All language subtitles for The.Beach.Boys.Making.Pet.Sounds.2017.WEBRip.x264-RARBG

We experimented on Pet Sounds
and tried to write

something better than the
surf songs and car songs.

It taps into all those
feelings that we have as we're growing up,

that somehow he's been able to
express musically and lyrically.

♪ Wouldn't it be nice
if we were older?

♪ Then we wouldn't
have to wait so long ♪

Pet Sounds to me is this beautiful
marriage of a child-like innocence,

emotional vulnerability and an
adult sort of musical genius.

♪ I keep looking
for a place to fit in

♪ Where I can speak my mind ♪

It was different to
anything that was going on at that time.

It was the leader
and everybody followed that.

♪ I know there's an answer

♪ I know now but I
have to find it by myself ♪

Brian was
the master of the studio.

No one was his equal.

It'll always be somewhere
as long as you can hear music.

♪ If you should ever leave me

♪ Though life would
still go on, believe me ♪

One of the greatest
songs I've ever heard.

That's the genius of it.

People think, "Oh, I can
do that," but they can't.

It's something that only
Brian could do, you know.

♪ God only knows
what I'd be without you

♪ God only knows
what I'd be without you ♪

My dad played a lot of music.
He taught me how to play...

That kind of a bassline.
Like boogie-woogie music.

He had a song called
His Little Darling And You.

♪ He must return
to his queen bee

♪ For his little
darling and me ♪

He wrote that song.

And then he said, "Do you like
it?" I said, "I love it."

He had a father in Murry
Wilson who was classic showbiz.

There was a lot of pressure
on him on many levels

to keep
the family business going.

As children, Mike and Brian would
frequent the family sing-alongs.

Even back when they
were little tykes.

They'd be in their car together
singing the stuff on the radio

and making up silly words.

So it was automatic.

Just like it was automatic

when Dennis was
tossed the drumsticks

and he became
a drummer overnight.

All of it just fell in.

Brian's cousin
Mike would help him

with the words in
the very beginning.

They had a lot in common
with their taste.

There were
the earlier rock and roll hits

that were an inspiration
to so many of us.

Chuck Berry and Little Richard
and The Everly Brothers.

Those three were
big influences on both,

you know, The Beatles and
The Beach Boys as well.

We had the additional influence
of The Four Freshmen

who did this amazing harmony.

Brian loved
The Four Freshmen so much.

♪ Day by day

♪ You're making
all my dreams come true

♪ So come what may
I want you to know ♪

The Four Freshmen taught me how to
sing, you know, like, high falsetto.

And Brian just melded that sweet
vocal harmony kind of a thing

into something that
was just sensational.

♪ Surfin' is the only life

Mike was big into doo-wop.

With the "bom boms"
and the "doop doops."

♪ Bom Bom Dit Di Dit Dip
Bom Bom Dit Di Dit Dip ♪

It started when we were asked
to do a folk song.

And we said,
"Well, we like folk music,"

"but we're really more into
R&B and rock and roll."

Brian and I got around the piano

and came up with
the song Surfin'.

A very simple song.

♪ We're going surfin'

- ♪ Bom bom dip di dit.
- ♪ Surfin'

- ♪ Bom bom dip di dit.
- ♪ Surfin'

- ♪ Bom bom dip di dit.
- ♪ Surfin' ♪

It was an R&B-influenced song

with the "bom bom,
dip-di-dip-di-dips."

But it was about surfing.
It was a way of life.

A way of dress, a way of
talking, an attitude...

A lifestyle.

Capitol were
looking for younger acts.

Murry Wilson,
The Beach Boys' dad,

had sent in a demo
record to Voyle Gilmore

who was then head
of A&R at Capitol.

And Voyle gave it to Nick Venet,

who was one of our producers
there, to listen to.

Nick came running into my office
and said, "You gotta hear this."

You know, he says...

I listened to it.
It just knocked me out.

And I said, "Oh my gosh, we
gotta sign them right now."

"Before we lose them." You know?

And we did Surfin' and it did really
well in about half a dozen markets.

But then Surfin' Safari
became a reasonably big hit.

♪ Let's go surfin' now
Everybody's learning how

♪ Come on a safari with me ♪

The sun was
always shining, for a start.

And everybody was gorgeous.

And on the beach
and all of that.

I never aspired to go surfing
or anything like that, frankly.

Just to be there,
see all these people

and maybe go on a date
with a guy like that,

would be smashing.
That's what we liked.

I spoke to Brian about it after,

and he said, "I love the
lifestyle, I'm an observer."

Loved the sunshine, the whole
fashion thing that goes with it.

"But I'm not into surfing
because I don't swim."

That was a bit of a revelation.

And then Surfin' USA in
1963 was number one.

Surfing and girls...
Girls. Big on girl songs.

So, and school...

So, it kind of appealed to
everyone, really, didn't it?

The Midwest, they
didn't know from surfing.

It was the hot rod songs
that got those guys going.

♪ Little deuce Coupe
You don't know what I got

♪ Well, I'm not braggin' babe
so don't put me down

♪ But I've got the fastest set
of wheels in town

♪ When something comes
up to me he don't even try

♪ 'Cause if I had a set of
wings man I know she could fly

♪ She's my little deuce coupe

♪ You don't know what I got ♪

They loved the surfing records,
they loved the hot rod records.

