians alike, and is widely considered to be one of the most influential albums in music history.[1][2]

The album was produced and arranged by Brian Wilson, who also wrote and composed almost all of its music. Most of the recording sessions were conducted between January and April 1966, a year after he had quit touring with the Beach Boys in order to focus more attention on writing and recording. Its musical direction ignited tensions within the group. Due to the album's personal, artistic nature, Pet Sounds is sometimes considered a Brian Wilson solo album, repeating the themes and ideas he had introduced with The Beach Boys Today! one year earlier. The album's lead single, "Caroline, No", was issued as Wilson's official solo debut. It was followed by two singles credited to the group: "Wouldn't It Be Nice" (backed with "God Only Knows") and "Sloop John B".

Collaborating with lyricist Tony Asher, Wilson's symphonic arrangements wove elaborate layers of vocal harmonies, coupled with sound effects and unusual instruments such as bicycle bells, buzzing organs, harpsichords, flutes, Electro-Theremin, trains, Hawaiian-sounding string instruments, Coca-Cola cans, and barking dogs, along with the more usual keyboards and guitars. Unified by Wall of Sound-style production techniques, the album comprised Wilson's "pet sounds", consisting mainly of introspective songs like "You Still Believe in Me", about faithfulness, "I Know There's an Answer", a critique of LSD users, and "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times", an autobiographical statement on social alienation (as well as the first use of a theremin-like instrument on a rock record). Recording was completed on April 13, 1966 with an unprecedented total production cost that exceeded $70,000 ($510,000 today). A follow-up album, Smile, was immediately planned, but left unfinished. In 1997, a "making-of" version of Pet Sounds was supervised by Wilson and released as The Pet Sounds Sessions, containing the album's first true stereo mix.

Pet Sounds is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the field of music production through its introduction of non-standard harmonies and timbres, incorporating elements of pop, jazz, exotica, classical, and the avant-garde. A heralding work of psychedelic rock, the album signaled an aesthetic trend within rock by transforming it from dance music into music that was made for listening to, elevating itself to the level of art rock. Author Bill Martin said that within Pet Sounds, "[The Beach Boys] brought expansions in harmony, instrumentation (and therefore timbre), duration, rhythm, and the use of recording technology. Of these elements, the first and last were the most important in clearing a pathway toward the development of progressive rock."[3] In 2004, Pet Sounds was preserved in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."[4] One year earlier, Rolling Stone ranked it second on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".[5]

Background

The Beach Boys performing "I Get Around" on The Ed Sullivan Show in September 1964, three months before Wilson's resignation from touring

The July 1964 release of the Beach Boys' sixth studio album All Summer Long marked an end to the group's beach-themed period. From there on, their recorded material took a significantly different stylistic and lyrical path.[6] While on a December 23 flight from Los Angeles to Houston, the band's songwriter and producer Brian Wilson suffered a panic attack only hours after performing with the group on the musical variety series Shindig! [7] The 22-year-old Wilson had already skipped several concert tours by then, but the airplane episode proved devastating to his psyche.[8] In order to focus his efforts on writing and recording, Wilson indefinitely resigned from live performances.[7][9] Freed from the burden, he immediately showcased great artistic leaps in his musical development evident within the albums Today! and Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), released in the spring and summer of 1965.[10] With the July 1965 single "California Girls", Wilson began experimenting with song composition while under the influence of psychedelic drugs,[11] a factor that yielded a great effect on the group's musical conceptions.[12][13][nb 1]

At the suggestion of bandmate Al Jardine, Wilson began working on a track, "Sloop John B", which was originally a traditional Caribbean folk song.[16] Wilson recorded a backing track on July 12, 1965, but after laying down a rough lead vocal, he set the song aside for some time, concentrating on the recording of what became their next LP, the informal studio jam Beach Boys' Party!, in response to their record company's request for a Beach Boys album for the Christmas 1965 market.[17] Wilson devoted the last three months of 1965 to polishing the vocals of "Sloop John B" and recording six new original compositions.[nb 2] In November 1965, "The Little Girl I Once Knew" was released as a non-album single. A section of the song features total silence, leading to poor airplay where radio stations preferred not to have moments of dead air in the middle of a song. It would be the last original Beach Boys song issued before any Pet Sounds tracks.[20]

Collaboration and inspiration

In 1965, Wilson met Tony Asher working at a recording studio in Los Angeles.[21][nb 3] The two exchanged ideas for songs, and soon after, Wilson heard of Asher's writing abilities from mutual friends.[21] In December 1965, he proceeded to contact Asher about a possible lyric collaboration, wanting to do something "completely different" with someone he had never written with before.[22] Asher accepted the offer, and within ten days, they were writing together.[21] Wilson played him some of the music he had been recording and gave him a cassette containing the backing track to "You Still Believe in Me", which was then titled "In My Childhood".[21][nb 4] The result of Asher's tryout was eventually retitled "You Still Believe in Me", and the success of the piece convinced Wilson that Asher was the wordsmith he had been looking for.[21] When Wilson was asked why he felt Asher was the right collaborator: "Oh, a lot of reasons. One, I thought he was a cool person. Two, anybody that hung out with [my friend] Loren Schwartz was a very brainy guy, a real verbal type person. I just felt that there was something there that had to be, you know, that really had to be."[19][nb 5]

Wilson recalls that Asher played him the Beatles' newest album, Rubber Soul (1965),[19] it being the alternate US version that was configured by Capitol Records to have a cohesive folk rock sound.[25][nb 6] Wilson was immediately enamored with the album, given the impression that it had no filler tracks, a feature that was mostly unheard of at a time when 45 rpm singles were considered more noteworthy than full-length LPs.[26][27][nb 7] Inspired, he rushed to his wife and proclaimed, "Marilyn, I'm gonna make the greatest album! The greatest rock album ever made!"[29] He would say of his reaction to Rubber Soul: "I liked the way it all went together, the way it was all one thing. It was a challenge to me ... It didn't make me want to copy them but to be as good as them. I didn't want to do the same kind of music, but on the same level."[30] Later, he clarified: "The Beatles inspired me. They didn't influence me."[31][nb 8]

Author Michael Zager wrote that Pet Sounds is more reminiscent of the productions of Phil Spector, recycling many of his Wall of Sound production watermarks.[34][nb 9] Wilson talked of Spector's influence on his work, having learned how to produce records through attending his sessions, and in a 1988 interview, Wilson asserted that the album aspired to "extend" Spector's music, that "in one sense of the word, we [the Beach Boys] were his messengers."[32] Shortly before the album's release, Wilson spoke of recent popular music trends, saying "[They] helped the Beach Boys evolve. We listen to what's happening and it affects what we do too. The trends have influenced my work, but so has my own scene."[36] In 1996, Wilson said of his partnership with Asher: "none of us looked back ... We went forward, kind of like on our own little wavelength. It wasn't like we were thinking, 'Okay, let's beat Spector,' let's out-do Motown.' It was more what I would call exclusive collaboration not to specifically try to kick somebody's butt, but just to do it the way you really want it to be. That's what I thought we did."[19][nb 10]

It felt like we were writing an autobiography, but oddly enough, I wouldn't limit it to Brian's autobiography ... We were working in a somewhat intimate relationship, and I didn't know him at all, so he was finding out who I was, and I was finding out who he was.

