Alan and I were sweethearts at the time. He called me from the studio and asked me to bring him some old wooden organ pipes. He told me to look for the box of them in the closet and...hurry! I drove down to Hollywood and went in with the box. I don't think they used them that night, but I was awestruck. After a while I had to go home and to bed because I was a school teacher and had to get up early the next morning. My darling Alan introduced me to so many music greats our years together, of course, including his brother, Gayle Robinson, also a fantastic French horn player.
..and to think it didn't go straight to number 1. In fact the album didn't sell that well at the time in the US. It did great in England but there is a good chance that Brian didn't know it - labels back then generally didn't want the Artists to know overseas sales, for a variety of reasons.
@@StanKindly Pet Sounds had a 39 week run on the Billboard Top 100. During that time, it was in the Top 40 for 21 weeks and in the Top 20 for 12 weeks (Peaking at #10). This was in a year when Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and soundtracks to Broadway Musicals were at the top of the charts and teen/youth oriented albums were not holding high chart positions for very long. It had actually reached gold record status by 1967 but the Beach Boys were in litigation with Capitol at that point and that was suppressed. Basically, looking at the chart positions, sales figures and taking everything in context: Pet Sounds sold fine. Part of the reason why it perhaps didn't sell as well in the U.S. as it could and should have was that Capitol A&R did not support the album and essentially sabotaged its release by releasing a Greatest Hits compilation only two months after the release of Pet Sounds: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_of_the_Beach_Boys
@@BehindTheSounds record label execs ruining the art. Lol What’s new? Thankfully, we don’t need those dickheads to release good music into the world anymore. That’s one place where society has certainly improved for the BETTER in the years since 1966
I would literally sell my soul to have been a fly on the wall during all of these sessions. There is nothing more that I love than watching someone who really loves their craft and is really great at it. Brian sounds so alive and happy in these recordings and so in his eliment. I saw Brian in concert in October and he looked and sounded fabulous, but I'm still in love with this young, beautiful, talented California boy. Bless him...
Despite Brian's amazing genius he still had room to listen to suggestions and without hesitation incorporate them into the song. To those he trusted, like the guys at Wrecking Crew, he listened and and took the advice without ego. Brian was just searching for perfection in his song.
Image the pressure of having all of these world-class musicians in the same room and having to instruct them all individually on how their parts went. To say Brian is a genius is putting it mildly!
I just can't imagine what it would be like to have this kind of music coming from your mind. So simple yet so complicated and detailed and having everything coming together in complete perfection without endless rehearsal. It must have been so difficult to try to get the musicians and singers, mere mortals, to play the music the way Brian heard it in his head. I think this is what Brian had to deal with endlessly in rehearsals. Also he had to listen to so many musicians and critics wanting to make changes they thought would make it better. That would drive anyone, especially a perfectionist like Brian, to tears and worse. He never acted like he was above anyone even the ones that put him down. I think he was much stronger than anyone gave him credit for. Brian Wilson had vision and musically, he was pure genius,. Just close your eyes and listen (preferably with headphones on and the volume cranked) to the full version of this song. Pure genius!
+k1j2f30 I often have full length movies in brilliant color with the rich tones of symphonic soundtracks running in my head. But to get them out is the hard part. So I learned to write well. People have said I should write books or scripts. But you know, even my best efforts are unsatisfactory in capturing what I intend. So I am resigned to keep them in my head rather than to be bastardized in the transcribing. To our great fortune Brian Wilson is a master in introducing his thoughts to the world.
It's just amazing to hear the process of this music. So many musicians nowadays get so lazy with protools and they just slap anything on without a care in the world. It seemed like Brian had to move mountains to make his music a reality.
Stanley Button It unfortunately had a very limited release, but it's going to be on Blu Ray/DVD in about a month and is well worth watching. www.amazon.com/Love-Mercy-Blu-ray-Digital-HD/dp/B01127XNHQ
Brian had a vision. And he created on the fly. He knew what he wanted but didnt convey thst using musical terms. It was...go to that part....hey horns are sagging. He didnt mention bar number or mention rhythms of notes. His genius was in being able to relay his desires in common language.
Using the pick reverb sound on the bass guitar almost in place of a drum- incredible. All these little pieces without which the song wouldn’t be the same. Definitely a fail safe favorite song… newer ones come and fade, but for millions of people, when God Only Knows comes on, it does something to the chemistry in the brain.