I'm talking about the marketing
guys, and the promotion guys

who had to go out and
promote these things.

I can remember when Brian

wanted to put out, I think
it was Little Surfer Girl.

And our promotion guys,
were all,

"This is gonna kill it.
It's a ballad."

Brian said,
"No, this is gonna..."

Surfer Girl was
a wonderful record.

I copied The Four Freshmen's singer.
The high singer...

And I wrote Surfer Girl like...

♪ Little surfer...

♪ Little one

♪ Made my heart come all undone

♪ Do you love me?
Do you, surfer girl? ♪

So you had your surfing and your
beach life, your car songs.

But also everybody
had to go to school.

So we wrote a song,
Be True To Your School.

♪ So be true to your school now

♪ Rah rah rah
Be true to your school

♪ Rah rah rah
Be true to your school ♪

I mean, we had our education pretty
much set out for us.

Uh, Brian was our music teacher,

and just being on the road
was our road scholar stuff.

We were on the road
100 days a year or more.

And in the studio that many.

So it was getting tough.

I think Brian went through a crisis.
I mean, the end of '64,

The Beach Boys
had been touring relentlessly,

as they did in those days. They
used to work those bands so hard.

And the British
Invasion scared him to death.

He thought, it's all over.

The Beatles are gonna take it over and
that's it. We're out of business.

And he was
the centre of this group.

He was the main man
with The Beach Boys.

So, in addition to doing all the
work in the studio and the writing,

he'd have to do all the publicising
and all the promoting.

Look at all those jobs he had.

And anybody would cave in
at some point.

That's too much.

We observed him
being quite unhappy,

being out on the road
and away from home.

And not everyone's
suited for that life.

He couldn't handle a lot of the
things that went along with that.

Like, the travelling. The loudness
of it, it'd hurt his ear.

He was having trouble hearing out of his...
He was deaf in one ear.

I saw him have
a breakdown on an aeroplane.

I was sitting right next to him,

thinking, "Well, this is it!
It's over."

"He's not gonna
recover from this."

Well, I wanted to spend
more time at my house.

Write songs at home.

And...

So I told the guys,
"I'm gonna stop touring."

And nobody could sing like Brian
in terms of that falsetto

and he played the bass with us
in our live shows.

And so it was not
a happy occurrence

to see him leave the live group.

Capitol, on the other hand,
was thinking...

"Well, if he can
make more records"

"and make 'em as good
or better than they are,"

"there's an upside to that."

So there wasn't
a great deal of worry

as far as Capitol was concerned.

Brian Wilson's decision to get
off the road and to get into the studio

is one of the most profound
moments in rock history.

'Cause it really is when Brian
Wilson, I think, intuitively decided

that he was gonna be an artist.

Then he could spend
more time writing,

arranging and recording
the tracks

which we would sing when we would
come back off of the tour.

He found that his instrument
was the recording studio.

You could really hear instrumentation
that was unique to rock music.

And I personally think that the
opening strains of California Girls

is like an overture.

It sounds symphonic to me,

just the whole dynamic of it
and it's beautiful.

♪ Well, east coast girls are hip

♪ I really dig those
styles they wear

♪ And the southern girls
with the way they talk

♪ They knock me out
when I'm down there ♪

Brian was growing exponentially

out of that three to four year
time period since we started.

He really... Boy, he blossomed.

Yeah, everybody could see Brian
evolve as a songwriter, composer.

He even said so himself,

when our first album
was just released.

And he was already talking
about down the road

when he was going to produce
all this wonderful music.

And he just kept
true to his word.

♪ I wish they all could be
California

♪ I wish they all could be
California girls ♪

The Beach Boys were,
up till that point,

sort of an embodiment
of the California dream.

And the success of
"girls, surf, car, school"

brought in
the ability to have budgets

to keep recording
and experimenting,

and now he's got a pack of
brilliant musicians in the studio.

Most people know
them as The Wrecking Crew.

And they were, basically,
the top LA session players.

People who'd come up
through the jazz scene,

who played on everything
from Sonny and Cher

to Frank Sinatra
to The Mamas and The Papas,

a lot of Phil Spector's records...
They were on pretty much everything.

He didn't rely on the Beach
Boys band so much any more

because he didn't have to.

The minute those
guys were on the road,

he was really in
the lab experimenting.

One of the tracks he
did was Sloop John B

which, the idea for that
came from Alan Jardine.

Growing up as a teenager
in Hawthorne, California,

we were all mesmerised by this
evolution of folk music

that happened around
late '50s, early '60s.

And here comes the amazing
trio, The Kingston Trio.

♪ We come on the sloop John B

♪ My grandfather and me

So I wanted to share
my joy of that with the guys.

And I started messing around
with some folk songs again.

And, by golly, that darn ol' Kingston
Trio stuff started coming back.

♪ Well, I feel so broke up

♪ I want to go home ♪

Al Jardine loved
folk music so much,

and when he was in high school,

he would sing
the Kingston Trio music

and he always
wanted to record it.

Without Al's interest, I don't think
Brian would've ever recorded it.

I thought if I put
it in his language...

