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I feel like this vastly underrated song was really a conscious attempt at The BBs becoming more of a "psych rock" type band of the era, perhaps more so than any other song they've ever released.  While the Sunflower album was certainly an album that encapsulated many different styles, this song just completely was its own animal.

There are certainly trippy moments in the fadeouts of Cabinessence, Never Learn Not to Love (man, I adore the delay sound in the very end of the fadeout that is only present on the single version), Celebrate the News, etc... but I don't think there's another song in their whole catalog that seemingly FULLY embraces an of-the-era-yet-still-way-ahead-of-its-time psychedelicness - throughout the entire song - as much as AIWD.

And it's even more interesting/unusual that Mike sang it/cowrote it, considering he's the guy who is often pegged (sometimes fairly, sometimes unfairly) as the guy keeping them back and mired in the old surf mindset. Mike deserved more praise for it then, since it was one of the best things he ever did, but since the praise seemingly didn't come for decades, it seems that AIWD's impact became more of a "what could have been" aspect in hindsight, as Mike (and the band) seemingly did not realize what a masterpiece they had on their hands. Also, Carl and Desper I imagine were probably major unsung heroes for this song.

A few things come to mind:

- While the song has gained a cult following over the years, it's still widely unknown outside of BBs fanatics and shoegaze musicians. I think the song would be far better known and better appreciated if it'd been sung by Brian or Carl, just because those guys are more typically associated with this "side" of the band. It is one of Mike's best vocals though, no doubt. But I guess it's a bit like how a song like All Dressed Up For School (more of what might be thought of as a typical "Mike lead") is perhaps brushed off by Carl fans a bit, because it's him doing something - albeit rad - outside of his typical wheelhouse.

-  What would have happened if this song had been released as a single? I think it could perhaps have been a moderate hit, even though their popularity was in the toilet. Without fail, every person I play the song for is wowed by it.

- Would Mike have been more incentivized to continue in a psychedelic direction (I realize the song is lyrically more about enlightenment/TM, but still the vibe is trippy) if it had been a hit single? I'm picturing what happened with Kokomo, where we got a bunch of Kokomo sequels following its success.

- Did the band EVER give the song a second thought after its release? It seems that Mike only started playing it live a few years back in response to a growing group of hardcore fans reminding him that it was not just one of the band's best songs, but one that he wrote that he should deservedly be getting more praise for. I feel like they just made this brilliant song and then totally forgot about it for decades, complete. The band basically invented proto chillwave/dreampop/shoegeaze... then shrugged and forgot. Unreal.

- How much did Stephen Desper contribute to its sound? I imagine quite a bit. I am soooooooooo crossing my fingers for a vocals-only and a backing vocals w/ track version on a Sunflower reissue.

- I recall reading on this board that Mike actually started the song melodically, and Brian picked up the idea from Mike's initial idea. What's the source of this info?

Bumping this topic to see if anyone has any thoughts about this amazing song.

So very glad to have been gifted with the early version from '68 on the new set too.

To me it's just song. & straight song at that, which is to say I don't hear "psychedelic" in it, despite the sonic fx. I listened to sitar version, it's better in the way it's less "dirge" like than the Sunflower. But it's not very interesting w/o vocs, way too distinct drums & Eastern vibe isn't anything special. Sitar doesn't even sound very Eastern, it's not quite yet authentic.

Thanks for bumping! Christmas festivities kept me away from lurking/posting much.

I never really thought about it before, but in my mind I can hear Carl singing this with his Sunflower era voice and it would’ve been incredible. That being said, Mike brings such a “different” vibe to The Beach Boys style with this song (on top of the instrumental vibe being way different). I think this is one of the few songs where Mike sings really tenderly and melodiously.

Would this song have been a hit had it been released as a single? This brings me back to the interview with Fred Vail regarding the Sunflower era. He tried to get ‘Add Some Music’ in a station rotation and I think the DJ said “Fred, I can’t play that.” “Why not?” And the DJ gave him some response that either that the station didn’t want them playing The Beach Boys or he just refused all because the band just wasn’t popular anymore. I think the DJ came to this decision without even listening to the single - I could be wrong about that last part. The interview is on YouTube, I can’t listen to it at the moment though.

