Moments of Divinity in BB Songs

[mr_oleary]

I don't know about you guys, but there are certain moments in BB songs that produce a high for me that is up there with what drugs or meditation could achieve, a feeling of being in the presence of the divine.  I can't think of another musician that does that for me.

I'm sure I'm not alone in this feeling. What specific moments help you achieve this?

For me-

The chorus of 'Little Girl I Once Knew'

Tag of 'You Still Believe in Me'

Second verse of 'Wouldn't it Be Nice' when when the harmonies come in

Bridge (Sometimes I feel very sad) of 'I Just Wasn't Made for These Times'

Vocal-only section of 'Heroes and Villains' (before the cantina section)

[bringahorseinhere?]

ooh ooh........ good topic!

I love the part mostly in surfs up from......'surfs up mmm, for the tidal wave'..... until the fade, that's magic....

the tag of 'til I die' ......

the tag of 'melt away' from BW88

'don't worry baby' from start to finish hehe

I love the second verse of 'time to get alone' ...'the pine scented air smells so good in the snow, in our toboggan we'll go....
streamin down the mountain si-yide'

brains falsetto on ANYTHING...... like 'she knows me too well', 'DWB', the 'oooh oooh' mid section of 'this whole world'

so many 'horny' moments in BB/BW songs hehehe

Rickb

[Gertie J.]

anything from smile, specifically dylw.

[Paulos]

The Who Ran The Iron Horse and Grand Coulee Dam sections of Cabin Essence.

All of Our Prayer.

All of Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring/A Young Man Is Gone.

The second bridge part (?) of Wouldn't It Be Nice ('you know it seems the more we talk about it...').

Columnated ruins domino parts and tag from Surf's Up. Actually scratch that, the entire song.

The flute on the tag to 4th Of July.

The alternate a capella ending of God Only Knows.

[mr_oleary]

Forgot to add the Don't Talk vocal snippet from the PS box set where Brian sings the string harmonies. That one might be tops for me.

[sockittome]

The intro to Warmth of the Sun.  The entire song is 'heavenly', 'magical', or whatever you want to call it, but that intro is almost beyond description!

[rab2591]

As others have mentioned: The entirety of Don't Worry Baby, Brian's vocal snippet from Don't Talk, Boys and Girls from H&V.

- The coda to ADITLOAT - probably nothing more sad/beautiful in the entire BB catalogue
- the first "collunated ruins domino" in the '67 version of Surf's Up
- the coda to the Stack-O-Tracks version of California Girls - one of the most spiritual pieces of music I've ever heard.
- the coda to the Lei'd in Hawaii rehearsal of California Girls
- the coda to Holy Man (either version)
- the entirety of Pacific Coast Highway
- the coda to When I Grow Up (To Be A Man) - both the backing track and the album version.
- Still I Dream Of It (demo)
- And Your Dreams Come True

[Sheriff John Stone]

... Noel, Noel, Noel, NOELLLLLL!!!!!

That note, it gets to me every time ...

[Russ_B66]

I have always felt that many of the Beach Boys songs are prayers, in a sense. Often, it is in the bridge.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

So many moments to choose from. However, the moments that get me every time, no matter how often I hear 'em....

The Little Girl I Once Knew - after the mid-song section with the laa-doo-day's, when the chorus kicks back in with those incredible harmonies. Wow!

Lady - the fade, with the strings and the 'love, in love, in love' reframe.

This Whole World - that fade.

Trader - the moog bass coupled with the harmonies that kick in with the second verse.

Cuddle Up - the 'ooh's' that precede the second chorus.

Where I Belong - all of it.

[celticsurfer]

my divine moments from the BBS, DW and Spring,

Brian voice on Dont worry baby, she knows me too well, let him run wild....
Help me ronda (stereo version with those Ronda sung by Brian with his falsetto at his best; should have been the definite version on Today and  it s  better than the single!)
California Girls intro
the stack o tracks sloop john b
God only Knows coda
Good Vibrations (nearly all the song!)
the full coda from cabinessence
the backing track of Child is father to the Man
the Backing tack of Do You Dig Worms
Time to get alone (Carl is at his best)
Stephen Desper mix of Till I Die (The ILog Intro)
Sweet Mountain by Spring (the french lyrics are beautiful done)
River song backing track
Friday night intro from POB
Summer's Gone