Put it in a way that
he'd understand it,

and give it a little oomph.

You know, a little power,
a little change...

Get off the folk rhythm,
get onto the Beach Boy rhythm.

He actually showed Brian the
chords and so on, like that.

This is probably
how I played it.

A little more tempo.

And here's the difference.

There's the key.
There's the turnaround

that actually
makes the vocals work.

They become matchable
because we've added a minor.

And we did it together.

I told him I would adapt the melody
and make an arrangement to it.

The next day, he had
an arrangement done on it.

He surprised the hell out of me.

And he came up with
quite a stunning track.

Let's have
the flutes one more time.

Could I hear...

One more.

- Right there, don't move.
- Don't move.

All right, let's make it.
Here we go. Sloop John B.

♪ We come on the sloop John B

♪ My grandfather and me

♪ Around Nassau town we did roam

♪ Drinking all night

♪ Got into a fight

♪ Well, I feel so broke up

♪ I want to go home

♪ So hoist up the John B's sail

♪ See how the...

Down beats...
Unheard of, just down beats.

♪ ...captain ashore

♪ Let me go home

♪ Let me go home

Building a track was something
that Brian was very good at.

It was a very simple part, obviously,
it would get more elaborate.

And, except for the intro, the horns
and the flutes haven't played yet.

They will come in here.

♪ The first mate he got drunk

♪ And broke in the Cap'n's trunk

♪ The constable had to
come and take him away

It's somehow the visualisation
of being on that ship,

watching those waves,
watching the sails.

To me, it's all visual.

Just something to
spice up the feeling

of being on the ocean.

So, we're towards
the end of the song.

And you'll see that
Hal's part changes.

Now, another 16 bars, we want it...
We want it bigger.

And it's still changing.

It's a little
rougher seas, maybe.

And it's getting
bigger and bigger,

and now I'm playing straight
eighths with two drums,

which is one of the tricks I
always did with The Beach Boys.

Snare drum and a floor tom-tom.

So you're getting the highs of the
snare, the lows of the floor tom-tom.

♪ So hoist up the John B's sail

♪ See how the mainsail sets ♪

He didn't
invite me to the session,

which I thought
was kind of rude,

but, you know,
I quickly forgave him.

Because he was on a roll, man.
He was on fire.

So, you know, I just backed off.

I thought, "You know what?
He got it. I got through."

And that was the main thing.

What you see with The Beach
Boys right before Pet Sounds

is that rock and roll
was about getting a hit.

It was always
about the next hit.

And just giving you something that
maybe sounded enough like the last one

to get another hit.

Oh, man,
we became a touring jukebox.

Yeah.
We were like a jukebox band.

Really, that idea of the rock and roll
album was just beginning to exist.

You know, it's really The
Beatles, around Rubber Soul,

step up the game in a major way.

Anything and everything The Beatles
did was worth paying notice to,

and it was an inspiration.
Rubber Soul in particular.

Brian Wilson is very
introspective, melancholy...

Might have been afraid
to express himself that way.

The Rubber Soul
album by The Beatles,

I think,
might have sparked Brian,

opened a little window for him.

♪ Nowhere Man, please listen

♪ You don't know
what you're missing

♪ Nowhere Man
The world is at your command ♪

"Maybe I can be
introspective in my art",

"and express my melancholy
through songs and stuff."

You could see there
that he was, you know...

Something's going on
in this guy's head.

It's not the average "My girlfriend
left me at the high school dance."

There was
something more going on.

I experimented on Pet Sounds.

I tried to write
something better

than the surf songs
and car songs.

Maybe my favourite
Brian song of all time is

I Just Wasn't
Made For These Times.

It's where he hits the truth.

♪ I keep looking
for a place to fit in

♪ Where I can speak my mind

The first line.

How many people in this world
haven't felt that way?

"I'm looking for
a place to fit in."

"I'm just looking for a place
where I can speak my mind."

I think that really crystallises

um, a lot of the impetus
behind Pet Sounds,

that Brian was finding a place
to really express himself.

♪ I've been trying hard
to find the people

♪ That I won't leave behind ♪

That was like a social
statement, like saying,

I thought I was
a little bit out of time.

I thought I was
a little ahead of my time.

We had talked
about that idea even before

we did some of the other songs.

So I think it was something
that kinda came up occasionally,

as we were
discussing lyric ideas.

They're not clever-clever.

None of the lyrics on Pet
Sounds are clever-clever.

They would just get
right to the heart,

and say what they've got to say.

♪ They say, I got brains

♪ But they ain't
doing me no good

♪ I wish they could ♪

It just had a feeling of like,

"I wish I could find people that
could help me find a cooler place."

It's a simple song.

But when you hear
the vocal stuff on it,

it's not a simple song,
it's not that easy to do.

The harmonies are the distinctive
quality of The Beach Boys' recordings.

I think that's the one thing that's
very unique to The Beach Boys.

The refinement of the harmonies,

and the closeness
of the harmonies,

and the warmth of the
harmonies, and the blend.

There's something that is in
their DNA, I guess, you know.

They come from
the same heritage.

The singing is an expression
of yourself, your feelings.

And so, me and my
brothers sang together.

Because we're a family, three
brothers and my cousin, Mike.