—Tony Asher[21]

Asher maintains that his contribution to the music itself was minimal, serving mainly as a source of second opinion for Brian as he worked out possible melodies and chord progressions, although the two did trade ideas as the songs evolved.[21][nb 11] On his role as co-lyricist, Asher clarified, "The general tenor of the lyrics was always his ... and the actual choice of words was usually mine. I was really just his interpreter."[39] While speaking about "God Only Knows", Wilson reflected: "I think Tony had a musical influence on me somehow. After about ten years, I started thinking about it deeper ... because I had never written that kind of song. And I remember him talking about 'Stella by Starlight' and he had a certain love for classic songs."[19][nb 12] While most of the album's songs derived from this partnership, "I Know There's an Answer" was co-written by Wilson with another new associate, the Beach Boys' road manager Terry Sachen.[40][41][42] In 1994, Mike Love was awarded co-writing credits on "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and "I Know There's an Answer",[43] but with the exception of his co-credit on "I'm Waiting for the Day", a song which had been written some two years earlier,[40] his songwriting contributions are thought to have been minimal.[40][nb 13]

Concept

Further information: § Themes

The concept album form returned to popularity in the late 1960s among pop artists, when many rock releases including Pet Sounds presented a set of thematically-linked songs. Other rock music artists, such as Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, the Beatles and the Who subsequently released concept albums. Pet Sounds was a musical portrayal of Brian Wilson's private/public state of mind at the time.[44]

Even though Pet Sounds has a somewhat unified theme in its emotional content, Wilson and Asher said repeatedly that it was not necessarily intended to be a narrative. Asher explained that they had "truly spontaneously generated a lot of those songs" from lengthy, intimate discussions centered around their "experiences and feelings about women and the various stages of relationships and so forth".[21] Wilson stated: "If you take the Pet Sounds album as a collection of art pieces, each designed to stand alone, yet which belong together, you'll see what I was aiming at."[45] He said that Pet Sounds could be considered an "interpretation" of Spector's Wall of Sound method,[46] adding: "It wasn't really a song concept album, or lyrically a concept album; it was really a production concept album."[47]

Group infighting

Pet Sounds is sometimes considered a Brian Wilson solo album in all but name.[48][49][50] He explained: "Pet Sounds was something that was absolutely different. Something I personally felt. That one album that was really more me than Mike Love and the surf records and all that, and 'Kokomo'. That's all their kind of stuff, you know?"[19] When the other Beach Boys returned from a three-week tour of Japan and Hawaii, they were presented with a substantial portion of a new album, with music that was in many ways a jarring departure from their earlier style.[51] According to various reports, the group fought over the new direction.[52][53]

One of the issues was the album's complexity and how the touring Beach Boys would be able to perform its music live.[54] Wilson said that the band "didn't like the idea of growing musically ... They wanted to keep making car songs and I said 'No, we’ve gotta grow, guys'."[55] Marilyn said: "When Brian was writing Pet Sounds, it was difficult for the guys to understand what he was going through emotionally and what he wanted to create. ... they didn't feel what he was going through and what direction he was trying to go in."[56] Tony Asher remembered: "All those guys in the band, certainly Al, Dennis, and Mike, were constantly saying, 'What the fuck do these words mean?' or 'This isn't our kind of shit!' Brian had comebacks, though. He'd say, 'Oh, you guys can't hack this.' ... But I remember thinking that those were tense sessions."[57] Wilson believed the band were worried about him separating from the group, elaborating that "it was generally considered that the Beach Boys were the main thing ... with Pet Sounds, there was a resistance in that I was doing most of the artistic work on it vocally". The conflicts were resolved, accordingly, "[when] they figured that it was a showcase for Brian Wilson, but it's still the Beach Boys. In other words, they gave in. They let me have my little stint."[58]

The original lyrics of "I Know There's an Answer", known as "Hang On to Your Ego", created a stir within the group. Mike Love is reputed to have opposed the song's original message: "I was aware that Brian was beginning to experiment with LSD and other psychedelics ... The prevailing drug jargon at the time had it that doses of LSD would shatter your ego, as if that were a positive thing ... I wasn't interested in taking acid or getting rid of my ego."[40] Jardine recalled that the decision to change the lyrics was ultimately Brian's. "Brian was very concerned. He wanted to know what we thought about it. To be honest, I don't think we even knew what an ego was ... Finally Brian decided, 'Forget it. I'm changing the lyrics. There's too much controversy.'"[40][nb 14]

In later years, rumors of group infighting were denied by Dennis Wilson.[60] Mike Love dismissed claims which say he disliked the album, calling them "a bunch of bullshit",[61] but is quoted to have said "some of the [Pet Sounds lyrics] were so offensive that I wouldn't even sing [them]".[62] Love was reported to have found Asher's lyrics "nauseating", declaring the album "Brian's ego music", and urging him not to "fuck with the formula".[63] Author John Tobler wrote that Dennis and Johnston loved the album, but that Jardine admitted, "It sure doesn't sound like the old stuff."[64] Jardine commented: "Mike was very confused by it ... Mike's a formula hound – if it doesn't have a hook in it, if he can't hear a hook in it, he doesn't want to know about it. ... I wasn't exactly thrilled with the change, but I grew to really appreciate it as soon as we started to work on it. It wasn't like anything we'd heard before."[65] Carl Wilson said, "I loved every minute of it. He [Brian] could do no wrong. He could play me anything, and I would love it."[66]

Music and lyrics
The very beginning of Pet Sounds: "Wouldn't It Be Nice"
"Wouldn't It Be Nice" introduces the album with a sound described by Nick Kent as "limpid harps imitating a teenage heartstrings in a tug of love" with it followed by "growling horns ... [and] harmonies so complex they seemed to have more in common with a Catholic Mass than any cocktail lounge acappella doo-wop."[67]
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According to various writers, Pet Sounds is a psychedelic rock album,[68][69][70] whereas Goldmine and the Journal Sentinel called its music psychedelic pop,[71][72] and writer Vernon Joyson observed flirtations with acid rock.[73] The Associated Press said that the album is a baroque pop work,[74] while author Domenic Priore referred to it as symphonic rock.[75] Professor Kelly Fisher Lowe cited Pet Sounds among experimental rock records,[76] while The West Australian called it Wilson's "experimental pop opus".[55] The New York Observer wrote that the album sculpted "Americana-rooted progressive folk rock".[77] Paste deemed it a "progressive pop masterpiece".[78] Brian himself thought of the album as "chapel rock ... commercial choir music. I wanted to make an album that would stand up in ten years."[62]
The bridge of "God Only Knows"
For the basic rhythmic feel of "God Only Knows", harpsichord, piano with slapback echo, sleigh bells, and strings spills into each other to create a rich blanket of sound.[79]
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According to biographer Jon Stebbins, "Brian defies any notion of genre safety".[80] The album's innovative soundscape incorporates elements of pop, jazz, classical, exotica, and avant-garde music, as Stebbins adds, "There isn't much rocking here, and even less rolling. Pet Sounds is at times futuristic, progressive, and experimental. ... there's no boogie, no woogie, and the only blues are in the themes and in Brian's voice."[81] In Pet Sounds, Wilson conceived of experimental arrangements[82] which combine conventional rock set-ups with various exotic instruments, producing new sounds with a rich texture reminiscent of symphonic works layered underneath meticulous vocal harmonics.[27] Many of those instruments were alien to rock music, including glockenspiel, ukulele, accordion, Electro-Theremin, bongos, harpsichord, violin, viola, cello, trombone, Coca-Cola bottles, and other odd sounds such as barking dogs, trains, and bicycle bells.[83] This kind of selection was stylistically appropriated from a wide variety of cultures, with some relating it to exotica and its associated producers Martin Denny,[84][85][80] Les Baxter,[85] and Esquivel.[86]

Journalist Alice Bolin writes that Pet Sounds "repeated and perfected" the themes and ideas introduced in the Beach Boys' album Today!, released one year earlier.[87] Author Chris Smith wrote that the complex arrangements and more developed themes of Today! effectively foreshadowed the lush orchestration and maturity of Pet Sounds.[88] Marshall Heiser expressed for The Journal on the Art of Record Production: "Pet Sounds diverges from previous Beach Boys' efforts in several ways: its sound field has a greater sense of depth and 'warmth;' the songs employ even more inventive use of harmony and chord voicings; the prominent use of percussion is a key feature (as opposed to driving drum backbeats); whilst the orchestrations, at times, echo the quirkiness of 'exotica' bandleader Les Baxter, or the 'cool' of Burt Bacharach, more so than [Phil] Spector's teen fanfares."[89] Musicologist Daniel Harrison has written: "In terms of the structure of the songs themselves, there is comparatively little advance from what Brian had already accomplished or shown himself capable of accomplishing. Most of the songs use unusual harmonic progressions and unexpected disruptions of hypermeter, both features that were met in 'Warmth of the Sun' and 'Don't Back Down.'"[90] Journalist Nick Kent felt "Wouldn't It Be Nice" to be "teen angst dialogue" that Brian had already achieved with "We'll Run Away" the year before. However: "This time Brian Wilson was out to eclipse these previous sonic soap operas, to transform the subject's sappy sentiments with a God-like grace so that the song would become a veritable pocket symphony."[67]
The instrumental break from "Here Today" (stereo version)
"Here Today" has been described by AllMusic as one of Brian's most ambitious arrangements, featuring "swooping harmonies [that] duel and soar in and around a Wall of Sound backing track full of blaring saxophones and percolating keyboards" along with "jazzy drumming" that blends the "complexity of an orchestral piece with the immediacy of a good pop tune".[91]
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As author James Perone explains, Wilson's compositions include tempo changes, metrical ambiguity, and unusual tone colors that, culturally speaking, separates the album from any pop music of the era. It also adds to "the background tenderness and melancholy—as well as the increased maturity—that ebb and flow throughout Pet Sounds."[92] He specifically touches upon the album's closer "Caroline, No" and its use of wide tessitura changes, wide melodic intervals, and instrumentation which contribute to his belief; also Brian's compositions and orchestral arrangements which experiment with form and tone colors.[93] Referring to "Wouldn't It Be Nice", Perone recalls that the track sounds "significantly less like a rock band supplemented with auxiliary instrumentation ... than a rock band integrated into an eclectic mix of studio instrumentation."[94] Fussili observed that Brian's tendency to "wander far from the logic of his composition only to return triumphantly to confirm the emotional intent of his work" is repeated numerous times in Pet Sounds, but never to "evoke a sense of unbridled joy" as Brian recently had with the single "The Little Girl I Once Knew".[95] In the example of "God Only Knows", which contains an ambivalent key and non-diatonic chords,[90] musicologist Philip Lambert cites its "choral fantasy" section to contain complex key changes that elude the listener "for the entire experience — that in fact, the idea of 'key' has itself been challenged and subverted".[96][nb 15]