So had this been a potential killer hit it may not even had been able to get any air time.

One thing that has always bothered me about this song is the rather anti-climactic bridge before the last chorus. Most Beach Boys songs of this caliber have a really powerful vocal or instrumental section during the bridge. The one for AIWD seems to have some harmonies that don’t even fit together (to my ears) and it kinda jars me out of the hypnotizing trance the rest of the song puts me in.

Edit: wanted to add that despite my thoughts on the bridge I think this is one of the coolest Beach Boys songs of that era. And it is a testament to how diverse The Beach Boys could be while still making work that was miles ahead and above everyone else - even if their efforts went widely unheard.

Great topic (and points to consider) and I hope others contribute!

The bridge is one of my favorite parts!

This is one of the things I noticed about '68 sets. I've heard of this sitar version long before the actual release of the song, and I expected something that sounds like sitar in Beatles' "Gettin' Better", or even "Carnival of Sound" album by Jan & Dean.

Once I gave it a listen, however, I found the sitar sound in this version was barely noticeable - you would barely identify it as sitar if you hadn't informed beforehand. It sounds like...just an experiment in the making.

Crazy enough, I originally thought the banjo at the end of Cabinessence was also a sitar for the longest time

Me too.

Confession time: Mike’s lead is not only my favorite lead he did, it’s one of my favorite leads in the entire catalog. The production is exquisite, and Brian’s vocals are stellar. Listening to it from my generation, it’s amazing to hear Brian basically invent shoegazing .

Whatever he was trying to achieve, Brian accomplished it and then some.

It's worth pointing out that the Sunflower version was produced by Carl (both the basic track and the mixdown).

Some of us are convinced that it's not an actual sitar, but rather the Coral electric sitar, which is more of a guitar with sympathetic strings.

Right on, Billy. This was the song that made me fall in love with their music in 2002.

Certainly an anomaly which was unfortunate.

That and Cabinessence are in my top 5 for BB songs.

Gah, I wish I could love it! At 1:36-1:41 (where the “dit dit” vocals start) there’s just something that doesn’t sound right to my ears. Then again, there’s a part in the chorus of ‘Private Life of Bill and Sue” that I think is sung off-key that no one else hears, so I’m sure it’s my ears not translating the sound correctly.

It may be blasphemy, but while I do love the swimmy, echoey, ethereal production/mix on "All I Wanna Do", I'd also love to hear a bone-dry (or, well, dryer anyway) remix of the song to let the song itself (an Mike's lead) also come to the fore unfettered by that big wet production sound on the original mix.

I don't see this song as Psychedelic but more of a Sunshine Pop song with tons of delay and a crunchy keyboard texture. Things on Smile, Smiley Smile, 20/20 and even GV's have more of a classic Psych vibe than All I Wanna Do. It is closer to what the Turtles were doing but with an added production gauze that makes it trippier than the composition really is. Take all that away and Mikes vocal is pretty straight, the song pretty simple. Give Carl credit for pulling together an interesting mix that takes it to an artistic level that is unique in the Beach Boys canon.

I didn't get the Sunflower album until 1978. I'd picked up the Warners Good Vibrations: Best Of The Beach Boys compilation LP the year before, so I knew "Add Some Music", but otherwise all the Sunflower songs were knew to me - with one possible exception, that being "All I Wanna Do". I could SWEAR I'd heard that one being played at the local roller skating rink at least a couple of times in the previous three or four years. That may sound absurd, but I know for a fact that one or two of the local AM radio DJs in my small (population 45,000) Nebraska hometown were MAJOR Beach Boys fans. As evidence, I site the fact that "Darlin'", "Add Some Music", "Everyone's In Love With You", "Back Home" and "Just Once In My Life" got some intermittent airplay in the years '76-78 (don't ya just miss the days when jocks could slip in some records they really loved, rather than sticking to a corporate playlist)? AND, one of them scored a telephone interview with Bruce in the summer of '81, spreading it out over 5 installments of his weekday morning show one week. PLUS, when I got the Pet Sounds, 20/20 and Friends albums, also in '78, I recognized the instrumentals "Pet Sounds", "Let's Go Away For Awhile", "Nearest Faraway Place", and "Passing By" as selections used to fill the space immediately before the top of the hour, when the news would start, so as not to rudely interrupt a vocal song before switching to the news (again, those days are long gone, now that everything is programmed down to the last second). SO, I'm convinced that one of these Beach Boys fanatic air jocks must've been moonlighting as DJ at the local skating rink, and slipped "All I Wanna Do" in once and awhile! Isn't that cool?