So we blend together
very well, very good.

Al Jardine, Mike Love, Carl
Wilson, Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson,

it's those timbres.

In fact, now slide me in there.

Now there's six.

And listen to, on the
Pet Sounds album,

this track called I Just
Wasn't Made For These Times.

There's six of us singing.

♪ Each time things start
to happen again

♪ I think I got something good
goin' for myself

♪ But what goes wrong?

♪ Sometimes I feel very sad

♪ Sometimes I feel very sad

♪ Can't find nothin' I can
put my heart and soul into ♪

And there's a quality and
a blend about the voices

that nobody has copied.

There've been tribute bands,
who've obviously copied them,

but nobody's been able
to reach that height of...

To me, it's quite jazzy, and that's
one of the reasons I like it.

But that height of sophistication,
musically, and the sound,

ah, it was unique.

♪ I guess I just
wasn't made for these times

♪ I guess I just
wasn't made for these times

♪ I guess I just
wasn't made for these times ♪

I Just Wasn't
Made For These Times

is kind of
an artistic statement,

saying, "I am not going
to fit in to my times."

"I'm going to determine them."

And he did.

He did, The Beatles did,
and Bob Dylan.

They all stopped
trying to make pop music

in the traditional sense,
and tried to make art.

And that's why
popular music became art.

♪ Lucky Lockets are such fun

♪ Tiny kiddles in each one ♪

I met Brian Wilson the first
time at Capitol Recording Studios.

I was working for
an advertising agency,

it was part of my job.

I was doing jingles
and writing commercials.

That was it. That was the whole
jingle, and it was two notes,

and so effective.

And so I go outside the studio
and I walk down the hall,

and I guess I
just ran into Brian,

and the two of us were standing
there, we started talking.

He said, "Hi, how are you?"

"Hi, how are
you?" That's a Brian thing.

And I said, "Great. How are you?"

"What are you working on?" And he
said, "We're doing some stuff...

"Hey, you wanna listen to this?"

I was very impressed with some of
the stuff I heard in that session

because they were
not finished tracks.

It was sublime.
I mean, it was really...

I couldn't have
imagined anything better.

Tony was a very mellow person.
He was a very nice guy.

Kind of low-key, he wasn't a real
peppy guy, he was kinda low-key.

I went back to
doing what I was doing,

and I didn't know if
I'd see him again.

A few weeks later,
I got a phone call.

I was surprised, because I thought,
"Why would he be calling me?"

Just to say, "Hey, it was fun
the other day," or something?

It didn't seem to make sense.

He was good with words
from his advertisements.

I asked him if he could write lyrics,
he said, "Sure I can write lyrics."

And he said, "Well, I'm just
sitting around at the piano."

"I thought maybe you might
wanna do some stuff together."

"The boys are in Japan."

And he said, "I don't really
have anybody to write with."

So he came to my house, and we
started writing Pet Sounds.

♪ Wouldn't it be nice
if we were older

♪ Then we wouldn't
have to wait so long

♪ And wouldn't it be nice
to live together

♪ In the kind of world
where we belong

♪ You know it's gonna make it
that much better

♪ When we can say goodnight
and stay together ♪

Tony Asher's
contribution is fantastic.

He's a marvellous writer.

Well, I knew he was great.

He liked the way I wrote melodies,
and I liked his lyrics.

We wrote during the day.

And he would come to my house, and
he'd have his paper and his pen.

I would write a little bit,

then he wrote a little lyrics.

He must have just felt it was
someone who would listen to him,

and who could help
channel him through lyrics.

They're all great, and I really
like the work that Tony Asher did.

The fact that Brian just meets
a guy who's in advertising,

and somehow ends up writing

some of the most important lyrics of
all time with this man, Tony Asher,

that are timeless.
It's just, uh...

It's kind of inexplicable.

Well, he had the knack
for making people feel good.

I thought that was a
nice, young idea for a song

which is, you know, "Wouldn't
it be nice if we were older?"

When I was 14 and I
came into the business,

well, I was 14 and whatever I'd have
done, I thought I was so grown-up.

We were. The girls anyway.
The fellas...

But we thought we
were so grown-up.

We wanted to be older,
and be able

to be free to do
this and to do that.

Not have our parents
tell us "No, you can't."

Asher was clever in that way,

in the way he led
an ambiguity to his lyrics,

which had, essentially, a very
simple message taken at face value.

If you go into it, you'll find

there's a more
spiritual side to it,

and a more complex
message coming across.

The album is the sound of him
trying to sort of explore

becoming an adult.

Because I think he may have had
a sort of delayed go at that.

Great song.

Here's the explosion.

You're trying to get Hal to play
the intro the way you want.

Right.

Hal, here's how I want to do it.

It's like this.

- Three, four...
- Boom...

I wanted Hal to hit the drums
as hard as he could,

so we can get an echo.

♪ Wouldn't it be nice
if we were older

♪ Then we wouldn't
have to wait so long

♪ And wouldn't it be nice
to live together

♪ In the kind of world
where we belong

Everybody was doing that.

It was double voicing,
double tracking.

So we wanted to do
like everybody else.

♪ ...and stay together

♪ Wouldn't it be nice...

