Tony Asher was 26 years old in December of 1965, when he suddenly was contacted by Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. His request was simple - he wanted to write with him. Asher was already an experienced composer and lyricist, having written commercial jingles for the likes of Mattel in previous years. When Brian called Asher, he simply said he wanted to write something "completely different," and within ten days the two were writing new lyrics together. For a two-to-three week period, the two would write material for another Beach Boys album, usually with Brian bouncing melodies off of Asher, who would then write lyrics based off of Brian's general ideas and tenor for the songs. As songs were finished, Brian called in session musicians to fill in the instrumentation - the famous "Wrecking Crew" of musicians, consisting of some of the finest musicians that money could buy at the time. Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, Frank Capp, Steve Douglas, the works. Early on in the sessions, Brian had another prolific experience when it came to the creation of the next Beach Boys album...
One night, during the early stages of the album's creation, Brian Wilson heard The Beatles' newest album - Rubber Soul. Released early December of 1965, the US release had a slightly altered track listing to form a cohesive folk-rock sound, invocative of rising groups like The Byrds and Bob Dylan's recent turn towards the genre. Today, Rubber Soul is rightfully considered a classic, and its cohesion wasn't lost on Brian Wilson, who was impressed at the group's ability to create an album without filler, and one that could maintain a consistent thread of quality music. Inspired by this use of the album, Brian proclaimed to his wife that he was gonna make "the greatest rock album ever!" This ambition to create an album that was just as cohesive as Rubber Soul led to an album that explored unified themes of heartbreak, loneliness, and alienation.
By the time The Beach Boys returned home in February 1966, they found a substantial amount of Pet Sounds complete.
Production-wise, Pet Sounds is a complete departure from The Beach Boys' previous albums - throw everything out the window. Even in comparison to the Spectoresque Today!, Pet Sounds is in its own league. While the material on Today! could have baroque leanings, a majority of instrumentation on Pet Sounds relies on rich, complex orchestration with a rock backbeat. The music exploration on Pet Sounds is completely on another level, as Brian Wilson explores everything from jazz progressions ("I'm Waiting for the Day") to exotica ("Let's Go Away for Awhile"), and classical, with the latter being a dominant sound for a majority of the album. Paired with this experimentation is Brian and Co.'s willingness to experiment with countless instruments and sounds - aside from traditional rock instruments, Pet Sounds contained the use of string instruments, accordion, glockenspiel, plucked piano strings, harpsichord, timpani, wood blocks, theremin, and even Coca-Cola cans, bottles, and bicycle bells. Many of the aforementioned instruments were, and in many ways still are, alien to the rock world. Brian's willingness to explore new sounds and ideas created a diverse album, and one that could easily be classed into various genres. Is it a pop album, a rock album, or a classical album? The answer is yes.
Song-wise, Pet Sounds is more than just a continuation of the matured lyricism from Today! - in many ways, it feels like a rebirth for the group. Every song is stewed in a blossomed, realized theme of adolescence. From the accordion-led opening of "Wouldn't It Be Nice," which plays like a continuation of themes from "I'm So Young," to the self-discovery of "That's Not Me," to the silent love and passion of "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)," the lyricism is marinated in something new and far more impactful than any former lyrics were. Credit this to Tony Asher, save for the lyrical contributions from Mike Love on songs like "I Know There's an Answer" and "I'm Waiting for the Day." Asher has an oddly uncanny ability to write rich, meaningful lyrics that also manage to remain catchy and singable - the perfect meld of pop and art. As the album goes on, it only gets more impactful, from the impermeable "God Only Knows," a song that's now widely considered one of the greatest songs ever written, to the alienation and lost feeling of "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times," which I consider my personal favorite song from the entire album. Capping the album off with the loss of innocence that is "Caroline, No" feels oddly poetic even - as if The Beach Boys themselves lost the innocence of "Surfin' U.S.A" and "Little Deuce Coupe." It's also equally fitting that the album ends on actual pet sounds.
Despite heavy acclaim in Britain that year, Pet Sounds sold under Capitol's expectations. Soon after, the release of the Best of the Beach Boys compilation showed how Capitol really felt about the group; they had no faith in Pet Sounds. By 1974, it was out of print, and all the acclaim that the album had brought had been overshadowed by a shelved followup and the release of Sgt. Pepper's. Not even the championing of Pet Sounds by The Beatles themselves could save it from falling into obscurity. Sometime in the 1990s, though, things changed. With the album's issuing on CD with its release, more people could finally experience Pet Sounds, and it coincided with a consistently growing reappraisal. By the new millennium, Pet Sounds had gone from cult-classic, championed by those who were "in the know," to being an all-time classic, regularly topping "best-of" lists, and being preserved by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." All of this occurred before I was born, though, and it would be years before my first experience with it...
I was 13 years old, and deep into my Beatles phase, in 2018. I was reading about the history and influence of Sgt. Pepper's when I saw the name Pet Sounds in the article - baffled that any group other than The Beatles could hold the claim to best album ever, I decided that I would listen to the album - surely it wasn't as good as a Beatles album. It was the Beach Boys, after all. By the time I got to the train whistles and dog barks at the end of "Caroline, No," I didn't know what to think - I was at a loss. Nothing I heard was like it - not even Sgt. Pepper's. It was happy; it was sad; it was rock; it was pop; it was classical; it was moving. Even thinking about the first time I heard it makes me feel emotional. Maybe I still don't know what to make of it to some extent.
All I know is that Pet Sounds is a masterpiece in my eyes.
RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯
Listen to Pet Sounds.
Comments
Post a Comment