Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by American rock band Beach Boys, released on May 16, 1966. It was initially met with a warm critical and commercial response in the United States. , peaking at number 10 on Billboard 200, a somewhat lower placement than the band's previous album. In the UK, the album was praised by the music press and direct commercial success, peaking at number 2 on the UK Top 40 Albums Chart and remaining among the top ten positions for six months. Promoted as "the most progressive pop album ever", Pet Sounds drew attention to ambitious recordings and highly sophisticated music, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential albums in music history.
The album is produced, organized, and almost entirely composed by Brian Wilson with lyrics by Tony Asher. Most of the recording sessions were conducted between January and April 1966, a year after Wilson stopped touring with Beach Boys to focus on writing and recording. For Pet Sounds , the goal is to create the "biggest rock album ever created" - a personalized piece with no filler tracks. Sometimes regarded as Wilson's solo album, repeating themes and ideas he introduced with The Beach Boys Today! a year earlier. The album's main single, "Caroline, No", was released as her official solo debut. This was followed by two singles credited to the group: "Sloop John B" and "Would not It Be Nice" (supported by "God Only Knows").
The Wilson Orchestration combines conventional rock formations with complex vocal harmonic layers, found sounds, and instruments that have never been associated with rock, such as bicycle bells, French horns, flutes, Electro-Theremin, rope parts and Coca-Cola cans. It consists primarily of introspective songs such as "You Still Believe in Me" about loyalty, "I Know Any Answer", LSD user criticism, and "I'm Not Made for This Time", an autobiographical statement about social alienation (As well as the first use instruments like theremin on rock record). Unified by the production of Wall of Sound-style, this album consists of the sound of "pet" Wilson. The recording was completed on April 13, 1966, with an unprecedented total production cost that exceeded $ 70,000 (equivalent to $ 530,000 in 2017). The follow-up album, Smile , is planned shortly but not completed. In 1997, the "making-of" version of Pet Sounds was watched by Wilson and released as The Pet Sounds Sessions, containing the first real album stereo mix.
Pet Voice is considered by music experts as the earliest concept album to advance the field of music production, introducing non-standard harmonies and tone colors and incorporating elements of pop, jazz, exotica, classical, and avant-garde. This album can not be replicated directly and is the first time the group is out of the ordinary small electric rock ensemble rock format for the entire LP. Combined with his innovative music, regarded as a fully self-conscious (or "concept") artistic statement, the album is essential for the development of progressive rock/art, bringing more attention to psychedelic music in the mainstream, and helping to lift the rock as a genre to listen, rather than dance. In 2004, Pet Sounds was kept in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for "culturally, historically, or aesthetically." One year earlier, Rolling Stone ranked second on the list of "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 2018, the Accredited Music List Pet Sounds is the most statistically recognized album of all time.
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The release of the sixth studio album The Beach Boys in July 1964 All Summer Long marked the end of the group's beach-themed period. From there, their recording material takes on very different stylistic and lyrical paths. While on a December 23 flight from Los Angeles to Houston, songwriter and band producer Brian Wilson suffered a panic attack just hours after performing with the group on Shindig's musical variety series! The 22-year-old Wilson had missed several concert tours at the time, but the episode of the plane proved damaging to his soul. To focus his efforts on writing and recording, Wilson indefinitely resigned from live performances. Free from the burden, he immediately showed off a huge artistic leap in the musical development seen in today's album! and Summer , released in the first half of 1965. By July 1965 single "California Girls", Wilson began experimenting with song compositions while under the influence of psychedelic drugs, a factor that produced a large effect on the conception of group music.
At the suggestion of Al Jardine's bandmate, Wilson began working on "Sloop John B", a traditional Caribbean folk song studied by Jardine from listening to the Kingston Trio. Wilson recorded a backing track on July 12, 1965, but after putting down a rough vocalist, he set aside his song for some time, concentrating on recording what became the next LP, jamming the informal studio Beach Boys' Party! , in response to a record company's request for a Beach Boys album for the Christmas market in 1965. Wilson devoted the last three months of 1965 to polish the vocals of "Sloop John B" and record six new original compositions. In November 1965, "The Little Girl I Once Knew" was released as a non-album single. Part of this song features total silence, which leads to poor replays where radio stations prefer not to have a dead moment in the middle of a song. This will be the last original song from Boys Beach that was issued before the songs of Pet Sounds .
Maps Pet Sounds
Write a partnership
In 1965, Wilson met with Tony Asher at a recording studio in Los Angeles. Asher at the time was a 26-year-old lyricist and copywriter who worked in jingles for advertising agencies. The two exchanged ideas for the song, and soon, Wilson heard Asher's writing skills from the same friends. In December 1965, he contacted Asher about a possible lyrical collaboration, wanting to do something "completely different" with someone he had never written before. Asher accepted the offer, and within ten days, they wrote together. Wilson played some of the music he recently recorded and handed a tape to Asher that contained a supporting song to a song called "In My Childhood". The results of Asher's trial were finally titled "You Still Believe in Me", and the film's success convinced Wilson that Asher was the author of the word he was looking for. When Wilson was asked why he felt Asher was the right collaborator: "Oh, many reasons, one, I think he's a cool guy Two, whoever hangs out with [my friend] Loren Schwartz is a very intelligent, I just feel there is something there that should, you know, it really has to happen. "
Asher explains that he and Wilson have many long and long discussions centered around their "experiences and feelings about women and the various stages of relationships and so on". He maintained that his contribution to the music itself was minimal, especially serving as a second source of opinion for Wilson when he composed melodies and chord progression, although both did trade ideas when the song evolved. Contrary to popular conceptions that Wilson composed all music for Pet Sounds, Asher claimed that he also made significant musical contributions to "I Just Not Made 'These Times," "Caroline, No", and "That is not me". In his role as a lyricist, he said, "The general tenor of the lyrics is always hers... and the choice of actual words is mine, I'm really just the translator."