The album included two sophisticated instrumental tracks composed solely by Brian.[92] One of them: the wistful "Let's Go Away for Awhile".[97][98] the other instrumental is the title track, "Pet Sounds". Both titles had been recorded as backing tracks for existing songs, but by the time the album neared completion Brian had decided that the tracks worked better without vocals.[99] Of "Let's Go Away for Awhile", Perone observes, "There are melodic features but no tune to speak of. As an instrumental composition, this gives the piece an atmospheric feel; however, the exact mood is difficult to define."[92] Of "Pet Sounds", the piece represents the Beach Boys' surf heritage more than any other track on the album with its emphasis on lead guitar, although Perone maintains that it is not really a surf composition, citing its elaborate arrangement involving countless auxiliary percussion parts, abruptly changing textures, and de-emphasis of a traditional rock band drum set.[82]

Themes

Original handwritten manuscript for the lyrics to "God Only Knows"

According to reviewer Jim Esch, the opener "Wouldn't It Be Nice" inaugurates and suggests the album's pervasive theme: "fragile lovers buckling under the pressure of external forces they can't control, self-imposed romantic expectations and personal limitations, while simultaneously trying to maintain faith in one other. It is a theme that keeps reverberating sweetly, and hauntingly, throughout Pet Sounds."[100] In the opinion of Perone, it is the next track, "You Still Believe in Me", which features the first expression of introspective themes that pervade the rest of the album.[94] Critics Richard Goldstein and Nik Cohn noted incongruity between the album's music and lyrics, where the latter suggested the work to consist of "sad songs about happiness" while also celebrating loneliness and heartache.[101] Elsewhere within Pet Sounds lyrical content, Brian turned inward and probed his deep-seated self-doubts and emotional longings.[102] Marilyn believed that her relationship with Brian was a central reference within the album's lyrics; namely on "You Still Believe in Me" and "Caroline, No".[103] Carl said: "The disappointment and the loss of innocence that everyone had to go through when they grow up and find everything's not Hollywood are the recurrent themes on that album."[30]

Responding to the songwriters' denials of a conscious lyric theme, Nick Kent observed: "[The] album documents the male participant's attempts at coming to terms with himself and the world about him. Each song pinpoints a crisis of faith in love and life: confusion ('That's Not Me'), disorientation (the staggeringly beautiful 'I Just Wasn't Made for These Times'), recognition of love's capricious impermanence ('Here Today') and finally, the grand betrayal of innocence featured in 'Caroline, No'."[104] From another viewpoint, author Scott Schinder has written that Wilson and Asher crafted an "emotion-charge song cycle that surveyed the emotional challenges accompanying the transition from youth to adulthood."[105] Schinder continues: "Lyrically, Pet Sounds encompassed the loss of innocent idealism ("Caroline, No"), the transient nature of love ("Here Today"), faith in the face of heartbreak ("I'm Waiting for the Day"), the demands and disappointments of independence ("That's Not Me"), the feeling of being out of step with the modern world ("I Just Wasn't Made for These Times"), and the longing for a happy, loving future ("Wouldn't It Be Nice"). The album also featured a series of intimate, hymnlike love songs, "You Still Believe in Me", "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)", and "God Only Knows"."[105]

"Then again," Kent says, "bearing in mind this conceptual bent, there are certain incongruous factors about the album's construction. The main one is the inclusion of the hit single 'Sloop John B', as well as of two instrumental pieces."[104] Perone argues, "To the extent that the listener hears 'Let's Go Away for Awhile' as an incomplete piece, it is possible to understand it as a reflection of the alienation – the sense of not quite fitting in – of the bulk of Tony Asher's lyrics in the songs on Pet Sounds."[92] Noting that a sense of self-doubt, concern for the future of a relationship, and melancholy pervades Pet Sounds, Perone claims in reference to "Sloop John B" that the song successfully portrays a sailor who feels "completely out of place in his situation [which] is fully in keeping with the general feeling of disorientation that runs through so many of the songs."[92]

In Perone's interpretation, he also suggests a visceral musical continuity. On the second track "You Still Believe in Me", "One of the high points of the composition and Brian's vocal performance," he writes, "is the snaky, though generally descending melodic line on the line 'I want to cry,' his response to the realization that his girlfriend still believes in him despite his past failures." He describes the "stepwise falloff of the interval of a third at the end of each verse" to be a typically "Wilsonian" feature. The feature recurs alongside a "madrigal sigh motif" in "That's Not Me", where the motif concludes each line of the verses. This sighing motif then appears in the next track, "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)", a piece inspired by classical music, and once again in "Caroline, No".[94] For the high-pitched electric bass guitar part in "Here Today", Perone says they bring to mind similar parts in "God Only Knows", culminating in what sounds like the vocal protagonist of "Here Today" warning the protagonist of "God Only Knows" that what he sings stands no chance at longevity. The protagonist's relationship then concludes shortly after "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times", while "Caroline, No" is a rumination in broken love.[82]

Psychedelia

Brian's response when asked about LSD and "Hang On to Your Ego" was: "I had taken a few drugs, and I had gotten into that kind of thing. I guess it just came up naturally."[106][nb 16] Despite concerns over the song's drug references, the key lyric "they trip through the day and waste all their thoughts at night" was kept when the song was revised as "I Know There's an Answer".[108][109] Elsewhere for "Sloop John B", Brian's lyric change from "this is the worst trip since I've been born" to "this is the worst trip I've ever been on" has also been suggested by some to be another subtle nod to acid culture.[110][111][112]

The Encyclopedia of Britannica states that the Beach Boys introduced psychedelic elements with the album, calling it "expansive" and "haunting".[113] Bret Marcus of Goldmine noted that he believes that the album is psychedelic pop, even though most people hesitate to name the Beach Boys in discussions of psychedelic music.[71] Stebbins writes that the album is "slighty psychedelic – or at least impressionistic."[80] According to academics Paul Hegarty and Martin Halliwell, Pet Sounds has a "personal intimacy" that sets it apart from the Beach Boys' contemporaries in psychedelic culture and the San Francisco Sound, but still retains a "trippy feel" that resulted from Brian's experimental use of LSD. They attribute this to Brian's "eclectic mixture of instruments, echo, reverb, and innovative mixing techniques learnt from Phil Spector to create a complex soundscape in which voice and music interweave tightly".[114]

Author Jim DeRogatis compared the album's repeated listening value to a heightened psychedelic awareness, that its melodies "continue to reveal themselves after dozens of listens, just as previously unnoticed corners of the world reveal themselves during the psychedelic experience".[115] On the subject of psychedelic records in the 1960s, Sean Lennon stated that "psychedelic music is a term that pretty much refers to these sort of epic, ambitious long-form records ... the reason Pet Sounds is considered a psychedelic journey or whatever is because it's like opening a door and stepping through and entering another world and you're in that other world for a period of time and then you come back."[116]

Recording and production

Process

Carl Wilson at Western Studio 3 of United Western Recorders, playing his Rickenbacker 360/12 with session guitarist Bill Pitman.

