Let Him Run Wild

[TdHabib]

Ok, so just listened to this one twice again...and I'm convinced it's one of Brian's best songs ever...and one of his best arrangements. The vocals, even his own which he hates despite it's range, are just fabulous and everybody is giving their all. So let's talk about it...

I've read more than once that Brian (and/or Mike) might've written it about Murry's affairs with Audree...it certains makes the track cooler, but whatdya you guys think? Could it be that way? Also, I have an interview (text) where Dennis calls it his favorite BB song.

[LittleSurferGirl]

Ohh I LOVE LOVE LOVE this song I think Brian sounds heavenly on it. Seriously, a voice of an angel. This song helped me get through my most recent breakup, it made me smile when nothing else could.

I read that too about it being written about Murry & Audree. Anyone got any confirmation???

[Jon Stebbins]

This one sends chills through me, even after hearing it for decades. I can confirm that Dennis called it his favorite Brian song on more than one occasion.

[the captain]

It's really an interesting piece of arranging. It isn't a song I really love, although it's obviously a really impressive piece of work. To me, it feels like an example of Brian's growth as he moved toward what became his Pet Sounds style. The vocal is soul-melting, no question--backgrounds, too. And that "guess you know I've waited for you girl" vocal trade-off is great. I actually especially love the harmony voice in the "guess you know I've" part.

[TdHabib]

It's funny Jon mentioned chills, I got a shiver up my spine after hearing it just this night. It's just that even if it might be about Murry and Audree it's so cool to have all the guys singing about it, telling Audree to go on with her life. Even without that theory it really sounds like everybodys enthused.

Terrific backing track too. And I still contend that California Girls/Let Him Run Wild is just one of this best double-sided singles of all time. I can't imagine what it would've been like to have listened to that for the first time in 1965.

[Chris Brown]

To me, it feels like an example of Brian's growth as he moved toward what became his Pet Sounds style. 

I've always felt the same way.  I think I read once that Carl was impressed by the complexity of the arrangement...and for good reason.  This track is really the "Summer Days" link to Pet Sounds...it's really one of the few tracks on that album that foreshadows what Brian would do later, along with "Salt Lake City."

[Alex]

To me, it feels like an example of Brian's growth as he moved toward what became his Pet Sounds style. 

I've always felt the same way.  I think I read once that Carl was impressed by the complexity of the arrangement...and for good reason.  This track is really the "Summer Days" link to Pet Sounds...it's really one of the few tracks on that album that foreshadows what Brian would do later, along with "Salt Lake City."

At least instrumentally on Salt Lake City...Pet Sounds didn't have any lyrics like "the grooviest place that's why we never get tired of Salt Lake", and "the way the kids talk so cool is an outtasite thing".

[Wirestone]

I'm with Luther on this one -- a stunning piece of craft, but it's always left me a little cold, and I'm not sure why. I love the track, Brian's vocals are stunning -- but, yeah. I don't feel it. I'd go for something like "Good to My Baby" over this.

[The Song Of The Grange]

Let Him Run Wild is one of Brian's top tracks in my opinion.  It comes from that golden 15 months or so when he was at the apex of his powers.  Let Him Run Wild, You're So Good Too Me, California Girls--perfection 1965 style.  Add in The Little Girl I Once Knew and you have my top four BBs songs of 65.  1966 gets so much attention from today's music critics and fans, but 1965 is a real solid year.  I have made a bunch of "best of BBs 65" mixes over the years.  That year's output cut down to one album length collection just about rivals Pet Sounds.  Granted, 1965 is a little hit or miss.  Please forgive me, but Salt Lake City is an awful song!  But with a song like Let Him Run Wild you can really feel where BW is heading.  I listen to that song and just want to stay in that world--where everything was still possible and Brain was boldly exposing rock music's possibilities.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Oh my God...all this time I thought I was the only one who hates Salt Lake City...

[The Song Of The Grange]

Oh my God...all this time I thought I was the only one who hates Salt Lake City...

The music ain't bad but the lyrics to Salt Lake City make me want to jam an ice pick in my eye.  In 1965 BW should have known better.


"There's a park near the city, yeah
All the kids dig the Lagoon now
It's full of all kinds of girls
And rides and we'll be flyin' there soon now
And girl for girl
They've got the cutest of the Western states"

Where is that ice pick?!