The thing I've loved
about this track

is that when you
take the leads out...

- Right.
- And just play the backgrounds,

- and the backing track, if you will.
- Right.

It's such an amazing...

Where are the voices?
The background?

There they are.

The Beach Boys.

♪ Wouldn't it be nice
if we could wake up

♪ In the morning
when the day is new

♪ And after having
spent the day together

♪ Hold each other close
the whole night through ♪

Yeah.

Wouldn't It Be Nice,
total stress.

Brings back good memories.

That was one that just
was never quite right.

And just... In his mind,
he just didn't hear it.

He wasn't hearing it.

"Guys, you can do
better than that."

Brian was between a hipster

and one of your famous British
generals that was tough.

He was tough. He demanded
everything from everybody.

Wouldn't It Be Nice is upbeat and fabulous.
It's a great arrangement.

We worked many hours perfecting
the harmonies on that one.

That was a labour of love,
that's for sure.

Do you remember why you decided

to put Mike back in the bridge
on Wouldn't It Be Nice?

Yeah, because I wanted him to
take part in that song. - Right.

♪ Maybe if we think and wish and
hope and pray it might come true

♪ Baby, then there wouldn't be
a single thing we couldn't do

♪ We could be married

♪ And then we'd be happy... ♪

I was stunned sometimes

by how much he had going on in his
head that I never dreamed was there

because... You can't hear
it, until you can hear it.

I wanted to record Wouldn't
It Be Nice at Gold Star

because that has a good echo
chamber, and I like the echo.

Be My Baby, Brian has
probably listened to that

more than he's
listened to any other song

or songs combined.

He would play it repeatedly,
incessantly.

He was mesmerized by Be
My Baby, by The Ronettes,

but produced by Phil Spector.

And then, the bassline...

It had a great bassline and a great
melody and a great singer, Ronnie.

- ♪ So won't you, please?
- ♪ Be my, be my baby

- ♪ Be my little baby.
- ♪ My one and only baby

- ♪ Say you'll be my darlin'
- ♪ Be my, be my baby

- ♪ Be my baby now.
- ♪ My one and only baby

♪ Whoa, oh, oh, oh

Phil had a huge impact on him.

Brian loved that Wall of Sound
that Phil Spector had.

He loved the records
that Phil Spector made,

and Phil was a genius, too. He was
making hit after hit after hit.

♪ Be my, be my baby

- ♪ Be my little baby.
- ♪ My one and only baby ♪

Phil Spector got word about us.

And Phil came, we started
working at Gold Star for Phil.

Almost everything we touched with
Phil Spector became giant hits.

Big hits.

And he was calling this
the Wall of Sound.

There would be four
or five guitar players,

three or four piano players,
always one drummer,

two bass players, he liked to
use an upright bass player

with a Fender bass player.

And then he would have
a percussion section.

And that was it, we were all in one
room, but it made a wonderful sound.

And Brian fell
in love with that sound.

He wanted the same enthusiasm.

He wanted the same musicians.

There were four or five of us
who were always with Brian.

The Wall of Sound,
you have to give

Phil Spector
credit for building it.

But I think
the wall that Brian built

was more textured
and much more subtle.

There's just sort of a
musicality to Brian's work

that goes beyond
what Spector ever dreamed of.

♪ I came along
when he broke your heart

♪ That's when you needed someone

♪ To help forget about him

Well, I wanted to mix up
a love song with a happy song.

Put the two together.

It's too easy to give all the
credit to Brian and Tony Asher.

I'm Waiting For The Day is
great, that's not Tony Asher,

that's an example of Mike
having real skill as a writer.

We were dealing with emotions.

I'm Waiting For The Day
is a beautiful way

of saying that you can find
something special in someone,

and they may not be ready at
that moment in time to engage.

But you find that
they're worth waiting for.

♪ I kissed your lips

♪ When your face looked sad

♪ It made me think about him

♪ And that you
still loved him so

Brian is such an artist,

that he allowed
the genius of these players

to also come into the equation.

No one appreciated these great
players more than Brian.

This was the very beginnings
of rock and roll, remember.

Many musicians refused
to play rock and roll music.

They said it's junk, it's
garbage, it's rotten, it's dirty.

Because they were always in suits and
ties, very straight, no smoking.

Who knew that we
were gonna move in

and take over
this kind of thing?

And then
the guys that were doing

all the movie calls,
the film calls, said,

"Those guys are gonna
wreck the business."

The tracking was fun,
I think, for him.

Because he got to hang
with The Wrecking Crew,

and just experiment to heck, and
spend as much money as he wanted.

You know, he was like a kid
in a candy shop.

These players
could play anything.

And Brian just had this
baby symphony pool

of amazing
musicians to work with.

♪ I'm waiting for the day
when you can love again ♪

It was extremely unusual to see a
female musician working in the studios.

Carol Kaye was a stand-out woman

in her own right
in that capacity.

She was the best, she was
better than any men around.

So why not use the best?

I always loved
that walking line.

In fact, go like this...

Carol Kaye's bass sound
is a really subtle undertone

to a lot of Pet Sounds.

But it's there like an anchor, it's
there in I'm Waiting For The Day.

Quite driving guitar and drums,
like really pushing the song along,

and then you've got her cool bass
notes in there just anchoring it,

you know, keeping it grounded.

