Brian Wilson

I really like the rather lonely sound of the vocal on Sloop John B.

@loomisjohnson: Here are my responses to a few of your comments regarding Pet Sounds:

- ..."it always sounded a little compressed and lacking in low end." Right you are. It is also pretty veiled and congested. It is very much a sonically mediocre recording at best. That makes hearing some of the musical "devices" Brian employs hard to hear. Things like the subtle use of inversion (rearranging the notes of a chord, placing the root note in the middle of the chord, or adding a bass note below the chord)---a favorite musical device of mine (bassist James Jamerson employed inversion on a number of Motown songs. Listen for it in "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted." Thrilling!).

- ..."it doesn’t swing." You don’t really expect The Beach Boys to swing, do you?! Of course not, that’s not what Brian Wilson was about. There is lots of music I myself like in spite of it not swinging.

- ..."not earthmoving in the sense of, say, Moby Grape or Blonde On Blonde." As complete albums, you’ll get no argument from me. I have in fact been conflicted about Pet Sounds for many years. I have never loved it as much as I am "suppose to." It contains a lot of mediocre songs, too many for me to consider it a great album. But "God Only Knows" is so totally, utterly fantastic (McCartney still considers in the greatest Pop song ever written) I would not want to live without the album in my collection.

It was actually Smiley Smile (the follow-up to Pet Sounds) that ignited my renewed interest in The Beach Boys. If Smile had been completed and released in 1967 as it was supposed to have been, we’d be having a very different conversation. Imagine an album full of songs as good as "Good Vibrations" and "Surf’s Up". Brian refers to Smile as a "Teenage Symphony To God." The theme of Van Dyke Parks’ Smile lyrics was The Manifest Destiny Of America. Rather highbrow for Pop music.

If anyone wants their perception of The Beach Boys to be completely revamped, get a copy of the Smile Boxset.

- ..."Caroline No.": When Brian’s debut solo album was released, Sire/Reprise Records arranged for Brian to do a Record Release Signing event at the Tower Records on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. In addition to the that album, I took along my copy of the 7" 45 RPM single of "Caroline No" (see below for why).

They had Brian seated at a table on a raised platform, and when I handed him the single he gazed at it (for quite a while), a wistful, heartbreaking look crossing his face (as if he had been transported back in time to 1965). The look on his face almost brought me to tears. I took that single for Brian to sign because it had been released with the center label credited not to The Beach Boys, but to Brian Wilson. I’ll bet that really po’d Mike Love.

I’ll take this opportunity to tell you all about something else I observed at that event: Brian was announced, led up onto the platform, and left there alone. He sat down, and I could see his hands shaking almost uncontrollably, a look of extreme panic in his eyes. All the other people involved (management, record company, "Dr." Eugene Landy, family) were off "doing business." I even saw author David Leaf (who has written three books on The Beach Boys, including the new one just out on the Smile album) busy schmoozing with other business types. I was filled with first disgust, then rage.

Who could do such a thing to such an emotionally vulnerable and troubled human being?

@bdp24 i always appreciate your comments, especially when they agree with mine...

in my missive i was referring to "swing" in the sense of having rhythmic drive and movement. from that perspective, the bb's big influences like chuck berry or the four seasons had swing, while "pet sounds" (with the exception of sloop john b and that short instrumental whose name i can't remember) sorta just lies there, albeit in a pretty manner. delving deeper into google, it seems an accepted definition of swing is "music characterized by a specific type of syncopation that emphasizes the off-beat, giving the music a bouncy, lively feel." from that perspective, "pet sounds" is just the opposite.

again, none of this is intended to suggest that the record is unworthy, though i think their  best (and best-sounding) songs were "surf's up" and "feel flows", the latter a carl song.