The Smiley Smile Message Board

From everything I heard, this was initially a backing track.

Does anyone know if Brian ever wrote a melody for it, and if so, has it ever appeared anywhere?

There's never been solid evidence that there was a melody written.  Just conjecture based on vague statements, the "working title" "The Old Man and the Baby", etc.

This track is so great but I don't like it placed in front of Sloop John B.. LGAFA into GOK is a much smoother transition, IMO.

Back in the day of cassettes (remember those?), whenever I would put "Pet Sounds" on tape, I would ALWAYS leave off Sloop John B.  So in my parallel universe, side one ends with LGAFAW  and side 2 begins with GOK.  To this day, if I forget to program out SJB on CD, I'm always caught off guard when it begins.  Nothing wrong with it, it just doesn't belong on that album.

Yeah, why would anybody want one of Brian's best arrangements and most incredible productions on his best album? ??? ;D

I agree. "Let's Go Away For Awhile" sounds great AFTER "Sloop John B". It SOUNDS like sailing music, going over the ocean. And then, of course, it could segue into "God Only Knows". There's a lot about the sequencing of Pet Sounds that I don't understand.

Some total speculation on my part, but.... I often wondered if Brian felt pressured to submit Pet Sounds to the record company because of a time issue, and didn't take the time to finish/add vocals to "Let's Go Away For While" AND "Pet Sounds". I know the early albums had some surfing instrumentals, but I thought it was interesting that Pet Sounds had TWO Brian Wilson-composed instrumentals.

I'm a huge fan of "Sloop", but he does kinda have a point.  It's the only cover song on the album and doesn't fit thematically with the rest of the album. 

That's not to say I'm not glad its on Pet Sounds...its a brilliant arrangement and production (and the vocals only mix gives me chills every time).  I think the production is what makes it work...if nothing else, Pet Sounds is a production concept album.  There are other underlying themes, of course, but ultimately they are brought together by Brian's other-worldly production.

Thematic shmematic.  Amusement Parks USA has nothing to do with Let Him Run Wild.  I never understood the compulsive need to have Pet Sounds be a concept album.  I couldn't care less.  If an album has great songs, and great production, you have me.

Some time ago, I asked Tony Asher about any lyric to "LGAFAW" and he told me he didn't recall writing one, although they may (his emphasis) have discussed it. From what I recall of the history of Pet Sounds, the gameplan was always for two instrumentals.

And considering how many people have suggested that in an alternate world Brian would have gone on to do film scores, it's surprising to me how there's people who kind of think of Brian's instrumentals as filler or throwaway.  Not that anybody here does.  He could have done an instrumental album at that point.  That would have been pretty cool, actually.

I agree totally...if you put together the best of Brian's instrumentals, along with his best instrumental tracks for completed songs, you'd really wonder why he never wandered down that road further.  Brian is obviously best known for his vocal arranging skills, but it is easy to forget sometimes how brilliant a musical arranger he was.

"There's a lot about the sequencing of Pet Sounds that I don't understand."

I do agree with you.  But, as far as Sloop John B is concerned, keep in mind that record companies liked to place the "hits" on an album in certain key places.  Obviously, the two top slots go to the first song on side A, and the first song on side B.  Having both of these slots filled up by the double "A" sided single of WIBN/GOK, the next logical place is either the second track on side one, or, as in the case of Pet Sounds, the last track on side two. 

Capitol also pulled this same move by placing "Help Me Rhonda" as the last track on side one of the Summer Days/Nights LP.  That LP sequencing is a bit strange, as it leads off with a non-hit "The Girl From New York City"... one would have thought "California Girls" might have been a better opener.   

But... the inclusion of "Sloop" on Pet Sounds was Brian's idea, and at a time wher "Sloop" wasn't even released as a 45, much less a hit.

Getting on my soapbox a bit, it's been established since about 1999 that "Sloop" wasn't forcibly included by Capitol as the latest hit, and it's not arcane knowledge for the chosen few... but still it gets trotted out, including in the liners to any Pet Sounds reissue since then. That's unacceptably shoddy research and writing, and David Leaf is a better writer than that, so I can only assume that it's because Brad Elliott demolished the myth that facts are being ignored. End of small rant.

I have a feeling the play order was entirely Brian's idea too.

The man was in control at that point, and would be for a few more months, at least.