Wilson writes with Asher for about three weeks. A typical writing session will begin with Wilson playing the melody or chord pattern he's working on, discussing the latest recording that Wilson likes, or by discussing the subject that Wilson always wanted to write a song. In "God Only Knows", Wilson reflects: "I think Tony has a musical influence on me somehow.After about ten years, I started thinking about it more deeply... because I have never written a song like that, and I remember him talking about 'Stella by Starlight' and he has a certain love for classical songs. "Asher looks back on his interactions with Wilson and the Beach Boys as an" embarrassing experience ", given that Wilson" shows this awful [taste]. , always horrible... every four hours we '"I spent time to write songs, there will be about 48 hours of this stupid conversation about some stupid book [about mysticism] that just read. Or else he'll talk about girls all the time. "
While most of the album's songs came from Wilson-Asher's partnership, "I Know There an Answer" was co-written by Wilson with another new partner, Beach Boys road manager Terry Sachen. In 1994, Mike Love was awarded a co-writing credits on "Would not It Be Nice" and "I Know There an Answer", but with the exception of co-credit on "I'm Waiting for the Day", a song that has been written about two years earlier, the contribution of the songwriting is considered minimal.
Concepts and inspiration
Commentators and historians often cite Pet Sounds as a concept album, and sometimes as the first concept album in the history of rock music. Academician Carys Wyn Jones attributes this to the "uniform edge" of this album rather than lyrical or musical themes. Although Pet Sounds has a somewhat unified theme in its emotional content, no pre-determined narration. Asher says that there is no conversation between him and Wilson relating to the "concept" of a particular album, however, "it is not to say that he lacks the capacity to steer him in that direction, even unconsciously". Wilson states: "If you take the Pet Sounds album as a collection of artwork, each is designed to stand on its own, but which belongs together, you'll see what I'm headed for.... That's not true the concept album song , or the lyrics a concept album; this is really a production concept album production . "He added that the album can be regarded as "interpretation" of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound recording method.
For Pet Voice , Wilson wanted to make a "full statement", similar to what he believed the Beatles had done with their latest album Rubber Soul , released in December 1965. Wilson Immediately enamored with the album, recalling the impression that it lacked a filler track, a feature that was largely unheard of at a time when the 45 rpm single was considered more important than the full length LP. Many albums until the mid-1960s had no cohesive artistic purpose and were mostly used to sell singles at higher price points. Wilson discovered that Rubber Soul subverted this by having a completely consistent musical thread. Inspired, he rushed to his wife and declared, "Marilyn, I'll make the greatest album! The greatest rock album ever made!" He will say about his reaction to Rubber Soul: "I love the way it all goes together, how it's all one thing.That's a challenge for me... It does not make me want to copy it but be as good as they are. do not want to do the same kind of music, but on the same level. "
Author Michael Zager writes that Pet Sounds resembles Spector's production of more than Rubber Soul, and it recycles many of Spector's Wall of Sound watermarks. Wilson spoke of Spector's influence on his work, after learning how to produce recordings through attending sessions, and in an interview in 1988, Wilson insisted that the album was aspired to "extend" Spector's music, that "in a word, the Beach Boys] are his emissaries. "In Pet Sounds, Wilson attempted to imitate Spector's Wall of Sound, fueled by his appeal by" combining one [voice] to make another... It's incredible. " Shortly before the release of the album, Wilson talked about popular music trends recently, saying "[They] helped the Beach Boys flourish.We listened to what happened and it affected what we were doing as well.Strends have affected my work, but so am I own the scene. " In 1996, Wilson said of his partnership with Asher: "nobody is looking back... We are moving forward, like at our own wavelength.That's not what we thought, 'Okay, let's defeat Spector,' let's do Motown.'That's more than what I call exclusive collaboration is not to specifically try to kick someone's ass, but just do it the way you want it That's what I think we did. "
Dispute group
Pet Sounds is sometimes regarded as Brian Wilson's solo album in all but names. He explains: " Pet Voice is something completely different, something I personally feel.An album is really more me than Mike Love and surf recordings and all that, and 'Kokomo' "When other Beach Boys return from a three-week tour in Japan and Hawaii, they are presented with a substantial portion of the new album, with music that is in many ways surprising from their previous style. According to various reports, the group is fighting for a new direction. Dennis Wilson denied that the band disagreed with Brian's directions on Pet Sounds, calling the rumors "interesting," saying that "no one in the group could approach Brian's talent," and that's "not can imagine who "will reject Brian's leadership. "
One of the problems is the complexity of the album and how the Beach Boys tour will be able to do the music live. Wilson said that the band "did not like the idea of ​​growing music... They wanted to keep making car songs and I said 'No, we have to grow up, friends'." On another occasion, he remembers: "They liked [new album] but they said it was too artistic, I said, 'No, no!' Marilyn said: "When Brian wrote Pet Sounds, it was difficult for men to understand what he was experiencing emotionally and what he wanted to create.... they do not feel what they feel. being through and which direction he is trying to enter. "Tony Asher remembers:" Everyone in the band, of course Al, Dennis, and Mike, keeps saying, 'What's the meaning of these words?' or 'This is not our type of shit!' Brian has comebacks, he'll say, 'Oh, you can not hack this.'... But I remember thinking that it was a tense session. "
Mike Love says "some of those words are so offensive that I do not even sing them because I think it's too sickening." The original lyrics "I Know There an Answer", known as "Hang On to Your Ego", created a stir in the group. He defies the original message of the song, though Jardine remembers that the decision to change the lyrics in the end is Brian: "Brian is very concerned.He wants to know what we think about it.Bit honestly, I do not think we even know what ego is... Finally Brian decided, 'Forget I changed the lyrics There's too much controversy.' "In Love's reaction to the album, Jardine commented:" Mike is very confused... Mike is a dog formula - if it does not have a hook in it, if he can not hear the hook in it, he does not want to know about it.a... me not too happy with the change, but I grew up to really appreciate it as soon as we started doing it.It's not like we heard before. "Carl Wilson said:" I love every minute of it. He [Brian] can do no wrong. what, and I'll love it... "Brian remembers that Carl is very interested in the album, but not Dennis and Mike. Writer John Tobler wrote that Dennis and Bruce Johnston liked this album, but Jardine felt "It does not sound like an old item."