Haven't read all the comments. But the "clip-clop" is Hal Blaine playing the bottoms of a set of plastic juice bottles. Proving once again: There is no end to the use of duct tape.
I have to admit that the Beach Boys was my first album I bought. Strange since for years I thought it was the Beatles first album, but then I remembered Surfin USA, I think it was called. I was so cool in Ohio where I was from. I got to go to California to visit my big sister and got a skateboard and some really nice clothes which I took back. Nobody knew what to think as I skated around my little town. Everybody thought I was an idiot. But I was in Huntington Beach and everybody there wore surfing clothes and rode skateboards.
+John Allen Your comment reminds me of something. We lived in Hawaii and had gone to Chicago to visit my mom's sister. I was walking home with my cousins after their school had let out. A crossing guard looked at me wearing T shirt and shorts and of course no shoes. She asked were are my school books? What's my teacher's name? and 20 other questions. She tried to keep me until the police arrived because she thought I was a truant or something. Like, duh! I'm tan and wearing my normal every day 'ensemble', do I look like I'm from here? Talk about people not knowing what to think!
I realize I'm stating the obvious but Pet Sounds was basically entirely created by Brian. Pure and gifted genius. There are beautiful songs that you can listen to a couple of times and then you move on to another because you get tired of hearing it. I can listen to this song all day, every day. Another is "In My Life" by the Beatles.
I like the establishing shot of late-night traffic on the boulevard. Brian called all these ace session guys out in the middle of the night. Anyone else would have been met with an earnest and heartfelt entreaty to be left alone G-DAMMIT, no doubt.
("Short")? "Yeah Brian. As in staccato!" I love the one-note slap-back delay on Ray's bass guitar. That is the master-touch of Brian Wilson - always over and under-doing it and making it very special for everyone who is listening.
The band playing he music is named The Wrecking Crew. Google them to see how many songs and albums they played on. Glen Campbell was in the band. Hal Blaine Tommy Tedesco, Carol Kaye
Like them on Facebook and you will hear musical history like nowhere else. I first heard this outtake on their FB page about a year ago. The Beatles had each other. LA had the Wrecking Crew. If you like American pop songs from the 60s, chances are the Wrecking Crew played on them. Even The Byrds and The Doors used them in the studio.
Jer Lewis According to Carol Kaye, the Wrecking Crew, was not the name they were known by at the time. Carol says they were known as "The Clique". In the interview which is available on RU-vid, Carol says she does not agree with a big portion of the "Wrecking Crew" movie. She says in the interview that "The Wrecking Crew" is mostly the story of Hal Blaine, and Tommy Tedesco. I am glad the movie is out there, and I'm also glad to hear what to look out for, according to Carol Kaye.
Terry Pursell Carol Kaye claims to have played on a lot of things that she clearly didn't such as Motown sessions. She also claims to have played on several Beach Boys songs, when in fact she played on a few cash-in cover versions made by other artists. She may have been there but she's not the end-all authority and she's nasty to anyone who questions her faulty memories. I'm not entirely sure what the Wrecking Crew was referred to back then, but it seems like different people could have had different names for it. Brian never even refers to them as a group in his sessions, so maybe he didn't think of it that way.
***** Thanks for the reply! As for Motown sessions, I don't see why she would claim she played on Motown tracks, since that was in Detroit. I believe she did work for Phil Spector, as maybe a lot of the studio players did that are a part of this clique, or wrecking crew.....
Terry Pursell The reason why she takes credit for Motown recordings is because she apparently played on a few covers of Motown songs and somehow confuses that with the hit single versions recorded in Detroit with Jamerson (who is now dead and can't speak). It's pretty shameless and infuriating that she sticks to this story dispelled by so much evidence. It's not the mistake that's the problem, it's that she sticks to her guns when confronted about it. She did work for Phil Spector a lot, but she has this thing where she tries to present herself as "the" bassist of the Wrecking Crew. I honestly think the evidence shows that Ray Pohlman was Brian's no. 1 choice for bassist and if he couldn't get him (or wanted two bassists as was often the case) Carol Kaye would do as a replacement. She'll play the bassline for "Good Vibrations" in interviews as though she owns it when she wasn't even on any of the sections used in the final single version. Just her whole persona these days strikes a lot of bad chords with me. Hal Blaine is much cooler about taking credit for what he actually played and realizing when he makes an error in taking credit for a session he wasn't on.