Well, she was very creative and
she played right on the beat.

She wouldn't like flub up, she
would play right on the beat.

When we used to record in those
days, we made decisions.

Nothing was left to later because
we only had three to four tracks.

If you were putting the rhythm
all on one track,

you got your sounds,
you've put your delays in,

you did your echo,
you did it live,

and that's the sound I hear in my head,
that's what I want, let's record it.

♪ It starts with
just a little glance now

♪ Right away you're thinkin'
'bout romance now

♪ You know you
ought to take it slower

♪ But you just can't wait
to get to know her

♪ A brand new love affair
is such a beautiful thing

♪ But if you're not careful think
about the pain it can bring

It's very much the
album of someone in their 20s,

that youthful
exploration of love.

And there's
existential angst in there.

I was uh... Experiencing,
you know, love,

and having those kinds of... I
mean, it was that time in my life.

The quest of the mid-'60s
was to define what love is.

Uh, that's what the
counterculture was all about.

It feels genuine to me
when I listen to that stuff.

♪ Right now you think
that she's perfection

♪ This time is
really an exception

♪ Well, you know
I hate to be a downer

♪ But I'm the guy she left
before you found her ♪

We experimented with
the musicians a lot, you know.

It was all experimentation,

and went on and on for about two
months to get the album recorded.

He had different relationships
with different people,

this from the best I can tell.

And that's why he would go
from studio to studio

searching out a particular
feeling that he was looking for.

And that was a real departure

because all the other Capitol
artists had to record at Capitol,

or it was a slap in
the face of Capitol.

But we let him record
where he wanted to record.

He was bringing
in great records.

Brian never came in before 2:00.

It was almost always at Western
Studios, Studio Three,

which was a small studio.

And he'd say,
"I have a new song."

"I'm writing a new song
and I wanna record it."

You would start out...

He basically knew
where it was gonna go.

A lot of times we didn't know,
and you gotta remember

that we were looking at songs
that didn't have titles on it.

It was just the chord sheets,

or maybe a few sketched out
lines that Brian would write.

I would hand them all their
manuscript papers that I wrote.

Then I'd take each guy and say,

"Let me hear the bass player
play it for a minute."

And we'd get them. Then I'd do the
guitar players and the pianos,

then the horns.

I talked to them
individually and collectively.

They were all good,
good for it, for me.

He would sing parts to the
guys and they would write it down.

He would lay out the rhythm
the way that he wanted it,

and the basslines. I mean, he
would work the chart in the room

before he went
into the control room.

Because he had it up here.

They took my direction. I'd tell them
what to play, and they'd play it.

That's organ,
tack piano together.

There were
always three pianists.

And there was a special tuning
that we arrived at.

So I worked with the piano
tuner to try different things,

and I did put tacks
on the head of each...

- Yeah.
- Each hammer.

And Brian immediately
was attracted to it,

and it became kind
of a signature sound.

♪ ... Love is here today

♪ And it's gone tomorrow

♪ It's here and gone so fast ♪

They knew he was
a special guy, musically.

And sometimes they'd help him
write something down in a part,

but it was all up here,
in his head,

and he somehow communicated it
to all the players.

And sometimes,
"Brian, we can't do that."

And then they'd play it, I'd get,
"That's pretty good, Brian."

It was so cool.

I would try to
develop the arrangement

to fit the song, the melody.

I would write the melody,

then I would try to
make the arrangements

kind of like
surround the melody.

And we started
getting reports about it.

"Brian's doing something
really special, guys. He really is."

But we were touring Japan.

As soon as we got back,
we began to listen to the material.

He couldn't wait for us
to get down to the studio.

He didn't care about jetlag
or any of that stuff.

Didn't mean anything to him.

But it was sobering.
We had to really buckle down.

Now in the case of Here Today
and about half of Pet Sounds,

Brian cut the vocals
at CBS up the street.

I think primarily
because they had

the only one one-inch
eight-track in town.

I have a couple three-tracks
of backgrounds.

♪ Right away you're
thinkin' 'bout romance now

- They're probably doubled or tripled.
- Doubled, yeah.

I think he's a visionary.

He's a musical visionary,
as well as a social...

In a social context
as well, a visionary.

Uh...

He sees things I don't
think the rest of us see.

And hears things, certainly,
that we don't hear.

So, he's one of those special...

He's got a special receiver
going on up there in his brain.

Brian truly is the most gifted
music person that I've ever met.

I hate it when they call
him genius, because...

And they're right,
but don't do that.

That's too big of a load
to carry on your shoulders,

but he's so gifted.

He didn't realise his talent.

I still think he doesn't.

One of the magical
things about Brian

is he was able to describe, without
having it on the written page,

exactly the sound that he heard.

Boy, then you'd hear them

as they were transformed,
really, in that process.

It was... It was staggering.

Then when he
heard it, that was it,

and that was
The Beach Boys sound.

I don't know what your
definition of genius is,

but he certainly might be.

I think genius
just means clever.

I don't think it
has any real meaning.

It just means you're good at
something, genius. Like, you know...

Like Albert Einstein
was a genius.

