http://www.chrisandthemovies.com/2015/10/the-best-beach-boys-songs.html
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Brian Wilson
cooliobrando — 10 years ago(October 09, 2015 08:06 AM)
http://www.chrisandthemovies.com/2015/10/the-best-beach-boys-songs.html
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Picnic10 — 9 years ago(June 23, 2016 01:24 PM)
I almost wish that Brian Wilson hadn't have written God Only Knows. What?! you might say. The thing is, I always hear that song as being his very most precise shot at his biggest songwriting Holy Grail- to make a better song than his favourite ever song The Ronettes Be My Baby, produced by Phil Spector. To me, God Only Knows is an almost forensic shot in trying to do that, as in that in follows a similar structure. I'm no music buff in terms of knowing musical keys but it builds up like Be My Baby does. If I had to save Be My Baby or God Only Knows for posterity, I'm saving the sassy Be My Baby. GOK is a great song, with the superb opening lines by Tony Asher implying only his own mortality could stop his love, or at least his dependence: 'I may not always love you but ' long as there are stars above you you never needs to doubt it. I'll make you sure about it. God Only Knows what I'd be without you' but Brian doesn't rely on one song so much for his repertoire.
Brian Wilson has scored Pet Sounds, an album that frequently sits high up in the very greatest albums of al111cl time, particularly in the UK for one, as only 4 out of 10 and Smile as 10 out of 10. That may seem a glaring gap but even a fan of both albums may see the reasoning behind it. 'Smile' is a grand American statement, it really is. It's essentially a true concept album that Sergeant Pepper wasn't. In fact, Smile covers so much ground that it's really like Wilson's equivalent of a couple of the standout songs from Pepper (which does not feature all stand out songs) added to all of Magic Mystery Tour and a touch of Abbey Road's bon homie for good measure, from doo wop to booming chanting about Plymouth Rock to the industrial meeting the pleasure seeking in the railroad and the sweet Americana of the Barnyard to the Victoriana of the second part of the three (or 'second suite') which resembles a child's music box and, then, in Surf's Up (with its double meaning of Surf's available or Surf's over as in 'Time's Up), the mournful end of childhood but also end of a way of life. But in some ways it's the third suite, sometimes overlooked, which captures the fun experimentation of 1967 in its jauntiness - Vega-Tables or On A Holiday. Then the intense heat of the Grammy award winning Mrs O'Leary's Cow (originally known as Fire) is put out by the soothing tones of In Blue Hawaii, the vocals like the placid pools of water they speak about.
In comparison, Pet Sounds is a simpler seeming structure of something like trying to win love, trying to escape in to love and worrying about what will be outside of it if you ever have to emerge. There are 3 instantly radio songs on there, Wouldn't It Be Nice, God Only Knows and Sloop John B. But it's the other stuff that really makes Brian Wilson not some hit churner but, at his best, the deep musical genius that he is. I regard You Still Believe In Me and That's Not Me as twins- they belong together and should probably never be listend to separate from each other. The first is almost a church-like tender lament about failings and someone's forgiveness 'I wanna cry' would sound heartbreaking if the tune behind it didn't remind me of the Superman theme - that's how time and what other people do with music inbetween can mess up a sentiment. But, truthfully, You Still In Believe In Me does look for the symapthy vote an awful lot so it is a pleasure that the perky That's Not Me, which initially feels like a classic surf song 'I had to prove that I could make it alone' is not far off singing about Surfing USA and it's a nice, brief, touch of their recent past at that time on this most splendidly baroque pop of albums.
Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder) is one of the greatest songs ever written. It swoons and it melts and it drips like a candle. It's tragedy and romance and the physical boom of a new or fading heart tremor all in one. Even if Brian had only composed that song, he's going in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He's going in anyone's Hall of Fame for capturing that tender, I suppose child to teen, flutter that we hope will be sincerely reflected by someone, something (or God) for eternity. You're up there with anyone as a songwriter with that. Maybe in a 'righteous' world, it would be regaded as his Unchained Melody but it beautifully, almost hauntingly, stays sighing and swooning, you see- it never goes for the easy soar and that is where not only Brian's experimental leanings but his sincerity are evident- he was not out to just please a crowd by hitting cliched high notes, even if that would have brought the house in happy clappy raptures for a bit.
From then on, Pet Sounds does something that still might not necessarily be all that apparent to this day. Pet Sounds becomes funky. I'm Waiting For The Day and I Know There's An Answer (originally called Hang On To Your Ego) have a beautiful punch to them. To me, this is The Beach Boys almost having the swagger of The Rolling Stones about them. It may be