http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article3277370.eceFrom The Sunday Times, February 3, 2008
Going for a song
Clare Teal on Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys
I was age minus 7 when Good Vibrations was released on October 10, 1966, and 16 when I heard it for the first time. It was track eight on the imaginatively titled Hits of the 60s cassette that dad had got free from the garage.
Up to this point, I feasted on, nay, lived for, the listening pleasure gained from a stack of big-band 78s from the 1930s and 1940s – and jazz. You can’t blame my parents – they preferred the Cliff Adams Singers. I was the sole member of my own “in” crowd – “in” for introvert, in posse and in a lot. I subscribed to Smash Hits as a form of protection.
Walking down the school corridor in a Dennis Potter daydream, I inserted said cassette into my brown personal stereo from Keighley market – stereo being a contradiction in terms, but then Good Vibrations was released in mono. Tracks one to seven passed me by, despite Bernard Cribbins’s best efforts, but from the opening “ahh” of track eight, I was rooted to the spot. I blushed, struggling to take in the complexities of all that sound, excited by the rhythmic patterns and overwhelmed by the vocal harmonies. Tears filled my eyes, and I remember laughing and looking around, desperate to find someone to share this experience with. The effect was extraordinary. It sounds melodramatic, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more perfect and immediate musical piece – “a pocket symphony”.
In 1966, Brian Wilson recorded the ground-breaking album Pet Sounds. Good Vibrations was written for that album, but needed more work, so was released later as a single, with the intention that it would go on Wilson’s next masterpiece, Smile. Throughout my life, in times of trouble and great joy, I have returned again and again to this track for comfort and inspiration.
We may never know the story of how this masterpiece was created. Legend says it took six months to record, in four studios, and there were between 15 and 20 versions, using many different instruments and vocal ideas. This was the first pop song to be assembled in this manner, and Wilson was credited with using the studio as an instrument in its own right, like an electronic gamelan, and just as spiritual. The use of instruments is astounding: theremin, harmonica, cellos, jew’s-harp, french horns, sleigh bells, organs and wondrous percussion, all placed beautifully over a jazzy shuffle.
Unlike Pet Sounds, Good Vibrations was an immediate commercial success; it inspired the Beatles to create Sgt Pepper, and sold more than 400,000 copies in four days. I have spent years marvelling at how Wilson focused his ideas and was brave enough to try the things he did and arrive at the conclusions he did.
The funny thing is, I don’t even know all the words, because they’re not important – it’s the soundscape that overwhelms me. Wilson is a true pioneer, a man who has never been afraid to eat lunch on his own.
Clare Teal’s new album, Get Happy, is released on February 25 on W14 Music
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