Let Him Run Wild

[Chris Brown]

Wow, two fantastic posts guys.  I fall somewhat in the middle of your viewpoints...the song is one of my favorites on "Summer Days," and I agree that the subject matter probably runs a lot deeper than it appears on the surface.  It's almost as if Brian is telling Audree to ditch Murry..."not being worthy of her" is an excellent way to describe that feeling.  Perhaps that is the reason Brian doesn't like the track now, as you suggested; God knows Brian can make excuses for not liking something all day long, although this is the same guy who doesn't like his "Surf's Up" demo vocal, so maybe he's telling the truth.

Busy, I do understand what you mean about everything being on the "road to Pet Sounds," but I think people use that album as a landmark because it's regarded as such an achievement.  Not saying that they never did anything good after that (although I would argue that they never reached the levels of Pet Sounds/Smile, but that's for another thread), but it makes for the most logical yardstick, so to speak.  Even if you don't think it was the group's pinnacle, it was almost certainly Brian's, and I've always found it interesting to listen to his work up to that point and pick out little things that showed where he was going.

I don't totally agree about Tony Asher either, but don't want to take the thread too far off topic.  I did enjoy reading your post though (yours too Matt).

[Foster's Freeze]

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. 

Well said!  Bravo!

[Matt Bielewicz]

Busy, we disagree on the merits of LHRW — what others hear as the 'heart-melting' BW vocal, I find a bit squawky and honky, almost a harbinger of his shouty early 21st century vocal delivery, especially on the 'Let Him RRRRRUNNNNN!!!!' line — but I agree absolutely with you that the 'steps to Pet Sounds' theory is hokum, or at the least over-simplistic.

I think you could fairly say, in very broad terms, that up to Pet Sounds and the SMiLE sessions the complexity of BW's arrangements tends to increase, and thereafter his contributions become less dense, before becoming less frequent into the 70s.

But viewing 61-66 as 'the climb to Pet Sounds' and 66 onwards as 'the decline after Pet Sounds' is just... complete bobbins. And yes, David Leaf's twofer notes are waaay guilty of this. I recall the notes accompanying 'The Lonely Sea' equate it to 'Don't Talk', as if the merits of this early ballad can only be weighed in comparison to... one of the ballads on Pet Sounds. Whereas The Lonely Sea is an excellent doo-wop/soul ballad-inspired tune in the vein of 'To Know Him Is To Love Him' in its own right... and completely different, musically speaking, to Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder).

I will say, though, that the emotional impact of the Murry/Audree subtext has never made me feel more interested in this song. But perhaps that's because I only learnt about that subtext for the first time... on this thread! Which means that of the perhaps 50 times I've heard LHRW, I was able to enjoy this aspect of the song precisely zero times 

And it doesn't do that much for me now. It's historically interesting, if it's true, but it's not majorly apparent in the lyrics (although you could say that this is one of the clever things about the song... it could be about Murry and Audree, it could be about a random real-life girl, or it could be a completely invented scenario). And I always think that if a song is supposed to pack a big emotional punch, but that to understand that punch, you first have to know the detail of the story behind the song, then it's not really doing its job quite right. In this case, if you have to sit a PhD in Wilson Studies to really 'get' LHRW, that makes it a bit self-indulgent rather than powerful in my book.

But of course, even if that is what inspired the song, you can still (as I suspect millions of people have) enjoy the song for its tale of a boy warning a girl about another, much less pleasant guy she's starting to go out with. And maybe that was what Mike and Brian had in mind: that Murry and Audree inspired the song in the first place, but they decided to put that raw idea to use as a song that lots of people could enjoy who had no idea about the individuals that inspired it. And as you say above, some of the lyrics have been more 'universalized' and are not appropriate in the context of Brian talking about his mother... ("Guess you know I've waited for you, girl" and "Before he makes you over; I'm going to take you over, girl") so maybe they did move on from the original inspiration, if indeed that's what it was, before finishing the song off.

