Pet Sounds: Tales of Spirit, Angst and Love

By Tom Madsen

“I love the whole Pet Sounds record. I got a full vision out of it in the studio […] It was a spiritual record. I wanted to … expand our horizons and do something that people would love …”
-Brian Wilson

On May 16, 1966, Capitol Records released the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. An album arranged, produced and written (with lyrical help from Tony Asher) by the band’s leader, Brian Wilson along with his cousin and Beach Boys lead singer, Mike Love. Up to that point, the Beach Boys were known throughout the world of rock and roll as the lead group of the breezy, “surf’s up” California Sound.
As the counter culture and psychedelia were beginning to enter into American lives, the Beach Boys, made up of brothers Brian, Denny and Carl Wilson, along with the aforementioned cousin Mike Love and high school friend Al Jardine, were able to maintain their place in the upper reaches of the American rock and roll hierarchy. Even as the British Invasion appeared to replace the late fifties and early sixties American pop singers, the Beach Boys (along with groups like The Mamas and the Papas, The Four Seasons, The Association and the Supremes) remained popular. The Beach Boys also went beyond the surfer tunes with such sentimental ballads as In My Room, Girls on the Beach and Don’t Worry Baby.
Inspired by the Beatles’ Rubber Soul, Brian wanted to produce a more sophisticated sound of pop music. As the creative mastermind behind the Beach Boys’ success, he had been experimenting with marijuana, LSD and a newfound spiritualism, to take popular music to a new level.
Glimpses of his new arrangements were first heard in 1965’s The Beach Boys Today! It was a subtle change from the car and surfer songs that made the group famous and, while still embracing their original sound (to a point), they moved toward a more introspective and mature theme. It was during these sessions Brian told the others he was going to stop touring with the group, so he could concentrate on songwriting and record production. He was replaced by Bruce Johnston. Also, during this time, Brian exercised his authority as the leader of the group and summarily fired his father, Murray Wilson, who had been acting as the group’s manager. The split was long in coming as the senior Wilson was not only a micro-managing dictator, but was cruel to the band and especially to Brian. Finally, Brian had had enough and during a vicious shouting match during a recording session, he took control after the temperamental Murray destroyed recording equipment, and demanded he leave. The Beach Boys and especially Brian, were finally on their own. This traumatic situation contributed to Brian suffering a panic attack, which would eventually expose schizoaffective and bi-polar disorders; two unnamed conditions he had been coping with and would continue to the day he died.
After The Beach Boys Today! the group recorded two more albums, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) and Beach Boys Party!  All three did quite well, even though Summer Days was a throwback to their beach and surfer songs, while Party! could be considered an “unplugged” album of covers, (including a top ten version of the Regents classic “Barbara Ann,” sung by Dean Torrence of “Jan and Dean” fame), some of their own songs, as it appeared some of the tunes were recorded informally. Still, it was The Beach Boys Today! that signaled a change in their musical repertoire and essentially set the tone for Pet Sounds.
During this time, Brian had been contemplating the thought of making something that was removed from traditional Beach Boys music. In late 1965, Brian met twenty-six-year-old lyricist and copywriter Tony Asher, who had been working for an advertising agency writing commercial jingles. They appeared to be kindred spirits and began writing together in January of 1966, while the other Beach Boys were on a concert tour of Hawaii and Japan. Working out of Brian’s house, the two would start with a melody or chord patterns Brian came up with and began discussing the “feel” of the music and the subject line of the eventual song. Some years later, Asher said of his role as co-lyricist, “The general tenor of the lyrics was always his […] and the actual choice of words was usually mine. I was really just his interpreter.”
As the two writers continued to develop the new album, Brian included Mike Love as to what he and Asher were trying to create. When the Beach Boys returned from the Pacific tour and went back into the studio, they were presented with much of the album and the adjustment from the traditional Beach Boys sound. While there had been reports of discord within the group, much of it was denied. The Wilson brothers embraced the concept of Pet Sounds, as Carl Wilson said later, “We loved that record, it was a joy to make.” Al Jardine, however, saw things a bit differently. “I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the change (in music style), 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.”
It appeared the group had no problem with the music, even though they did question how they could replicate that sound in a live concert. Jardine and Love did have some reservations with the lyrics and thought overall it was “too arty.” According to Asher, even though Jardine, Love and Dennis Wilson expressed some doubt, none of them “really challenged Brian,” because “they weren’t talented enough […]”
The Pet Sounds studio sessions took place from January 18 to April 13, 1966. Due to some of the complexities of the music, Brian enlisted an ensemble of classically trained instrumentalists and the best studio musicians in the business, “The Wrecking Crew,” which was made up of such budding superstars as guitarists Leon Russell, Jimmy Burton, Glenn Campbell and bassist Carol Kaye. Carl Wilson did partake in some of the sessions, but later acknowledged his contributions were not significant and that “It really wasn’t appropriate for us (the band) to play … the tracking just got beyond us.”
As complex as the musical arrangements were and how Brian directed the musicians, the Beach Boys found the vocals taxing, especially when Brian did not know exactly where the vocals would fit in until the band showed up and had to listen to the orchestrations. Mike Love summarized the ordeal:
“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 …. 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.”

