Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys is a seminal rock album. It is commended for its inventive recording methods. It is loved for its tunes, melodies, and careful arrangements. It is recognized for being the first to conceptualize a rock album as a listening experience with a theme. The appreciation that Pet Sounds receives surprises a lot of listeners in the present era. “The Beach Boys did stupid surf songs, didn’t they?” As readers of Music Man are aware, Pet Sounds consistently ranks among the best three albums ever released.
Brian Wilson deserves the recognition. Wilson gave up touring with the Beach Boys to focus on recording and producing Pet Sounds, inspired by The Beatles’ song Revolver. Wilson worked with Tony Asher on the lyrics and the Wrecking Crew as studio musicians. With the exception of Sloop John B, a version of a Bahamian traditional song made famous by the Kingston Trio, all of the music was composed by Wilson. Wilson has created a beautiful arrangement for Sloop John B. The video is taken from Pet Sounds’ 50th Anniversary Classic Album show.
That was in 2016. When Pet Sounds was first released in 1966, Brian Wilson’s voice sounded different. Wilson’s vocal ability allows him to maintain an attractive and authoritative voice despite this. Al Jardine, the original band member who replaced the late Carl Wilson on lead vocals, sounds great. When the Beach Boys needed a falsetto, Brian Wilson took the mic. During the band’s peak, his vocal arrangements could make the Beach Boys sound, in producer Jack Good’s words, “like eunuchs in a Sistine Chapel.”
After Pet Sounds was followed by the even more avant-garde single Good Vibrations, Brian Wilson experienced a well-reported breakdown. The Beach Boys’ Mike Love and Al Jardine’s opposition to Brian’s more daring musical experiments in the past was a contributing factor. As Brian Wilson had setbacks in his physical and emotional well-being, his contribution to the Beach Boys’ recordings decreased. In 1966, the original Sloop John B video was created especially for the UK’s Top of the Pops. Let’s watch it now.
Brian Wilson’s LA house served as the location for the video, which was directed by the band’s publicist Derek Taylor. Dennis Wilson, Brian’s brother and bandmate, handled camera work. “Sloop John B,” according to some detractors, shouldn’t have been on Pet Sounds. Jim Fusilli characterizes Baroque pop compositions of what he describes as introspective love ballads, stark confessions, or timid affirmations of independence. They argue that, as a pioneering folk-rock arrangement, the tune sits uneasily among them. Some maintain that the song is a perfect fit for the “overarching sense of disorientation” that permeates Pet Sounds.
By the end of the 20th century, rock guru Brian Wilson was considered a damaged, reclusive genius. However, Wilson made his hesitant debut as a solo artist at that time. He was certainly damaged. Wilson once observed that at times, he seemed distant, even dissociated, and that his lovely young tenor voice had transformed into a thin, reedy baritone croak, akin to Bob Dylan. In spite of his circumstances, Brian was able to work with talented bands (which frequently included Beach Boy Blondie Chaplin) and sound like Brian Wilson when he sang thanks to his command of phrasing and intonation.
Brian Wilson performed on tour with Pet Sounds as his second solo act. Remarkably, he recreated his iconic abandoned Smile album and recorded and performed it to critical and award-winning acclaim. Even occasionally, Brian Wilson would perform and tour with the surviving Beach Boys. 2022 saw him perform at his final concert. It is stated that he sat on a stool, “rigid and expressionless.” It has been shown that dementia affects Brian Wilson. There is a conservatorship over him. This article cannot end there. Readers of Music Man, enjoy this bizarre, out-of-date music video for “Good Vibrations,” a classic by Brian Wilson.