[mikeyj]

1966 gets so much attention from today's music critics and fans, but 1965 is a real solid year.  I have made a bunch of "best of BBs 65" mixes over the years.  That year's output cut down to one album length collection just about rivals Pet Sounds.  Granted, 1965 is a little hit or miss.

Well said. Side two of Today! (except Bull Session of course) is just magical! There are times when I actually prefer some of those songs to most of the Pet Sounds songs. It depends on my mood but yes 1965 really is neglected by music critics and fans. Obviously there's Party! which I wouldn't really count as it wasn't a 'serious' album, but that's so true what you say, one albums worth of songs from 1965 could easily rival Pet Sounds in my opinion.

Oh my God...all this time I thought I was the only one who hates Salt Lake City...

Nup I'm with you and Song of the Grange - It's not THAT bad, but considering the rest of Brian's output from 1965 it kinda sucks! The backing track rocks but yeah as Song of the Grange says the lyrics just ruin it. And usually I'm not one for lyrics, but when they are noticeably bad then that's a bad thing.

[phirnis]

I'm with Luther on this one -- a stunning piece of craft, but it's always left me a little cold, and I'm not sure why. I love the track, Brian's vocals are stunning -- but, yeah. I don't feel it. I'd go for something like "Good to My Baby" over this.

"Good To My Baby", that has to be among the most underrated songs of the pre-Pet Sounds-era. Fell in love with it right away when I first heard the incredible backing track on the Hawthorne compilation album. To me, that's one of the prime examples of a great rock'n'roll track.

There's too little love for side one of Today! 

[Wirestone]

What I love about GtmB -- and close relations like Don't Hurt My Little Sister (and for that matter, I Get Around) -- is that it's the sweet spot between Surf n' Cars and Teen Art Music. Brian and Mike are co-lead vocalists on these songs -- Mike on the verses, Brian on the choruses, mainly. The tracks are driving, but with a bit more studio polish (and horn sections) than before. The melodies come from every which way. And Mike's lyrics are among his best -- personal, pithy, relatable and yet not hackneyed.

And Brian hasn't yet had it in his mind to make art -- he's trying to make damn good pop records. And no one did it better at that point.

[The Song Of The Grange]

What I love about GtmB -- and close relations like Don't Hurt My Little Sister (and for that matter, I Get Around) -- is that it's the sweet spot between Surf n' Cars and Teen Art Music. Brian and Mike are co-lead vocalists on these songs -- Mike on the verses, Brian on the choruses, mainly. The tracks are driving, but with a bit more studio polish (and horn sections) than before. The melodies come from every which way. And Mike's lyrics are among his best -- personal, pithy, relatable and yet not hackneyed.

And Brian hasn't yet had it in his mind to make art -- he's trying to make damn good pop records. And no one did it better at that point.

Thanks for this riff on Good to My Baby and Don't Hurt My Little Sister.  You are right, they are transitional songs.  They have one foot in the  BBs circa 62-64 and one foot towards the future.  They are too advanced to fit on All Summer Long, but they seem more early-ish than say Please Let Me Wonder.  Interesting point.  Yet another micro genre of BW for me to ponder.

[TdHabib]

OK, so back to "Wild," Carlin said that Brian wrote the lyrics for this one himself. EXPERTS, can this be confirmed or was it with Mike?

[lance]

Who knows, but my guess is Mike changed a few words and probably made it a bit less awkward...

[PrayForSurf]

"This track is really the "Summer Days" link to Pet Sounds...it's really one of the few tracks on that album that foreshadows what Brian would do later..."

One of the factors in Brian making the transition from Today! and Summer Days was a change from Mike's approach to lyrics to Tony Asher's. It would be interesting to hear some of the BW/ML songs that had the BBs singing about cars and beaches with Asher or Parks themes.  The instrumental sound of, say Salt Lake City, without the ice-pick lyrics would only add to Brian's acclaim. SLC (and others) is a great song but will forever only be thought of as a fun BB tune.

I'm not sure Brian or those of us who listened to rock music back then would have been ready for a Pet Sounds quality lyric to any of his earlier tunes but I think the surf-sand-street topics kept BW/BB songs in the summer-and-fun genre much longer than they should have.

