http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwrKKbaClME First of all, let me pour out some praise regarding the video above. The maker of this video has put together a beautiful-sounding stereo mix for this tune, restoring a new section of the bridge that was edited out of both the Smiley Smile version of the song and the radio cut. The sound is a lot clearer than on most mixes, which makes it easier to appreciate the intricacies of the arrangements. The video's well-edited, too. If you watch only one video in the course of this article, make it this one (although watching only one video would be a poor idea; the fan-made video for From There To Back Again is also extremely well done). Now, back to your regularly scheduled article. Good Vibrations is arguably the most famous of all the Beach Boys' songs, and it's certainly the most technically complex. It didn't start out that way, however; when this song was first concieved (inspired by a statement that Audree Wilson, Brian, Dennis, and Carl's mother, once made about how dogs sense people's feelings), Brian Wilson thought of this song as becoming a tightly-assembled Motown-esque love song with a slightly psychedelic flavor. In fact, Brian was so locked into this concept that he thought that the finished song would be all wrong for our Boys and considered handing it off to R&B singer Wilson Pickett or to the then-fledgling Three Dog Night. However, Brian eventually re-considered and decided that this song would be the perfect one for him to try something he'd been thinking about for a long time: doing what he would call in interviews "a pocket symphony." Obsessed with creating a new pop sound, Brian added instrument after instrument to his increasingly complex-growing melody, adding such strange (for pop music) instruments as a harpsichord, cello, organ, tack piano and, most famously, the theremin. Brian also arranged the song into several "movements," alternating fast-paced, driving sections of melody with slower moments where soaring vocals and organ chords would carry the listener into the next section of song. In a further effort to make sure that each section of song had its own sound, Brian (I emphasize Brian here because the band as we know it only provided the vocals for this tune; the famous session musician group known as The Wrecking Crew provided the instrumental backup) recorded the multiple tracks for each movement in different rooms of four recording studios, choosing one room in one studio because he felt it provided a lighter sound, while another one tended to provide what Brian considered moodier sounds. Ultimately, after twenty-two recording sessions, fifty thousand dollars, and more than ninety hours worth of recording tape, the Beach Boys' answer to Beethoven was ready to be set loose on the world. The hours of work and the amount of money that went into this song is obvious when one listens to it; the song is made up of Spector-like arrangements, comprising of huge numbers of instruments. One can also hear complex vocal harmonies, with different members of the band singing different lines of lyric at the same time at given points in the chorus. Financially, the hours of blood, sweat and tears that went into Good Vibrations paid off in spades, quickly climbing to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart upon its release in 1966. Emotionally, the song took a larger toll on the band and Brian in particular, for it was the success of this song that gave Brian and the band the confidence to move into sessions for the Smile album. We all know how that turned out; the Smile project crashed and burned, sending Brian into his worst bout of drug abuse and depression that he'd ever had and the band as a whole into a slump that some feel that they've never recovered from. Oh, well; at least we'll always have the musical nirvana that is Good Vibrations.
Alan Howell is a native of Southern California. He loves movies of any and all kinds, Hollywood, indie, and everywhere in between. He loves pizza, sitcoms, rock and pop music, surfing, baseball, reading, and girls (not necessarily in that order).