The most amazing thing for that time is completely innovative use of tape echo and reverb to plate the only technologies available at that time apart from some compressor and condensed microphones
People keep bringing this up and it makes me wish I hadn't included it in the video. Don Randi is just playing the notes from the figure in GOK in a descending pattern. Not the same pattern of notes (or even key) as the riff in Satisfaction.
Brian did all the arranging, etc. on this particular song, but it was the amazing voice of Carl singing the lead. Brian does the falsetto background only, not the lead.
That's a trip that Don Randi was on this! I got to see him play at his club "The Baked Potato" in Studio City, CA a few times. He sure has played with a lot of great bands over the years. The best of the best musicians play in his club all the time.
So good to hear musicians working together 'by ear' . I can understand that this may have been a frustrating process for some of the more classically trained musicians that were, perhaps not used to a guy speaking in "bam badda bam bam bam" terms but...at the end of the day, music MUST come from the heart and we can all see that, in this song he accomplished what he 'heard' in his own mind. Its a great track that is full of emotion. That emotion doesnt just come from him, it comes from all those that worked on the track. The song is the sum of all its parts, thats why it works so well. Its a piece of musical history......and I like it!!!
Thanks for creating these - you just appreciate a song so much more, when you can witness its creation and follow the tiny details that were so essential to get right.
You have really outdone yourself with this song, the magnum opus of Pet Sounds. Love the intro shot of LA at night, with the moving lights... My fave series of videos on RU-vid. I'll never forget when the channel first came out, as I was beginning to get totally obsessed with Pet Sounds. I recall it was last summer and I was home alone for a couple months and smoking a lot of pot. It was the best time of my life. We're the same age... thanks man.
BTS, another great installment of the Brian Wilson/WC chronicles. Thank you, thank you for making these things. They're a great contribution to the appreciation of music, recording, and creativity.
Thank you so much for adding this video! It´s one of the most beautiful clips I've ever seen. It´s not just the song, it´s Brians voice n' everything getting together in one clip. Thanks!
I love around 6:30 when Brian and Hal work out the drum fill, with Blaine trying first the hit on the tom-tom before trying the snare. "That's it," Brian calls out and moves on to another issue. The man was SERIOUSLY on top of his game.
@BehindTheSounds Please do! And wow. The commitment you put in...if anyone ever says that they are bigger Beach Boys fans than you....I will personally smack them. Awesome thing you did here man. Thanks from a person who is barely beginning to understand how great they really were.
Pet Sounds is awesome, a brother from another mother in Denton Texas introduced me to it when I was bashing the Boys years back at a party. Problem, however, if you are under the age of thirty, you may be uncomfortable listening to the music travel back and forth between left and right speaker. Keep in mind this is part of the trip when listening to older multi-track studio music. a couple of songs, minutes, into it and you'll be used to it. Thx for this historical behind the scenes post.
All I can say is thank you. While so many were ignoring Brian's creative genius during the British Invasion and the transition from rock & roll to rock, some of us (American phobics?) were deeply dependent on some traditional American R&R band to 'strike' back. Pet Sounds was the answer. Somewhere I remember reading that John & Paul heard the album and were so blown away that they scrapped their plans and leapt to "Magical Mystery Tour" as an answer.
I think praise is due to both Don Randi for a productive suggestion (to tighten that transition), and Brian for willing to roll with it and see how it sounded.
Brian maintained his relationships with all of these people even to day. he was a goodlooking kid in the 1960's who made his mark. Too bad capitol records sis not realize that but then their motivation was profit
@BehindTheSounds Yeah. The session player is just goofing off with 'Satisfaction' in mind after rehearsing his part with the harpsichordist. 'Satisfaction' is in a different key, has a different number of notes and that part falls on a different beat.
Thanks for all your work in putting these clips together. Enjoyed every single one so far. Brian really knew what he was doing in the studio sound wise, height of his powers. A musical genius...A
It's amazing what they used back in the day to record. Someone mentioned a plastic jug was recorded in this, which reminds me of the plywood and trash can lid the "Funk Brothers" used in their Motown recordings. This is a true artist at work.
brilliant. i love Brian and wow , what a great album . so cool to get a glimpse of the work in progress and hear the construction of a masterpiece . great job .
thanks so much for these vids. I have been watching them over the past few weeks and I have become floored at Brian's genius as a songwriter, producer, singer. They need to put these vids in the next BB boxed set!
and to think this amazing recording was done with EVERY instrument in the same room is astounding. But that was the genius of Brian - he liked the bleed over of instruments to make his "third sound".
