I Just Wasn't Made For These Times on Mad Men

[CarCrazyCutie]

Not sure if anyone else saw it, but the new episode of Mad Men had I Just Wasn't Made For These Times playing (small SPOILER ALERT) during Roger's LSD trip. I don't know know about everyone else, but I've totally been waiting for a BB's song since the show started

[I. Spaceman]

Beautiful scene, which captured the nature of LSD consciousness very well.

[rab2591]

Thanks!

Can't wait to see it (since I don't get AMC I just wait for the seasons to come out in DVD). I too have been waiting for The Beach Boys to be played on Mad Men; they picked a great song!

[Shady]

That's really cool, I gotta catch up on Mad Men

[Rocky Raccoon]

I just came here to post the same thing.  Great episode!

[Alex]

I wouldn't mind seeing Elizabeth Moss's uptight Peggy character letting her wild side out. And I can just see Don Draper growing a Mike Brady "afro" sometime in the next couple of seasons.

[Summertime Blooz]

I wouldn't mind seeing Elizabeth Moss's uptight Peggy character letting her wild side out. And I can just see Don Draper growing a Mike Brady "afro" sometime in the next couple of seasons.

Did you see this episode? Peggy has quite a "wild side" scene of her own. Anyway, it was exciting to hear one of my favorite Beach Boys songs get played on my favorite TV show.

[guitarfool2002]

I was surprised: Add this to that weird Dennis Hopper video a few years ago for surprise appearances of Pet Sounds album tracks on mainstream TV.  They always sound great in these cases.

I tried to remember if there were an earlier episode with a Beach Boys song - specifically that one where Don goes to California on one of his trips to see the "real" Mrs. Don Draper just as she was getting sick, and they go to a California bar where a song is playing on the jukebox. I guess I was thinking Beach Boys in my memory but I believe it was Jan And Dean. Anyway...

It's great that Pet Sounds got an airing last night in a pretty neat but idealized scene of a terrific show, and is getting a lot of buzz on the web this morning, but was Pet Sounds really *that kind* of an acid album in summer 1966 or did it pick up that kind of cache by the year 2012? Just curious. I'm just speculating that Ravi Shankar or Ornette Coleman or even a beat poetry album of bongos, acoustic bass, and spoken-word exclamations would have stood as much of a chance of being on those doctors' reel-to-reel as Pet Sounds in summer '66...or even the classical that came blaring out of Roger's booze bottle. But it made for a pretty compelling scene last night, which is all that matters.

And like other Mad Men songs, I'll bet if you check the iTunes sales lists this week, you'll see IJWMFTT selling more than usual.

[SMiLE Brian]

Hope this adds more buzz for the BBs this year.

[37!ws]

Here are my thoughts...although the song was used in the episode, the characters weren't necessarily listening to it...dig:

The psychiatrist told 'em that it's important to take LSD with a positive attitude, an open mind, and optimism. IJWMFTT isn't exactly the theme song of optimism and positivity! Plus, given that most of the characters in the room were considerably older than the Pet Sounds target audience (Jane was probably the youngest by far), it's doubtful that the lady would have a Pet Sounds reel among her collection.

I think the song was just used as soundtrack music - rather than something the characters actually heard (the reel was probably something else) - to underscore Roger's own realizations.

[rab2591]

I tried to remember if there were an earlier episode with a Beach Boys song - specifically that one where Don goes to California on one of his trips to see the "real" Mrs. Don Draper just as she was getting sick, and they go to a California bar where a song is playing on the jukebox. I guess I was thinking Beach Boys in my memory but I believe it was Jan And Dean. Anyway...

Forgot about that! It was a Jan And Dean song (I think sidewalk surfing). I was really happy that they put that in the show.

PS: it's nice to see fellow Mad Men fans on this board!

[guitarfool2002]

Here are my thoughts...although the song was used in the episode, the characters weren't necessarily listening to it...dig:

The psychiatrist told 'em that it's important to take LSD with a positive attitude, an open mind, and optimism. IJWMFTT isn't exactly the theme song of optimism and positivity! Plus, given that most of the characters in the room were considerably older than the Pet Sounds target audience (Jane was probably the youngest by far), it's doubtful that the lady would have a Pet Sounds reel among her collection.

I think the song was just used as soundtrack music - rather than something the characters actually heard (the reel was probably something else) - to underscore Roger's own realizations.

I enjoyed reading this and considering it, nice thoughts! I also remember hearing several songs overlap during the scene, along with conversations and whatnot. I'll have to watch it again and see if I can see what you're suggesting, how another song was really played on that reel and Pet Sounds was more of a commentary.

It definitely stood out that Pet Sounds would probably not have been played by that demographic, but then again the cases of busting the old stereotypes of who listened to what are what makes it interesting!