In the end, Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys, The Wrecking Crew, Tony Asher and other musicians, produced an album of thirteen songs, three of which would be released as singles; the hauntingly beautiful, yet melancholy “Caroline, No” (released as a solo record by Brian), “Sloop John B,” a Caribbean folk song, which did not fit well with the rest of the album. Still, Brian wanted it and subtly positioned an LSD trip into the song’s lyrics by changing one line from “this is the worst trip since I’ve been born” to “this is the worst trip I’ve ever been on.” And, finally a double-sided hit, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” about a young couple (obviously teenagers) fantasizing about romantic freedom and perhaps the best song in the Beach Boys catalog, “God Only Knows.” Carl Wilson was the lead vocalist and the harmonies were incredible and intricate, with the subject matter being a rather complicated love affair. It is considered one of the most beautiful songs of the rock and roll era.
Over the years, the naming of the album, Pet Sounds, appears to have been lost between the participants. Mike Love stated he came up with the title, supported by Al Jardine, while Brian credited Carl Wilson, yet Carl said Brian named the album. In other words, who knows?
Be that as it may, Pet Sounds was released to mixed reviews in the United States on May 16, 1966. As compared to other Beach Boy albums, it was not initially considered a commercial success. Capitol Records executives, worried about the possible lack of sales from Pet Sounds, assembled a “greatest hits” album and released it, unbeknownst to the Beach Boys, in July of that year.
Early reviews of Pet Sounds in the United States were tentative. One critic said Beach Boys fans may find the album too challenging and “quickly passed the word to ‘stay away from the new Beach Boys album, it’s weird.’” In England, however, it was received with high ratings and sold very well. By the end of 1966, English publication, Melody Maker, awarded the Beatles’ Revolver and the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds as Co-Albums of the Year. Still, it would be some time before the American public would recognize Pet Sounds for its melodies, its sound and its remarkable stories.
Today, Pet Sounds is considered one of the top two or three rock albums of all time.
There is little doubt the Beach Boys would not have had the incredible success over the past six decades if it were not for the musical mastermind of Brian Wilson. Like many creative geniuses, Brian experienced the unease of mental illness throughout his lifetime and the manipulation that came with it by some rather unsavory characters, including his therapist and his own father. During the final year of his life, Brian was placed under the conservatorship of his longtime manager and publicist by the Los Angeles County Superior Court. His mental health issues and the battles he and his family waged against those who exploited his condition was told to the world through his music.
Pet Sounds certainly reflects not only his inner genius, but his inner demons as well and, perhaps, it expresses the beauty and the talent of one person to tell his story along with the angst-filled tales of fledgling love, something most of us remember from our youth.
Brian Wilson will forever be remembered as one of the world’s great musical talents. Ever.
And as we commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of its release, Pet Sounds bears that out quite well.

“I may not always love you
But long as there are stars above you
You never need to doubt it
I’ll make you so sure about it

God only knows what I’d do without you.”
God only knows…