My final gripe about LHRW is that I don't really understand the lyrics — they've always seemed equivocal to me. The verses warn the girl and push her to dump the guy, but then the chorus says 'let him run wild, he don't care', as if it's cool to let the uncouth boyfriend behave like an ape, and as if he is cool for 'not caring'. So like Luther and Claycc above (and Brian himself), I don't rate this one in the first rank of BW songs. For me, there are much better ones to choose from.

MattB

[the captain]

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. 

I see your point and agree on some level: to over-simplify any music by wholly discounting it as a stepping stone as opposed to a product isn't fair or accurate. I hope you didn't take my statement on LHRW (in which I did say it was a transitional piece ... and I don't back down from that. More on that momentarily.) as dismissive of the song.

But, it could also be argued that any artist's entire career is nothing but stepping stones to what history judges as their best work. It could be argued that an artist's post-apex career (again, based on how history views their work) is nothing but departures from that best work. I don't think that is to dismiss what else they do, but a simple line graph. If there is a high point, surely there are steps leading to it and falling from it.

More specific to this song, it is an example of Brian Wilson making music more along the lines of what he would do on what is arguably his best work (and inarguably among his best works), Pet Sounds. It is one of several songs in which he explored those non-traditional rock instrumentations and arrangements that he now-famously used later. I don't think that's to discredit the good work he did. But I, frankly (like Matt B) just am not struck by the quality of this song. It is a success for me as a study in arrangement and recording, but not in songwriting. Still, I love about half of that album. I love about two thirds of the previous album. I love maybe a dozen songs from their career before that.

Are those songs I love--I Get Around, Wendy, Don't Hurt My Little Sister, When I Grow Up, California Girls, Girl From NYC, etc.--extinct species on the evolutionary road to Pet Sounds? Maybe. It doesn't diminish their quality to say that the composer moved into other, generally regarded as better, territory. The beauty of recorded music is that we have fossilized artifacts. (I'm taking that metaphor a bit far, here...)

[Sheriff John Stone]

My final gripe about LHRW is that I don't really understand the lyrics — they've always seemed equivocal to me. The verses warn the girl and push her to dump the guy, but then the chorus says 'let him run wild, he don't care', as if it's cool to let the uncouth boyfriend behave like an ape, and as if he is cool for 'not caring'.

I always thought the chorus, "let HIM run wild HE don't care" was ALSO about the boyfriend.

One thing about the "step on the road to Pet Sounds" comment....I think, to be fair, whenever that comment was made/written, wasn't it usually accompanied with a preceeding or following sentence explaining why, such as "Brian's use of brass and strings", which, actually ARE Pet Sounds-like, and the song/album was the studio album directly preceeding PetSounds, and, LIRW would fit right in on Pet Sounds, which NOT MANY preceeding songs would. Wow, that was a mouthful....

Anyway, some chart trivia...I only recently noticed that Summer Days (And Summer Nights) went to No. 2 on the album charts. Didn't realize that...

[Dove Nested Towers]

Great thoughts here, folks!

I just want to weigh in on LHRW, interesting to learn that it was about their parents.
It is one of my very favorites, sublimely sophisticated in writing and production. I heard it early on in my fandom arc, and Summer Days on the whole, esp. LHRW, Summer Means New Love & And Your Dreams Come True (so beautiful but so short ) were especially evocative to my young ears and got an inordinate amount of listens (I recognized the quality of You're So Good to Me but found it somehow jarring at the time). Well put about the "transitional" songs being "extinct branches of a species" or whatever the exact quote was.

Brings back memories of the exquisite process of revelation that followed, finding "Today" (Dance, Dance, Dance) as a used album and grooving to Don't Hurt My
Little Sister, When I Grow Up, I'm So Young, Kiss Me Baby and She Knows Me Too Well (what a song!), discovering Break Away and The Little Girl I Once Knew on Spirit of America, We'll Run Away on the American Summer comp., turning on to the great PS, grooving to Sunflower on battered vinyl, first hearing Our Prayer and Cabinessence on a used vinyl copy of 20/20 after great anticipation (and not being let down in the slightest, quite the contrary). Later the 1st fragmentary and the later revelatory Smile boots!! The litany of epiphanies goes on and on, but LHRW was an early one and a fantastic one, I LOVE that song!