[Chris Brown]

Oh my God...all this time I thought I was the only one who hates Salt Lake City...

The music ain't bad but the lyrics to Salt Lake City make me want to jam an ice pick in my eye.  In 1965 BW should have known better.

Yeah the lyrics aren't great, but I was referring more to the track, melody and vocal arrangement.  I generally don't listen to songs for their lyrics.  So I guess that might be why I love "Salt Lake City" more than others. 

[LittleSurferGirl]

I love Salt Lake City. It makes me feel groovy!

[Sheriff John Stone]

What I love about GtmB -- and close relations like Don't Hurt My Little Sister (and for that matter, I Get Around) -- is that it's the sweet spot between Surf n' Cars and Teen Art Music. Brian and Mike are co-lead vocalists on these songs -- Mike on the verses, Brian on the choruses, mainly. The tracks are driving, but with a bit more studio polish (and horn sections) than before. The melodies come from every which way. And Mike's lyrics are among his best -- personal, pithy, relatable and yet not hackneyed.

And Brian hasn't yet had it in his mind to make art -- he's trying to make damn good pop records. And no one did it better at that point.

Totally agree. And I think there's quite a few Beach Boys' fans who prefer this period over the following one (1966-67). I can picture Mike Love using the terms you used, especially "the sweet spot", "teen art music", and "damn good pop records", in pleading his case. I believe this is the period that Mike wasn't ready to leave when he was having his "artistic" differences with Brian. Not that he (Mike) wanted to necessarily stay there forever, but at least visit for a little while longer. I know Brian had to follow his muse and move on, but what if he would've stayed in that Today/SD&SN zone for another year or so....

[Roger Ryan]

I know Brian had to follow his muse and move on, but what if he would've stayed in that Today/SD&SN zone for another year or so....

It's like asking the Beatles to stay in their "Ticket To Ride" zone or the Kinks to hold onto their "All Day & All Through The Night" style or Dylan to continue with HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED, etc. There would have been some great songs, but nothing as revolutionarily good as REVOLVER/PEPPER, FACE TO FACE/SOMETHING ELSE, BLONDE ON BLONDE or PET SOUNDS/GOOD VIBRATIONS/SMiLE.

[sockittome]

SLC would have been right at home on any of the first three albums (at least lyrically).  The backing track would've been simpler, though. 

LHRW I believe would've fit really well on PET SOUNDS, all the way around.  This ties in with the statement others have made that LHRW was a major step toward PS.

[Matt Bielewicz]

Never mind Salt Lake City, I have to be the only Beach Boys fan who doesn't really care for Let Him Run Wild. Similar to Luther above, I think it's an interesting production and arrangement, but the song just doesn't grab me for some reason. And Brian's vocal, while well-sung, doesn't move me. I admit that I rate the Boys' music from 1966-70 more highly than I do 1961-1965, but I love me some 1964/65 goodness too - I think Today side two is fabulous, and I can't understand why the received wisdom on 'Summer Days...' is that it's a 'step back...' from Today... I think it's got some incredible songs on it. So why don't I like this? I never really did, from the first time I heard it.

Maybe it's a historical thing. To the Boys themselves, this track must have seemed obviously advanced in arrangement compared to their past efforts (see: Carl's comments), as were an increasing number of Brian's productions at this time. So perhaps it became a favourite for them, a symbol of the exciting new music they were beginning to release (even if Brian took a dislike to it because of his vocal). Similarly, I assume it must have stood out as another one of the new more complex tracks to fans of the day and critics the first time they played 'Summer Days'. So when BB books were written a few years later, everyone fondly remembers Summer Days and the musical advances shown by some tracks on the album including this one, and so Let Him Run Wild gets built into the history as a great track. What's more, in retrospect it's a pretty big signpost to Pet Sounds, too. Maybe that helped to ensure its place in history.

And maybe that's why I don't like it - I listened to it first in a different historical context. I wasn't a contemporary fan - I wasn't born until 1971, and although my parents loved the Beach Boys, I didn't really get into them until 1995. And then I explored from Pet Sounds onwards (Smiley, Wild Honey, and Friends) and then from Pet Sounds backwards through Summer Days, Today and the GV box set. And actually, I got Summer Days after Today, as I couldn't find a CD of it for a while.

