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Please Let Me Wonder has always been a favorite of mine, lyrically and musically. Especially the lyrics, all that romantic uncertainty. However, the song's title and chorus has bugged me - "Please Let Me Wonder." Any guy who's been in that situation has known it's terrible. You don't want to wonder, you want answers. You do all the things mentioned in the song with this constant feeling of wanting to jump out the window. It's never made sense to me. Is it some weird kind of masochism? I just don't get it. It's always been to me personally "Please Stop Fucking Around Because it's Driving Me Insane."

Its a misspelling IMO - the guy is playing head games with the girl.

No doubt, Brian meant to say,  Please Let me Wander....

I rather like it because it's so open to interpretation. I doubt that Mike (or whoever you think actually wrote the lyrics of PLMW) was musing on how the listener would interpret the true meaning of a rather simple-sounding love song (but oh so complex - not the point though).

While you see the wonder being frustrating, I see it a different way - the narrator is being neurotic - he's already with her, but somehow sees himself so low on the totem pole that he just wants to be in the league of being able to wonder about having a chance at her, let alone actually fulfill his fantasies. He wants to be allowed to fantasize! It's kind of novel, and one of the reasons The Beach Boys are in a league of their own, because they have a way of doing something with a pop song about love that no other group or artist could really do in the same way.

The music fits live a (mike) glove with the lyrics. There's this sense of melancholy, but also a wistfulness and a shy yearning. This is one of the Beach Boys finest achievements, and no wonder Brian likes it so much.

I've also read another take on the song's true meaning (on this board, I think) that touches on the fact that the song could be about sexual inadequacy....

I thought it more about unrequited love - being let down would be even worse than the state of longing, of uncertainty.

The first verse seems to describe the moment when that longing changes, when he confesses his love to the girl, or at the least makes his move, he no longer has this security of being in a classic unrequited love affair. It's going to sink or swim. And what the song deals with is how he'd rather this state of uncertainty, if you could call it that, kept going, because knowing that The Girl could love you if only she knew is ignoring the prospect that maybe she doesn't love you at all. Deep down, he's scared it's going to sink. Maybe he knows. You could easily write the lyric as a powerpop tune, but Brian wrote it as a ballad which suggests the failure of the love in question.

There's the line 'You'll never know what we've been through', which of course she wouldn't know, maybe they haven't been through anything! But she hasn't been loving him from afar, she hasn't known the longing and pain of not having Him. There's a line in a Spiritualized song which goes 'And I know the things we do/mean more to me than you' which I equate with it.

What is of course amazing is that 'I Love You', the crux of the entire song, what he's been building up to say, hemming and hawwing over, is tossed off right at the end of the song, blink and you'd miss it.

Interesting - but then again, is this something the narrator actually says to the girl, or yet another feeling he can't express vocally?

You never know, of course - even another round of the chorus would put into the unspoken feeling camp, but the song abruptly fades out.

Wondering is a whole lot better than the truth sometimes. At least to me.
I think that's what it's all about.

I agree, Letsgoawayforawhile.

"Please let me wonder...if I've been the one you love, if I'm who you're dreaming of."

That's the key part, in a way: he's telling her, "please let me wonder if you really love me, even if it isn't true. Don't spoil this moment". That connects to the first verse particularly: "I always knew it'd feel this way" And his "please forgive my shaking" is his nervousness both because he is finally alone with the one he loves and because he's anxious to know if she loves him or not. He's about to tell her he loves her, but he "can't make [him]self say what [he] planned to say". And he's worried that she won't reciprocate. So he pleads to her to let him wonder, let him believe anyway, even if she doesn't feel the same way about him as he does her.

Helluva lyric! More depth than normal pop songs in 1965.

I think you guys are spot-on.  It's a very unique take on the oft-written about unrequited love topic, putting us right in that moment where this guy is about to confess his feelings for the girl he's been pining for.  Having recently been in this particular situation myself, I appreciate how brilliant the lyrics are more than ever.

I've always been particularly struck by the "you'll never know what we've been through" line.  He's been fantasizing about this hypothetical perfect relationship - he's already played it out in his head a million times, yet he knows that even though he's already in that place, she has no idea.  It's a very difficult thing to have fantasies like that going on in your head, all the while knowing that the person you're fantasizing about is completely unaware, and probably doesn't share the same dreams.

As an aside, the instrumental bridge to this song makes a fantastic mood change.

Looking over the lyrics, it almost seems like a fantasy, like the guy is imagining a relationship with a woman he doesn't even have an actual relationship with.

Thanks for this guys. I don't really tend to listen to / respond to / amalyse lyrics, I'm just interested in the music. I'd never actually given these lyrics much thought.

But you've all given me a whole new appreciation for this song. Unrequited love, of course!

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It's about not opening the box because a dead cat is difficult to dispose of.

What if the cat was mummified?

I would have loved it a lot more if it wasn't shuffled together with Kiss my baby and She knows me too well....those 2 songs really outshine PLMW

There were some 'original/alternate' lyrics discussed here awhile back.  It seems to me that these alternate lyrics could be Brian's, and then revised to the released lyrics by Mike or the two of them together.  Are these lyrics even legit? Anyway, here are the lyrics.