I don't know about Carnival of Sound, but I don't think there is a sitar on Getting Better. There's definitely a tamboura, which was discussed in this thread:

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,26270.0.html

Yes - according to the book which comes with the big Sgt. Pepperdeluxe 50th Anniversary doorstop box set, the only sitar on Pepper is on "Within You Without You". However, the tamboura appears on both "Lucy In The Sky" and "Getting Better", and is quite audible on each.

That is SUPER cool!

Yes, Jon, I think it's really largely about the sonic trippy textures as well as the mix. I adore the sound of how near the end of the fadeout, the lyrics "my moon and the stars shine nightly" start to get out of sync from the song (I see this as a trippy artistic decision, although I suppose it's possible it was just a goof that sounds cool). I guess it's more just very interesting sonic textures and a mixing/production gauze that is fascinating.

It seems there's a whole generation of musicians who are gradually growing to see this song as a forerunner to modern psychedelic bands like My Bloody Valentine, Tame Impala, Slowdive, etc, and I definitely see a through-line too. It's unbelievavbly modern-sounding in certain ways, and it's particularly peculiar/baffling that The BBs never ever did another song that remotely sounds like it, in my opinion.

It's like they just reached into the future and gifted the world with a forerunner to a modern sound for one brief moment, then went back to 1969 and kept making music that sounded totally different from it.

Want to hastily point out that this song is hardly underrated by the voters at SS (as captured some years back)--it ranked second only to "This Whole World" in the best-songs-on-album polling. And the composite rankings culled from all albums puts it in the top 25 all-time. [EDIT: And it ranks even higher in the recent poll efforts, coming in at #7.]

Did Steve Desper go into any detail about this song in his first edition of Recording the Beach Boys? That might shed some light on exactly how the delay was applied, which could have been localized and balanced in the mix rather than something applied as a "total overlay" onto the tracks as a whole. There's got be a whole lotta Leslie in this somewhere...as we know, there was a LOT of sound experimentation and recording tricks going on in this time frame. It would be great if Steve would consider coming back on here and take a bow for the amazing work here, while possibly giving us a few more details about the recording session.

True - I think that among BBs fan(atics), people who are really familiar with the catalog, this song often ranks high up. It's just underrated in terms of being just another one of countless amazing BBs songs that the general public has no idea of whatsoever, and of course the band (until Mike's recent handful of performances) has treated the song like it didn't exist either.

Ha! So did I!  :o

Oh, yeah...he goes into this in a great bit of detail in his book.

FYI, from the AFM contract, the names on the original March 19, 1969 Gold Star tracking date for "All I Wanna Do" are as follows:

Carl Wilson (leader)
Jon Parks (contractor)
Hal Blaine (drums)
Mike Melvoin (keyboard)
Jimmy Bond (bass)
Al Casey (guitar)
Gene Estes (percussion)

Very interesting. When it says "Carl Wilson (leader)" I'm guessing that doesn't necessarily imply he played a note on the song, right?
Would this be an example of a song where likely no BBs played any instruments then?

Well, without hearing the session tape, I can't really say, but the track sheet lists two keyboard instruments (Roxy and piano), so it's possible that Carl played one of those (I would guess the dominant Roxy part), while Melvoin played the other - although one could easily be an overdub. Regardless, I believe Carl played the subsequent guitar overdubs (the twangy 12-string part that mimics the "sitar" part from the '68 version, as well as the somewhat buried fuzz guitar part in the bridge) - Al Casey most likely played the electric sitar part that is also kinda buried.

Off topic but reading that post reminded me of a question I’ve always had...what was the first song Carl played keyboard on?