[Disney Boy (1985)]

my divine moments from the BBS, DW and Spring,

Brian voice on Dont worry baby, she knows me too well, let him run wild....
Help me ronda (stereo version with those Ronda sung by Brian with his falsetto at his best; should have been the definite version on Today and  it s  better than the single!)
California Girls intro
the stack o tracks sloop john b
God only Knows coda
Good Vibrations (nearly all the song!)
the full coda from cabinessence
the backing track of Child is father to the Man
the Backing tack of Do You Dig Worms
Time to get alone (Carl is at his best)
Stephen Desper mix of Till I Die (The ILog Intro)
Sweet Mountain by Spring (the french lyrics are beautiful done)
River song backing track
Friday night intro from POB
Summer's Gone

Friday Night intro from POB - YES!! How could I have forgotten that? What an amazing piece of music that is. I listen to it and just think THIS is what the band should've - and could've - sounded like in the late seventies! If only...

[celticsurfer]

i forgot.......Wonderful all versions (vocals and backing tracks) Brian at his best perhaps?

[Jukka]

Spirit of America. "They set a new record on that warm August morn". This whole song is my personal fave. If you read the lyrics, they might seem a bit dumb, but the way Brian sings them elevates them into a joyous celebration of daring young man's heroic deeds!

Country Air. Carl's intro humming and "come on" are just rapturous.

Surf's Up. The song is a religious experience.

[Vegetable Man]

Don't Go Near The Water: That mandolin/vocal tag at the end is wonderful.

Wind Chimes (Smiley Smile): The a capella section towards the end is great.

I'm So Young: Probably my most favorite cover in their whole catalogue.

Surfer Girl (Early Version): This may be the Candix version (If there is such a thing), but with its echo drenched vocals and slower, more mellow feel, it's almost better than the officially released take.

Break Away: The final tag, starting with the "oh boy, you'll jump for joy..." is fantastic. The a capella bit online is even better.

Time To Get Alone: The version on "Hawthorne" with the a capella tag. The original is great as well.

Really, anytime there's an a capella bit in a Beach Boys song, you know it's gonna be awesome.

[Pretty Funky]

The vocals after "Two brothers took the radio and turned it on...." on Mt. Vernon and Fairway (A Fairy Tale). Pure magic.

[TMinthePM]

The spiritual quality infusing Brian Wilson's music has certainly been noted by a number of observers over the years, not least himself. I say spirituality rather than divinity, there being a distinction...or maybe not.

Anyway, I would identify that spirit as early as Lonely Sea - transient love emerging from and enfolded back into the eternally restless oceanic.

[The Hidden Corner]

That bit quite near the start of Cool Cool Water when the riff fades out and you get sucked up into a cloud where the Boys acapella voices are doing some really strange chanting and sighing, before descending back to planet Earth where the song cuts back in again.

[JohnMill]

I think if we are talking about the appeal of the music especially the music they produced in the sixties, I think even though there is a very spiritual element to the music I think perhaps Carl Wilson put it best when he stated that the music of The Beach Boys celebrated the joys of life in a very simple way.  I think the songs that Brian Wilson wrote are less general perhaps than anything else in the history of rock music.  His lyrics are so specific to the message he's trying to get across in the song and at the same time very much a shared experience by the vast majority of those who listen to those records.

David Marks once said in regards to some of the early Beach Boys records that "It wasn't like Brian was trying to put something over.  He wasn't saying is this commercial?  How are we going to trick these turkeys into buying this?  There was no formulating, no plotting or planning.  He was just doing what he loved.  He told me he wrote about things that turned him on like girls, cars and high school.  It's hard to believe that anyone could be that naive and honest but he was.  That's what made those records so successful."

Essentially I think that is a huge component as to the appeal of The Beach Boys and the timeless quality of the music.  Some of it actually is so self conscious that at times for me at least it's almost like you are eavesdropping on someone.  Brian Wilson was able to communicate events that happen in everyone's life that in the grand scheme of things are probably somewhat trivial but in these songs he paid a tremendous amount of respect to a lot of emotions and experiences that particularly most guys have at one point or another in their life but most of them due to how society dictates masculine behavior to be will never admit.

