Brian Wilson Pet Sounds

Released May 16, 1966

Fun Fun Fun

For five years Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys had given us fun (fun fun) songs. As an East Coast kid, the sunny surfing imagery intoxicated me: girls in bikinis, the Pacific Ocean, funny cars…and did I mention girls in bikinis.

Little did we realize Brian’s internal turmoil, that he had to endure paternal abuse. The loss of hearing in one ear may have been the physical result, but the psychological impact would be life-long.

We likely also didn’t realize the Brian had left live performances up to the rest of the group. Various fears and a need to create led to his decision to stay in LA.

Brian Wilson Pet Sounds

1965’s tipping point

Bob Dylan had gone electric in 1965. He’d declared that he wasn’t goin’ to work on Maggie’s farm no more. Little did this 15-year-old realize what that change meant. Dylan and the Beatles met and while the Beatles were already electric and in 1965 they went Dylan: writing songs that meant something to them as well as, hopefully, something to us.

That was the Beatles’ Rubber Soul with songs like “Norwegian Wood,” “Girl,” “I’m Looking Through You,” and “In My Life” fans heard something different than “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

So did Brian Wilson and he decided he’d up the ante and create something even better. Many say he did, but not right away. Mike Love for one felt Brian Wilson was heading in a nowhere direction. Sales of the album, while good, were not what their previous albums had done. Even the single “Caroline No” was released as a Brian Wilson song, not a Beach Boy song.

Brian Wilson Pet Sounds

Studio Studio Studio

It took Wilson months to produce Pet Sounds. With his band mates on the road, he used LA’s famous Wrecking Crew to create the sounds he wanted. And they, despite an often meandering search, helped him find and create that sound.

Side one:  Wouldn’t It Be Nice You Still Believe In Me That’s Not Me Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder I’m Waiting for the Day’ Let’s Go Away for Awhile Sloop John B

Side 2: God Only Knows I Know There’s an Answer Here today I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times Pet Sounds Caroline No

Brian Wilson Pet Sounds

Masterpiece

Today the world acknowledges Pet Sounds as a masterpiece [Rolling Stone magazine article]. Just as Rubber Soul had inspired Wilson, Wilson in turn inspired the Beatles whose barking dogs on Sgt Pepper’s echo and acknowledge Pet Sound‘s influence.

Much later, in Barry Miles’ Many Years From Now, Paul McCartney said about Sgt Pepper: “We were fed up with being Beatles. We were not boys, we were men… artists rather than performers.”

So too Brian Wilson and we are forever indebted to him for that artistry and inspiration.

Brian Wilson Pet Sounds