I'd say Feel Flows has a similar trippy vibe and production as AIWD, and could probably considered truly psychedelic.

it just seemed no matter how cutting edge or experimental or FUCKING GREAT the material was, the boys just couldn't get the attention/airplay they deserved in this era.

I would say these three, recorded in this order in early '69:

Celebrate The News (Moog bass & ribbon controller overdubs)
Forever (Rock-si-Chord overdub)
and possibly All I Wanna Do (possibly Rock-si-Chord)

Others from this era include:
Add Some Music To Your Day (Chamberlin strings)
Our Sweet Love (clavinet)

Do I remember correctly in reading that Brian was not involved whatsoever in the sessions of the 1969 Sunflower version of All I Wanna Do, and that it was entirely recorded with Carl (no Brian presence)? And is Brian audible singing on the song at all?

I hear Brian's voice on there, and no doubt it's his vocal arrangement. Otherwise, evidence points to it being a CW production the rest of the way through.

I've never been able to say that I'm too sure I hear Brian on the song, but it's hard to ID since Carl and Brian sound so similar sometimes.

Out of curiosity, do you have any sections/timecodes that you hear Brian's voice? It'd be cool to have an "aha!" moment where I suddenly realize it's him after not realizing it all these years :)

If there's one thing this song proves, is the genius of CARL Wilson. I feel like most people give Brian so much credit (deservedly so) for creating some wow-tastic soundscapes, but this song is probably thought of (by its legions of shoegazer fans) as being a Brian Wilson production, with heaps of praise being thrown at him, without realizing that Carl and Stephen were huge parts (dare I say the primary parts?) of its unique sonic layered sound.

I've never been able to say that I'm too sure I hear Brian on the song, but it's hard to ID since Carl and Brian sound so similar sometimes.

Out of curiosity, do you have any sections/timecodes that you hear Brian's voice? It'd be cool to have an "aha!" moment where I suddenly realize it's him after not realizing it all these years :)


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From 1:27-1:43 (and it repeats later in the song), I believe the voice singing "All I wanna do" is Brian. I used to think maybe it's Bruce, 'cause the first part kinda sounds like him, but to me the last part of that line definitely sounds like Brian. And I think he's probably layered in the backgrounds elsewhere, as well.

From 1:27-1:43 (and it repeats later in the song), I believe the voice singing "All I wanna do" is Brian. I used to think maybe it's Bruce, 'cause the first part kinda sounds like him, but to me the last part of that line definitely sounds like Brian. And I think he's probably layered in the backgrounds elsewhere, as well.
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I think for awhile I had misheard that as Carl, but I do believe you are correct!

It’s definitely Brian.

Never realized it was Carl doing the production

I agree that the track is warped in a really good way, probably happy semi-mistakes in over-wetting and over-delaying and creating a very cool sonic traffic jam that if you've taken acid is probably familiar. Glad they left it weird and didn't try to clean it up. There is such a happy euphoric feel that then devolves into uncertainty and semi-cacophony. BTW I do hear Brian in the vocal mix for sure. I guess I have difficulty with this being thought of as pioneering psychedelia due to the fact that the composition just isn't and the fact that it was released quite a few years after the psychedelic genre had been defined and perfected and even moved on from by those who did it best. All I Wanna Do is either post-psychedelia impressionistic residue, or as you said it's pioneering something else entirely, like maybe surrealist synthy bliss rock. Anyway, great track, and it fascinated me the second it hit my ears back in the 70's.

That's an interesting and I feel accurate assertion with regards to its context and genre.

I think "pioneering surrealist synthy bliss rock" is the most accurate description I've ever heard for this song  :)

Mike's lyric: "Oo let these little words of love
Come romance and light your way" is sublime.

Almost as good as "I don't know where but she sends me there."

Actually, it's "become the lamps that light your way". According to the official sheet music.  :)
Even cooler!

Roxy?

Oh, thanks for the heads-up!! I hadn't figured that out until now...

Really? I have always thought it was a musical instrument related to the Chinese railway workers of the 1860s, whether that was from China itself or a local banjo. (Have you seen the grand coolie workin' on the railroad?)