I know you were only speculating, but I seriously doubt this would be the case cause as far as I know, those two songs were some of the first songs that Brian recorded (or began recording) for Pet Sounds (I think it was only Sloop John B and You Still Believe In Me that he had already started)...so surely he would've put vocals on them (if that was his plan) by the time Pet Sounds was completed?

!00% agree!

IMO most of the concept stuff is reverse projection of an idea that sort of took hold in '67 and thereafter.

Clearly people try to read a "story" into this album that I don't completely buy into.  Each song certainly stands on it's on and there are no recurring musical themes or segues.

I've held both views on this one.  Great as it is, "Sloop John B" used to break the mood and the style for me quite a bit; it just broke the particular spell in order to cast a different one, and then on side two we returned to the former trance on the first note.  Brian's melodies at that point are so powerful and distinctive that anything he didn't write is a huge contrast, no matter how good it is.  For a while I think it even hurt my appreciation of a great song.

But for some time now that has all struck me as needless.  "Sloop John B" is the soda that makes the scotch. (And fittingly, I guess, I used to drink my scotch straight). The album might be too rich without that very pleasant three-chord (very slight) hiccup.  I actually think SMiLE could have used the same, to relieve some of the tension.

And this is also what the instrumentals do. As great as they are on their own terms and in every way, they also serve as a resting spot for all the rich vocal layering that precedes and/or follows them.  That's great design.  As a graphic designer, I usually try to balance dense areas of visual information with flat patches of one color, so I don't give the viewer a headache.  Resting space. If there had been vocal versions of these songs, they'd have made great bonus tracks or B-sides, but leave Pet Sounds alone...it's perfect.

Also, great instrumentals are kind of like great fiction- people think if a book is really great, it deserves the ultimate honor of being made a film and is not complete until this has been done.  But not all novels need to be filmed (Catcher In The Rye, Lolita), and "Wipe Out", "Peter Gunn", and "Pet Sounds" don't need lyrics.  They're complete.

Love and Murgatroid to all,

Mr. Fun At Parties

There's more than 3 chords in Brian's arrangement of Sloop, for the record.

Oh, I know- and believe me, three-chord is not a put-down in my book by any means- as I pop in a Wanda Jackson CD.  But the essence of the composition is three chords, in contrast to the other material. Pause while I count the chords in "GOK": I make it about twelve, about seven of which I've never heard of here in Mel Bay land, but I have no idea about the strings- bridge.

A lot of people find it a real change-up pitch for whatever reason. The question is whether that's a good thing.  Now I think it is.

One point - today we pop in a cd or play a file off the computer and there goes Pet Sounds front to back in one glorious sweep.  I'm old enough to remember playing albums on the old hi fi.  It was closer to two small performances - side 1.....stop flip....side 2.   In the 60s it wasn't uncommon to "stack" a number of lps...play one side of each and then flip the whole batch over and listen to the second side.

I'm positive that this greatly influenced how Brian would sequence the album.  The actual flipping of the record sort of "broke the spell" as it were.

Absolutely right, and a great point.  Many, many nights in the eighties- literally hundreds of times- I went to sleep at night to Pet Sounds side one or two- whichever side I hadn't heard the night before. The album is really a different experience when it's rigidly start to finish than the old days of two independent acts.  Some albums even tried to reject the 1 & 2 or A & B idea with stuff like "this side" and "that side"...

Two more albums that are really different when the sides-factor is removed are Who's Next and Abbey Road.

I don't get all the hate Sloop John B gets. Its a fantastic song. Whoever thought of putting in, Capitol or not, it deserves to be there. The order of the album is perfect, except that Trombone Dixie would have been a FANTASTIC closing piece after Caroline, No. Because Pet Sounds is this whole youth drama and so TD would put everything in full circle. Yes, it sucks a girl changes but there is HOPE!! I sound stupid I know, just my lousy opinion. Besides, S.J.B. does not detract from the album. Seems like nothing can please the hardcore fans eh?  ::)

I agree totally...if you put together the best of Brian's instrumentals, along with his best instrumental tracks for completed songs, you'd really wonder why he never wandered down that road further.  Brian is obviously best known for his vocal arranging skills, but it is easy to forget sometimes how brilliant a musical arranger he was.
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Right and more's the pity. But, all a person needs to do to "remember" or understand it is read those captivating session out-takes the c-man puts together (or just listen carefully). Incredible stuff, those transcriptions, describing the intricacy, meticulous detail, each little part he developed, this instrument coming in on THIS beat for THIS MANY notes, etc. the time spent, and the astonishing music that came out of all that.  It is depressing how many people dismiss the music as just simple "rock and roll" or "pop music" or something.  Maybe because the finished product all sounds so easy (if that's the right word) to the average listener, nobody appreciates what really goes on in that head of Brian's and in the studio and what a genius he is.

When I read the above sentence, I couldn't help but think of Jan Berry also....

Yeah.  Besides having a reportedly near-genius IQ, his arranging and producing skills were superb - and few knew it. Jan has been called one of the guys Brian really learned the trade from, perhaps more so than from Spector, since he could work one-on-one with Jan as a friend.  With both of them, their work was so good you almost took it for granted and never really knew what was in those tracks.  Break apart even the "simplest" hot rod tunes, for example, and you have got some incredible stuff going on with key changes, chord voicings, odd progressions, time signatures, multiple instrumentation that no way will sound good together - until you hear the finished cut and then, wham, of course - background vocals going every which way but the place you think they're going, etc.  Brian can make you think the melody, even the lead vocal, is going up the scale, "like it is supposed to", for example, then you finally realize after ten listenings, nope, it went the other way. Same with the instruments.  Too bad neither one ever got enough credit for that part of their art.

And the other thing is that for all their natural talent, the fact is both Brian and Jan worked very hard at it.  Brian knew what he wanted, sure, he heard it in his head and put it on piano, but those out take transcriptions will remind us that it was darned hard work, tedious, annoying, hours on end, one measure at a time, in the studio to pull it off. God-given talent, a desire to create something so vital, and a lot of drive.

"In an alternate world" is the key phrase here.  In the present world, Brian's quirks would have prevented him from assimilating into the Hollywood assembly line system.  Many greater composers could only wish they were given as much time to compose a full film score as Brian was given to write and record a 3 and a half minute single. 

A-fucking-men.

Well, he could also do what a lot of the "vanity" film composers do and just dash off a few themes and then have their uncredited arranger/orchestrator fill everything out.

The cynical me says "like Darian? or Andy Paley?"

I said "greater," not "vanity."

To those of us not acquainted with the film-scoring scene (not that I'm really all that well acquainted with it, just enough, I guess), many "vanity" scorers are considered to be greats.  I'm thinking of one person in particular.

I don't know who you're talking about.  And yes, there are no shortage of hacks working in Hollywood, now more than ever.

I'm talking about artists like, say, Bernard Herrmann, who had like 10 days to compose a score for a full length film, and they did it old skool, with pencil and paper, sitting at the dining room table with the TV on in the background, the dog barking, and kids screaming.   That's a far cry from having six months to record "Good Vibrations" and getting to hear it in its various stages along the way.  I'm not knocking Brian Wilson - I'm posting on this message board, after all.  I'm just saying that his temperament would have prevented him from having any kind of major career scoring films, regardless of his obvious skills. 

Brian doesn't take 6 months to write every song he writes, however.

"Surfin" took only five months.   ;D

And God Only Knows took 20 minutes, Surf's Up an hour!

He spent twenty minutes getting the snare sound.  Who knows how long the vocals took.

We've got totally off track here.

I don't even think Brian would make a good film scorer of any kind nor would he ever have, so I'm not sure how I ended up arguing for that...

The point was, within the pop vocabulary, the guy could write an instrumental.

Agree.  Frankly, think he could have been a great film composer if he had the right skill set to allow him to work within the Hollywood system. 

Actually, Herrmann didn't really have the temperament for a successful career as a film scorer either! He was supported by Welles initially, then by Hitchock who dumped him after ten years, and finally by Truffaut and Scorsese. But he had great difficulty simply getting along with producers, most of whom he thought were musically ignorant (Welles was the only exception he often said).

Brian would be much more easy-going, and I wonder if he'd think turning one of his "feels" into a music cue would save him the effort of having to write a whole song?! Back when Brian purchased his home in St. Charles, IL it was announced that there was screening room installed in the studio for potential soundtrack work.

reading this tread made me remember that somewhere in the house i have a 1970 era interview with brian where he states that he wants to score films and try to win an ocsar. what he wanted to branch out into. this was around the time of sunflower.

not sure if that was another of his putons but that is for another thread....  :)

Strangest running-order placement of "Let's Go Away...": after "Soldier" at the end of Side Four of the hard-to-find Neil Young soundtrack to "Journey Through the Past".

Believe it or not, I heard it there before I ever got "Pet Sounds"!