From The San Fran Chronicle
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/21/PKGPSNJ0IJ1.DTL&type=music--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'PET' PROJECT
Sylvie Simmons
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Every time a list comes out of the best albums of all time, at the top or near it -- No. 3 on VH1, No. 2 in Rolling Stone, No. 1 in prestigious U.K. music magazine Mojo -- will be the Beach Boys' 1966 classic, "Pet Sounds." Paul McCartney has said that without "Pet Sounds" there would be no "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," and Eric Clapton, Elton John and Flaming Lips are among the artists who have declared the record one of their favorites.
The tall, sturdy-looking Brian Wilson, 64, with a slightly worried expression and a thick thatch of salt-and-pepper hair brushed back from what could be the palest face in Southern California, is really rather fond of it himself. Wilson was 23 when he made what he describes as "chapel rock" and what critics call his symphonic masterpiece; at least they did until they transferred the description to his recently completed album "Smile."
"I love that record," Wilson says of "Pet Sounds." "I think we sound like a choir, a little boys' choir. I think we had a sound that sounded like kids. An innocence, that's what it was."
He smiles and his face lights up, making him look suddenly childlike.
"Pet Sounds" contains some of the finest songs Wilson has written: Four decades later, "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" and "God Only Knows" can still send a shiver up even the most hardened spine.
To celebrate his album's 40th birthday, toward the end of last year Wilson embarked on a tour -- a short one this time, unlike the protracted "Smile" extravaganza, which he performed in November 2004 at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco and, almost a year later, in September 2005 at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. The new show, which includes "Pet Sounds" played beginning to end, "Wouldn't It Be Nice" to "Caroline No," comes to Oakland's Paramount Theatre on Jan. 28 for what's being billed as its "final performance."
Accompanying Wilson, besides the stellar band that backed him on "Smile" and on his first "Pet Sounds" revival tour five years ago, is his old El Camino Junior College classmate and Beach Boys bandmate Al Jardine. When Jardine heard rumors of the anniversary tour, he phoned Wilson and offered his services. The third surviving Beach Boy, Wilson's cousin Mike Love, made no such offer. (The other members, Wilson's brothers Dennis and Carl, died in 1983 and 1998, respectively.) Despite their brief reunion in June -- on the roof of Capitol Tower in Los Angeles, the Beach Boys' record company headquarters, to receive platinum discs for their hit compilation "Sounds of Summer" -- relations between Wilson and Love have long been strained. They were no less so during the making of "Pet Sounds."
Wilson always felt more comfortable in a studio than onstage. He suffered from debilitating stage fright and endured a series of nervous breakdowns on tour. In 1965, he decided to stay home and concentrate on writing and producing.
"I stopped touring because I wanted to write songs for the Beach Boys while they were on tour, and when they came back off tour they could maybe sing those songs and overdub their voices onto the track," he says. "Much nicer like that."
While the Beach Boys continued their grueling tours without him -- first Glen Campbell, then Bruce Johnston took his place -- Wilson stayed home, experimenting with studio techniques, unusual instrumentation and, it being the mid-'60s, LSD.
"As soon as I took it, I started to feel a little bit creative. I went right to the piano and wrote 'California Girls' " -- the Beach Boys' big summer hit of '65.
For some time, though, he had been writing songs that were more musically sophisticated and lyrically introspective than their usual simple fun-and-sun numbers. One impetus for this change was a musical rivalry with the Beatles. Wilson was "blown away," he says, when he heard "Rubber Soul," and he wanted to go one better.
Another impetus was Wilson's obsession with Phil Spector, which is ongoing. Asked what records he listens to these days, Wilson answers, "I only play Phil Spector's records, really. Sometimes I play Paul McCartney. But I listen to Phil Spector's. When I first heard Phil Spector's records, it opened up a door for me, a door to creativity. At first, I felt like I loved what I was doing, and then I said, 'No. I'm going to try to whip Spector. I'm going to try to beat Spector at his records.' And I kept trying."
He even hired some of Spector's "Wall of Sound" session musicians to play on "Pet Sounds." It was, effectively, a solo, not a Beach Boys album. The record company must have thought so. too, because the first single, "Caroline No," was credited to Brian Wilson.
When the Beach Boys took a break from touring to add their vocals to the songs, they were flummoxed. Love was the biggest critic of all.
It seems surprising now, but "Pet Sounds" didn't make much impact in the United States when it first came out (in Britain it was a hit). It didn't help that within weeks of its release the record company put out and promoted a "best of" album that sold far better and effectively sabotaged "Pet Sounds."
A general lack of support combined with growing mental health problems came to a head when Wilson started writing a follow-up album, "Smile." The record was aborted and Wilson became a recluse.
Ironically, it was the success of his 2002 "Pet Sounds" tour that led to the completion of "Smile," whose critical success helped restore Wilson's fragile self-confidence. When that tour began, you could feel audiences willing him to triumph, and he did.
So is he finally over his stage fright?
"No," Wilson says, shaking his head. "I haven't gotten over it yet. I still go through a lot of mental changes, mind changes, before every concert. But the first song we start to sing, then I'm cool by then, I'm all right. I like performing. I like to feel the love."
Sylvie Simmons is a freelance writer
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