Some of his songs seem to be so trivial on the surface like "Cuckoo Clock" or "Drive In" but then when you start to think about it you realize that "damn someone along that way, if not many people probably had that experience".  Other songs like "When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)", "Please Let Me Wonder", "She Knows Me Too Well" or "We'll Run Away" are just heartbreakers in the emotion they are communicating.  You find yourself thinking "yeah I've been there" or someone I know has been there or given the era when these songs were written, my parents were probably going through a lot of the stuff those songs were commenting on at the time they were being written and issued.  So the music from that aspect has the ability to cross space, time and generations which in enough of itself could speak to somewhat of the spiritual quality of The Beach Boys' music that many people reference.

So by the time Brian got to "Pet Sounds" I believe he had had enough experience translating all of these various experiences and the emotions that went along with them that whether he was conscious of it or not, "Pet Sounds" really became one of the authorities on what people go through as they emotionally mature and are able to make emotional connections on many different levels.  It still works today, it might not definitively answer any question you might have about every specific scenario that can come up in a relationship but that record addresses a lot of that and gives you a lot more to think about to boot if you choose to take it in that way.  Of course it also works extremely well as pop music record which obviously is the other side of the coin of The Beach Boys' appeal and that is quite simply they just made some damn good records.

[Waspinators]

Time to Get Alone - the whole damn thing, especially "DEEP AND WIDE!" and the chorus.
Kiss Me Baby - Mike's "whoa baby, kiss a little bit and fight a little bit..."
Wouldn't it be Nice - the whole thing, but especially the second verse when the harmonies kick in, and the "ron-ron-ree-ooo" tag.
God Only Knows - that freakin' tag...
In The Parkin' Lot - the beginning and end are straight from the heavens.
The Trader - the second half.
The whole California Saga, especially Big Sur and the "da-da-daaaa-daa"s on Beaks of Eagles.
Little Miss America - pre-Kennedy assassination innocence at its finest.
Our Prayer/Gee - pure sonic beauty.
Cabinessence - "Who ran the iron horse" and the infamous crow line with those wonderfully spastic harmonies behind it.
Darlin' - "OH-hoh darlin'!"
Country Air - "Get a breath of that country air..."
All I Wanna Do - the intro.
Our Sweet Love - screw it, the whole damn tune.
Feel Flows - that backwards echo throughout the song.
'Til I Die - "These things I'll be un-til I die"

Honorable mention to the sheer awe and happiness of hearing Do It Again live on the C50 tour.

[SonicVolcano]

At My Window

The harmonies in 'He came to my window'...so beautiful. One of the best harmonies the boys ever did. A very underrated song.

Pitter Patter

I just love the 'Listen to the rain' part with Mike doing the bass vocals.

Honkin' Down The Highway

Al's lead is one of the best he ever did. The synth bass combined with the subtle guitar work is brilliant as well. Great backing track overall.



 

[Disney Boy (1985)]

The Surf's Up fade - of course!

Not a favourite of everyone's I know, but all those interlocking melodic threads on the fade of Funky Pretty really get me. Absolute magic!

And someone mentioned Spirit Of America - again, agreed! Brian's vocal elevates that song. Heavenly.

[Jukka]

Oh, how could I forget: DEEP AND WIDE.

[wantsomecorn]

Deidre - The opening, as well as the "I love your red hair" bridge. Fantastic vocal arrangements. And then turned into a satanic trip in Earthbound.

That's Not Me - "I could try to be big in the eyes of the world, but what matters to me is what I can be to just one girl"

All I Wanna Do - The part where Mike almost goes into falsetto.

Friends - "Tim-tim balee tim-tim ba-li tim-te i ohhhhhhh"

Their Hearts Were Full of Spring - The footage from that French concert in '70 (or '69??) with Mike, Bruce, Carl, and Al huddled around a microphone, crowd silent, far away from the camera, but their harmonies come in loud and clear.

Melt Away - The tag.

Any part of Pet Sounds or Smile where you listen into the music and hear something new in the intricate arrangement. There is so much going on, and discovering any one new detail that would make an ordinary song great is an enlightening experience.



 

[sockittome]

I'm reading thru all the responses here, agreeing with just about every one of them, and then I realize that practically every BBs song has some divine moment in it, especially from the 60s!  Even if they are relatively short moments, like the bridge in Do it Again, the middle part to We're Together Again, and even though it's just a tad on the rough side the group vocals on Lonely Sea right after Brian's spoken part, right on into the fade.  WOW!