Asher says that Love "has never been critical about what [album] is , he just said it's not right for Beach Boys." Brian believes the band were worried about him breaking away from the group, explaining that "it's generally assumed that Beach Boys are the main thing... with the Pet Sound, there's resistance in that I do most of the artistic work on it is vocal ". Love writes: "I also want to have a bigger hand in some songs and can more often include my 'main voice', which we achieved very successfully." The conflict is resolved, according to Brian, "[when] they think it is a work for Brian Wilson, but it's still Beach Boys." In other words, they give in. They let me have my little duty. "
Music and lyrics
This album's soundcape combines elements of pop music, jazz, classic, exotica, and avant-garde. According to biographer Jon Stebbins, "Brian opposes the idea of ​​genre security... There are not many shocks here, and even less rolling.The sound of the coffin is sometimes futuristic, progressive, and experimental.... no boogie, no there is woogie, and the only blues are on the theme and in Brian's voice. "The genres associated with this album include progressive pop, pop space, psychedelic pop, rock art, psychedelic rock, baroque pop, experimental rock, and avant-pop. Wilson himself considers this album a "chapel rock"... commercial choir music. I want to create an album that will stand in ten years. "
Wilson understands experimental settings that combine conventional stone set-ups with exotic instruments, producing new, richly textured sounds that remind the symphonic works lined under meticulous vocal harmonics. In total, the number of unique instruments used for every average song to be about a dozen. Many of the instruments are foreign to rock music, including glockenspiel, ukulele, accordion, electro-theremin, bongos, harpsichord, violin, violin, cello, trombone, Coca-Cola bottles, and other strange sounds such as barking dogs, trains, and bells bike. These choices are stylishly adapted from a wide variety of cultures, with some relating to exotica and related producers Martin Denny, Les Baxter, and Esquivel.
Journalist Alice Bolin writes that Pet Sounds "repeats and perfects" the themes and ideas introduced on the Beach Boys' album Today! , released a year earlier. Author Chris Smith writes that the complicated setting and theme is more developed than Today! effectively describes the fertile orchestration and maturity of Pet Voice . Marshall Heiser states for "The Pet Sound": " Pet Voice deviates from previous Beach Boys efforts in several ways: the field of sound has a greater depth of sense, and 'warmth;' these songs use more use of more inventive harmonies and chord chants, the use of prominent percussion is a key feature (as opposed to riding drum backbeats), while orchestration, sometimes, echoes the quirkiness of Les Baxter 'exotica' bandot, or 'cool' from Burt Bacharach, more than teen fanfies Phil [Phil] Spector. "Musicologist Daniel Harrison has written:" In terms of the structure of the song itself, there is little progress of what has been achieved or demonstrated by Brian himself who is able to achieve. Most of the songs use unusual harmonic developments and unexpected hypermeter interruptions, both feature encountered in 'Warmth of the Sun' and 'Do not Back Down.' "Nick Kent's journalist feels" Is not It Fun "to be the" teenage anxiety dialogue "Wilson has achieved with" We'll Run "the year before. However: "This time Brian Wilson came out to eclipse the sonic soap operas before, to transform the subject's cheerful sentiments with God's grace so that the song would be a real pocket symphony."
As writer James Perone explains, Wilson's composition includes tempo changes, choppy ambiguities, and unusual tones that, culturally, separated albums from every pop music of the era. It also adds "background and melancholy softness - as well as increased maturity - which subsides and flows throughout Pet Voice ." He specifically touched the closer album "Caroline, No" and the use of wide tessorial changes, wide melody intervals, and instrumentation that contributed to his beliefs; as well as the composition and setting of the Wilson orchestra experimenting with the shape and color of the tone. Referring to "Is not It Good", Perone recalls that the track sounded "significantly less like a rock band equipped with additional instrumentation... rather than a rock band integrated into a mix of eclectic instrumentation instruments." Arranger Paul Mertens believes that even though there is a string section in Pet Sounds : "... Ã, what's special about that is not that Brian is trying to introduce classical music into rock & roll. classical musicians to play like rock musicians.He uses these things to make music the way he understands, rather than trying to fit the orchestra. "
The album includes two advanced instrumental tracks composed by Brian. One of them: the sad "Let's Go Away for Awhile". Another instrumental is the title song, "Pet Sounds". Both titles have been recorded as backing tracks for existing songs, but as the album approaches completion, Wilson decides that the track works better without vocals. "Let's Go Away for Awhile," Perone observes, "There is a melody feature but no tone to talk about, as an instrumental composition, it gives the atmosphere a feel, however, the exact atmosphere is hard to determine." Of "Pet Sounds", this work represents Beach Boys surfing legacy more than any other song on the album with an emphasis on lead guitar, although Perone states that it is not a surf composition, citing complex arrangements involving countless auxiliary percussions. parts, suddenly changing textures, and de-emphasis on traditional rock band drum sets.
Themes
For most Pet Sounds lyrical content, Brian turned in and checked his deep self-doubt and emotional longing. However, as journalist Liel Leibovitz wrote, the resulting album "is not Wilson or Asher's autobiography, but a collective autobiography of everything we all feel when we... try and reach out to other human beings". Tony Asher explains:
Brian is constantly looking for topics that can relate to children. Even though he's dealing with the most sophisticated charts and settings, he's still very conscious of this commercial stuff. It absolutely needs to be connected.
