Why does everyone love Pet Sounds so much?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 3 лис 2021
- Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys is considered one of the greatest albums ever. But what makes this album so great, and how did Brian Wilson create Pet Sounds?
In this video, I explore the topic of musicality and musicianship and consider how Brian Wilson created an album that perfectly reflects what it means to be a musician.
//
This video was made as the first homework from Ali Abdaal’s PTYA course. Ali kindly invited me to take his UA-cam course and the first video we had to make was on something that we love, so I chose to make a video about Pet Sounds. This turned out to be a very important video because it was the first time I made a video about music that people actually enjoy, rather than talking about classical guitar technique or music theory. So yeah, it turned out to be an important video for this channel. It was also nominated for best video of the week on the PTYA course so it was nice to get some recognition for the videos I was making because at the time I had less than 700 subscribers and was getting barely any videos. Thanks, Ali!
18th May 2023
Thanks for watching, please subscribe if you enjoyed the video!
for your next video can you please do how Rock artists inspire and influence by Bob Marley.
David - your interpretation of Pet Sounds is a masterpiece of understanding and 'compassion'
Well, I certainly enjoyed this interesting video about Pet Sounds (what I consider to be the best from the Beach Boys), so consider me subscribed.
I Just Wasn't Made for These Times is one of my top 5 favorite all time songs.
“You haven’t been educated musically until you’ve listened to Pet Sounds” Paul McCartney
I knew the hits off Pet Sounds but had never heard the LP. I took a music class in college and was discussing Sgt. Pepper's with the professor. He asked if I had heard Pet Sounds and I admitted that I hadn't. He said that it had influenced The Beatles - and I had a hard time believing him but agreed to buy the CD and listen all the way through. Since that night in 1995, Pet Sounds has been one of my all time favorite albums. The greatest ever? Maybe . . . maybe not . . . but it sure is one of the greatest of all time. Thank you Brian.
It’s like top 3 oat to me
I listened to Pet Sounds countless times when I was a slightly lonely and confused teenager back in the late 1960s. I know all the songs by heart and can still sing along to them including every little nuance in the vocals. This LP really spoke to me. I'm a great Beatles fan and read somewhere that Brian Wilson was inspired by Rubber Soul to try to compose and create a complete album with no covers and fillers. Paul McCartney has said that God Only Knows is the most beautiful song he's heard. Many years later I told these things to my brother-in-law, also a big Beatles fan. He'd heard of Pet Sounds but assumed it was just a greatest hits compilation of their 60s singles. My wife associated the Beach Boys with surf music and assumed Pet Sounds was just more of the same. Capitol's lack of promotion for one of the best albums ever made was almost criminal. I don't know who decided upon the deadly dull, misleading album sleeve or even the title 'Pet Sounds'. They should be shot. Just calling it maybe 'Reflections' with a slightly abstract painting of a young man deep in thought would've done it much more justice.
Oh well, that's enough from me. I'm now going to listen to Pet Sounds again from beginning to end and decide whether to join in the lead vocals or harmonies on each song.
Capitol was not pleased with the "new direction" of Brian's this album represented. They were used to the Brian Wilson hit machine of fast rock and roll tunes of surf - cars - girl songs. Introspectiveness, innovation, art was not what they wanted from the Beach Boys. Capitol quickly rushed out a greatest hits album, the first of three released through '69. The album hit the top 10 at 10, but it was a far cry from from the top 1 to 3 that their albums usually placed at. Brian was getting the accolades from everyone who was anyone, from Leonard Bernstein to the Beatles, but these issues from Capitol and within the band, the "don't f* with the formula" few, played a huge role in his later shelving SMiLe, and, besides his mental health issues, contributed extensively to his reclusiveness and minimal participation with the band since '67. Pet Sound was basically a Brian Wilson solo record that the rest of the Beach Boys came home from touring to and added their unique harmonies. His new direction produced the #1 hit Good Vibrations, again showing his genius in it's new techniques, his production, arranging, and song writing capabilities, but SMiLE was never fully realized in the setting it should have been (late '66. early '67), so all of that respect for him at that time moved on to the next "shiny object", and the band itself became referred to as "your father's band" by the rising counterculture. The band found new respect in the early 70s with the work they were doing in albums like Surf's Up and Holland, but then the nostalgia craze took over around '73 with movies like American Graffiti , TV shows like Happy Days, and then Capitol puts out a double album of classic Beach Boy hits, Endless Summer, that sells like hotcakes, and from then on, they were pretty much a nostalgia band, people wanting to hear those 60s hits. It just amazes me what could have been, when you listen to the body of work Brian was writing in '66-'67, had the Capitol and Mike Love just shut the f up, especially after the success of Good Vibrations, what could have been. They killed an artist's soul!!
I myself was turned on to Pet Sounds and Brian Wilson by Eric Clapton. As a 14 year old starting to delve into my music interests, I was all Clapton from the Yardbirds, through Mayall, into Cream, and beyond. It was an interview in '76, when I was 14, where I heard Clapton proclaiming how incredible this album is, how Cream would play it from start to finish before their shows to get in the mindset to go play, then hearing Jack Bruce proclaiming Brian Wilson was "the new Bach". I knew the Beach Boys, but I didn't own anything. I went out and purchased Pet Sounds with my paper route money, put it on the turntable and it did not grab me. Okay, tunes I had heard on the radio, but what was the big deal? Always curious, and of course having spent hard earned money for it, I played it two more times front to back. The third time it was as if the clouds lifted. A kaleidoscope of sounds and feelings washed over me. I got "it"! Even to this day, I swear I'm still hearing new things buried in Brian's arrangements. It's what Bob Dylan said about Brian, "That ear should be in the Smithsonian." The emotion in the album was realized by me too. I carried the lyrics from I Just Wasn't Made for These Times in my wallet from 14 until my mid 30s as it encapsulated how I felt throughout my life, an iNFj who wasn't like everyone else. Even the fade of the locomotive racing past, horn blaring, with Brian's dogs barking just wraps it up so perfectly. This all led to my deep dive into the Wilson catalog and history. His chords, chord changes, key changes, all of his unique characteristics in writing, arranging, and producing have always struck a chord within me.
If you want a great perspective on what was going on, I recommend the Tom Nolan articles (1971) from Rolling Stone.
www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/beach-boys-a-california-saga-244579/
www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/beach-boys-a-california-saga-part-ii-233192/
and the David Leaf book,
"The Beach Boys and the California Myth" which has been revised twice, the latest being 2022s "God Only Knows: The Story of Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys and the California Myth." I heard this is a waterdowned version of the goings on with Mike Love, as Leaf was tired of the "death stares " from Love, the man of no musical talent, nasally vocals, banal lyrics, and behavior opposite of his last name.
@@ms8596 Really appreciate this informative comment.
Reflections would have been an awful name. I love the album title and the cover.
You actually took time to text this.
I am a hardcore Beatles fan. But Pet Sounds really one of my favorite playlist outside of The Beatles both as a group and solo.
It was also the most inspirational album to Paul
I have favourite albums but Pet Sounds is my personal pick for the greatest album of all time.
Good choice Sebastian!
for your next video can you please do how Rock artists inspire and influence by Bob Marley.
The way I see a producer is they tap into the income stream of something produced. Seeing lots of producers is to me sometimes a sign that the artist has lost control. It's the same with film making. I have the 4CD Pet Sounds Sessions I bought many years ago. And I find hearing the separated A cappella songs to be the most beautiful. Once you hear the songs only as separated elements it really exposes the perfection Brian was searching for. It has the Brian singing version of God Only Knows. I sort of wonder why The Beatles have not done this style of release because hearing clean separated tracks of song from master tapes is mindblowing.
My friend, this is a great video, I'm Latino and I love the beach boys, I consider Pet Sound one of the greatest albums of all time and one of the ones that has marked me the most in such a short time, Thanks for this video
The arraignments are insane on this album. The way Brian used the bass guitar like the rungs of a ladder on the song "I'm Waiting For The Day." Pet Sounds sounds like the one who created it suffered from insanity. I mean that in a good way. It's one of my favorite LP's.
this is my favorite album ever
Per Sounds is the best album of all time. After 40 years listening to it I never tire of it. I love the Beatles and there albums were amazing - but I go back the Pet Sounds because it hits yiu emotionally much deeper than the Beatles ever did. I have listened to this albums and gone back to it for decades. It’s the most timeless album ever.
I agree. I'm huge Beatles fan and I think they're great and they even have more excellent albums than the Beach Boys did. but none of it is as good as Pet Sounds.
It's fucking awful. The Beach Boys suck out loud.
Kind of Blue by Miles is the greatest. And Love Supreme is #2
@HipHop226 A jazz head! Both *GREAT* albums! This is so subjective. I can think of dozens of records from many genres that l feel are superior to any Beach Boys offering.
Nice I have always loved the beach boys and Brian Wilson appreciate you explaining the genius of the album
I'm not a Beach Boys fan. But I'm musically intelligent enough to know good music when I hear it. "Pet Sounds" is MASTERPIECE!