Thanks for the great memories, inspiration and bright spots in what has been in all honesty a difficult life so far, Brian et al. You really hit the ball out of the park back then! God bless you.

[Surfer Joe]

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

Please don't take this the wrong way, MattB, because I definitely don't mean it to be personally insulting or disrespectful- but this type of thinking drives me nuts.  (Granted we all do it, me included). Hear me out, this is a personal crusade.

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.

This is a very mild example of what I call "rearranging biases", for lack of a better term. Unless I greatly misunderstand you, it suggests that you have personally identified "Let Him Run Wild", which you don't like, as a track that must have therefore acquired its stature on something other than its merits.  Then you suggest some theories that would support your bias and explain why others don't share that bias. What could it be that blinded the rest of us?

To be entirely fair, I do this with Smiley Smile.  I just don't get most of that album, or why people love it, so I say to myself "They're reading some kind of false hipness into it", or whatever.  But that's just me rearranging my biases, and I hereby renounce it. You guys are fortunate enough to get that album, I'm simply not.

In more fairness, you do balance your thoughts at the end by saying "your mileage may vary" and "I'm in the minority"...but I submit to you that- by acclamation- (and I realize acclamation can be a slippery slope)- "Let Him Run Wild" is one of Brian's great, great, great songs, whether or not it reaches everybody the same.  And it gave me chills when I was nine, long before I had all that other baggage on board, before I could tell you which guy on the cover was Brian or Mike or Al and before I knew for sure who wrote what. It was the melody and the arrangement and the vocals.

I always put it this way: maybe I don't like opera much.  That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with me, or opera. I don't need to seek the reasons I don''t like opera because they're aren't any, and I can't discredit opera with a list of reasons.  It's not a think and reason thing, but you also can't feel and then reason your way backwards.

You'll never talk me into liking guacamole; I'll never talk somebody else out of it.  In a similar way, music is a totally emotional, sensory experience and when it happens, it happens on that level. 

You don't get this one, that's totally O.K.

Sorry for the rant, thanks to anyone who read and considered this far.

As to the lyrics, he is telling her in the chorus to "Let Him Run Wild" with someone else....and "one day he'll run into one...who's gonna hurt him, too..."..."Before he makes you over, I'm gonna take you over"... I always got that, but granted, it might have been made more clear.

[the captain]

You don't like guacamole? Listen, liking or not liking a particular Beach Boys song or member or album is one thing, but don't take it out on the innocent (and delicious) avocado. Sir, a duel!

Really good post, Surfer Joe. But I don't agree with you, especially that "music is a totally emotional, sensory experience and when it happens, it happens on that level." I would say that music can be a totally emotional, sensory experience and when it happens, it can happen on that level." But there are light years between those two sentiments. Different music works differently on different people in different situations for different reasons. That is one of the most amazing things about it. For example, I can absolutely marvel at the theoretical cleverness of certain Frank Zappa music on a totally non-emotional level: at times it is almost entirely intellectual, and no worse for it. Or someone can hit me both ways: Billie Holiday can be experienced either emotionally or intellectually. The Beach Boys work for me on similar, numerous levels.

[Surfer Joe]

Very interesting thoughts, Luther, and I was glad to see that you responded to this, because I always enjoy hearing what you think. I'll have to kick this one around, but you're right on one point, and I posted that particular thought too quickly and it's too absolute. It may be that music just works that way for me.

Maybe that's the gap I have with a few friends who are big Sondheim fanatics (don't get the wrong impression here! My old girlfriends will all vouch for me!).  I like and admire his work, but I don't like to have to sit and think about lyrics.  Some do.  And yet I love Dylan (maybe because it works for me without all the analysis).