Brian produced several backing tracks over a period lasting several months, using professional Hollywood recording studios and an ensemble that included the classically trained session musicians nicknamed "the Wrecking Crew", also known as the musicians frequently employed on Phil Spector's records.[117][27] Wilson was a great admirer of Spector, and he endeavored to emulate his Wall of Sound production techniques. Wilson was fascinated with the idea of creating unique sounds from combinations of instruments, identifying the tack piano and organ mix in "I Know There's an Answer" as one example of himself applying the method.[117] Wilson also doubled the bass (typically using an acoustic upright bass and an electric bass), guitars and keyboard parts,[118] blending them with reverberation and adding other unusual instruments.[119] Thanks to the freedom offered by the recent development of multitrack tape recorders, both producers adopted the practice of taping their backing tracks first, and adding vocals later, and like Spector, Brian was a pioneer of the studio-as-an-instrument concept.

Surviving tapes of his recording sessions show that he was open to his musicians, often taking advice and suggestions from them and even incorporating apparent mistakes if they provided a useful or interesting alternative.[27] Brian said that he "was sort of a square" with the Wrecking Crew, starting his creative process with how each instrument sounded one-by-one, moving from keyboards, drums, then violins if they were not overdubbed. Although the self-taught Wilson often had entire arrangements worked out in his head, they were usually written in a shorthand form for the other players by one of his session musicians.[19][nb 17] On notation and arranging, Brian clarified: "Sometimes I'd just write out a chord sheet and that would be for piano, organ, or harpsichord or anything. ... I wrote out all the horn charts separate from the keyboards. I wrote one basic keyboard chart, violins, horns, and basses, and percussion."[19]

According to Jardine, each member was taught their individual vocal lines by Brian at a piano. He explains, "Every night we'd come in for a playback. We'd sit around and listen to what we did the night before. Someone might say, well, that's pretty good but we can do that better ... We had somewhat photographic memory as far as the vocal parts were concerned so that never a problem for us."[121] This process proved to be the most exacting work the group had undertaken yet. During recording, Mike Love often called Brian "dog ears", a nickname referencing a canine's ability to detect sounds far beyond the limits of human hearing.[122] Love later summarized:

We worked and worked on the harmonies and, if there was the slightest little hint of a sharp or a flat, it wouldn't go on. We would do it over again until it was right. [Brian] was going for every subtle nuance that you could conceivably think of. Every voice had to be right, every voice and its resonance and tonality had to be right. The timing had to be right. The timbre of the voices just had to be correct, according to how he felt. And then he might, the next day, completely throw that out and we might have to do it over again.[119]

The majority of sessions were conducted at Western Studio 3 of United Western Recorders, with few additional tracking dates at Gold Star Studios and Sunset Sound Recorders.[123] Some of the vocals were recorded at CBS Columbia Square, because it was the only facility in Los Angeles with an 8-track recorder.[123][124] The album's final vocal overdubbing session took place on April 13, 1966, concluding a ten-month-long recording period that begun with "Sloop John B" in July 1965.[125] The album was mixed three days later in a single nine-hour session.[50][nb 18] Its total cost of production amounted to a then-unheard of $70,000 (today equal to $510,000).[101]

Mixing

"Pet Sounds"
A Leslie speaker was used to filter lead guitar for the title track "Pet Sounds".[127] Other quirks from this recording include Coca-Cola cans and a güiro as percussion.[40]
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Although Spector's trademark sound was aurally complex, many of the best-known Wall of Sound recordings were recorded on Ampex 3-track recorders. Spector's backing tracks were recorded live, and usually in a single take. These backing tracks were mixed live, in mono, and taped directly onto one track of the 3-track recorder;[128] instrumental overdubs only rarely added. The lead vocal was then taped, usually (though not always) as an uninterrupted live performance, recorded direct to the second track of the recorder. The master was completed with the addition of backing vocals on the third track before the three tracks were mixed down to create the mono master tape.[128]

By comparison, Brian produced tracks that were of greater technical complexity by using state-of-the-art 4-track and 8-track recorders.[124] Most backing tracks were recorded onto a 4-track recorder before being later dubbed down (in mono) onto one track of an 8-track machine.[129] Brian typically divided instruments by three tracks: drums–percussion–keyboard, horns, and bass–additional percussion–guitar. The fourth track usually contained a rough reference mix used during playback at the session, later to be erased for overdubs such as a string section.[124] After mixing down the 4-track to mono for overdubbing via an 8-track recorder, six of the remaining seven tracks were usually dedicated to each of the Beach Boys' vocals.[124] The last track was usually reserved for additional elements such as extra vocals or instrumentation.[40][nb 19] Vocals were recorded using two Neumann U-47s, which Dennis, Carl and Jardine would sing on, and a 5–35 used by Brian for his leads.[118] Love sang most of the album's bass vocals, and necessitated an extra microphone due to his low volume range.[122]

A Scully 4-track 280 tape deck, similar to the 288 used for Pet Sounds

Pet Sounds was recorded on Scully 4-track 288 tape decks.[123] The only tape effects used on the album are slapback echo and reverb. Sound engineer Mark Linett notes: "to my ears, it sounds more like the plate [reverberators] rather than chambers. It should be mentioned that you get a significantly different sound from a chamber when you record it ‘live’ as opposed to doing it off tape, and one reason these records sound the way they do is that the reverb was being printed as part of the recording – unlike today where we’ll record ‘dry’ and add the effects later."[123]

Over the period leading up to Pet Sounds, Brian pioneered and perfected the now-common studio technique known as "looping" – creating master recordings that consisted of heavily edited assemblages of pre-taped segments. Most of the Pet Sounds vocal tracks were recorded piece-by-piece, rather than in a single continuous take. Typically, each small phrase or section of a song was recorded separately – sometimes dozens of times over, until Brian was satisfied that he had the best possible performance – and then each of these segments would be physically spliced together to assemble a composite master vocal track, comprising the best possible performances of each segment of the vocal. Brian also frequently used this editing approach to duplicate certain renditions of song sections, and the choruses of many Beach Boys songs from this period (e.g. "California Girls") are in fact duplicated edits of the same single rendition (which was itself often an edited composite). Additionally, by the time of Pet Sounds, Brian was using up to six of the eight tracks on the multitrack master so that he could record the voice of each member separately, allowing him greater control over the vocal balance in the final mix.[124]

A true stereophonic mix of Pet Sounds was not considered in 1966 largely because of mixing logistics.[124] In spite of whether a true stereo mix was possible, Brian intentionally mixed the final version of his recordings in mono (as did Spector). He did this because he felt that mono mastering provided more sonic control over the final result, irrespective of the vagaries of speaker placement and sound system quality. In that era radio and TV were broadcast in mono and most domestic and automotive radios and record players were monophonic.[124] Another and more personal reason for Brian's preference for mono was his almost total deafness in his right ear.[nb 20]

Unreleased material

On October 15, 1965, Brian went to the studio to record an instrumental piece entitled "Three Blind Mice", which bore no musical connection to the nursery rhyme of the same name.[nb 21] Another instrumental, called "Trombone Dixie", was recorded. According to Brian, "I was just foolin' around one day, fuckin' around with the musicians, and I took that arrangement out of my briefcase and we did it in 20 minutes. It was nothing, there was really nothing in it."[131][nb 22]

In mid February 1966, Brian was in the studio with his session band taping the first takes of a new composition, "Good Vibrations".[119] On February 23, he gave Capitol a provisional track listing for the new LP, which included both "Sloop John B" and "Good Vibrations".[119] This contradicts the long-held misconception that "Sloop John B" was a forced inclusion as the hit single at Capitol's insistence: in late February, the song was weeks away from release.[119][132] Brian worked through February and into March fine-tuning the backing tracks. To the group's surprise, he also dropped "Good Vibrations" from the running order, telling them that he wanted to spend more time on it. Al Jardine remembered: "At the time, we all had assumed that 'Good Vibrations' was going to be on the album, but Brian decided to hold it out. It was a judgment call on his part; we felt otherwise but left the ultimate decision up to him."[119]

Brian devoted some Pet Sounds sessions to avant-garde indulgences such as an extended a cappella run-through of the children's song "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" that exploited the song's use of rounds via tape delay and overdubbing. At least half an hour's worth of tape exists which involves Brian and friends attempting to create a psychedelic comedy album, foreshadowing much of his work on Smile, which was set to have followed Pet Sounds.[133] The only product of these sessions present in Pet Sounds was an excerpt of Brian's dogs barking accompanied by a recording of passing trains,[40] which may have been sampled from the 1963 sound effects LP Mister D's Machine. Brian may also have briefly considered recording other animal sounds for inclusion, as evidenced by a snippet of surviving studio chatter from the "Dog Barking Session" (included on The Pet Sounds Sessions box set). This features Brian asking studio engineer Chuck Britz: "Hey, Chuck, is it possible we can bring a horse in here without ... if we don't screw everything up?", to which a clearly startled Britz responds, "I beg your pardon?", with Brian then pleading, "Honest to God, now, the horse is tame and everything!"[134] About a year later Brian had moved on to burning wood in the studio.

