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January/February 1966: Genius on Hasch – Brian Wilson composes the “Pet Sounds”
When the Beach Boys went on Japan tour in January 1966, her leader Brian Wilson stayed in Bel Air, California, in the house in which he had not only had a recording studio installed, but later also a sandpit. After a nerve breakdown, Wilson had given up tours. And was determined to create a masterpiece next. The Beatles had released “Rubber Soul”.
Wilson wanted to surpass Lennon-McCartney. The result, “Pet Sounds”, was supposed to spur the Beatles on new height flights: Paul McCartney cited the album as an inspiration for “SGT. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band ”. “I knew that we were on the trail of something special,” says Wilson. “And we always followed my feeling.” He worked with the copywriter Tony Asher, the jingle composer of an advertising agency who had advertised for Mattel toys or Gallo wine …
The two had met briefly in a studio, and Wilson had excitedly played some new instrumental tracks. A few weeks later – when he suffered from a writer’s block and put pressure on Capitol Records because of the new album – he called Asher. “At first I thought someone from my office played a prank,” says Asher. “We shouldn’t forget that he was pretty desperate at the time.” Wilson’s behavior in the sessions was strange. A television series like “Flipper” moved him to tears, and he refused to eat most of it and died of crab cocktail and steak in restaurants.
As a producer, Wilson tried everything uninhibitedly
Asher remembers an evening when they ate so many hash cookies that he thought he would die. And yet: The confused Wilson’s state of mind, the more brilliant his musical ideas came … Wilson and Asher began to sessions for an hour and talk about former friends, which was given the textual direction of the songs. Then they went to the piano. Wilson tried to let out the music in his head, asher scribbled on a writer. As a producer, Wilson tried everything uninhibitedly.
Wilson’s favorite track on “Pet Sounds” is still “God Only Knows”
For the harpsichord-like intro of “You Still Believe in Me”, they opened the piano and plucked the strings from the inside. “I wanted to try that long ago,” says Wilson. For the instrumental “Let’s Go Away for A While”, he used twelve violins, four saxophones, piano, oboe, vibrafon, two bass, percussion and a guitar that was played on the strings for the purpose of a steel guitar effect. Singing guests at “Caroline, No” were Banana and Louie, Wilson’s dogs.
“I already know that it was a good album,” says Wilson, “but whenever it is said it is one of the best …” He pauses. “Then it honors me.” His favorite track on “Pet Sounds” is still “God Only Knows”, because, as he says, “I always liked love songs.”