Pet Sounds

[Sheriff John Stone]

I always wished Brian would've finished "Good Vibrations" in time to include on Pet Sounds. Now, there is some debate whether Pet Sounds is the greatest album of all time. With "Good Vibrations" on Pet Sounds, there would be no debate.

[guitarfool2002]

I always wished Brian would've finished "Good Vibrations" in time to include on Pet Sounds. Now, there is some debate whether Pet Sounds is the greatest album of all time. With "Good Vibrations" on Pet Sounds, there would be no debate.

In retrospect it would have been neat to consider, but then again history proved Brian's instincts correct, and his decision to not release the song until he had it just right made it the classic it was and is. The timing of his release was perfect, and hearing the previous versions, as good and as musically brilliant as some of the segment and early sequences were, it just wasn't as electric of a record as what was eventually released.

There is also the thought that had he put it on Pet Sounds, already full of singles, it would have been relegated to being considered a deep album cut. Great in its own way, but the impact would have been lessened considerably.

That decision to wait to get GV just right and release it in the Fall of '66 may have been the last example of Brian's timing being dead-on correct as far as history tells us until the events of 2011-2012. Timing was something the Beatles had without even trying, it just happened that they came and went and released certain albums and songs at just the right time in history and that was that.

[Dr. Tim]

Well as long as we're doing crazy talk, supposin' the initial "more funky" complete take of GV made the Pet Sounds LP, then Brian decided to tinker with it and make the separate "single version" we know now, a la "Help Me Rhonda?"

(returns to tinkering with vastly better running order for Sunflower which don'cha know is far far better than anything the group coulda done and that's why I'm so rich and famous)

[Heysaboda]

Just wondering, but do people go running around saying things like "gee I wish Leonardo Da Vinci hadn't painted that smile on the Mona Lisa" or "gee I wish Michaelangelo hadn't made David so muscular".

It's freakin' Pet Sounds by the freakin' Beach Boys.  Leave it alone.

[Letsgoawayforawhile]

It's only an opinion, Guys!

I think it was a left turn that took me the city route, instead of the scenic one.

[Heysaboda]

It's only an opinion, Guys!

I think it was a left turn that took me the city route, instead of the scenic one.

 

 

[Jason]

It's only an opinion, Guys!

I think it was a left turn that took me the city route, instead of the scenic one.

We're aware with the opinion. Don't f*** with the formula is all we're saying.

[Sheriff John Stone]

It's only an opinion, Guys!

I think it was a left turn that took me the city route, instead of the scenic one.

And I respect your opinion. You don't have to be defensive about expressing it. This topic has come up before, and it will come up again.

Hey, you know what, tomorrow there could be an interview conducted with Brian Wilson, and Brian could say, "I really liked the version of "Sloop John B" that we cut, but I wasn't sure if I should put it on the album. Al kept bugging me and pushing for the song, so I listened to him..." And, then everybody would be jumping on that bandwagon. You never know, things are constantly changing.

[Letsgoawayforawhile]

I'd just rather have heard an updated "Please Let Me Wonder" with a Pet Sounds arrangement. That's all I'm saying. 

[keysarsoze001]

I guess it's the same argument as to whether or not GV should be on any SMiLE mixes, since that was just label strongarming which got the song on there. And that has even LESS thematically in common with the rest of the album. But I think musically it fits on that album, and the same is true with Sloop on Pet Sounds. When Brian arranged that song, he had already climbed up to that next plateau where he would conceive the rest of Pet Sounds. To my mind, "Little Girl I Once Knew" fits on Today! but would feel too...I don't know, juvenile being on Pet Sounds. Having a song about how a girl has changed, with the conclusion being "hot damn, you look hot now!" alongside a song about how time has changed a girl into a shadow of her former self, it just wouldn't sit well. Plus it's not as musically sophisticated as anything on Pet Sounds. I'm all in favor of Sloop being where it is, and of GV being on SMiLE.

Pretty much every album after that, well, that's another matter. Those are all primed for a nice resequencing.

[buddhahat]

I think you can make as good a case for sloop being included as you can for it being out of place. So many people insist that GV would not belong on Pet Sounds but I suspect if it had made the cut nobody would be complaining about it and BB commentators would be falling over themselves to come up with imaginative and eloquent justifications for its inclusion.

That said, I particularly enjoyed Peter Aimes Carlin's reasoning for why Sloop fits perfectly although I can't remember exactly what he wrote right now. For me, I enjoy the way it sucks you out into a totally different time and place and serves as a metaphor for the storm brewing in the protagonist's love life (that's probably what P.A.C wrote about it, come to think of it!)