According to Jim Esch's reviewers, the opening "Would not It Be Nice" formalizes and suggests a broad-based theme of the album: "lovers buckle under the pressure of external forces that they can not control, self-imposed personal expectations and personal limitations, while simultaneously trying maintaining trust with each other.This is a theme that continues to resonate sweetly, and haunted, throughout Pet Voice . "Carl said:" The disappointment and loss of innocence that everyone has to go through as they grow up and find that everything is not Hollywood is a recurring theme on the album. " Critics of Richard Goldstein and Nik Cohn noted the mismatch between the music and the lyrics of the album, in which the latter advised the work to be "sad songs of happiness" while also celebrating loneliness and heartache. In Perone's opinion, this is the next song, "You Still Believe in Me", featuring the first expression of an introspective theme that covers the rest of the album.
In response to the songwriter's rejection of conscious lyrics, Nick Kent observes: "This album documents the male participants' efforts to make peace with themselves and the world about themselves.Each song shows the crisis of faith in love and life: confusion ('It's Not Me' ), disorientation (a very beautiful 'I'm Not Made for At This Time'), the admission of the fluctuating impermanence ('Here Today') and finally, the great betrayal of innocence is featured in 'Caroline, No'. " From another perspective, writer Scott Schinder has written that Wilson and Asher created a cycle of "emotion-charge songs that survey the emotional challenges that accompany the transition from youth to adulthood." Schinder continues: "Lyrically, Pet Sounds involves the loss of innocent idealism (" Caroline, No "), temporary love (" Here Today "), faith in the face of heartbreak (" I ' This'), the demands and disappointments of independence ("Not Me"), feelings are inconsistent with the modern world ("I'm Not Made for Now"), and longing for a happy and loving future ("Would not It Be Nice "). The album also features a series of intimate love songs, such as hymns, "You Still Believe in Me", "Do not Speak (Put Your Head in My Shoulder)", and "God Only Knows". "
"Then again," Kent said, "considering this conceptual bend, there are certain inconsistent factors about album construction, the main one being the inclusion of the hit single 'Sloop John B', as well as the two instrumental parts." Perone argues, until the listener hears 'Let's Go for a Time' as an incomplete part, it is possible to understand it as a reflection of alienation - a feeling not quite fit - from most of Tony Asher's Lyrics in the songs at Pet Sounds . "Noting that the sense of self-doubt, concern for the future of a relationship, and melancholy pervades Pet Sound, Perone claims to refer to" Sloop John B "that the song succeeds in depicting a sailor who feels" absolutely out of place in a situation that fully complies with the general feeling of disorientation that flows through so many songs. "
Fussili states that Wilson's tendency to "roam far from the logic of his compositions only to return triumphantly to confirm the emotional intent of his work" is repeated many times in Pet Sound, but never "evokes an unbridled sense of joy" such as Wilson recently with the single "The Little Girl I Once Knew". In the "God Only Knows" example, which contains both ambivalent and non-diatonic keys, musician Philip Lambert cites the "fantasy choir" section of a complex key change that avoids the listener "for the whole experience - which in fact, the 'key' idea itself has been challenged and overthrown. "Perone's interpretation also shows the continuity of visceral music. In the second song "You Still Believe in Me", "One of the highest points of Brian's vocal composition and performance... is the creepy melodic line, although it generally declines on the line of 'I want to cry,' his response to the realization that his girlfriend still believes him despite the failure of his past. "He explains" the gradual fall of a third interval at the end of each verse "to become a typical" Wilsonian "feature repeated throughout the album in addition to the" crazy breath motif "which can be heard in" It's Not Me ", at where motifs deduce each line from the verses. This sighing motif appears in the next song, "Do not Speak (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)", a work inspired by classical music, and again in "Caroline, No". For the high-pitched electric bass guitar parts in "Here Today", Perone says they remind similar parts of "God Only Knows", culminating in a voice that sounds like a vocal protagonist "Here Today" that warns the protagonist of "God Only" Know "that what he sang did not have a chance for longevity.The protagonist relationship was then terminated immediately after" I Just Not Made for These Times ", while" Caroline, No "was a rumination in broken love.
Psychedelia
Wilson's response when asked about LSD and "Hang On to Your Ego" was: "I've taken some medications, and I've been through that sort of thing, I think it comes naturally." Although there are concerns about the drug reference track, the main lyrics "they pass the day and throw all their thoughts at night" are kept for the final version. Elsewhere for "Sloop John B", Wilson's lyrics changed from "this is the worst journey since I was born " until "this is the worst journey I've ever experienced it has been suggested to be another subtle nod to the acidic culture.
The album is often considered in the psychedelic rock canon. The Encyclopedia Britannica states that Beach Boys introduces psychedelic elements with the album, calling it "expansive" and "haunting". Author Vernon Joyson observes flirtations with acid rock. Bret Marcus of Goldmine noted that he believes that this album is psychedelic pop, although most people hesitate to name Beach Boys in psychedelic music discussions. Stebbins writes that the album is "a little psychedelic - or at least impressionistic." According to academics Paul Hegarty and Martin Halliwell, Pet Sounds has "personal intimacy" that distinguishes it from friends of the Beach Boys in the psychedelic and San Francisco Sound cultures, while maintaining a trippy feeling. from Wilson's experimental use of LSD They attribute this to "a mixture of eclectic instruments, echo, reverb, and innovative mixing techniques from Phil Spector to create a complex soundcape in which sound and music weave closely." Wilson recognizes that psychedelic elements are present in a number of songs, but believes "the album itself is largely not psychedelic".