Title and cover art

Brian Wilson posing with a goat at the San Diego Zoo.

On February 10, 1966, the group traveled to the San Diego Zoo to shoot the photographs for the cover.[18] George Jerman accompanied them as the cover's photographer.[135][nb 23] On May 13, an article published by the San Diego Union wrote that the group "came down from Hollywood to take a cover picture for their forthcoming album Our Freaky Friends. [sic] ... Zoo officials were not keen about having their beloved beasts connected with the title of the album, but gave in when the Beach Boys explained that animals are an 'in' thing with teenagers. And that the Beach Boys were rushing to beat the rock and roll group called The Animals."[nb 24] Asher remembered: "[Brian] had some proofs of the pictures they'd done at the zoo, and he told me they were thinking of calling the album Pet Sounds. I thought it was a goofy name for an album — I thought it trivialized what we had accomplished."[139]

Brian has variously claimed that the title was "a tribute" to Spector by matching his initials[140] or that it was named "after the dogs ... That was the whole idea."[141] At another time, Brian credited the album title to Carl.[37][119] Carl added with uncertainty that the title may have come from Brian, and said: "The idea he had was that everybody has these sounds that they love, and this was a collection of his 'pet sounds.' It was hard to think of a name for the album, because you sure couldn't call it Shut Down Vol. 3 .. It was just so much more than a record; it had such a spiritual quality. It wasn't going in and doing another top ten. It had so much more meaning than that."[66][nb 25]

Love laid claim to the title: "We were standing in the hallway in one of the recording studios, either Western or Columbia, and we didn't have a title," he recounted. "We had taken pictures at the zoo and ... there were animal sounds on the record, and we were thinking, well, it's our favorite music of that time, so I said, 'Why don't we call it Pet Sounds?'"[119][122] It was documented that the cover photo was taken after the album had already received its title, according to historian Brad Elliot.[119]

Release

Personally, I think the group has evolved another 800 per cent in the last year. We have a more conscious, arty production now that’s more polished. It’s all been like an explosion for us. ... it's like I'm in the golden age of what it's all about.

—Brian Wilson to Melody Maker, March 1966[36]

After the album was assembled, Brian brought a complete acetate to Marilyn, who remembers, "It was so beautiful, one of the most spiritual times of my whole life. We both cried. Right after we listened to it, he said he was scared that nobody was going to like it. That it was too intricate."[56] Pet Sounds was released on May 16, debuting on the Billboard charts at 106.[144] Compared to their previous albums in the US, Pet Sounds garnered dramatically less commercial success, but eventually broke into the top ten of the charts. US sales numbered approximately 500,000 units, a significant drop-off from the chain of million-selling albums which immediately preceded it.[145] Pet Sounds' initial release was not awarded gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) despite eligibility beginning in mid–1967.[146] Eventually, Pet Sounds was presented with gold and platinum awards in 2000.[147]

Brian was "heartsick" that Pet Sounds didn't sell as highly as he expected, and interpreted the response as a rejection to his creative ideals.[19] Some blamed Capitol Records for the album's underwhelming sales. Allegedly, they did not promote the album as heavily as previous releases.[66][148] Carl stated that Capitol did not feel a need to promote the Beach Boys since they were getting so much airplay, and that they had a "set image" for the group which even Pet Sounds could not alter.[66] Others assumed that the label considered the album a risk, appealing more to an older demographic than the younger, female audience the Beach Boys built their commercial standing on.[149] To Brian's dismay, within two months, Capitol assembled the group's first greatest hits compilation, Best of The Beach Boys, which was quickly certified gold by the RIAA.[150] Capitol executive Karl Engemann later speculated: "This is just conjecture on my part because it was so long ago ... because the marketing people didn't believe that Pet Sounds was going to do that well, they were probably looking for some additional volume in that quarter. There's a good possibility that's what happened. Anyway, my real forte was dealing with artists and producers and making them feel comfortable so they could achieve their ends. And sometimes, particularly when the label wanted something that the artist didn't, it wasn't easy.[151]

Before Pet Sounds was released, "Caroline, No" was issued as a single; it was credited to Brian alone, leading to speculation that he was considering leaving the band.[152] The single reached number 32 in the US.[153] It was followed by "Sloop John B", credited to the Beach Boys. The single reached number 3 in the US[153] and number 2 in Britain.[154] It had a four-weeks stay at number 1 in the Netherlands, making it the "Hit of the Year".[155] Two months after the album's release, "Wouldn't It Be Nice" was released, later reaching number 8 in the US, where it was treated as the A-side.[153] Its flip side, "God Only Knows," was featured as the A-side in Europe, peaking at number 2 in Britain.[154] As a B-side in the US, it reached number 39.[153]

United Kingdom EMI release

The album's greatest success was in the UK, where it reached number 2[154] and stayed in the top-ten positions for six months.[156] It was aided by support from the British music industry, who embraced the record. Bruce Johnston stated that while he flew to London in May 1966, a number of musicians and other guests gathered in his hotel suite to listen to repeated playbacks of the album. This included John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Keith Moon. Moon himself involved Johnston by helping him gain coverage in British television circuits, and connecting him with Lennon and McCartney. Johnston claimed that Pet Sounds got so much publicity, "it forced EMI to put the album out sooner."[148]

According to author Steven Gaines, Derek Taylor, the Beach Boys' press officer, is widely recognized as having been instrumental in this success, due to his longstanding connections with the Beatles and other industry figures in the UK.[157] The music press there carried advertisements saying that Pet Sounds was "The Most Progressive Pop Album Ever!"[33][158] Rolling Stone founding editor Jann Wenner later recalled that fans in the UK identified the Beach Boys as being "years ahead" of the Beatles and declared Wilson a "genius"[33] – the latter being a description of the group's leader that Taylor had helped to establish among local music journalists.[159] Although it has been claimed that the Rolling Stones' manager Andrew Oldham helped Taylor publicize unsolicited advertisements lauding the album in British music papers, a search of the UK pop press for 1966 fails to uncover any such advertisement.[160]

Two music videos were filmed set to "Sloop John B" and "God Only Knows" for the UK's Top of the Pops, both directed by Taylor. The first was filmed at Brian's Laurel Way home with Dennis acting as cameraman, the second near Lake Arrowhead. While the second film, containing footage of the group minus Bruce flailing around in grotesque horror masks and playing Old Maid, was intended to be accompanied by excerpts from "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "Here Today," and "God Only Knows," slight edits were made by the BBC to reduce the film's length.[161]

Critical reception

Early reviews for the album in the US ranged from negative to tentatively positive.[145] Billboard's reviewer called it an "exciting, well-produced LP" with "two superb instrumental cuts", and highlighted the "strong single potential" of "Wouldn't It Be Nice".[144] By contrast, the reception from music journalists in the UK was highly favourable.[162][163] Penny Valentine of Disc and Music Echo admired it as "Thirteen tracks of Brian Wilson genius … The whole LP is far more romantic than the usual Beach Boys jollity: sad little wistful songs about lost love and found love and all-around love."[164]

Melody Maker ran a feature which interviewed many pop musicians on whether they believed that the album was truly revolutionary or progressive. The author concluded that "the record's impact on artists and the men behind the artists has been considerable."[165] Andrew Oldham said: "I think that Pet Sounds is the most progressive album of the year in as much as Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade was. It's the pop equivalent of that, a complete exercise in pop music."[165] In Gene Sculatti's 1968 editorial "In Defense of the Beach Boys", for Jazz & Pop, he commented that Wilson was "one of the all-time great composers of melody in rock" along with Lennon–McCartney, John Phillips, and Smokey Robinson, yet, "Pet Sounds was by no means a revolutionary work in that it inspired or influenced the rock scene in a big way. It was revolutionary only within the confines of the Beach Boys' music." However, later in the piece he conceded: "Pet Sounds was a final statement of an era and a prophecy that sweeping changes lay ahead."[166]

Retrospective reviews

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[167]
Blender[168]
Chicago Tribune[169]
Entertainment WeeklyA+[170]
Q[171]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[172]
Slant Magazine[173]
Sputnikmusic5/5[174]

In his 1969 Pop Chronicles series, John Gilliland stated that the album was initially overshadowed by the Beatles' Revolver, released two months later, which contained many of the same musical innovations.[33] Writing in the first edition of The Rolling Stone Record Guide (1979), Dave Marsh gave Pet Sounds four stars (out of a possible five) and described it as a "powerful, but spotty" collection on which the least experimental songs proved to be the best.[175] Five years later, he wrote that the album was now considered a "classic", elaborating: "Pet Sounds wasn't a commercial flop, but it did signal that the group was losing contact with its listeners (a charge that could not be leveled against the Beatles during the same period)".[176] The A.V. Club theorized that the later success of "Good Vibrations" was what helped turn around the perception of Pet Sounds; that the "un-hip orchestrations and pervasive sadness baffled some longtime fans, who didn't immediately get what Wilson was trying to do."[177]

By God if this little record didn't change only the course of popular music, but the course of a few lives in the bargain ... nobody was prepared for anything so soulful, so lovely, something one had to think about so much.