Much that I love SJB where it is, I agree with Bruce that it would've worked well on SD&SN, with the yacht on the cover an' all.

[ontor pertawst]

Well as long as we're doing crazy talk, supposin' the initial "more funky" complete take of GV made the Pet Sounds LP, then Brian decided to tinker with it and make the separate "single version" we know now, a la "Help Me Rhonda?"

(returns to tinkering with vastly better running order for Sunflower which don'cha know is far far better than anything the group coulda done and that's why I'm so rich and famous)

I like it. It would've fit better, changed Pet Sounds drastically by ending it on an optimistic, surging with life note after the sad dog noises... and probably improved several hundred vintage acid trips in the process. Smiley Smile would've benefited by not having GV sitting there sounding jarring, and they could've included more similarly stripped down tracks instead.

While we're playing da Vinci, giving Tony Asher another whack at revising his lyrics maybe, in that scenario? Or the ML rewrite we all know and love?  

[keysarsoze001]

I actually prefer Tony's lyrics. And that's from someone who likes Mike as a lyricist pretty much across the board.

[OneEar/OneEye]

Sloop is good just where it is. 
To paraphrase Paul McCartney's comment about the "White Album":
 it's the bloody Beach Boys Pet Sounds album, shut up.   

[Letsgoawayforawhile]

Brian would have transformed any song, I'm just not sure why it had to be this one.

I'm obviously the only one on Earth who doesn't think it belongs 100%.
 

[Aegir]

no one cares about artistic intent in these days of playlists and stuff. like the people who say "I like to end Friends with I Went to Sleep instead of Transcendental Meditation".

well, you know what, THAT MAKES IT A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ALBUM, MAN. Sloop John B should be on Pet Sounds because it is on Pet Sounds. and that's the only reason it needs.

[The Shift]

'Course Sloop belongs.  There's only one song I'd put in its place, and then only if you held a gun to my head: Guess I'm Dumb.  And it would have to have BBs vocals, not Uncle Glen's.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Anyway, i think Good Vibrations is perfect on SMiLE, could have been really cool on Pet Sounds, and prehaps it belongs there, more than Sloop John B does, it's true that this old folk song seems a bit out of place when it comes to the lyrics theme of the album, but why not? just a little change doesn't hurt and the whole sound is in the vibe of the album, it doesn't kills the flow at all, i think it is good as it is and it still the greatest album ever.

[TV Forces]

We all know Pet Sounds is one of the greatest albums ever, but Sloop John B doesn't really fit.

I think it fits just fine.
Not every song has to be slow and dreary for a concept to work.

[TV Forces]

I always wished Brian would've finished "Good Vibrations" in time to include on Pet Sounds. Now, there is some debate whether Pet Sounds is the greatest album of all time. With "Good Vibrations" on Pet Sounds, there would be no debate.

How can people think "Sloop John B" doesn't fit on "Pet Sounds" but "Good Vibrations" WOULD?
"Sloop John B" at least fits musically. 

[Rocky Raccoon]

I always wished Brian would've finished "Good Vibrations" in time to include on Pet Sounds. Now, there is some debate whether Pet Sounds is the greatest album of all time. With "Good Vibrations" on Pet Sounds, there would be no debate.

Nah, I think "Good Vibrations" belongs at the end of Smile.

[Letsgoawayforawhile]

Yeah, Wouldn't it be nice is so slow and dreary.
Along with I'm waiting for the day
I know there's an answer
And, Here today.


None of those are slow, and they fit the theme perfectly.

[rab2591]

Yeah, Wouldn't it be nice is so slow and dreary.
Along with I'm waiting for the day
I know there's an answer
And, Here today.


None of those are slow, and they fit the theme perfectly.

Have you watched the Brian Wilson (Songwriter) documentary?

Bruce shares your exact thoughts - so you're not alone!

Though in that same documentary Peter Carlin talks about how Sloop JB is about a person lost among the waves who just wants to go home (somewhat of a happier precursor to 'Til I Die'). So it actually does fit the theme of Pet Sounds.

[Letsgoawayforawhile]

I have not.
I'll check it out!

I just want to make it clear to everyone that I love Sloop, and what Brian did with it was amazing. I'm not trying to bash it.

[oldsurferdude]

Upon release, it did somewhat did break the spell-but dring the next 6000 playes, it nestled in well along with WIBN, IWFTD,PS and HT.