Best album of the 20th century.
That means the exact same thing as ‘best album of all time’.
Not even close.
Thank you so much for this, David! I have had the good fortune and pleasure of seeing Brian Wilson perform several times over the past 25 years. So sad to hear last week of his dementia--hoping that this gentle soul who gave us such beautiful music is able to get through the difficult time with peace
It speaks to the heart like no other record.
You want to know how good Pet Sounds is? A BRITISH boy prefers it to The Beatles, Floyd, Queen etc. Imagine being so good that you as an American can even stand to compete against the British Invasion
This British 'boy' does NOT prefer it to The Beatles. And how you can mention Floyd and (God forbid) Queen, in the same sentence as The Beatles is a mystery to me. Revolver and Rubber Soul are. in my view, both greater albums than Pet Sounds.
Oh god this was not a good idea to make such a bold statement, as you can tell by the first reply…
@@petegilgan6217 you don’t understand why Pet Sounds is superior because you don’t understand songwriting or music composition and have (most likely) never attempted it…. or at least certainly, even if you’ve attempt it - you’ve never done it well.
@@KurtCobain-rs4zt Thanks for passing judgement on me - someone you don't know and have never met! I would be very disappointed if The Beatles hadn't played their own instruments/parts on Revolver (thanks to the Wrecking Crew for that). Wilson co-wrote some great stuff, that occasionally equalled The Beatles, but as good as A Day In The Life, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields Forever and Yesterday? No.
@@petegilgan6217
Brian Wilson literally inspired A Day In The Life, Penny Lane, and Strawberry Field Forever.
In regards to both the arrangements and the production.
The idea of a multi-song began with Good Vibrations.
Ask Paul, John, or George Martin.
The idea of baroque Edwardian style was lifted from The Beach Boys doing similar motifs in Pet Sounds, Good Vibrations, and in the SMiLE sessions that were shown to Paul & John when they visited. On top of that, The Beatles had the brilliance of George Martin as a producer to filter all their musical ideas through before it was recorded & released. Are you disappointed at that?
Brian was 100% the auteur of the material, start to finish. Writer, director, and editor. Co-wrote some great stuff? No, here he wrote it all. The lyrics were essentially the only thing he had collaborated on. Left without interference from the label and other band members, on his own he composed the greatest album released at that point, and remains one of the best ever, if not the best. At 23 years old.
Fanastic video! Couldn't agree more!
such a great job done David! love the storytelling part and the various transitions! Keep going! Henri
Thank you so much Henri!
I have to put Pet Sounds and Who's Next as the top two albums in my mind
Where would music be had The Beach Boys never released Pet Sounds? Pet Sounds is such a unique album, love it
I was literally just reading 1001 albums go hear before you die! 😄
Great video 👏
Great content, loved it!
Lots of good music came out of the LA area in 65-67: the Sunset Strips groups -- Love and The Doors, and the more regional bands -- Mamas and the Papas, the Byrds, the Association, and the Beach Boys. What a great time for music!
I might be a little late to this party, but you are an analytic genius! Thank you so much for your insight into these incredible bands!! Keep it up bro 👏
I enjoyed the video very much and just found your channel. Oh and I subscribed.
I hope this video somehow ends up being recommended to fans of Ed Sheeran 😄
Haha I actually like some of the Ed Sheeran songs!
Great video, subscribed.
Because the song Wouldn't It Be Nice is so monumental in quality.
loved your video
Another great video!
One of my all-time favorites.
I agree it is one of the greatest pop albums ever.
Great video. Subscribed!
Thank you!
Wanted a video like this since i got into bb 2 months ago! This is great
Thanks, yes love the Beach Boys!
Awesome video, well done!! Please do More Brian Wilson Vids!!👽
Thank you! Hopefully will do and also some other artists/albums that I love!
One of the greatest albums of all time
Well said sir!
Very nice work, David.
Thank you!
Excellent video. Historically, it's the most important album of all time. Pet Sounds is like Bach. Carpenters are also very important historically to studio production. Unlike Brian, they were musically trained and had Pet Sounds for the inspiration they needed to accomplish some incredibly sophisticated multitrack studio productions - using the same musicians Brian Wilson did for Pet Sounds - The Wrecking Crew.
I wasn't alive for any of it either but I now understand the reason these people are timeless legends of music. Their names will echo through humanity forever, like Bach, Mozart, Lennon & McCartney. THAT is how important this album is.
I was exposed to this album because of my favorite teacher. Forever grateful
The best ever!