DeRogatis compares repetitive hearing values ​​with increased psychedelic awareness that the melody "continues to manifest itself after dozens of listeners, just as the unconscious worlds of the world reveal themselves during the psychedelic experience." On the subject of psychedelic notes in the 1960s, Sean Lennon stated that "psychedelic music is a term that pretty much refers to epic types, long-form ambitious notes... the reason Pet Voice is considered a journey psychedelic or whatever because it is like opening a door and stepping in and entering another world and you are in that other world for a certain period of time and then you come back. "
Recording and production
Backing up track
Wilson produced several backing tracks over the course of several months, using a professional Hollywood recording studio and an ensemble that included a classically trained classical musician nicknamed "the Wrecking Crew", also known as a musician often used on Phil Spector notes. Most of the sessions are held in Western Studio 3 from United Western Recorders, with some additional tracking dates at Gold Star Studios and Sunset Sound Recorders. The persistent recording of his recording sessions shows that he is open to musicians, often taking their advice and suggestions and even incorporating clear errors if they provide useful or interesting alternatives. Wilson says that he's "sort of square" with Crew Destroy, starts his creative process with how each instrument sounds one-by-one, moves from the keyboard, drums, then violates if they do not overdub. Although the self-taught Wilson often has a complete setting in his head, they are usually written in abbreviated form to other players by one of his musicians. In the notation and set, Wilson explains: "Sometimes I just write chord pieces and it's for piano, organ, or piano or whatever.... I write all the horn graphs apart from my keyboard I wrote one basic keyboard diagram, violin , horns, and bass, and percussion. "The backing track session will last for a minimum of three hours. Engineer Chuck Britz remembers how much time spent perfecting individual sounds: "[Brian] basically knows every instrument he wants to hear, and how he wants to hear it.What he's going to do is call all the musicians at once (which is very expensive), but still, that's the way it is. "
The tape effect is limited to slapback and reverb echoes. Archivist Mark Linett notes: "in my ear, it sounds more like a plate [reverberators] than a booth.It is worth mentioning that you get a significantly different voice from the booth when you record it 'live' as opposed to doing the ribbon, and one reason this recording sounds as they do is that the reverb was printed as part of the recording - unlike today where we will record 'dry' and add effects later. "Although the sound of the Spector trademark is very complex, many famous Wall of Sound recordings are recorded on three recorders the Ampex line. Backing track Spector is recorded directly, and usually in one shot. The backing track is mixed alive, in mono, and attached directly to a three-track recorder track. The main vocals are then recorded, usually (though not always) as a straightforward live performance, recorded directly onto the second track of the recorder. The master finished with the addition of backing vocals on the third track before three tracks were mixed down to create a mono master record. In comparison, Brian produces tracks that have greater technical complexity using four-track recorder and eight state-of-the-art tracks. Most backing tracks are recorded on Scully four-track 288 tape recorders before being dubbed down (in mono) into a single track from an eight-track machine. Wilson usually divides the instrument with three songs: drum-percussion-keyboard, horn, and bass-percussion-an additional guitar. The fourth track usually contains the reference references used roughly during playback on the session, then removed for overdubs like the string section. "As soon as he gets what he wants," Britz said, "I'll give Brian the record [7-1] tape, and he'll take it home."
Discussing the Wall of Sound Spector technique, Wilson identifies the piano tactics and organ mix in "I Know There an Answer" as one of his examples of applying this method. Wilson also doubled the bass (usually using upright acoustic bass and electric bass), guitar and keyboard parts, combining them with echoes and adding other unusual instruments. One of Wilson's favorite techniques is to apply reverb exclusively to timpani, as can be heard in "Is not It Fun", "You Still Believe Me," and "Do not Talk".
Vowels and mixdown
The Beach Boys rarely know their part before arriving at the studio. Britz: "Most of the time, they are never ready to sing, they will be practicing in the studio, there is no such thing as practice, they will ride motorcycles practically and start singing." According to Jardine, each member is taught each vocal line by Brian on the piano. He explained, "Every night we will come for screening.We will sit and listen to what we did the night before.Someone might say, well, that's pretty good but we can do it better... We have a somewhat photographic memory so far -the vocal part is concerned so it's never a problem for us. "This process proved to be the most demanding job the group has done. During the recording, Mike Love often calls Brian "dog ear", a nickname that refers to a dog's ability to detect sounds far beyond human hearing. Love then summarized:
We work and work on harmony and, if there is a slight hint or flat, it will not continue. We'll do it again until it's true. [Brian] goes for every subtle nuance that you think can be thought of. Every sound must be true, every sound and its resonance and tonality must be true. The timing should be right. Timbre the voices must be true, in accordance with what he felt. And then he might, the next day, really throw it away and we may have to do it again.
At Pet Sound , Wilson uses up to six of the eight tracks in the multitrack master so he can record each member's voice separately, allowing him to better control the vocal balance in the final mix. After mixing four paths to mono for overdubbing through an eight-track recorder, six of the remaining seven tracks are usually dedicated to each of the Beach Boys vocals. The last track is usually reserved for additional elements such as vocals or extra instrumentation. Vocals were recorded using two Neumann U-47s, which Dennis, Carl and Jardine would sing, and Shure 5-35 used by Brian to lead. Love sings mostly vocal bass albums, and requires an extra microphone because of its low volume range. Several vocals were recorded on CBS Columbia Square, as it was the only facility in Los Angeles with an eight-track recorder.