♪ Hang on to your ego

♪ Hang on, but I know that
you're gonna lose the fight

♪ They come on
like they're peaceful

♪ But inside they're so uptight

♪ They trip through the day

♪ And waste all
their thoughts at night

♪ Now how can I say it

♪ And how can I come on

♪ When I know I'm guilty?

There was a lot of LSD around.

Brian heard that sometimes
the acid gives you certain colours

that you didn't know existed,
et cetera, et cetera.

I think he was experimenting
a little bit then, too.

He told us that he was doing acid
during California Girls. "Oh!"

I was very sceptical
about doing any of that stuff,

and looked askance at

anything having to do with that
kind of drug culture influence.

♪ Hang on to your ego

♪ Hang on, but I know that
you're gonna lose the fight ♪

Mike disagreed on
Hang On To Your Ego,

which allegedly is,
if you take LSD,

you have to hang on to your ego.

He didn't really
think that fit the image

of The Beach Boys,
to allude to that.

To me, that was
a little too drug-influenced.

This track has been subject to all
kinds of speculation and contention

that this was the track
that got fought over,

and that Mike
didn't like the lyrics.

♪ They come on
like they're peaceful

♪ But inside
they're so uptight ♪

Why don't I do a Jimmy Durante?

♪ They come on
like they're peaceful

♪ But inside
they're so uptight ♪

Okay, I'm sorry.

Do a take for our roll-ins.
I'd love a take like that

- as soon as we're done, okay?
- Check.

All I was saying is
I would make my feelings known

if I felt it was going too far out on
a limb, lyrically or conceptually,

having some relationship to some
kind of drugs and stuff like that.

I didn't know what an ego was at the
time, but I learned very quickly.

So I came up with an alternative lyric
called I Know There's An Answer.

♪ I know there's an answer

♪ I know now but I have
to find it by myself ♪

But the two exist.

And I Know There's An Answer is what
came out on the Pet Sounds issue.

It is my great suspicion that the
experimentation that had to happen

for Brian to become the
great artist that he was

had nothing to
do with chemicals.

If drugs made you a genius, we'd
have a lot more Pet Sounds.

And we do not.

He didn't necessarily explain
what it was he was trying to do.

But he acknowledged
that this was different stuff.

He said, "I don't wanna keep doing
the same stuff over and over."

If you went back and looked at
all of the Beach Boys stuff

that was created prior to that,

there was a sameness to it.

And it was good, very good

and it wasn't like anybody was
getting tired of it, really.

I don't think.

But, you know...

Mike said,
"Don't fuck with the formula."

He said, "Why are we trying to...
We've got this great thing"

"and until somebody can show
me that it's not working,"

"why are we fumbling around
trying to find something else?"

Well,
that's not a crazy question.

I mean, that's
a reasonable question to ask.

But, um... But Brian saw it
in a whole different way,

which was, "God, I've done that.
It's boring, I'm tired of it."

That was something that would
never have occurred to Mike.

He said, "Don't
mess with the formula."

I said, "I want to advance
to a better music place."

We wouldn't have had as good an
album if I didn't. You know?

Part of that, I think, led to me
getting a bad rap

for, quote-unquote,
not liking Pet Sounds

or something,
which is absolute...

You know,
it's just absolute falsehood.

'Cause not only did I name
the album "Pet Sounds,"

and went with Brian to present
it to Capitol Records,

but I sang on every single
song that was sung on.

I was very satisfied.
Tony was, too.

We both were. We both thought we
really achieved a good album.

Brian and I went off to Capitol
Records to play it for Karl Engemann

who was the A&R man
for Capitol Records.

Capitol Records
loved The Beach Boys.

I mean, they didn't
criticise them in any way,

except they thought that maybe going
in the direction of Pet Sounds

wasn't something that was...

It wasn't gonna be as wonderful
as the hot rod records,

the surfing records,
those kinds of things.

I couldn't understand why they didn't
like it. I said, "This is good music."

They said, "It's not
commercial music."

Brian thought it
would never be released

because Capitol
wanted that surf thing.

That's what was selling.

So they didn't release it and a
little bit later, a few weeks later,

they said,
"Okay, we'll release it."

So they released it on the market
and it didn't sell very good.

It hadn't gone the same height on the
charts as some of the prior records.

So Capitol, right away,
in order to make quota,

they hurried and put out a
Best Of The Beach Boys.

We were in competition
with our history.

The faith of the label
was right there, everybody.

"We have Pet Sounds out."

"By the way, we're going to put
out."

"Best Of The Beach
Boys volume one."

Can you believe that?

It's just so asinine.

It didn't do as well
as some of the other albums

and it might have if
there had been more

of a spirit within
the company that.

"This is great.
We'll push this thing"

"we'll take it
where it should be."

It's not what we were expecting.

We're actually
grateful for that.

My God, why do you want
only what people expect?

How sad that is.

They just didn't understand it.

The direction,

they didn't know
what to do with it.

They're a marketing firm.

How do you market The
Beach Boys with Pet Sounds?

"Well, we'll send you down
to the San Diego Zoo"

"we'll photograph you
with a bunch of damn goats."

I mean, what's that all about?

That was the biggest miscarriage
of justice of all.

After the album was mixed,

Bruce was off to England.