Pet Sounds in mono...amazin!
Uno de mis álbumes favoritos de siempre, su sonido es pura magia, te transporta a otro mundo
I was in a dark place one time and Pet Sounds literally saved my life
Отлично. Спасибо
My second fav album of all time (only after Abbey Road, im Beatles fan btw). Beach Boys and Beatles totally changed my taste of music, especially Pet Sounds which blew my mind at the first time I listened to.
I’ve listened to pet sounds more times than I can count. My favorite 3 tracks are you still believe in me, don’t talk put your head on my shoulder, and Caroline no. It’s just beautiful overall as an album.
John Lennon’s plastic ono band ranks up there with pet sounds if you ask me
❤️❤️❤️
I just wasn’t made times hits diff. I adore pet sounds. It’s gotten me thru some of the most difficult times of my life
your voice is so pleasant and not cringy at all, dont know why i need to bring it up all inception style if u dont know what i mean bye for good!
ITS GOOD!!!
Pet sounds definitely one of the best albums ive heard.
I would also ask others to check out some other albums from them too like Sunflower and Smiley Smile.
Not the Pet sounds level, but definitely great albums too. Maybe im little biased cause Im a everyday beach boys listener🤷♂️
❤
Really enjoyed this, and yes Pet Sounds is just a superb album. One great story I heard about it was that one of the people who funded its recording wanted in exchange for his cash a role in the mixing. So the engineers rigged him up with his own "master" console in the studio booth so he could make fine adjustments and make his mark. He loved it. Of course, the console wasn't connected to anything! Not sure if it's true, but makes a great story!
Haha what a great (maybe true) story, I haven't heard that before, thanks for sharing!
This story sounds like a slight corruption of the accommodations engineers supposedly made for the Wilson's father Murry, who bugged them so much with his constant requests for more level and in particular more treble, that they rigged up a dummy knob for him to turn. The people that funded Pet Sounds were of course Capitol Records -- nobody put their personal money into it, nor would've they needed to as the Beach Boys were allotted a deservedly enormous budget.
@@joshilynhoisington your version sounds eminently more plausible!
Because it's an incredible achievement.
Easily my favorite album
I always try to stay away from words like the best
Pet Sounds while enjoyable for everyone, it really is an album for musicians
The World's Coolest Club I'd never heard of.
Ok somehow the UA-cam journey tonight included reading comments on a Glenn Campbell 12 string solo where somebody said that he was "a member of the wrecking crew."
Never heard of it before, but I always enjoyed his music.
10 minutes later I'm here diving deep into Pet Sounds to hear that Brian Wilson was a member too?
I wish that I could've been alive in the 60's.
I feel like you could say the same about Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde. There was technically a producer, yes. But it was by and large just Dylan's music. Both Pet Sounds and Blonde on Blonde sort of catapulted rock music into something entirely different though of course
Surely one of the greats. What is that book?
Most revolutionary album
true that
does that 1001 Albums book list albums by the year, or by their importance / rank ?
3:52 “-ions, bap bap, Good Vibrations, bap bap, excitations, bap bap🎶🎵”
David Hartley Yes, Pet Sounds is arguably the best Beach Boys album. But even Paul McCartney can't seem to mention any other Beach Boys song favorite besides God Only Knows. It makes me wonder if he's ever heard such masterpieces as Warmth of the Sun, Please Let Me Wonder, and Surf's Up, to name just three.
I'm not going to go on about how great Pet Sounds is. It's all been said. I liked your presentation and appreciation of....yes! A unique piece of music. The Wrecking Crew etc who played on so many hits throughout the 60s and 70s.
I'm sure you're aware of this also....Beatles myth stole so much from this. It's all on-line.
Took it back to George Martin and Beatles were considered to have changed the course of music.
It's simply not true! Brian did!
Many young people like you. Are discovering what I've said about Brian, when it wasn't fashionable to say it, at the time that I said it.
for your next video can you please do how Rock artists inspire and influence by Bob Marley.
Pet Sounds is simply the greatest popular music album of all time, bar none!
It sucks.
@dominicpardo4783 - ok, please explain your short but derisive reply.
