Boy of Summer - Brian Wilson's Good Vibrations
Beach Boy number one, Brian Wilson, does not belong to us. He belongs to something more primal, more tied to the natural rhythm of the world. He may very well be the personification of ‘60s popular music, even of California itself. He may very well be summer itself, warming your neck and forever postponing autumn’s chill.
Brian Wilson is not an artist. He is, as filmmaker Francois Truffaut would argue, an auteur. Brian was not along for the ride. He was the most highly centralized Beach Boy, exercising creative control in a collaborative setting. His approach to songwriting and production remains so revolutionary, so far out there that no one, NO ONE, can do “Good Vibrations” live.
The pop songs of his era were typically a basic groove, guitar, drum and bass combos of some sort, with a major key vocal style, and all of it clocked in under three minutes. Consider this Planet Earth, home base, step A. Brian Wilson went from Step A and gave us Step E without the B, C, or D. He was from Saturn, or possibly Venus. Yeah, the goddess of Love. That is altogether fitting.
Which brings us to the subject of this musicology. “Good Vibrations.”
Here’s the straight dope:
It took eight months to record. One single. Eight months, from February 17th to September 21st, 1966.
Brian and another Beach Boys co-founder Mike Love wrote the song.
Brian got the sole producer’s credit.
He used 90 hours of tape for a 3 minute and 39 second song, and this was the tape era, so to make an edit, one had to physically cut the tape, and splice it together with another piece.
Production costs rose and rose into the tens of thousands of dollars, at the time the most expensive single ever.
It went to number one on the Billboard Charts
Rolling Stone has it at number 6 in their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
Mojo Magazine has it at number 1.
Cosmic vibrations, man. As a young impressionable child, Wilson’s mother would tell him that dogs could pick up bad vibes from humans, vibes on a wavelength that people can’t hear. It seems Bill Murray would agree. To quote the erstwhile Peter Venkman, I'm suspicious of people who don't like dogs, but I trust a dog when it doesn't like a person.”
Wilson and Love’s lyrics took on an extrasensory perception and the blossoming Flower Power movement. And this is where we have to take a detour.
Brian Wilson suffered a nervous breakdown in 1964, and would stop touring with his bandmates. Brian would continue to suffer from mental illness. This is a crucial note, not just in his lifetime, or his creative output, or the band’s work, although all of that is certainly relevant, but to highlight the issue of mental illness. Brian’s treatment was a disgusting misuse of power by Dr. Eugene Landy, which was later found unethical. California revoked Landy’s license to practice in 1989, though he continued to see Wilson until a 1992 restraining order barred him from ever contacting Wilson again. Landy was able to manipulate Wilson to surrender 25% of the copyright to Wilson’s songs. 25%. Of fucking Beach Boys songs. Because it’s ALWAYS about the money. This was ultimately revoked in 1985, because there are cosmic vibrations in this universe and they bend toward righteousness.
Good Vibrations was meant to be on Pet Sounds, a Baroque, psychedelic, sunshine pop masterpiece. A word on Pet Sounds… It’s as influential to pop music as hydrogen is to water.
Brian Wilson is in the lab with his Beach Boys and he hit upon an idea for a pocket symphony, his entry into the “Greatest Single of All-Time Sweepstakes.” He wanted riff changes, echo-chamber effects, cellos, the guy even brought in an electro-theremin. Wilson’s inclusion of it makes it the first time it would ever appear in a pop song. As the mountain of recording tape began to rival Mt. McKinley, the group quickly realized there was no way the one song would be finished in time to meet the Pet Sounds release date.
So, the Beach Boys hit the road to support Pet Sounds, released without Good Vibrations on it. That’s okay, because Wouldn’t It Be Nice, Sloop John B, God Only Knows, and Caroline, No, plus their previous magnificent rash of hits would serve just fine to entertain audiences. Wilson, again, no longer touring, stayed in the studio to get this most ambitious and elaborate song out of his head and into the world. Good Vibrations was born as a single unlike any other.
Wilson worked like a man possessed, like a mental ill man obsessed. By the end of the fall, he had 15 to 20 different versions of the track. He moved from studio to studio trying to the get the sound exactly right, from Western, then RCA, then Goldstar, then Columbia, then finally back to Western.
Wilson scraped the old idea of recording a song, and instead opted to create short, interchangeable fragments, what he referred to as modules, that could ultimately be assembled into a linear sequence, a song. The approach so puzzled the song’s creator that Wilson would sometimes walk into the studio, consider his options, then leave without recording anything.
Brian Wilson created his pocket symphony out of joy, compassion, and positive vibes sent to him from some cosmic entity out there in the universe.
Of course, there are those who grow more cynical with time. They grow out of wonder, the truly battle-hardened among us, their skin grows thicker and they are unable to tap into something beyond the day-to-day.
I am not that mature or skeptical. I am bound to sweet sentiment and wistful affection. I need to think something lasts forever, and it might as well be good vibrations, of Brian Wilson and his endless summer, for he is out there in the cosmos, our ambassador of good will for all.
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