I took two copies
of Pet Sounds with me.

With the sole intention
of promoting the album

and playing it to people
for the first time.

Derek Taylor was our publicist
and he just set up

about 25 interviews for me.

I got to meet him
at the Waldorf Hotel.

Journalists came over. I think that's
probably how I met Keith Altham.

And one of his
people came and said,

"Lennon and McCartney
are in your room,"

"they want to hear the album. Can
you go up and play it to them?"

I played them the album
and they heard it two times,

and they were delightful.

He played it to them
twice. They loved it.

Paul McCartney said God Only
Knows was the perfect song.

This will be take one.

Take one, God Only Knows.

One... Two...

Okay, could we go to
the spot where the...

That spot.

Well, that part was...

And it was bothering Brian.

And we had done it
a number of times.

And my suggestion was,

"Brian,
why don't we play it short?"

He said, "What do you mean?"

Almost pizzicato.

Brian. Yeah.

Why don't we
do it short? Like this.

We'll try it.

Yeah, I remember that.

- Yeah.
- Don Randi kind of came up with that.

- Right.
- To play it staccato.

It's so musical that it's
a pleasure to play with it.

I don't think
Brian ever realised

that what he was doing
was so incredibly wonderful.

God Only Knows
makes a deep love song

because Tony Asher had a
lot of love in his heart.

He wrote great love lyrics.

Match made in
heaven for those two.

They could evolve
something like that.

And to such perfection.

One of the greatest
love songs of all time

begins with "I may
not always love you."

Which is the antithesis of what
people want in a love song.

We held each other up
to a certain standard

and said, "We don't wanna do
that same old stuff."

You know, another love song, "I love
you because..." You know, whatever.

So that's how when I would
come up with a line

like,
"I may not always love you,"

Brian might have
said at that time,

"What?"

But he would only
have said it once.

If I said, "Don't worry about
it, Brian, that's a good line,"

he would have said, "Okay."

And then he would have listened to it a
few times and say, "Yeah, I like it."

I think "I may not always
love you" was the great line,

yeah, that he wrote.

♪ 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 be without you

I'm surprised Brian
didn't sing it himself.

But he wanted Carl to have it.

♪ Though life would still
go on, believe me

♪ The world could
show nothing to me

♪ So what good
would living do me

♪ God only knows
what I'd be without you ♪

Carl had an ethereal voice.
Beautiful.

Brian understood
the great character

of the voices in The Beach Boys,

and wrote to those
characters beautifully.

And it's not like Brian was the
best voice for all of his songs.

I remember when I first ever heard
the record of God Only Knows.

When that came out,
I was blown away.

Again, the harmonies,
the intricacy

of the arrangements,
it was wonderful.

And to actually be asked to go
on tour with them was a thrill.

And now come the backgrounds.

♪ God only knows
what I'd be without you

♪ If you should ever leave me

♪ Though life would still
go on believe me

♪ The world could
show nothing to me

♪ So what good
would living do me?

♪ God only knows
what I'd be without you

I think they liked the lyrics.

It's a great love song,
a great love lyric.

They all told me they liked it.
They said, "I love this song."

They told me that.

There's Bruce.

♪ God only knows
what I'd be without you ♪

And there's
a part you didn't use.

Right.

I always liked it.

- I didn't use that.
- No.

You know,
the first time I really got

what he was doing
was God Only Knows.

We talked about

something very esoteric within...
Like a family.

When a brother has a secret, but
allows you to know it in an art form.

He was able to
organise his thoughts...

To a point where they were
hypnotic but yet entertaining,

meaningful and spiritual, too.

For want of a better phrase,

it's where rock and roll becomes
a religious experience.

The sentiment that he has
in it towards, like,

God only knows how much I love
you, you know, only God knows.

Because it's a feeling within
myself that nobody else can know,

except God.

♪ God only knows
what I'd be without you

♪ God only knows
what I'd be without you ♪

I was so inspired
that I wrote a great album.

I knew people would like it,
I knew they would.

Half a century later,

we're still reckoning
with this record because

Brian went as deep
as pop music can go.

It put the standards up.

It said,
"This is how good it can be."

"You better go away
and think about it,."

"Mr Lennon and McCartney, Mr
Jagger and Richards, Mr Townshend."

"You better go away and think
about what you're doing next"

"because it could be this good."

It was something
that hadn't been done before

and everything
else came after that.

It took 20 years
for it to go platinum.

It was ridiculous
how long it took.

And yet at the same time
it was regarded so highly.

One of the great albums of all time,
maybe the greatest album of all time.

It's a piece of art.

Sonic art, vocal art that'll last
forever, it has everything in it.

It has really fabulous chord
structures, arrangements,

performance,

great songs to sing.

He did something with Pet
Sounds to me, all right.

He opened the door
for a lot of people.

Especially me.

A lot of people
are uplifted by it.

He grew immensely
during that time.

And he's being rewarded for
it now, 50 years later.

Isn't that nice?

My love for music inspires me.
I love music.

♪ I had to prove I could
make it alone now

♪ But that's not me

♪ I wanted to show
how independent I've grown now

♪ But that's not me

♪ I could try to be big
in the eyes of the world

♪ What matters to me is what I
could be to just one girl ♪