Thought about "Break Away"

[Ron]

Forgive me if this is common knowledge or has been discussed at length, but I have a question about "Break Away".  Something I've noticed about it....

For years, Brian's said that he hears his songs (like most songwriters do) in his head, and then tries to explain to the other performers/singers how to make it sound like he hears it in his head... and apparently he hears the songs in full harmony.

So, on Break Away, there's about 8 different people singing... I guess it would be Brian, Mike, Al, Bruce, Carl, Dennis?, Marilyn, and Murray.

Also, Break Away represents one of the first songs representing his mental issues, or at least being deeply biographical, or however you want to describe all that.  The 'found out , it was in my head!' lyrics all kind of tie into Brian's health issues at the time.

Brian's said for years he's heard voices in his head, audible hallucinations, and the song dances around that a bit.

.......

Put two and two together, and does anybody else notice that in the second or so chorus of the song, all of the background vocals by the Beach Boys sound like Demons chanting?  it goes "BREAK, BREAK, BREAK, BREAK, BREAK! BREAK AWAY!!!" and they're all singing in low growling demonic sounding voices.

So is that Brian trying to show the boys what he's hearing in his head?  WOW. 

[shelter]

The "break break break" vocals are not on Brian's vocal guide/demo version (which did include some of the other backing vocals), so I doubt it.

[SloopJohnB]

Also, Break Away represents one of the first songs representing his mental issues, or at least being deeply biographical, or however you want to describe all that.  The 'found out , it was in my head!' lyrics all kind of tie into Brian's health issues at the time.

Brian's said for years he's heard voices in his head, audible hallucinations, and the song dances around that a bit.

.......

Put two and two together, and does anybody else notice that in the second or so chorus of the song, all of the background vocals by the Beach Boys sound like Demons chanting?  it goes "BREAK, BREAK, BREAK, BREAK, BREAK! BREAK AWAY!!!" and they're all singing in low growling demonic sounding voices.

So is that Brian trying to show the boys what he's hearing in his head?  WOW. 

Thanks for talking about that Ron! I've been thinking about it for a long time but never dared talking about it...  Glad I'm not the only one to have noticed that!

[Ron]

The "break break break" vocals are not on Brian's vocal guide/demo version (which did include some of the other backing vocals), so I doubt it.

Oh, so the urgh.... 'fleshed out' version doesn't have anything to do with Brian?  I don't know the whole story about how it was all recorded. 

[SloopJohnB]

Al once said that Brian had "underproduced" the tag... So I guess Brian was more or less directing the sessions.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

For years, Brian's said that he hears his songs (like most songwriters do) in his head, and then tries to explain to the other performers/singers how to make it sound like he hears it in his head... and apparently he hears the songs in full harmony.

Actually, more often Brian has said that he doesn't hear the arrangements in his head, which has been greeted with some skepticism, but I believe him.  He's explained that since he can't really hear the arrangements in his head, he had to experiment a lot in the studio to figure out what he wanted, thus the sometimes large number of takes.

[Bicyclerider]

But he had to have "heard" some kind of arrangement in his head, or how did he determine which instruments/musicians to use on the session?

[pixletwin]

I always heard "Break Away" as being a song about leaving behind old conventions and stereotypes... I don't think it had anything to with demons.

[Amy B.]

If he can't hear arrangements in his head, how come, when he does harmonies on other people's songs, he supposedly just walks up to the mike and does the parts, on after the other? And how is he able to deal out vocal parts to the BBs or his band members? Does he work them out beforehand? 

[pixletwin]

Actually, more often Brian has said that he doesn't hear the arrangements in his head, which has been greeted with some skepticism, but I believe him.  He's explained that since he can't really hear the arrangements in his head, he had to experiment a lot in the studio to figure out what he wanted, thus the sometimes large number of takes.

Yeah I believe that about the instrumental arrangements. Listening to sessions you can see that he would toss an idea out to the musicians then he would keep what he liked and tweek what he didn't like until after "X" amount of takes he would finally arrive at something he thought felt like what he wanted.

Per the vocals, I think he did compose them in his head, for the most part, before teaching them to the others.

[MBE]

Have asked many who would know about this song. I am 90 percent sure Murry wrote the lyrics.