Now here we are together
This would've been worth waiting forever
I always knew I'd it'd feel this way

And please forgive my shaking
Can't you tell my heart is breaking
I'm so afraid of what you'll say Can't make myself say what I planned to say

(Baby) Please let me wonder
(If I've been the one you love)
Please let me wonder
(If I'm who you're dreaming of)
Please let me wonder

I know this may be the wrong time I built all my goals around you
I've loved you such a long time That some day my love would surround you
And just loving you won't make you stay You'll never know what we've been through

And somehow the truth doesn't matter For so long I thought about it
When I know my dreams could be shattered And now I just can't live without it
So please don't say what you want to say This beautiful image I have of you

(Baby) Please let me wonder
(If I've been the one you love)
Please let me wonder
(If I'm who you're dreaming of)
Please let me wonder...I love you

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,8214.msg288271.html#msg288271 (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,8214.msg288271.html#msg288271)

Or, as Douglas Adams wrote so brilliantly, what if the cat isn't there at all, has simply got totally fed up with being kept cooped up in a box and gassed occasionally, and has taken the first opportunity to hoof it through the window?

Definately some great analysis here but like a couple of other posters mentioned I hadnt paid that much attention to the lyrics either.

The whole second side of Today (LP) is magicial.

Some of my favorite BB tunage.

I've always assumed the narrator was just very insecure with the girl/boyfriend they've already got, and are idealising them whilst worrying that they're unfaithful, rather than being about love that isn't reciprocated. Perhaps that idealisation by the narrator repulses the significant other.

Some great discussion of the lyrics to this track on this thread: very thought-provoking, thanks. However, I do want to just make the point that the above post is getting into the realms of personal taste — and as the Rank The Tracks threads show, you rarely ever get Beach Boys fans to agree about the relative merits of the tracks on BB albums! Myself, I think She Knows Me Too Well is the best track on Today, and I put Please Let Me Wonder very close behind it... but Kiss Me, Baby is much more '...Meh' to me.

I mean, this is the Today album we're talking about, here, so it's still pretty GOOD '...Meh', very good in fact — but I think it's '...Wonder' and '...Too Well' that shade 'Kiss...'.

But that's just my tuppeny three farthings' worth...

Is it just me or do those alternate lyrics strengthen my point  :p

For those that care about these things, there was an alternate master mix of "Please Let Me Wonder" prepared with the vocals going all the way through the fadeout.  I have a Western Recorders 10" acetate of it, and there is a Capitol 12" acetate of the entire Today LP with that version in the track lineup.

Lee

Boy, now there's something (alternate PLMW) that should be on the MIC box...

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My favourite BBs ballad and quite possibly the most gorgeous human(e) vocals ever recorded (track, backing vocals etc. are top-notch as well, obviously). :love

While we'd never expect (or probably even want) everyone to have the exact same rankings of the songs, the results from the "ranking the tracks" exercises are (IMO) worth examining for what they tell us about the consensus. With that in mind, I did some more compiling last night and here is what we have for the Today! LP (this is all normalized to a 1-10 scale):

Please Let Me Wonder (8.4)
---------------------------------------------8
Kiss Me Baby (7.7)
She Knows Me Too Well (7.5)
In the Back of My Mind (7.4)
When I Grow Up (7.1)
---------------------------------------------7
---------------------------------------------6
Dance, Dance, Dance (5.3)
Do You Wanna Dance (5.1)
Good to My Baby (5.02)
---------------------------------------------5
I'm So Young (4.2)
---------------------------------------------4
Don't Hurt My Little Sister (3.4)
---------------------------------------------3
Help Me Ronda (2.98)
---------------------------------------------2
---------------------------------------------1
Bull Session (0.9)

As mentioned elsewhere, the limitations of ranking LP tracks rather than grading (on, say, a 1-5 scale) is that each LP is considered to be equal in quality, but these results are still interesting, particularly if one looks at the info that can be derived from the patterns in the voting (as opposed to merely the average scores). There's also a bigger (and somewhat exaggerated) difference in the numerical values due to the big differences in range.

Of the top-ranked songs, there is a good bit more disagreement about ITBOMM and KMB than with SKMTW. People who like the former two REALLY like them--they put them in the top two more often than SKNTW, but there are more people who rank them lower. (A different, and possibly preferable form of weighted averaging puts KMB and SKMTW in a virtual dead-head, which is exactly how I personally ranked them--a tie.)

What also emerges from the data is that Side 2 of Today (when we eliminate the near-perfect low score for "Bull Session With the Big Daddy") has the highest ranking of any LP side in the BBs albums (through BBLY), at 7.05. Side two of Surf's Up ranks high at 6.88; the only other LP sides averaging over six are Side 2 of 20/20 (6.43), Side 2 of Holland (6.13), and  Side 1 of Friends (6.07). Again, this might be a good bit different if we were grading the songs on some absolute scale rather than ranking them relative to the LP on which they happen to reside.

To return to the topic of PLMW, the really fascinating question is who altered the lyrics from the early version with Mike singing lead? Did Brian ever actually write lyrics without Mike and then let Mike revise? Or did Brian sometimes tweak some of Mike's word choices? One suspects that there's a little of each that happened, with it being mostly that Mike heard a track or was given a melody and would go off and write them, then bring 'em back, at which point Brian might have some level of editorial input.

I don't remember seeing this specific issue explored here at the board--if there's a thread that does so, please let me know.

I'm the same, never even try to analyze the text - I'm more concentrating on music, various arrangements, sound effects, who plays on what etc. But what I read here is wonderful & cleverly written. Generally, Smiley Smilers never fail to amaze me by their numerous variety of talents. Anyway, what I want to say is that PLMW isn't my favorite Today! track, let alone of the entire BBs catalog, but all these descriptions sort of help to see the music in different colors. Also, the song turns from "casually sad" into "hauntingly melancholic". That's why Brian sounds a bit too dreamy than usually, I know now. Thank you, dear friends!