My God, what an amazing song. There are three and only three people that are supreme Songwriters, Musicians and Performers; Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney and Pete Townshend. These three are the finest that the human race has ever produced. Yes, there are amazing people like Carole King, Billy Joel, John Lennon; but these three, they are SCARY talented. Let's take Pete; he goes home after a tour and he writes and records every song. He plays all of the instruments. Does all of the vocals. And when he thinks it's ready, he takes it to the others and they learn their parts. I'm sorry but that is just Frigging Amazing. Only other musicians can possibly understand what I'm saying. I never said these were my favorites. Brian Wilson; he heard every vocal with all of the harmonies along with the music in his head. Go listen to those other worldly harmonies. Those are what was in that man's head. Macca; c'mon. Supremely Gifted musician, composer and singer. How in the hell does all of that material fit in that head? McCartney is so talented, he does not even know. It just comes out. These three will never, ever be topped. The best part; I was there for all three hitting their prime. God Only Knows how lucky we all are.
Not to put McCartney down a peg but IMO Lennon was the true innovator in that group and was a genius for being essentially self-taught, similar to Brian Wilson. I'm not sure if he ever could have achieved success without McCartney (who I think would have ended up a successful musician or songwriter regardless), but I generally think his songs are more personal and more adventurous...written by somebody who routinely broke rules or conventions in composition because he didn't fully understand them in the first place. Pretty much all of my favorite Beatles songs are the ones written primarily by Lennon. Lennon's "Strawberry Fields Forever" made Brian Wilson pull his car over when he first heard it on the radio in early 1967 and declare that the Beatles had beat him to the sound he was chasing with "Smile" and within a few months the project had fallen apart. I don't see its B-side "Penny Lane" eliciting the same reaction, even though it strikes some of the same nostalgic notes.
@@BehindTheSounds I could live the rest of my life having John instead of Paul in my top three. What really matters is that our likes and dislikes are Subjective and that we at least acknowledge a few of the truly greatest. Thanks for hosting this video and for taking the time to reply to my comment! Have a Terrific week.
I enjoy the perpetual Paul or John is best arguments but I think they truly were each others equal as songwriters, arrangers, producers and performers. I would agree that John deserves more credit creatively and Paul more as arranger but both were as strong as the other in different ways and at different times. John's high point as songwriter was '63 - 67 and Paul's from 67-71. What either did afterwards never surpassed those years creatively and artistically. Their later solo material was also largely written or culled from those brief years of self-discovery. Brian was very similar in that regard having a 4 year burst of creative inspiration that would never repeat itself.
Music is totally subjective, so there’s no one “right” answer, but I’d add Paul Simon to your list. He wrote, arranged, and produced so many beloved songs that will long outlive him, outlive anyone commenting here. He’s very “rated”, but still somehow criminally underrated. Like those mentioned above, he wrote music that was simultaneously approachable enough for the masses and also so dense with genius musical choices in composition for the close listeners and musicians who understood the theory, Undeniably one of the greatest ever IMO.
There is a RU-vid video of this song with Brian's lead vocal instead of Carl's. Brian decided later that Carl's voice would be better for the song. Both versions are good!
***** Just wondering... How do you know that for sure? It sounds quite different, and from what I've read, Brian had intended to sing the lead vocal. There are places in the "Brian" vocal that sure sound like his usual style-isms.
marvy1118 It's Carl's voice for sure, at least as the dominant lead vocal. A guide vocal from Brian *might* be buried somewhere in the mix which might be what's confusing people. Brian and Carl had very similar voices but also minor differences in their inflections and their overall vocal range that should be evident to any fan, and the alternate version sounds like 100% Carl to me. I think it's just a take recorded earlier the same night, which is why the vocal delivery is more forceful than the released version. It's been said that Carl was exhausted by the time the final vocal take was recorded, which is why Brian recorded over his lead in the mono mix for the fadeout (starting about 2:00 in). And part of why I don't buy it, Brian has always said he wrote the song specifically for Carl to sing. I've never read anything otherwise. The only reason why he would have sang it is for a guide vocal, which would not have been double tracked.