—Stephen Davis in Rolling Stone, June 1972[178]

In Stephen Davis's 1972 Rolling Stone review, Davis called Pet Sounds "by far" Brian Wilson's best album and said that its "trenchant cycle of love songs has the emotional impact of a shatteringly evocative novel".[178] In Music USA: The Rough Guide, Richie Unterberger and Samb Hicks deemed the album to be a "quantum leap" from the Beach Boys' earlier material, and "the most gorgeous arrangements ever to grace a rock record".[179] The New York Observer's D. Strauss says that the album's quality and subversion of rock traditions is "what created its special place in rock history; there was no category for its fans to place it in".[180] in Author Luis Sanchez views the album as "the score to a film about what rock music doesn't have to be. For all of its inward-looking sentimentalism, it lays out in a masterful way the kind of glow and sui generis vision that Brian aimed to [later] expand."[181]

In 2006, Dominique Leone wrote a 9.4 review of its 40th Anniversary edition for Pitchfork Media stating: "Certainly, regardless of what I write here, the impact and 'influence' of the record will have been in turn hardly influenced at all. I can't even get my dad to talk about Pet Sounds anymore. ... The hymnal aspect of many of these songs seems no less pronounced, and the general air of deeply heartfelt love, graciousness and the uncertainty that any of it will be returned are still affecting to the point of distraction."[86] Music journalist Robert Christgau felt that Pet Sounds was a good record, but believed it had become looked upon as a totem.[182]

By the 1990s, three British critics' polls would feature Pet Sounds at or near the top of their lists.[64] Those who have deemed it "the greatest album of all time" include NME,[183] The Times,[184] and Uncut.[185] In 1998, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences inducted the album into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[186] In 2004, Pet Sounds was preserved in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."[4] As of 2006, more than 100 domestic and international publications and journalists have lauded Pet Sounds as one of the greatest albums ever recorded.[187] After being asked where somebody should begin with the Beach Boys discography, Wilson said, "They should listen to Pet Sounds first, and then listen to The Beach Boys Love You."[188]

Influence and legacy

It's been said that, although hardly anyone bought the Velvet Underground's records, those who did ended up being inspired to start their own bands. In the case of the Beach Boys' 1966 opus Pet Sounds, it's likely that each of its 13 songs inspired its own subset of pop offspring,

—Jeff Straton, New Times Broward-Palm Beach, October 2000[189]

In 2009, author Chris Smith commented that "Pet Sounds still stands as one of the most innovative recordings in rock and elevated Brian Wilson from talented bandleader to studio genius".[83] Although not originally a big seller, Pet Sounds has been enormously influential since it was released.[83] The album informed the developments of genres such as rock, hip-hop, jazz, electronic, experimental, punk, pop,[190] and is often cited as one of the earliest entries in the canon of psychedelic rock.[69][nb 26] Writer Rachael Maddux discussed the album's impact in 2011: "These days, the legacy of Pet Sounds looms so large that you can't always be sure if what you're hearing takes a direct line from the album itself or if it pulls from a second tier one of the hundreds of thousands of its beneficiaries now trickling down their own influence."[69] In 1995, a panel of numerous musicians, songwriters and producers assembled by MOJO voted Pet Sounds as the greatest album among them.[191]

Pet Sounds is credited for advancing the field of music production.[192][193][194][195] In 1971, publication Beat Instrumental & International Recording wrote: "Pet Sounds took everyone by surprise. In terms of musical conception, lyric content, production and performance, it stood as a landmark in a music genre whose development was about to begin snowballing."[196] The album's historical distinctions include being the first piece in popular music to incorporate the Electro-Theremin, an easier-to-play version of the theremin, as well as the first in rock music to feature a theremin-like instrument.[197] The Electro-Theremin's inventor Paul Tanner performs the instrument on the song "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times".[40][198]

Perone's assessment of the album's composition indicates a remove from "just about anything else that was going on in 1966 pop music".[92] Composer Phillip Glass observed: "Listening to it today, it is, perhaps, easier to see why it was one of the defining moments of its time ... its willingness to abandon formula in favor of structural innovation, the introduction of classical elements in the arrangements, production concepts in terms of overall sound which were novel at the time-all these elements give Pet Sounds a freshness that, 30 years later, is immediately there for the listener."[199] Strauss writes that with Pet Sounds, the Beach Boys became the first major rock group "to look music trends firmly in the eye and declare that rock really didn’t matter. Rock is supposed to be about, you know, fucking, and Brian Wilson was recording a song ('I Know There’s an Answer') that was originally entitled 'Get Rid of Your Libido'."[180]

Author Geoffrey Himes believes: "The challenge for the pop songwriter is to mirror real life's conflicts in the song and still deliver the satisfying resolution pop music requires. Bob Dylan did it by introducing irony into rock'n'roll lyrics, and Brian's introduction of non-standard harmonies and timbres proved just as revolutionary", adding, "Most pop music unifies its lyric, melodic, harmonic and rhythmic devices so it can communicate one simple emotion as powerfully as possible. ... This unified approach can be quite satisfying, but it can't reflect the complications of adult emotions in real life."[30] Professor of American history John Robert Greene stated that "God Only Knows" remade the ideal of the popular love song, while "Sloop John B" and "Pet Sounds" broke new ground and took rock music away from its casual lyrics and melodic structures into what was then uncharted territory. He furthermore called it one factor which spawned the majority of trends in post-1965 rock music, the only others being the Beatles' Rubber Soul (1965) and Revolver (1966), and the 1960s folk movement.[200] Similar to subsequent experimental rock LPs by Frank Zappa, the Beatles, and the Who, Pet Sounds featured countertextural aspects that called attention to the very recordedness of the album.[201] Many British groups responded to the album by making more experimental use of recording studio techniques.[156]

Rock as art

Main article: Art rock

The New York Observer wrote that "Pet Sounds proved that a pop group could make an album-length piece comparable with the greatest long-form works of Bernstein, Copland, Ives, and Rodgers and Hammerstein."[77] According to music journalists Stephen Davis and Nick Kent, Pet Sounds was the first rock concept album.[104][178] Bill Holdship said that it was "perhaps rock's first example of self-conscious art".[202] According to Jim Fusilli, author of the 33⅓ book on the album, it "[raised itself] to the level of art through its musical sophistication and the precision of its statement",[203] while academic Michael Johnson said that the album was one of the first documented moments of ascension in rock music.[204] It is viewed by David Leaf as a herald of art rock genre,[205] while author Carys Wyn Jones directly locates it to the genre's beginning.[206]

Frank Oteri called it a "clear precedent" to the birth of album-oriented rock and progressive rock.[207] Writer Bill Martin felt that it aided in the development of progressive rock at a time when the Beach Boys "brought expansions in harmony, instrumentation (and therefore timbre), duration, rhythm, and the use of recording technology".[193] In 2010, Pet Sounds was listed in Classic Rock's "50 Albums That Built Prog Rock".[208][209]