And it was interesting for me to see Roger's realizations while on LSD, all of those subconscious thoughts coming to the fore, all of the searching for the deeper meaning and enlightenment, led him to exactly the same person he has been since episode number one! His trip showed us not too much more than the fact that the Roger we've seen in the office and in various scenarios was the same Roger he found when he was getting deep into himself to find the truth. he may have been the only one - his wife couldn't be honest with him the next day about what she told him, the people in the room were acting all trippy and crawling on the floor or doing the physical-synergy thing with their limbs, and Roger just grabbed a bottle of booze and poured a drink, which is what he always does anyway! Then he looked at advertising in a magazine, looked to Don for advice even though the doctor had become Don as a guide, then he saw Cooper's face on the bill, and Bert Cooper was always the bankroll/money of the partnership. And in the mirror he saw himself, more or less.

So Roger saw his reality as his inner truth, not much difference between his search for the truth and his regular life. At least that's how I saw it. Is he that one-dimensional or was he truly one of the few in that show who was honest with who he really was? And in that way I guess Brian's song was a fitting soundtrack.

[SMiLE Brian]

I should get into this show because i love 1960s americana.

[Runaways]

I'd rather hear it on game of thrones

[I. Spaceman]

So Roger saw his reality as his inner truth, not much difference between his search for the truth and his regular life. 

I think that is what the writers are saying about acid, and the 60's culture in general that flowered into the Me Decade. I think acid is only an inner amplifier, that brings elements, feelings and thoughts from the subconscious into the conscious. It helps someone become more of what they already are, but have been afraid to express. Anyone who has gone "insane on acid" would have gone insane some other way. Anyone who "found God" on acid would have found it some other way.
So, acid is just a really nice shortcut, that makes a person aware of the profundity of the moment and life itself. But it just leads you to where you were already going.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

I'd rather hear it on game of thrones

I was about to post that!!!

[endofposts]

So Roger saw his reality as his inner truth, not much difference between his search for the truth and his regular life. 

I think that is what the writers are saying about acid, and the 60's culture in general that flowered into the Me Decade. I think acid is only an inner amplifier, that brings elements, feelings and thoughts from the subconscious into the conscious. It helps someone become more of what they already are, but have been afraid to express. Anyone who has gone "insane on acid" would have gone insane some other way. Anyone who "found God" on acid would have found it some other way.
So, acid is just a really nice shortcut, that makes a person aware of the profundity of the moment and life itself. But it just leads you to where you were already going.

One worries what's going to happen if they have Sally Draper dropping it in another year or two, since they seem to be hinting she will get into drugs, and is the perfect cliche of '60s adolescence.  Hopefully she won't wind up like Diane Linkletter.

[Doo Dah]

Just saw the clip on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpWlKCfSPcU

[I. Spaceman]

So Roger saw his reality as his inner truth, not much difference between his search for the truth and his regular life. 

I think that is what the writers are saying about acid, and the 60's culture in general that flowered into the Me Decade. I think acid is only an inner amplifier, that brings elements, feelings and thoughts from the subconscious into the conscious. It helps someone become more of what they already are, but have been afraid to express. Anyone who has gone "insane on acid" would have gone insane some other way. Anyone who "found God" on acid would have found it some other way.
So, acid is just a really nice shortcut, that makes a person aware of the profundity of the moment and life itself. But it just leads you to where you were already going.

One worries what's going to happen if they have Sally Draper dropping it in another year or two, since they seem to be hinting she will get into drugs, and is the perfect cliche of '60s adolescence.  Hopefully she won't wind up like Diane Linkletter.

She isn't the perfect cliche of 60's adolescence, I've never seen another child character similar to her on television, set in any era. Particulalry not in any piece of whitewashed garbage such as The Wonder Years. The pill thing was less of a hint for her character than a place of resonance with her mother's addictive personality.

[monicker]

So wait a second, Pet Sounds on a home reel to reel machine in 1966? Did these characters (who would never be listening to The Beach Boys in the first place) get some safety copies given to them by Brian?  

[Al Jardine: Pick Up Artist]

So wait a second, Pet Sounds on a home reel to reel machine in 1966? Did these characters (who would never be listening to The Beach Boys in the first place) get some safety copies given to them by Brian? 

Meh, a lot of people copied records to reel-to-reels. I have a trunk outside full of reel-to-reels that all contain albums.

[Ebb and Flow]

The only thing that bothered my nerd sensibilities is that the reel-to-reel somehow contained the stereo mix from 1996.

[shadownoze]

Actually, reel-to-reel tape was just another format choice for buying music in the 60s. You couldn't get everything on reel, but most high-profile albums were issued in that format; it was the audiophile choice at the time.

[guitarfool2002]

I'm hoping a collector can answer this: Was there a reel tape version of Pet Sounds released by Capitol in '66? If not in '66, what year? I know I've seen several come and go on auction sites, usually either a "Duophonic" Capitol reel or a mono reel from the UK, but none of the auctions as far as I can recall have listed a specific release date for that copy being sold.

And was the catalog prefix number of the Capitol reels a "Y"? I have seen only one reference to something other than the vinyl issues from 66, and it was prefixed with a Y.

Thanks in advance for the info! I thought this would be a good place to ask since it's being discussed...

[Summertime Blooz]

Yes, Pet Sounds was released on reel-to-reel by Capitol in 1966. Here's one that was sold at auction last year:


Here's the UK edition, also issued in 1966: