The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hey guys,

I was listening to the BBC version of 'God only knows', the one with a bunch of people singing one liners from the song. Anyways, putting aside how proud it made me as a BB fan to see Brian getting so much acknowledgement, I got to say I think this 'version' is awful.

And its not the production, nor how they reworked the song. Its really how it was sang.

I've noticed in other cover versions of the song, like from Zoey Deschanel, Taylor Swift, the guy from American Idol, how everyone tends to make the song mellow, super-sweet. Almost as if its this beautiful, romantic  power-ballad, alas something Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston (or whatever) would have done.

But its not!!!

First of all its not a love song, but one about insecurity and a cry for help for someone to stay with you. I may not always love you...the first line alone sets the tone of the song from the start. This is really closer to John's 'Help', Depeche Mode's 'In your room' or a little nice song from U2 called 'Spanish Eyes', where the singer is acknowledging they are a mess and that someone (wife, lover) is their lifeline and they've developed this critical dependency with them.

So whenever I see contemporary singers doing this song, eyes closed, hands over their hearts, with this awful romantic expression in their faces...man, I feel they just missed the point completely.

Anyone else feels like me? Or am I wrong and GOKs is really something akin to 'My heart will go on'  :(

Not sure l see your point.

<<First of all its not a love song, but one about insecurity and a cry for help for someone to stay with you. I may not always love you...the first line alone sets the tone of the song from the start. This is really closer to John's 'Help', Depeche Mode's 'In your room' or a little nice song from U2 called 'Spanish Eyes', where the singer is acknowledging they are a mess and that someone (wife, lover) is their lifeline and they've developed this critical dependency with them.

So whenever I see contemporary singers doing this song, eyes closed, hands over their hearts, with this awful romantic expression in their faces...man, I feel they just missed the point completely.>>

Songs, like screenplays or plays, mean many different things to many different people.  And they can be interpreted in many different ways by performers.  Songs - standards - have been interpreted in a variety of ways by musicians and vocalists.  Listen to La Mer by Charles Frenet, heartfelt and emotional, then compare it to the jazz interpretation by Italian performer Pasquale Panella. 

Or On The Street Where You Live.  The Vic Damone version is, for me (my interpretation), the best musical representation I have ever heard of a guy's joy at finding out he's head over heels in love.  But Dean Martin's swinging version from the same year is nothing less than a playful tune about a guy cruising a particular street for a girl he's been flirting with.  Again, my interpretation. 

And what do these two songs have in common with God Only Knows?  They are classic pop standards.  And this new BBC video, to me, serves as another reminder that God Only Knows is a true standard. one of the great songs of all time.  People will be playing and singing it for generations to come.  Good for Brian.  And good for the rest of us.

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,8214.0.html

Thanks for reading my post, Andrew. Let me try again and explain myself.

I feel that Brian made a very complex song in GOK. Not just from the composition/production side, but in the way he had it performed. The sweetness in Carl's voice is not meant to be romantic, but emotional in an almost apologetic kind of way. I feel love but I also hear frustration, anger, a feeling of losing control to someone else.

To get this sensation, the song has to be listened in the context of Pet Sounds. If you hear it after 'You still believe in me', 'That's not me', even the instrumental  LGAFAW, the song shines a different light than when heard standalone. Its part of a narrative from the point of view of a young guy, 'trapped' in a relationship that became his only lifeline to reality. I read somewhere that Pet Sounds was an album of sad songs with happy melodies. And I guess that's part of its beauty and what has made it so special to so many people.

Now, when the song is done outside of this narrative concept, it becomes a plain lovesong, one beautifully composed and arranged, but it loses that emotional complexity. There's no linking to the insecurity narrative that drives Pet Sounds when people like Pharrel Williams, One Direction and such do the cover in the BBC version. It sounds plain, lifeless, to my hears.

To be fair, when the BBs did the song live, although always amazing and a highlight, that complexity was also partially lost. What saved those performances were the rest of the voices, the fugue at the the end...Mike, Al, Bruce at their prime, they really lifted the song live. The times I've seen Brian playing live GOK I dont get the same emotional delivery that you hear in the 60s and 70s live shows.

Anyways, I guess this is what I was trying to say. Maybe I'm very, very wrong, but its just how I felt.

Thanks for listening  :)

OP:  I'm pretty sure AGD was making a joke based on your thread title.

oops miss'd that one  :P

Sorry whats this about? Couldnt find the relation...

Well, I think you've missed the point by not including the immensely important lines that come next in the song.

.

Yeah. Every 'mainstream' cover of a Beach Boys song is really poor. That's why you're supposed to stick with the obscure Japanese covers that completely reinvent the songs as avant-folk, IDM, or noise pop. David Garland also did a bang-up job on his album.

Hmmm, can't argue with that one. Now.... when do we get to hear Yamataka Eye cover Wild Honey?
 

It is a link to the thread entitled "Thread for various insignificant questions that don't deserve their own thread!"

This taps into a current bugbear of mine about specific types of cover versions. I can't stand what I would describe as 'ironic' covers where an artist associated with a particular style of music covers a song from a totally different genre. They gleefully turn the song on its head or, to borrow that horrible X factor cliche - 'make it their own' - but often at the expense of all subtlety, craft and soul that went into the original.

If you don't know what I'm going on about google 'Sunday girl where is my mind' to hear just how horrifically somebody can murder a Pixies song. Just like you describe Schiaffino, she drenches the song in overought emotion and misses the subtle way the original singer and production conveyed angst and a sense of dislocation. I thought this was the nadir of the ironic cover until I heard Lo Fang's 'You're The One that I Want.' The original is a masterpiece of fun, pop music - genius masquerading as dumb, throwaway, low-brow pop. Lo Fang, too, misses the point and feels the song needs to be achingly, beard-strokingly, earnest - but he throws away all the best chord changes in the process.

So I can empathise with your assessment. Personally what I enjoyed about the GOK cover was just how much of an impressive tribute it was to Brian and the BBs although I share your disdain for the cover itself.

I agree that they miss the point, I see the song a little different than you do, but I agree that it's not some Celine Dion love ballad.  I've bitched about it on here before, I even bitched about it on that thread you're talking about with the American Idol guy's version.


Now with that said, I'm a Libra and we always see every side of everything... so you have to remember in the back of your head that just as you and I see the song slightly differently, other people interpret the song completely differently!

Lets say you have a teenager who yeah, may not *get* the song, but it reminds them of their father that passed away.  Who the f*** are you or I to say what that song is supposed to mean to them? 

Ultimately music is art, and art will ALWAYS be open to the interpretation of the viewer. 

Thanks, appreciate your comments.

Interesting find in the GOK BBC cover thread:
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/27/must_viral_videos_be_so_bad_admit_it_god_only_knows_is_the_worst/

I couldnt agree more with the author. Also couldnt stop laughing about the Dave Grohl bit (Kurt punching him in the face  :-D for acting like Celine Dion).

Feeling validated  ;D