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Post by Kapitan on Mar 7, 2023 15:14:16 GMT
I've decided to skip around rather than go in any kind of order for the Beach Boys lyrics threads, at least initially going with ones I think might be most interesting to people. (If interest holds, we'll continue; if not, we'll stop when it seems to lag.)
So up next is the album generally considered to be the Beach Boys' masterpiece, Pet Sounds. From a lyrical perspective, the most obvious change was in the lyricist: eight of the song's 11 songs that included lyrics had those lyrics penned by advertising executive Tony Asher in the first and last time he worked with the Beach Boys or, for a couple decades, with Brian Wilson.
The album is sometimes thought of as the group's first mature set of lyrics, the first real abandonment of surf and cars ... but historical evidence doesn't support that trope. Similar takes on romantic relationships and alienation were present all along, if not as consistently as on this album. But there is less balance, fewer songs of sheer, youthful joy, even when the music hints otherwise.
Without further ado...
(Also, I am going to experiment here by writing the lyrics more like prose, with punctuation. I think it makes a different reading sometimes, and can help break out of the habits of how we listen to the song, instead looking at the words as they are. We'll see how that goes. It is by definition a series of editorial choices, so if it seems intrusive or misleading, I can switch.)
Track #1: Wouldn't It Be Nice (Wilson, Asher, Love) Wouldn't it be nice if we were older? Then we wouldn't have to wait so long. And wouldn't it be nice to live together in the kind of world where we belong? You know, it seems the more we talk about it, it only makes it worse to live without it...
Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up in the morning when the day is new? And after having spent the day together, hold each other close the whole night through? Happy times together we've been spending, I wish that every kiss was never-ending... Wouldn't it be nice?
Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray, it might come true. Maybe then there wouldn't be a single thing we couldn't do. And we could be married, and then we'd be happy ... wouldn't it be nice?
You know, it seems the more we talk about it, it only makes it worse to live without it ... but let's talk about it! Wouldn't it be nice!?
Good night, my baby. Sleep tight, my baby...
Please chime in with your thoughts on the lyrics to "Wouldn't It Be Nice" (probably my favorite Beach Boys song of all time, not least of which because of the lyrics). It'll be left up for a few days before we move along, depending on activity.
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Post by kds on Mar 7, 2023 15:53:53 GMT
I've said before that I don't think lyrics are The Beach Boys' strength. But, that being said, the era from 1964-66 has a lot of exceptions to that rule. Wouldn't It Be Nice is one of their all time greatest marriages of lyrics and music. It's a fairly simple, yet relatable, of falling for somebody and pining for spending your life with that person. Although, Kap, you left out the most essential lyrics Goodnight, my baby Sleep tight, my baby Goodnight, my baby Sleep tight, my baby
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 7, 2023 15:57:43 GMT
Although, Kap, you left out the most essential lyrics Goodnight, my baby Sleep tight, my baby Goodnight, my baby Sleep tight, my baby I sure as hell did! I guess going from memory isn't the smartest thing a person can do...or at least this person. I've corrected the original post.
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Post by kds on Mar 7, 2023 16:17:53 GMT
Although, Kap, you left out the most essential lyrics Goodnight, my baby Sleep tight, my baby Goodnight, my baby Sleep tight, my baby I sure as hell did! I guess going from memory isn't the smartest thing a person can do...or at least this person. I've corrected the original post. Perhaps you were remembering the versions performed by Brian's band in later years, which conveniently left those final lyrics out for some reason......