[adamghost]

The whole head arrangement thing vs. experimenting in the studio aren't mutually exclusive.  You can have a pretty solid idea of how you want the track to sound overall but need to "hear it back" with musicians playing to absolutely nail what you want.

[Ron]

I was more kind of getting at the "Did Brian tell the Beach Boys to sing their backup vocals sounding like demons" aspect of the post

[pixletwin]

Which part? There are so many layers to that recording.. Do you mean the "Harmony Frie" part?

[brother john]

The whole head arrangement thing vs. experimenting in the studio aren't mutually exclusive.  You can have a pretty solid idea of how you want the track to sound overall but need to "hear it back" with musicians playing to absolutely nail what you want.

Exactly!

I always heard "Break Away" as being a song about leaving behind old conventions and stereotypes... I don't think it had anything to with demons.

Are you kidding? We are talking about the same Brian Wilson...?

When I laid down on my bed
I heard voices in my head
Telling me now "Hey it's only a dream"

The more I thought of it
I had been out of it
And here's the answer I found instead...

I guess that one of the great achievments of this song is that it speaks of profound mental illness and yet manages to be uplifting, giving the impression of some genuine achievment in terms of escaping from one's, if you like personal 'demons'.

I was more kind of getting at the "Did Brian tell the Beach Boys to sing their backup vocals sounding like demons" aspect of the post

An intersting thought, but unlikely, methinks. At this point in Brian's life the creation of something beautiful still outweighed other considerations. This is one of my all time fave BB songs, and I'm so glad it was recorded while Brian still had enough motivation to do it properly. 

[brother john]

Which part? There are so many layers to that recording.. Do you mean the "Harmony Frie" part?

Which is this part?

[endofposts]

I don't hear the sounding-like-demons part.  The only odd sound is that you can hear Murry Wilson pretty clearly on the baritone parts, singing with Mike.  Murry did have a hand in directing the sessions, according to Carl on the "Endless Harmony" CD.

[pixletwin]

Which part? There are so many layers to that recording.. Do you mean the "Harmony Frie" part?

Which is this part?

I have seen it listed on some Boots as "Harmony Frie"... Its the Ahhhh singing the notes Do Ti La  in thirds behind the "Oh boy you'll jump for joy" part.

[SloopJohnB]

That'd be "Harmony FrieNDS"  If I recall correctly it's even the name of the aforementioned boot.

[brother john]

Which part? There are so many layers to that recording.. Do you mean the "Harmony Frie" part?

Which is this part?

I have seen it listed on some Boots as "Harmony Frie"... Its the Ahhhh singing the notes Do Ti La  in thirds behind the "Oh boy you'll jump for joy" part.

That will also be the piece called 'Unreleased backgrounds' I guess, which is clearly an unused part of the Breakaway outro. I can't for the life of me hear demons in there though... I guess, as with so many things, you hear what you want to hear. 

[pixletwin]

Unused? It's in there.. buried deep, but I can hear it (at least in WotS Break Away).

[Ron]

I don't hear the sounding-like-demons part.  The only odd sound is that you can hear Murry Wilson pretty clearly on the baritone parts, singing with Mike. 

I listened to it again today, on the second 'chorus' when Carl's going "And I can't breakaway, to that better life..." or whatever the line is there, all of the backing vocals are unnaturally (for the beach boys, at least) low... Everything else in the song like in nearly every other beach boys song has a nice full, sunny sound to it but in that part, the vocals are all kind of shouting and chanting, sounds a little demonic to me.... or maybe it's just Murray.

I just thought it was interesting that in that 1 part of the song, there's no high harmonies, no typical beach boys 'stack', just lots of layered, low chants. 

Or I could be wrong, either way!

[No. Fourteen]

It goes something like, "Break, break, break, shake, break, break-a-way...."

Definitely a chanting feel to it.  Not sure about demonic, but it'd be very interesting if that was the purpose.

[LostArt]

Interesting.  I've never heard that part in there before.  Lower in pitch, as was pointed out.  It is definitely a different sort of bg vocal for the Beach Boys.  That wacky Brian does it again.  It is interesting that Murry wrote most of the lyrics to this great song (according to Brian on the Warmth of the Sun podcast series), as was also pointed out. 

[pixletwin]

Break Away is one of the BB's best.