The Smiley Smile Message Board

A few years ago I posted here about Beach Boys waltzes, especially around 1968 when there seemed to be quite a profusion of them (e.g., Friends, Time to Get Alone, I Went to Sleep, Be Here in the Morning, etc.).  In the thread, someone commented that in the early days Brian wrote frequently in 6/8 time, which I understand to be sort of a "fast waltz" (you count "one-two-three-four-five-six" "one-two-three-four-five-six" instead of a slower "one-two'three" "one-two-three".  (I am no music theorist!)  "Surfer Girl" and "The Warmth of the Sun" were cited as examples.

Like Nick Carraway with his father's advice, I've been turning that idea over in my mind ever since.  And it has occurred to me that Brian actually wrote with great frequency in 6/8 or "fast waltz" time up through 1964.  In fact, it would appear that almost every ballad he wrote in those first few years fits that time signature -- this is a list I came up with:

The Lonely Sea
Surfer Girl
The Surfer Moon
In My Room
Your Summer Dream
The Warmth of the Sun
Keep an Eye on Summer
Ballad of Ole Betsy
We’ll Run Away
Girls on the Beach
Thank Him (demo)

This isn't necessarily bad or good, but it seems distinctive to me -- just as Brian's chord progressions are so distinctive.  Most rock and roll song chords I can figure out on the guitar pretty easily, but most Brian Wilson/Beach Boys songs for me require the assistance of the great Francis Greene. 

Was it common to write ballads in 6/8 time in the early 60s?  The only contemporaries of the Beach Boys whose music I know very well are the Beatles, and they seemed to use 6/8 much less frequently.  Taking their work through 1964, I only count two songs in 6/8 (or indeed any form of a waltz):

This Boy
Baby's in Black

Then I count four in 1965, a time when Brian seemed to be moving away from this time signature:

Yes It Is
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Norwegian Wood
We Can Work It Out (bridge)

So it seems Brian was using this form earlier, and more often, than the Beatles (and with the Beatles it was mostly Lennon who used it).  Was Brian fairly unique in this?  Or was it common in the early 60s?

The heavy use of 6/8 time was a carry over from 50's doo-wop, which Brian was heavily influenced by.

One of Brian's greatest musical "tricks" in the early days was taking a common 6/8 doo-wop chord progression (the I - vi - IV (or ii) - V) and changing it up in unique ways.  Surfer Girl and Warmth of the Sun are the best examples of this.  He was incorporating his influences and taking them someplace new. 

I don't know how common the use of 6/8 was with other groups of the time, but it certainly seemed to dry out quite a bit by the mid-late 60's, as rock moved farther away from doo-wop.

thing is those BB songs ing "6/8" you list are actually your typical "12/8" ballad (4 beats-a-bar subdivided in 3)

and they enter into the "slow rock"-pattern category rather than waltz. 3 out of 4 ballads from the 50s (and early 60s?) used the slow rock pattern (think about any do-wop ballad)

you speak truth about the Friend's-era tracks, though (even though we're stretching the "waltz" term to name just about any 3/4 song here... thank the 2-fer liners for that). And some of the Beatle songs you mention are waltz-like  (baby's in black, for instance)

 

Don't forget "Let The Wind Blow" - another great waltz by Brian.

Regarding waltzes, one shouldn't forget that they were common in country music (which is one of the foundations rock'n'roll was built on)  right from it's beginning.