In that context (having already become familiar with Can't Wait Too Long, Heroes & Villains, Little Pad, Friends, Don't Talk and You Still Believe In Me, and for that matter, In The Back Of My Mind and She Knows Me Too Well) Let Him Run Wild just... didn't seem that amazing to me. My high expectations may also not have helped. By then, I knew that this was a track everyone (except Brian, strangely...!) rated. So it seemed a let-down - not a huge one, but I was a lot more 'meh' about it than I'd thought I would be.

But, of course, your mileage may vary... and amongst Beach Boys fans, I'm very clearly in a minority on this one! And I have to allow for the possibility that some people just really, really like it!

However, personally I think I might take several other tracks on Summer Days over it... certainly And Your Dream Comes True and California Girls, but maybe even Help Me Rhonda and The Girl From New York City, just because they're so effortlessly, poptastically, the essence of big-primary-colours 1965 Top 40 music. LHRW seems awkward, fumbly and gauche to me by comparison. But I guess that's just me.

MattB

[busy doin nothin]

Let Him Run Wild is arguably my all-time favorite song by any artist.  Certainly if I made a list of a dozen or so that I love so much I can't choose between them, it would be one of the first (along with Surf's Up '71).  It moves me almost to tears still, after probably 1000 listenings.

A couple of thoughts -- first, I completely agree that the song is addressed to Audree and about Murry.  I think the actual lyrics are universalized a bit (perhaps by Mike).  The sentiment is not, in my view, specifically about Murry being sexually unfaithful to Audree but rather about him not being worthy of her, which is a very deep and powerful emotion for a boy (or man) to have about his father.  I think the song taps into very deep emotions, and as someone said, the idea that the Boys (led by Brian) are singing it to Audree is extraordinarily poignant.  I have also always thought that this emotional component is the real reason Brian has shied away from the song ever since recording it, not his supposed dissatisfaction with his vocal (though if you want to get really Freudian, he might dislike the fact that he was calling out his father in such a boyish falsetto voice).

As a musical composition, I think it is outstanding.  David Leaf suggested it was Burt Bacharach influenced.  I think that's true of the verses and chorus, which have such a smooth, natural melody that builds to a great cresendo.  The "bridge," or whatever you want to call it -- from the end of the chorus through "waited for you girl" -- is pure Brian Wilson, built on a fantastic diminished chord (I think it's Abdim) that leads to Db7 and then Dbminor7.  The vocals in that part are incredible.

The instrumental track is phenomenal, a typical dense BW arrangement using the wrecking crew.  The extensive use of vibraphone is especially effective, and gives the song its unique quality.

Finally, I really dislike the "steps on the road to Pet Sounds" analysis that seems to have originated many years ago with David Leaf.  Pet Sounds is a great album, but I think anyone who truly loves the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson music would have to agree that there is so much other great stuff (both before and after) that it is a major disservice to treat their career as nothing but a progression to, and then subsequent regression from, Pet Sounds.  (Some would include Good Vibrations and Smile in the apex, but even so I still think the theory is unsound.)  Let Him Run Wild is not "another step toward Pet Sounds," as David Leaf wrote in the two-fer liner notes.  Quite frankly, I think it is better than any single track on PS, at least partly because of the tremendous emotional intensity arising from the Murry/Audree subtext.  Whether Brian wrote the words or Mike helped him, I think it's safe to say that Mike, as a close relative who knew Murry and Audree very well, was well equipped to help Brian tap into that kind of emotion.

This is probably a subject for another thread, but I really feel that Tony Asher's lyrics for Pet Sounds detract from the album.  The lyrics are generally too vague and cliched ("I once had a dream so I packed up and split for the city; I soon found out that my lonely life wasn't so pretty.")  It's not really surprising, since Asher and Brian barely knew each other when they started collaborating.  Van Dyke got around the same problem partly because he and Brian really clicked and were much more on the same wavelength; also Van Dyke was a especially talented wordsmith with a real gift for unique, evocative phrases, which Asher was not. 

But Mike was an excellent lyricist in his own right, and he and Brian worked extremely well together.  And Let Him Run Wild is arguably their finest moment.