@@rolfejones7445 Elementary school lyrics? Screeching, nasaly harmonies? Augmented by a few studio tricks. It's saccharine crap. Like Phil Spector produced a (shitty) opera based on a Norman Rockwell painting of Lake Woebegone. *EVERYTHING* Brian Wilson produced is nauseating pablum.
you must have a very limited taste in music with all the great music of that era the beach boys didn't make my best of anything list i never seen a beach boys album growing up in that era
What is the book called in 4:24? Would love to read it
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die - it's the same book pictured in the first shot
Why is Pet Sounds talked about so much by musicians and studios? Well, everyone from Paul McCartney to Led Zappelin have said it’s the greatest album ever made. The whole thing came from the mind of one human, he was able to take what was in his head and put it into reality… an extremely rare feat. The songs use compositions and instruments not used like that before that time. Not to mention The Beach Boys basically invented Grunge/Alternative Rock. There was Elvis, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, but The Beach Boys turned up the fuzz and turned down the Doo-wop in harmony. This led to what we see as alternative music today. Think of all of those hits before 1961, they were very Doo-wopish and had that old school rock thing going. But, then listen to Surfin’ USA, a take on Chuck Berry, but it’s more of a garage band sound with harmonies and fuzz over distortion. That was the makings of everyone from the Pixies to Alice In Chains.
It is indeed great. But why did they fade as a group after this masterpiece? I often feel sad when I play Pet Sounds because I think about their decline after this apotheosis.
Hard to imagine an Ozzy fan liking this but the greatest LP of boy/girl love. What's Goin' On by Marvin Gaye is the best about universal love.
I don't feel as though you even attempted to answer the question in the title
I agree check out the smoke it's smoke time
Smile sessions is even better
what is the last song on this video?
Not a patch on The Beatles. Pet Sounds did not move far enough away from their usual sound. The Beatles sound changed with every album.
When pet sounds was released it didn't do well no one bought it, it wasn't until much much later when critics said it was the greatest album they ever heard, personally I think it would be a very good EP, wouldn't it be nice, sloop John b, God only knows, and that's it, it would have been a better LP if Good vibrations was on it,
4:25 anyone know what this book is?
Pet Sounds is so good that t inspired the creation of Sgt. Pepper.
BEST ALBUM EVER -
Actually that point at the end I don't think is true since I believe Brian mixed all the tunes in a day and was told to go back and do them again.
I prefer listening to Sunflower, even though I think Pet Sounds is greater overall. I got fed up with revolver and rubber soul, some songs on those albums are not so great, I used to skip them
Rubber soul inspired pet sounds inspired sgt pepper !! Elvis and Dylan gave us Bruce , Bruce gave us dozens!!
It would have been funny if he said "Mike Love" after 1:41
"hang on to your ego" > "i know there's an answer" Brian WAS forced to change that.. forgot to mention that.
It’s a good album but here it and you know instantly it’s the Beach Boys, that’s not a bad thing but hear sgt pepper and every song could have been written by a different band, the difference between a band having a sound and a band making unique music that sound different every time is the key here.
for you maybe
Pet sounds is the best
Pet Sounds is great but I believe the Beatles surpassed it 3x: first with Revolver, then with Pepper & The Beatles.
Pet Sounds may be the *most influential* album of the 1960s.
Love & Mercy is an absolutely amazing movie, the best biopic of all time.
The fact is that people HATED Pet Sounds ....it only sold about 300k upon release and was a huge disappointment for BW... the BB never recovered from that. The highly anticipated single in 67, Heroes and Villains, was another flop, and the downward spiral continued.
I love that hit song but most of that album I don't really care for.
i grew up in that era and loved music but i never heard of that album til last week then again could never stand that surfer sound so i guess everyone except me and all the music lovers i grew up with it was really shocking to me that we listened to music all day and i never even seen the album cover but i did hear some of the songs it would have been impossible not to but this is not the best music of any era in my opinion
It might help to put Pet Sounds in context
Bob Dylan, Bringing it All Back Home
The Beatles, Rubber Soul
Pet Sounds
Revolver
One influenced the next.
Wilson was inspired by Rubber Soul because he realized and album could be more than a collection of singles. Every song could be killer.
It is not a concept album. There’s no narrative or theme that ties it together. It’s just a collection of songs Wilson put together to be great.
Chasing the concept album, Smile, nearly killed him.
Some accuracy and some error. Also cannot have this discussion without mentioning the Dylan Album Blonde on Blond, the 3rd of the great 3 albums released in 66, the other 2 being Revolver and Pet Sounds. The error is that apart from Sloop John B which Capital Records forced Brian and the Boys to put on Pet Sounds, the rest of the album is a theme album for sure. It is a love story from beginning to end and Caroline No, is looking back at once was. Now thus is no special insight at all, but the progression is quite clear, topicwise, lyrically and musically. At least Sloop John B fits in from a musical production style if not thematically.
I tried so hard to like it but I just cant
Tony Asher????