Chattanooga Times Free Press - ChattanoogaNow
Brian Wilson: ‘I wouldn’t change a thing’
Brian Wilson, the brain and the heart behind the best of the Beach Boys’ music, did not hesitate in a telephone interview to name the moment he knew that “Pet Sounds” would be a special album.
It was 1965, and Wilson had skipped touring with the rest of the band, choosing instead to pour himself into studio work and promising to deliver a special new record that would rival anything The Beatles or anyone else had ever done.
He drove the technicians and studio musicians, known as The Wrecking Crew, hard, demanding retake after retake until he heard the sound that only he could hear in his head.
Singer Mike Love would later call him “Dog Ears” because he could hear things in the recordings that no other human could hear, perhaps even impure thoughts his band mates might have, Love joked. The nickname inspired the album’s title, according to Wilson.
Costs skyrocketed, but it was all worth it when the rest of the band joined him in the studio and started laying down vocal tracks.
“When my brother, Carl, sang ‘God Only Knows’ I knew it was going to be special,” Wilson said during an interview to talk about his show Sunday, May 7, at the Tivoli Theatre
The music world, however, didn’t immediately embrace the record, which was a departure from the “Fun, Fun, Fun” surf songs for which they were known. The group’s label, Capital Records, was so unimpressed, they refused to release a single, choosing instead to release “The Best of the Beach,” a collection of hits.
The album came out in 1966, and Capital eventually did put out “Sloop John B” and “Caroline, No” as singles, but issued them as Wilson solo records.
The band also recorded the brilliant “Good Vibrations,” the most expensive single to make at the time, during the “Pet Sounds” sessions, though it was released as a stand-alone single with “Let’s Go Away for Awhile” as the B-side.
The album peaked at No. 10 on the charts, but more than five decades later it ranks at the top or near it on every list ranking the best albums ever made. “Pet Sounds” is No. 2, behind The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” on Rolling Stone magazine’s Top 500.
The Beatles have said “Sgt. Pepper’s” was recorded in answer to the high bar that Wilson raised, which completes a circle as Wilson has said “Pet Sounds” was his response to the Fab Four’s “Rubber Soul.”
While Wilson says he knew he had created something special, he is still surprised the album has remained so popular with fans and critics. It has proven so popular that he added several dates and months to this current tour.
Performing with him will be veteran Beach Boys Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin.
“It means a lot that people want to hear this. We’ll do about 25 Beach Boy classics and then we do ‘Pet Sounds.’”
When the tour ends in about four months, Wilson says he will begin writing new songs.
“I haven’t written any new music in five years.”
You might think a perfectionist like Wilson would have a thought or two about something he might do differently on “Pet Sounds.”
“I wouldn’t change a thing,” he said.