The album's final vocal overdubbing session took place on 13 April 1966, ending a ten-month recording period beginning with "Sloop John B" in July 1965. The album was mixed three days later in a single nine-hour session. Saxophonist Steve Douglas reminds the mixed draft of the album: "It's full of noise.You can hear him speak in the background.This is really sloppy.He spent all this time making albums, and zipped - dubbed in a day or something like that. [When we say something to him about it], he takes it back and mixes it right.I think many times, beautiful pieces of orchestra or parts get lost in the mix.A real stereophonic mix of Pet Voice was not considered in 1966 primarily due to the mixing of logistics.Even though whether the stereo mix is ​​correct perhaps, Wilson deliberately mixed the last version of his recording in mono (as did Spector).He does this because he feels that mono controls provide more sonic control over the final result, regardless of the vagaries of speaker placement and the quality of the sound system.Other reasons and more ih personal to Brian's preference for mono is almost deaf in his right ear. Total production cost is $ 70,000 (equivalent to $ 530,000 in 2017).
Residual material
On October 15, 1965, Brian went to the studio with a 43-piece orchestra to record an instrumental piece entitled "Three Blind Mice", which has no musical relationship with the nursery rhymes of the same name. Another instrument, called "Trombone Dixie", was recorded. According to Brian, "I'm just stupid one day, struggling with the musicians, and I took the arrangement out of my suitcase and we did it in 20 minutes, nothing, nothing in it."
In mid-February 1966, Brian was in the studio with his band session recording the first shoot of the new composition, "Good Traffic". On February 23, he gave Capitol a temporary song list for the new LP, which included "Sloop John B" and "Good Vibrations". This is contrary to the long-held misconception that "Sloop John B" is a forced inclusion as a hit single on Capitol's desistence: by the end of February, the song is a few weeks away from the release. Brian worked until February and until March completed the supporting tracks. To the group's surprise, he also drops the "Good Vibrations" of the ongoing sequence, telling them that he wants to spend more time on it. Al Jardine remembers: "At that time, we all assumed that 'Good Traffic' would be on the album, but Brian decided to hold it in. It was a calling of judgment on his part, we felt otherwise but left the final decision for him.
Brian devotes several sessions of Pet Voice to avant-garde indulgences such as extended a cappella run-through children's song "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" which exploits the use of a lap song. Funny acting and sound effects are recorded in an attempt to create a psychedelic comedy album, which symbolizes most of his work on Smile , which is set to follow Pet Sounds . The only product of this session to be present in Pet Sounds is a trail of barking Brian dogs accompanied by a passing train record, sampled from the sound effects of LP 1963 Mister D Machine >. Brian might also have considered recording the sound of other animals to include, as evidenced by the remaining studio chats from the "dog barking" session. It features Brian asking Britz: "Hey, Chuck, can we possibly bring a horse here without... if we do not mess things up?", Where does Britz respond clearly, "I ask for your forgiveness?", With Brian then pleads, "Honest to God, now, the horse is tame and everything!"
Title and artwork
The forearm describes the snapshots of the band - from the left, they are Carl, Brian, and Dennis Wilson; Mike Love; and Al Jardine - eat apples to seven goats at the zoo. The photo was taken on February 10, 1966, when the group traveled to the San Diego Zoo accompanied by photographer George Germany. The sleeve header, written in Cooper Black, features "The Beach Boys Pet Sounds", followed by an album track list.
Love remembers that the Capitol's working title for the album is Our Freaky Friends , and that the label is planning a shooting cover at the zoo, with the animals representing the group's "weird friends". In May, San Diego Union reported that the group "descended from Hollywood to take a cover image for their upcoming album Our Freaky Friends ... The zookeeper was not interested in have their pets linked to the title of the album but give up when the Beach Boys explain that the animal is 'in' a thing with teenagers.And that Beach Boys rushes to defeat the rock and roll group called The Animals. "Asher remembers:" [Brian] some evidence of the photos they did at the zoo, and he told me they were thinking of calling the Pet Sounds album.I think it's a silly name for an album - I think it's an understatement of what's been we're tired. "Upon arriving at the photo shoot, Jardine thought that" pet "refers to the slang language for" petting ". Jardine also expressed disappointment with the chosen cover, believing it was "crazy" to go to the zoo, that "the art department messed up that one... [I] wanted a more sensitive and enlightening cover." Author Peter Doggett writes that the design contradicts the increasingly sophisticated cover portraits used in releases by artists such as The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan during 1965-67. He highlighted it as "a warning about what can happen when music and images split up the company: high romanticism songs, album cover of stale banality."
The name Pet Voice is the discovery of Love, according to himself, Brian, and Jardine. Brian explains that the album was named "after the dog... It was the whole idea", and that the title was a "homage" to Spector by matching his initials (PS), but could not remember who was thinking of going to the zoo. Love is told: "We are standing in the hallway in one of the recording studios, either West or Columbia, and we have no titles.... We have taken pictures at the zoo and... there are animal voices in the notes, and we think, well , this is our favorite music back then, so I said, 'Why do not we call it Pet Voice ?' Brian also praised Carl for the title, while Carl said with uncertainty that it might come from Brian: "The idea he [Brian] is that everyone has the sounds they like, and this is a collection of 'pet voices' It's hard to think of a name for this album, because you really can not call it Shut Down Vol 3 ... It's much more than just a note, it's like a spiritual quality. doing the top ten.It's much more important than that. "
Release
After the album was assembled, Brian carried a complete acetate for Marilyn, who remembered, "It was wonderful, one of the most spiritual moments of my life.We both cried.As soon as we heard it, he said he was afraid nobody would like it.. "Pet Sounds was released on May 16, debuting on the Billboard chart at 106. Compared to their previous album in the US, Pet Sounds achieved little less commercial success; it peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard LP/chart, with sales estimated at around 500,000 units. The Pet Sounds ' initial release was not awarded a gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In February 2000, Pet Sounds received gold and platinum awards based on documentable sales, although Capitol Records estimates it may have sold over two million copies.