Probyn gets the sound just right in this Smile performance.

https://youtu.be/q8fgLf3aPvA

The RMI Rock-Si-Chord, used on several Beach Boys productions from '68-'71.

.

For the "All I wanna do" lines, the "All I" kinda sounds like Bruce, but the "wanna do" convinces me it's 100% Brian. On the "My love is burning brightly" part, I hear more than one voice - maybe Carl singing with Brian.

.

Imagine having a time machine, and playing this song for the band in 1961 telling them in 8 short years, they'll sound like this. And then seeing their faces.

And then telling them where the album charted. They might have given up on the spot!

It just dawned on me that there is a great fuzz guitar part that is buried in the mix during the chorus.

I would've had to have heard this with previous listens, but I don't think I ever acknowledged it. Man there's so much in this mix, I don't want to say "buried" in the mix because much of the atmospherics are intentionally nestled lower in the mix over the vocals. All the more reason for that Sunflower boxset...

The production is reminiscent of Chip Douglas's work for the Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands (1968) -- that lush, shimmering, floating sound. Listen, for instance, to the song 'You Showed Me'.

Also would be a suitable description for the Cigarettes After Sex album, of which All I Wanna Do is surely a precursor if not a direct influence, to add to upthread references of the likes of  Tame Impala etc.


I'd never noticed that until Scott Totten decided to emphasise it for recent live performances...very cool that he did that though I personally like that it isn't too prominent in the studio version.

It's infinitely better, thank you  :smokin :afro

Calling this psychedelic is like calling the Kinks' song Lazy Old Sun psychedelic.  It has a soundscape similarly drenched with reverb and delay, but the lyrics and the intent were anything but psychedelic, even though Lazy Old Sun was at least produced in the prime psychedelic time period of 1967.  In fact the only song by the Kinks I would label as psychedelic is Lavender Hill, although Ray has subsequently claimed he was making fun of the hippies with that song (I'm not convinced that was the case).

Perhaps the song isn't best categorized as "Psychedelic" in terms of the Psychedelic 1960s Genre, where attributes of that as an actual genre are probably more clearly defined.
But to my ears, without a doubt, the song is very psychedelic in nature, in terms of a descriptive term (not necessarily adhering to the genre of the same name).

I feel like in modern music terms, people would at least partly apply "Psychedelic" in terms of a genre name to a song like All I Wanna Do, because I think "Psychedelic" has become more of a general term these days, without the parameters of 1960s Psychedelia.

Either way, the song and it's production/mix (props to Stephen and Carl!) was definitely pioneering some genre bending stuff, and seems to be a precursor to the genres of Shoegaze, Dreampop, and Chillwave, in a manner that I've never heard from any other artist of this era. Just breathtaking.

I'm so, so, soooo looking forward to hearing this song dissected on the next Copyright Extension Release.
Crossing my fingers for:

-a brand new remix of the full song
- a vocals-only mix
- a backing track only-mix
- a backing track + backing vocals only mix
- session outtakes

I'd die a happy man if we could get those.  :) :bw

I'm not sure about it being psychedelic.

It does seem to be considered a forerunner to shoegaze / one of the first examples of chillwave though

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chillwave

Not sure why you'd want "a brand new remix of the full song" - the released version is absolutely perfect, and any remix attempt would likely not live up to that.
I can see the value in releasing the other configurations you're hoping for.

I agree it is perfect as is. I guess I meant I've just heard "spruced-up" new/fresh mixes of BBs songs that breath even more new life into already amazing productions.

Mainly I suppose I am thinking of my past jaw-dropping glee upon hearing new stereo mixes of songs previously only heard in mono BW mixes, which are often revelatory. Please Let Me Wonder and the entire Wild Honey album being good examples to my ears.

I should also add that while I'd be curious to hear a fresh All I Wanna Do mix that adheres to the basis principles of the original mix, I am also one of (rare-ish?) fans of the 2013 MIC work done on Sail Plane Song, since we always have the original version on EH to listen to. So I wouldn't be opposed to a special extra spacey liberty-taking new mix on AIWD, either :)

Definitely. I myself was heavily influenced by it. I find it to be absolutely perfect in all aspects