But conceding your point there, I don't want that to distract from my larger point about making our logic backwards-compatible with our biases.  (e.g., Maybe this is why you mistakenly believe "Let Him Run Wild" is great.") Agree/disagree?

However, you're flat wrong about guacamole.  It objectively sucks and it's green. Meet me in the Wal-Mart parking lot in fifteen minutes, Marquis-Of-Queensbury rules.

*Not claiming this to be a fair representation of what Matt said.

[DonnaK]

I always thought the song LHRW, was about Dennis.............

[Sheriff John Stone]

Not disputing the claim, but where did the theory that LHRW is about Murry originate? An interview, book, inside unpublished source?

[Surfer Joe]

I remember it only from the Carlin book- unsourced, as far as I know.  It certainly could have appeared elsewhere.

[the captain]

Carlin says the song was "allegedly inspired by his father's extramarital affairs" and that Brian may have "been using the song as a subtle way to tell off his father." (p.73) But there is no source attributed.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Thanks Surfer Joe and Luther.

[Mahalo]

Don't have much time, but I had to say LHRW is KILLER! Another example of an underappreciated Beach Boys tune that kicks the merda out of just about anything else by anyone....Truly a dynamic track...

[Aegir]

I like the arrangement/performance better than the song itself, but it's a pretty good song. I actually heard the Imagination version before the original, and the '65-era voices really make the song for me.

[The Heartical Don]

I like the arrangement/performance better than the song itself, but it's a pretty good song. I actually heard the Imagination version before the original, and the '65-era voices really make the song for me.

Yup. For me, it might have replaced Sloop John B.

[busy doin nothin]

Okay, everybody . . . just listened to LHRW again a bunch of times in a row, and I have decided to resurrect the "stepping stone" theory, but with a twist:

The Beach Boys' entire career, indeed Brian Wilson's whole life, indeed the entire history of recorded music -- no, all of human civilization! -- was a progression toward, and then a subsequent regression from, "Let Him Run Wild."  It's that good.  I swear to god it brings tears to my eyes every time.

(Although I could probably make the same case for "Surf's Up '71," "Til I Die," "Holy Man," and a few others.)

By the way, has everybody seen this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9a000jHxqo -- a truly remarkable cover.  The only thing they couldn't quite replicate was the incredible magic of the voices -- Brian and the Boys, in 1965, were capable of vocals that can never be equalled.

[Mr. Cohen]

I love, love, love "SLC" because it's fun, fun, fun. Yeah, the lyrics are cheesy, but that backing track is like a symphonic Chuck Berry/Fats Domino collaboration in heaven and the soaring Beach Boys harmonies are simply majestic. Listen towards the end as the Beach Boys sing "Salt Lake City, we'll be coming... sooooon..." like five angels, and then the vibes kick in as the track fades out in a bombastic wall of sound. 'Wow' is all I can say.

Back to the topic of the lyrics, I actually think the concept works because it's so ridiculous. Who else would try to make a song like that about Salt Lake City of all places? It makes me laugh, and that's a good thing, isn't it? It's kind of like how "Don't Worry Baby" is about a car. I think the Beach Boys appreciated the humor in this and did it somewhat tongue in cheek. Brian himself said that he understood how silly the topic of "Don't Worry Baby" was when he was first singing it (such a heartfelt ballad towards a car, you'd think it was his wife). Remember, this is a guy that likes writing lyrics about eating vegetables and taking naps, and fans eat that up.

Sometimes "Salt Lake City" is one of my favorite Beach Boys songs. How about that Carol Kaye bass line?

[phirnis]

Couldn't agree more, Dada.
In fact it's silly (albeit musically glorious) songs like "Salt Lake City" that really turned me on to the Beach Boys after quite a few years of listening to overly wordy prog rock.

[Aegir]

It's kind of like how "Don't Worry Baby" is about a car. I think the Beach Boys appreciated the humor in this and did it somewhat tongue in cheek. Brian himself said that he understood how silly the topic of "Don't Worry Baby" was when he was first singing it (such a heartfelt ballad towards a car, you'd think it was his wife).