Other artists

Among the musicians contributing to the 1966 Melody Maker survey, Spencer Davis of the Spencer Davis Group said: "Brian Wilson is a great record producer. I haven't spent much time listening to the Beach Boys before, but I'm a fan now and I just want to listen to this LP again and again."[165] Then a member of Cream, Eric Clapton reported that everyone in his band loved the album.[165] Manfred Mann's Michael D'Abo and the Walker Brothers' Scott Walker did not agree that the album was revolutionary or better than the Beach Boys' earlier work.[210] The Who's Pete Townshend opined that "the Beach Boys new material is too remote and way out. It's written for a feminine audience."[165][nb 27] Journalist and television presenter Barry Fantoni similarly preferred the group's Beach Boys Today! and stated that Pet Sounds "[is] probably revolutionary, but I'm not sure that everything that's revolutionary is necessarily good".[165]

Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2003, Roger Waters said that Pet Sounds changed everything about records for him.[212] "God Only Knows" inspired songwriter Margo Guryan to re-evaluate her career: "I thought it was just gorgeous. I bought the record and played it a million times, then sat down and wrote 'Think of Rain.' That's really how I started writing that way. I just decided it was better than what was happening in jazz."[213] Seattle-based folk band the Fleet Foxes have often paid tribute to the album.[214] Jim Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain said it's "so obviously brilliant that it's almost beyond even talking about".[215] When Terence Trent D'Arby heard the album for the first time, he proceeded to play it at least once a day for the next six months.[216]

Paul McCartney has frequently spoken of his affinity with the album, citing "God Only Knows" as his favorite song of all-time, and crediting his melodic bass-playing style to the album.[217][218] He acknowledged that Pet Sounds was the primary impetus for the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The interplay between the Beatles and the Beach Boys thus inextricably links the two albums together.[219][nb 28] Arranger Robert Kirby claims that English singer-songwriter Nick Drake intended the instrumentals on his 1970 album Bryter Layter to evoke Pet Sounds.[221] The Primal Scream album Screamadelica (1991) was influenced by Pet Sounds, and the band's Bobby Gillespie says that after discovering the album, their songs became much softer.[190] R.E.M.'s song "At My Most Beautiful" was written as a "gift" from Michael Stipe to his bandmates, to indulge their fondness of Pet Sounds.[222] According to Thom Yorke, portions of Radiohead's album OK Computer were based on the atmosphere of Pet Sounds.[223]

Novelist Thomas Pynchon was played Pet Sounds by journalist Jules Siegel shortly after the album's release; at the time, Pynchon was unaware why the journalist had been interested in covering the group. After listening, Pynchon was reportedly in a "stunned pleasure", sighing softly before saying, "Ohhhhh, now I understand."[224] The album motivated film producer Bill Pohlad to direct the 2014 biopic on Brian WIlson, Love & Mercy, which includes a substantial depiction of the album's making, with actor Paul Dano playing Brian.[225]

Tributes

Pet Sounds inspired tribute albums such as Do It Again: A Tribute To Pet Sounds, The String Quartet Tribute to the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and MOJO Presents Pet Sounds Revisited.[226] Many songs from Pet Sounds have also appeared on general-themed Beach Boy and Brian Wilson tribute albums like Making God Smile and Smiling Pets, which feature cover versions by various artists including Sixpence None the Richer and Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her.[227]

Pet Sounds in the Key of Dee (2007) is a mashup of the album with J-Dilla, by record producer Bullion.[228] Sgt. Petsound's Lonely Hearts Club Band (2006) is a track-for-track mashup of Pet Sounds with Sgt. Pepper released under the pseudonym "The Beachles".[229]

In the mid-1990s, Robert Schneider of The Apples in Stereo and Jim McIntyre of Von Hemmling founded Pet Sounds Studio, which served as the venue for many Elephant 6 projects such as Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, and the Olivia Tremor Control's Dusk at Cubist Castle and Black Foliage.

Live performances

Wilson performing Pet Sounds as a solo artist at Byron Bay Bluesfest, 2016

After its release, several selections from Pet Sounds became staples for the group's live performances, including "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "Sloop John B" and "God Only Knows". Other songs were performed, albeit sporadically and infrequently through the years, and the album was never performed in its entirety with every original group member.[230] In the late 1990s, Carl Wilson vetoed an offer for the Beach Boys to perform Pet Sounds in full for ten shows, reasoning that the studio arrangements were too complex for the stage, and that Brian could not possibly sing his original parts.[231]

As a solo artist, Brian performed the entire album live in 2000 with a different orchestra in each venue, and on three occasions without orchestra on his 2002 tour.[232] Recordings from Wilson's 2002 concert tour were released as Brian Wilson Presents Pet Sounds Live.[233] In 2013, he performed the album at two shows, unannounced, also with Jardine as well as original Beach Boys guitarist David Marks.[234][235] In 2016, Wilson will perform the album at several events in Australia, Japan, Europe, Canada and the United States. It is set to be his final performances of the album.[236]

Release history

Pet Sounds has had many different reissues since its release in 1966, including remastered mono and stereo versions. Its first reissue was in 1972, when it was packaged as a bonus LP with the Beach Boys' latest album Carl and the Passions – "So Tough". The first release of the album on CD came in 1990, when it was released with the addition of three bonus tracks: "Unreleased Backgrounds",[nb 29] "Hang On to Your Ego", and "Trombone Dixie" all of which were described as unreleased.[237]

In 1997, The Pet Sounds Sessions box set was released. It included the original mono release of Pet Sounds, the very first stereo release (created by Mark Linett), and three discs of unreleased material.[238] In 2001, Pet Sounds was re-released with the mono and improved stereo versions, plus "Hang on to Your Ego" as a bonus track, all on one disc.[238][239] On August 29, 2006, Capitol released a 40th Anniversary edition, containing a new 2006 remaster of the original mono mix, DVD mixes (stereo and Surround Sound), and a "making of" documentary.[187] The discs were released in a regular jewel box and a deluxe edition was released in a green fuzzy box. A two disk colored gatefold vinyl set was released with green (stereo) and yellow (mono) disks. In 2016, a 50th anniversary edition box set presents the remastered album in both stereo and mono forms alongside studio sessions outtakes, alternate mixes and previously unreleased live recordings, amounting to over 100 tracks.[240]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher except where noted. 

Side one
No. TitleLead vocal(s) Length
1. "Wouldn't It Be Nice" (Brian Wilson/Tony Asher/Mike Love)Brian Wilson and Mike Love 2:25
2. "You Still Believe in Me"  B. Wilson 2:31
3. "That's Not Me"  Love with B. Wilson 2:28
4. "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)"  B. Wilson 2:53
5. "I'm Waiting for the Day" (B. Wilson/Love)B. Wilson 3:05
6. "Let's Go Away for Awhile" (B. Wilson)instrumental 2:18
7. "Sloop John B" (traditional, arranged by B. Wilson)B. Wilson and Love 2:58
Total length:
 19:03
Side two
No. TitleLead vocal(s) Length
1. "God Only Knows"  Carl Wilson 2:51
2. "I Know There's an Answer" (B. Wilson/Terry Sachen/Love)Love and Al Jardine with B. Wilson 3:09
3. "Here Today"  Love 2:54
4. "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times"  B. Wilson 3:12
5. "Pet Sounds" (B. Wilson)instrumental 2:22
6. "Caroline, No"  B. Wilson 2:51
Total length:
 17:32

Track list information according to Brad Elliot.[40] Mike Love's credits for "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and "I Know There's an Answer" were awarded after a 1994 court case.[43]

Personnel

The following credits are sourced from liner notes included with the 1999 mono/stereo reissue of Pet Sounds,[241] except where otherwise noted.