Brian was "sad" that the Pet Sounds did not sell as high as he expected, and interpreted his response as a rejection of his creative ideals. Some blame Capitol Records for disappointing album sales. Allegedly, they did not promote this album as big as the previous release. Carl states that Capitol does not feel the need to promote Beach Boys because they get so much played, and that they have a "set image" for a group that even Pet Sounds can not be changed. Others assume that labels consider the album to be risky, more appealing to older demographics than younger female viewers, Beach Boys building on their commercial reputation. To Brian's disappointment, within two months, Capitol assembles the group's first greatest hit compilation, Best of The Beach Boys , which was quickly certified gold by the RIAA. Capitol's executive Karl Engemann later said: "It's just my guess because it's been a long time... because marketing people do not believe that Pet Voice will do that well, they may be looking for some extra volume in that quarter There's a good possibility that's what happens, however, my real skill is to deal with artists and producers and make them feel comfortable so they can achieve their goals, and sometimes, especially when labels want something that the artist does not do, easy.
Before Pet Sounds was released, "Caroline, No" was released as a single; it was credited to Brian himself, leading to speculation that he was considering leaving the band. The single reached number 32 in the US. It was followed by "Sloop John B", credited to Beach Boys. The single reached number 3 in the US and number 2 in the UK. It has three weeks live at number 1 in the Netherlands, making it a "Hit of the Year". Two months after the album's release, "Would not It Be Nice" was released, then reached number 8 in the US, where it was treated as an A-side. The reverse side, "God Only Knows", is shown as an A-side in Europe, peaking at number 2 in the UK. As a B-side in the US, it reached number 39.
UK EMI Release
The album's greatest success is in England, where it reached number 2 and stayed in the top ten for six months. It was aided by support from the British music industry, which embraced the record. Bruce Johnston stated that when he was in London in May 1966, a number of musicians and other guests gathered in his hotel suite to listen to the re-screening of the album. These include John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Keith Moon. Moon himself involves Johnston by helping him get coverage on British television circuits, and connecting him with Lennon and McCartney. Johnston claimed that Pet Sounds got a lot of publicity, "it forced EMI to release albums faster." The Beach Boys became the strongest selling action album in the UK for the last quarter of 1966, toppling the band's original three-year reign like The Beatles.
Derek Taylor, Beach Boys' publicity, is widely recognized as having been instrumental in this success, due to his longstanding connections with the Beatles and other industry figures in Britain. Press the music in there with an ad saying that Pet Sounds is "The Most Progressive Pop Album Ever!" Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner later recalled that fans in England identified the Beach Boys as "next year" from The Beatles and declared Wilson as a "genius" - the latter was a description of the group leader that Taylor had helped establish among local music journalists. Carlin writes that Andrew Oldham, manager of the Rolling Stones, issued a full-page ad on Melody Maker where he praised Pet Sounds as "the greatest album ever made."
Two music videos were filmed set to "Sloop John B" and "God Only Knows" for Great Britain Top of the Pops, both directed by Taylor. The first was filmed at Laurel Way's home with Brian Dennis acting as a cameraman, the second one near Lake Arrowhead. While the second film, which contains footage from Bruce's minus group flailing around in a horrible horror mask and playing Old Maid, is meant to be accompanied by excerpts from "Would not It Be Nice", "Here Today" and "God Only Knows ", a bit of editing was made by the BBC to reduce the length of the film.
Critical reception
Contemporary review
Initial reviews for albums in the US ranged from negative to positive while. The Billboard ' s reviewer calls it "exciting, well-produced LP" with "two incredible instrumental pieces", and highlights the "single strong potential" of "Will not It's Being Good ". In contrast, the reception of music journalists in the UK is very profitable. Penny Valentine of Discs and Music Echo admires her as "Thirteen songs from Brian Wilson's genius... The whole LP is much more romantic than the usual Beach Boys joy: sad sad song about lost love and found love and all love. "Writing in Record Mirror, Norman Jopling reports that the LP has been" widely praised ", but he estimates:" It might make their current fans prefer it, but it is doubtful whether it will make them the new one. "
Melody Maker runs a feature where many pop musicians are asked if they believe the album is truly revolutionary and progressive, or "peanut butter". The authors conclude that "the impact of recording on the artists and the people behind the artists has been considerable." Among the musicians who contributed to the 1966 Melody Maker survey, Spencer Davis of Spencer Davis Group said: "Brian Wilson is a great record producer I have not spent much time listening to Beach Boys before, but I'm a fan now and I just want to listen to this LP again and again. "Then a member of Cream, Eric Clapton, reported that everyone in his band liked this album. Andrew Oldham said: "I think Pet Sounds is the most progressive album of the year like Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade .This is the same song as that, a complete practice in pop music. "
Three of the nine people cited in the Melody Maker article (Keith Moon, Manfred Mann Michael D'Abo, and Walker Brothers' Scott Walker) did not agree that the album was revolutionary. D'Abo and Walker liked the early work of the Beach Boys, as did journalist and television host Barry Fantoni, who expressed a preference for Beach Boys! And Pete Townshend of the Who argues that "The new Beach Boys material is too far and away. It was written for a feminine audience. "Writing in Jazz & Pop Magazine in 1968, Gene Sculatti admitted the album's debt to Rubber Soul , saying that Pet Sounds is "revolutionary only within the boundaries of the Beach Boys music" ", although later in the section he commented:" Pet Voice is the final statement of an era and a forecast that sweeps the unfolding changes ahead. "
Retrospective statement and status
According to author Johnny Morgan, a "reevaluation process" of Pet Sound was underway from the late 1960s onwards, with features of NME that proved very influential. In 1969 Pop Chronicles series, John Gilliland stated that the album was almost overshadowed by The Beatles Revolver, released two months later, and that "many people fail to realize that the production of Brian Wilson is unique in its own way like the Beatles' ". Noel Murray from The A.V. Club , writing in 2014, theorized that the success of "Good Vibrations" helped reverse the perception of Pet Voice, where the album "no-hip orchestra and deep sorrow confused some old fans, who did not get what Wilson is trying to do right away. "
In a 1972 review for Rolling Stone, Stephen Davis called Pet Sounds as far as Brian Wilson's best album and said that "the cycle of his trenchant love songs has the emotional impact of a inspiring novel. "Writing in the first edition of The Rolling Stone Record Guide (1979), Dave Marsh gave the album four stars (out of five possibilities) and described it as a" strong, but spotty "collection of songs experimental at least proved to be the best. Five years later, he writes that the album is now considered a "classic", outlining: " Pet Voice is not a commercial failure, but it denotes that the group lost contact with its audience (an irresistible charge against The Beatles during the same period) ".