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Post by carllove on Mar 8, 2023 13:41:00 GMT
I sure as hell did! I guess going from memory isn't the smartest thing a person can do...or at least this person. I've corrected the original post. Perhaps you were remembering the versions performed by Brian's band in later years, which conveniently left those final lyrics out for some reason...... Hahaha! Wonder how much money Mike got for THOSE genius lyrics? The innocence of young love. How well did Tony Asher capture that? One of two songs on Pet Sounds that had the melody completed by Brian, before Tony added the lyrics based on Brian's ideas. The Beach Boys always had the melodies and the harmonies and now with Tony Asher - the lyrics are just as magnificent. I remember how long those goodnights were when I was younger. I still feel the delight of laying my head on my boyfriends chest in the car watching the sunrise, the morning after prom. It was everything I hoped it would be. It still is - waking up next to someone you love. I also remember the feeling of not being able to do that - even though that was so long ago. The song gives me all of the feels. What a perfect combination of lyrics and melody. To me "Wouldn't It Be Nice" is better than "Good Vibrations" because of the lyrics. The brilliance in the lyrics is that they are so relatable that you can feel how you felt in that situation years later. Just brilliant.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 8, 2023 13:43:02 GMT
I love the lyrics to WIBN.
Perhaps more than any other Beach Boys song, they perfectly capture adolescent longing (and lust, if we're honest, although it's politely presented). How many millions of teenagers and young adults must have heard this in 1966 and related powerfully to it? Think of the intensity of adolescent desire (although if you're like me, it's increasingly hard to conjure up those old memories vividly as the years pass; they become more sepia-toned and moderated)!
What's more, they have that idealized vision of what the unrealized would be. When you're a child (or in this case, adolescent), you think "if only I were an adult I could do whatever I wanted; things would be perfect!" Of course, you can't comprehend actual adult responsibilities, work, bills, family obligations. If anything, you're less free.
To some extent that's how I look at the narrator's view in WIBN. Anyone who has ever been in an adult relationship realizes it's not so perfect as the narrator here thinks it would be. It's a perfect relationship because it's not real! And why isn't it real? Because we're young, and old people/society just won't let us... In a way, it's so naieve that it's cute.
That is all just about the perspective, though. As for the technical side, well, I think that's great, too. The rhymes don't seem forced; the biggest offender in that respect might be "happy times together we've been spending," which is quite an awkward construction. But in the grand scheme of the song, it doesn't bother me in the slightest.
Musically, my favorite part of the song might be the bridge, which has a really unusual chord progression (whereas the rest of the song mostly follows a stock I-IV-ii-V pattern). That might also be my favorite part of the lyrics. I love the rhythmic cadence of maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it..." the key terms being accented parts of a swinging beat of ands and its. It hammers in the whole point of the song: think, wish, hope, pray.
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Emdeeh
Pacific Coast Highway
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Post by Emdeeh on Mar 8, 2023 14:21:11 GMT
My favorite lyric in WIBN is "run-run-re-oo" -- no kidding. I love that vocal part!
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Post by kds on Mar 8, 2023 17:41:51 GMT
It's funny you mention about how happy the song sounds, when you don't fully pay attention to the lyrics.
I remember in 2012, I went to a friend's house for some afternoon beers. Just so happened to be the day after I saw the C50 Beach Boys, and he put some music on from his Mp3 player. Wouldn't It Be Nice came up, and he said "man, this is just the perfect summer song." It definitely has a summertime feel to it.
To be fair to my friend, the song was also used for a beach montage in the Seinfeld episode "The Hamptons."
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Mar 8, 2023 18:26:29 GMT
When listening to "Wouldn't It Be Nice", do you ever get a mental picture of Brian Wilson singing to a very young Marilyn Rovell?
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Mar 9, 2023 12:41:01 GMT
I recently posted somewhere (and it wasn't my idea; I read it somewhere) how Brian Wilson could take sad subject matter in his songs and, through his singing/production, make it a happy listening experience. I kind of - a little bit - put "Wouldn't It Be Nice" in that category. If you analyze the lyrics, the song is about longing, frustration, being impatient, and "being too young". However, ultimately, the song puts out a happy, optimistic vibe. Every time I've ever seen or heard it used, whether it be in TV commercials, videos, movies, documentaries, or just being heard on the radio, it comes across as positive.