The Beach Boys
Production staff
Guests
Session musicians

Charts

Chart information courtesy of AllMusic and other music databases.[243][244]

Albums
Year Chart Position
1966 US Billboard 200 Albums 10
1966 UK Top 40 Album Chart 2
1972 US Billboard 200 Albums 50
1990 US Billboard 200 Albums 162
2001 Top Internet Albums 24
US Singles
Year Single Chart Position
1966 "Caroline, No" US Billboard Hot 100 Singles 32
1966 "God Only Knows" US Billboard Hot 100 Singles 39
1966 "Sloop John B" US Billboard Hot 100 Singles 3
1966 "Wouldn't It Be Nice" US Billboard Hot 100 Singles 8
UK Singles
Year Single Chart Position
1966 "God Only Knows" UK Top 40 Singles 2
1966 "Sloop John B" UK Top 40 Singles 2

Awards and accolades

Year Organization Accolade Rank
1993 The Times The 100 Best Albums of All Time[245] 1
New Musical Express New Musical Express Writers Top 100 Albums[246] 1
1995 Mojo Mojo's 100 Greatest Albums of All Time[247] 1
1997 The Guardian 100 Best Albums Ever[248] 6
Channel 4 The 100 Greatest Albums[249] 33
2000 Virgin The Virgin Top 100 Albums[250] 18
2001 VH1 VH1's Greatest Albums Ever[251] 3
2002 BBC BBC 6 Music: Best Albums of All Time[252] 11
2003 Rolling Stone The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time[253] 2
Jim DeRogatis One Hundred and Ninety Eight Albums You Can't Live Without[254] 2
2006 Q Q Magazine's 100 Greatest Albums Ever[255] 12
The Observer The 50 Albums That Changed Music[256] 10
2015 Platendraaier Top 30 Albums of the 60s[257] 7
2016 Uncut 200 Greatest Albums of All Time[185] 1

Notes

  1. ↑ During the spring of 1965, Brian had what he considered to be "a very religious experience" after consuming a full dose of LSD. He stated, "I learned a lot of things, like patience, understanding. I can't teach you, or tell you what I learned from taking it."[14] A week after his first LSD trip, he began suffering from auditory hallucinations, which have persisted throughout his life.[15]
  2. ↑ "The Little Girl I Once Knew", "In My Childhood", "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)", "Run, James, Run", "Trombone Dixie", and "Three Blind Mice".[18] "Run, James, Run" was the working title for the instrumental "Pet Sounds", the suggestion being that it would be offered for use in a James Bond movie.[19]
  3. ↑ Asher was at the time a 26 year old lyricist and copywriter who had been working on advertising jingles. He was also a Beach Boys fan who felt that the group was distinct from most artists, releasing a string of hits where "you wouldn't even know, necessarily, that it was gonna be a Beach Boys record from the first bar or something."[21] He also confessed: "I didn't own any of their albums. I had Bill Evans albums."[22] While in the studio, Asher explains: "I think we were recording some music, or voice-overs for a commercial and I had heard that the Beach Boys were in another studio. During a break, we kind of hung out in the hallway and eventually, sort of snuck into the booth and Brian was in the studio [alone]. ... eventually, we met."[21]
  4. ↑ Although it had lyrics, Wilson refused to show them to Asher.[21]
  5. ↑ Loren Schwartz (now Lorren Daro) was an assistant at the William Morris Agency.[23] Daro introduced Wilson to LSD, recounting that his dosage was "one hundred and twenty-five mics of pure Owsley," and that "he had the full-on ego death. It was a beautiful thing."[24]
  6. ↑ Rolling Stone magazine describes the Capitol version as "a folk-rock album more conceptually unified than the U.K. original – though shorter, and not as good".[25]
  7. ↑ Many albums up until the late-1960s lacked a cohesive artistic goal and were largely used to sell singles at a higher price point. Wilson's previous habits, evident in Today! and Summer Days, were to sacrifice portions of an album with lesser, superficial material.[26] Wilson found that Rubber Soul subverted this by having a wholly consistent thread of music.[26][27] Leaf noted that in the US, no singles were released from Rubber Soul, which he says created the "perception that their new work should be viewed as a whole. ... it introduced the possibility to the recording industry that the 45 RPM disc...preeminent for a decade...might soon give way to a new king...the album as a work of art."[28]
  8. ↑ Wilson has said that the main difference between him and the Beatles is that the Beatles "will simplify to its skeletal form an arrangement," whereas Wilson would be "impelled to make it more complex," and that if he had arranged "Norwegian Wood", he would have "orchestrated it, put in background voices, [and] done a thousand things".[26] Musicologist Philip Lambert called the Beatles' general sound and style "vastly different" from Pet Sounds.[32] In 1969, Love denied that they musically influenced Wilson: "He was in his own little world. If he were influenced by the Beatles, there'd be more fuzz tone and a few sitars on our records, but there never have been, really."[33]
  9. ↑ Mark Dillon believes that the album "channels" Nelson Riddle more than it does Spector.[35]
  10. ↑ Other artists who influenced specific content on the album included Burt Bacharach (on "Let's Go Away for Awhile"),[37] The Kingston Trio (on "Sloop John B"),[16] and Glenn Miller (on "Caroline, No").[37]
  11. ↑ While it is often said that Brian composed all of the music to Pet Sounds, it has been claimed that Asher made significant musical contributions to "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times", "Caroline, No", and "That's Not Me".[38]
  12. ↑ In November 1965, Wilson recorded instrumental versions of the standards "How Deep Is the Ocean" and "Stella by Starlight". According to Leaf, it was a coincidence that the latter turned out to be a favorite of Asher's.[28]
  13. ↑ The exact degree of Love's contribution to "Wouldn't It Be Nice" was never fully determined, but under oath in a court of law, Asher stated it consisted of the tag "Good night my baby/Sleep tight, my baby" and possible minor vocal arrangement.[40]
  14. ↑ In 1999, Wilson explained: "It was an inappropriate lyric. ... I just thought that to say 'Hang on to your ego' was an ego statement in and of itself, which I wasn't going for, so I changed it. I gave it a lot of thought."[59]
  15. ↑ On Brian's creative process, Asher remembers that "one of the things that I really enjoyed, was that first time I'd hear him hunting for a chord change and I'd think 'Man, he's just gone right off the edge because he's not ever gonna get close. He's way out there in some area that's just—he'll never get back. And if he's successful, gets out of there, people are going to say, I've lost my tone center, don't know where the hell I am and stuff. And then, eventually, he'd figure out what it was he wanted to do. A lot of it was just hunting and pecking, the way some of us type."[21]
  16. ↑ Throughout the latter half of the 1960s, Brian was repeatedly shown to have become interested in Eastern philosophy and the psychedelic experience, often pointing to ego loss as the key to a better way of living.[106][107] Jim DeRogatis surmised that Wilson's LSD use led him to write more introspective work, a contrast from the Beatles, whom after taking LSD began addressing problems in the world around them.[102]
  17. ↑ For his session of "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times", Paul Tanner remembered: "Brian came over to me and sang such and such a thing, and I said 'Well, write it down and I'll play it,' and he said 'Write it down? We don't write anything down—if you want it written down you have to write it down yourself."[120]
  18. ↑ In 1995, it emerged that this session was originally intended to add vocals to "Let's Go Away for Awhile", but Capitol insisted that the session date be used for the album's mixing.[126]
  19. ↑ The survival of most of these 4-track instrumental masters and 8-track vocal masters, permitted Capitol to create the high-fidelity stereo remixes of the isolated backing tracks and vocal tracks which appear on The Pet Sounds Sessions.[124]
  20. ↑ Brian's deafness is rumored to be the result of childhood injury to his eardrum caused by a blow from his violent father Murry Wilson, although Brian claimed that he was born deaf in one ear.[130]
  21. ↑ It was included as part of the Beach Boys' 2011 release of The Smile Sessions.
  22. ↑ remained in the vaults until its inclusion on the album's 1990 remastered CD release.
  23. ↑ Bruce Johnston, who joined the band one year earlier, does not appear on the cover due to contractual restraints from Columbia Records.[136]
  24. ↑ The article continues to say that the group mishandled and discomforted many of the animals: "Before they left, said zoo public relations director Bill Seaton, the caged animals were 'about to crack up.' ... The zoo superintendent John Muth, an ex marine sergeant major, said the Beach Boys are not welcome back and never will be."[137] Johnston referenced this, saying "The goats were horrible! ... The zoo said we were torturing the animals but they should have seen what we had to go through. We were doing all the suffering."[138]
  25. ↑ In Brian's discredited 1991 autobiography Wouldn't It Be Nice: My Own Story, it was written that the title was inspired by Mike Love asking "Who's gonna hear this shit? The ears of a dog?"[142] In 2016, Love denied that he had ever said the comment.[143]
  26. ↑ Vernon Joyson omitted the Beach Boys and Pet Sounds from his book The Acid Trip: A Complete Guide to Psychedelic Music on the basis that they "essentially predated the psychedelic era."[73] Music journalist Jim DeRogatis said that it was one of the first psychedelic rock masterpieces, along with The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators (1966) and Revolver.[70]
  27. ↑ Townshend later stated: "'God Only Knows' is simple and elegant and was stunning when it first appeared; it still sounds perfect".[211]
  28. ↑ Pet Sounds also influenced McCartney's composition "Here, There and Everywhere", from Revolver.[220]
  29. ↑ An a cappela demo section of "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" sung by Brian Wilson.
  30. ↑ Speculated by Mark Dillon to be Tony Asher.[242]

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Bibliography

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