In Richards Unterberger and Samb Hicks, Richie Unterberger and Samb Hicks regard this album as a "quantum leap" from the initial material of the Beach Boys, and "the most beautiful setting ever to remember the rock record". D. Strauss says that the quality of the album and subversion of the rock tradition is "what creates its special place in rock history: there is no category because fans to place it in ". Writer Luis Sanchez views this album as "the score for a film about what rock music does not have to be.For all the insightful sentimentalism, it describes in a great way the kind of light and sui generis vision that Brian aims to [then] thrive. "
In the book 101 Popular Music Changing Albums (2009), Pet Voice is evaluated as "one of the most innovative recordings in rock music"; that it "lifts Brian Wilson from a talented bandleader to a studio genius". Dominique Leone wrote a 9.4 review of his 40th anniversary edition for Pitchfork stating: "Of course, regardless of what I write here, the impact and" influence "from those records will have in turn almost no effect at all.I can not even get my dad to talk about Pet Voice again.... The hymnal aspects of many of these songs seem to be less noticeable, and the general of the air of genuine love, the grace and uncertainty that all that will be restored still affects to the point of disturbance. "Music journalist Robert Christgau feels that Pet Sounds is a good record, but believes it has been viewed as totem. Composer Atticus Ross explains that the album has a "cliche element that grows around it". He's referencing sketches from the television show Portlandia where "your classic hipster musician... is building a studio and it's all like 'this is the microphone they use at Pet Sounds .' It's exactly the same as Pet Sounds. "Commentator CW Maloney mused:" The songs at Pet Sounds are very good, but you have to wonder, given all the hype and mythology and our love of superficial nostalgia, what we mean when we call it classic or Wilson a genius.See what [Frank] Zappa did in 1966, to say nothing about Miles [Davis].) Wilson's high reputation is proof of our obsession with childlike innocence and tedious victory of poptimism. "
In the 1990s, three British critics polls featured Pet Voice at or near the top of their list. Those who have considered it the "greatest album of all time" include NME , The Times , and Uncut . In 1998, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences inaugurated the album to the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, Pet Sounds was kept in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for "culturally, historically, or aesthetically." In 2006, more than 100 domestic and international publications and journalists have praised Pet Sounds as one of the biggest albums ever recorded. It has been viewed by some writers as the best pop rock album of all time, including Tim Sommer who considers it "the greatest album of all time, maybe about 20 or 30 long". By 2015, Acclaimed Music, which statistically collects hundreds of published lists, ranked Pet Sounds as the most famous album of all time.
Influence and inheritance
Pet Sounds is recognized as an ambitious and sophisticated work that advanced the field of music production in addition to setting many precedents in the recording. The album's historical differences include being the first part in popular music to combine Electro-Theremin, a more playable version of theremin, as well as the first in rock music to display instruments such as theremin. Inventor of Electro-Theremin, Paul Tanner, plays an instrument on the song "I Just Not Made" for This Times.
Although initially not a big seller, the album has been very influential since its release. In 1971, Beat Instrumental & amp; International Recording wrote: " Pet Voice surprised everyone.In terms of musical conception, lyric content, production and performance, it stands as a landmark in a musical genre whose development will start snowball. the same year, the Cue magazine reflects that "in the fifth year that follows the Sound Voice, Beach Boys is in the front row... anticipating changes not made by rock 't tired up to 1969-1970. "Wilsons' father and former manager Murry also praised the album that year, calling it" the work of achievement for Brian... Pet Voice has been copied, chewed, updated - the Negro artist has been using in band arrangement, ads have been using it Every day you hear an ad that has a Beach Boys voice behind it. "
The album informs the development of genres such as rock, hip hop, jazz, electronics, experimental, punk, pop, and is often referred to as one of the earliest entries in the psychedelic rock canon. Scholar Philip Auslander explains that although psychedelic music is usually unrelated to Beach Boys, "strange directions" and experiments in Pet Sounds put it all on the map... basically it opens the door - not for groups - groups that will be formed or start making music, but of course it looks like what Jefferson Airplane said or someone like that. "Decider writes that the album" almost alone creates the idea of ​​'baroque pop'. " Many of Los Angeles's record producers mimic the album's orchestral style, which is a component of the solar pop actions that follow. Discussing the delicate soul, Noah Berlatsky's Chicago readers Noah Berlatsky argues that the Beach Boys helped bridge the gap between the polished pop harmonization of the Drifters and the Chi-Lites experiment, especially with "Sloop John B ", whose" nag "arrangement," pure "harmony, and" childish susceptibility "he said" out of the R & B "pop tradition.
In 1995, a panel of musicians, songwriters and producers assembled by MOJO chose Pet Sounds as the greatest album among them. For the 50th anniversary of the album, 26 artists contributed to the retrospective of Pitchfork on its influence, which included comments from Talking Heads, Yo La Tengo, Chairlift, and Deftones members. The editor notes that "the broad range of artists gathered for this feature represents but little effect on the size of this album, its coverage extends beyond almost all age, race, and gender fields.The impact continues to widen with every generation that passes." Wilson became "godfather" for an era of inspired indie musicians
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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