I do find it curious how "Wouldn't It Be Nice" was chosen for the movie, Shampoo, as it has absolutely nothing to do with the movie plot.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 9, 2023 12:54:06 GMT
I know the quote/idea you're talking about--who is it who said that?--but I don't quite hear WIBN lyrics as sad. Frustrated, yes! Impatient, yes! I'm trying to think of how those emotions mix with happy music. In a way, it's a good mix, because my interpretation of the feelings associated with WIBN aren't really depressed, but manic. Dissatisfied, but not exactly unhappy. (To put it bluntly: horny! Bursting at the seams with adolescent longing. And in a way, that's inherently happy, though not in a satisfied way.) I do think the music is a reasonably good fit for that, but still with some disconnect. There is an unresolved feeling to the lyrics that isn't in the music.
As for Shampoo, I'm not familiar, so no comment.
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Post by kds on Mar 9, 2023 13:40:36 GMT
I know the quote/idea you're talking about--who is it who said that?--but I don't quite hear WIBN lyrics as sad. Frustrated, yes! Impatient, yes! I'm trying to think of how those emotions mix with happy music. In a way, it's a good mix, because my interpretation of the feelings associated with WIBN aren't really depressed, but manic. Dissatisfied, but not exactly unhappy. (To put it bluntly: horny! Bursting at the seams with adolescent longing. And in a way, that's inherently happy, though not in a satisfied way.) I do think the music is a reasonably good fit for that, but still with some disconnect. There is an unresolved feeling to the lyrics that isn't in the music. As for Shampoo, I'm not familiar, so no comment. I thought I've heard that quote attributed to Murry "even the happy songs are sad" or something like that.
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Post by lonelysummer on Mar 10, 2023 3:16:24 GMT
I hear WIBN as the precursor to a whole bunch of songs Eric Carmen did with the Raspberries - but he took this general idea and took it a little further - as in Go All The Way. The Beach Boys never could have gotten away with a lyric like that in 1966! I never knew how love could feel, till she kissed me and said "baby please, go all the way, it feels so right, being here with you tonight". I suppose the same idea is behind the followup, "I Wanna Be With You" - "if you believe what we're doing is right, close your eyes and be still". And then there was "Let's Pretend" - "baby, let's pretend we could always be together, but for now just let me spend the night with you". Yep, it's those teenage hormones kicking in, encouraging you to throw aside all caution, no matter what the consequences might be. In Brian's case, though, I never thought his songs were primarily about physical love. Brian's songs were more concerned with the heart. Although I did hear a DJ once singing over the closing lines of WIBN "goodnight baby, sleep on top of me, baby". The music matches the lyrics perfectly. It's funny how we always talk about how the BB's fans were not ready for Pet Sounds back in 1966, and yet the album contained 4 songs that made the top 40, and the album itself made the top ten. I think a lot of their teenage fans would have related to the lyrics on these songs back in 1966. I know I sure did when I first heard the album in 1981. Within a couple of years, it had become MY album.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Mar 10, 2023 12:15:37 GMT
The music matches the lyrics perfectly. It's funny how we always talk about how the BB's fans were not ready for Pet Sounds back in 1966, and yet the album contained 4 songs that made the top 40, and the album itself made the top ten. I think a lot of their teenage fans would have related to the lyrics on these songs back in 1966. I know I sure did when I first heard the album in 1981. Within a couple of years, it had become MY album. Good point(s), lonelysummer. Through the years, almost every review of Pet Sounds made mention of the lyrics, or the more mature nature of the lyrics, and how it might've caught the Beach Boys' fans off-guard - or might've even turned them off. This wasn't The Beach Boys we all know and love! While that might've been true with the music/arrangements, I think it was somewhat exaggerated with the lyrics. Hey, we've all been there, when we discovered Pet Sounds for the first time. Yes, it wasn't "Little surfer, little one, make my heart come all undone...", but we could certainly relate to the more mature lyrics, at least most of them. In some (many?) ways, Tony's/the lyrics actually add to the greatness of the album.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 10, 2023 12:22:47 GMT
In some (many?) ways, Tony's/the lyrics actually add to the greatness of the album. For me, this is undeniable. The music is obviously brilliant, but the lyrics are among the band's most consistently good (or maybe not even "are among," but just "are"). It's not that they didn't write other really good lyrics, but I don't think they often were so consistently good from start to finish.
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