Don't Worry Baby isn't about a car, it's about the narrator of the song's girlfriend being worried about a drag race. Ballad of Ole Besty, on the other hand, is about a car.

[Surfer Joe]

Okay, everybody . . . just listened to LHRW again a bunch of times in a row, and I have decided to resurrect the "stepping stone" theory, but with a twist:

The Beach Boys' entire career, indeed Brian Wilson's whole life, indeed the entire history of recorded music -- no, all of human civilization! -- was a progression toward, and then a subsequent regression from, "Let Him Run Wild."  It's that good.  I swear to god it brings tears to my eyes every time.

(Although I could probably make the same case for "Surf's Up '71," "Til I Die," "Holy Man," and a few others.)

By the way, has everybody seen this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9a000jHxqo -- a truly remarkable cover.  The only thing they couldn't quite replicate was the incredible magic of the voices -- Brian and the Boys, in 1965, were capable of vocals that can never be equalled.

Another great post from you, bdn.  I don't see why people get all hung up about the phrase "stepping stone to Pet Sounds"-  as mentioned, it's explained perfectly when you think about how easily it would fit on that album- and not many other earlier tracks would have.  Heck, "Sloop John B" was a stepping stone to Pet Sounds, but nobody will be bothered by that statement because it actually made the album.

As to "Salt Lake City", it was initially just done as a thank-you to their rabid fans there, right? I love the song and  I love the lyrics. Makes me feel like looking at the cover shots for All Summer Long makes me feel.

[cinecammusic]

Just an addtional thought regarding 'Let Him Run Wild" being about Murray etc...  is followed by a song called "I'M BUGGED AT MY OLD MAN"!!!! That's NO accident (IMHO).

[The Heartical Don]

Okay, everybody . . . just listened to LHRW again a bunch of times in a row, and I have decided to resurrect the "stepping stone" theory, but with a twist:

The Beach Boys' entire career, indeed Brian Wilson's whole life, indeed the entire history of recorded music -- no, all of human civilization! -- was a progression toward, and then a subsequent regression from, "Let Him Run Wild."  It's that good.  I swear to god it brings tears to my eyes every time.

(Although I could probably make the same case for "Surf's Up '71," "Til I Die," "Holy Man," and a few others.)

By the way, has everybody seen this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9a000jHxqo -- a truly remarkable cover.  The only thing they couldn't quite replicate was the incredible magic of the voices -- Brian and the Boys, in 1965, were capable of vocals that can never be equalled.

Another great post from you, bdn.  I don't see why people get all hung up about the phrase "stepping stone to Pet Sounds"-  as mentioned, it's explained perfectly when you think about how easily it would fit on that album- and not many other earlier tracks would have.  Heck, "Sloop John B" was a stepping stone to Pet Sounds, but nobody will be bothered by that statement because it actually made the album.

As to "Salt Lake City", it was initially just done as a thank-you to their rabid fans there, right? I love the song and  I love the lyrics. Makes me feel like looking at the cover shots for All Summer Long makes me feel.

Wasn't it a commercial thing way back then too, to namecheck a city (or more than one) to encourage sales in that area? Chuck Berry used to do that too, and the Beatles reportedly sold 200 million units of 'Back In The U.S.S.R.' in the Soviet-Union.

[The Heartical Don]

It's kind of like how "Don't Worry Baby" is about a car. I think the Beach Boys appreciated the humor in this and did it somewhat tongue in cheek. Brian himself said that he understood how silly the topic of "Don't Worry Baby" was when he was first singing it (such a heartfelt ballad towards a car, you'd think it was his wife).

Don't Worry Baby isn't about a car, it's about the narrator of the song's girlfriend being worried about a drag race. Ballad of Ole Besty, on the other hand, is about a car.

Dave Marsh theorized that it was about the anxiety that precedes the first night of sex.