Love And Mercy - portrayal of studio sessions.

[Cabinessenceking]

I've not really got any complaints about the portrayal of studio sessions, because they were very true to real events (omitting a few details) and they are executed very well.

On thing I want to point out though is the lack of authentic atmosphere. Remember, by the time Pet Sounds was being recorded Brian had worked with these musicians for a few years already and the atmosphere is very relaxed with people joking, jamming and mocking when the "suggestions/mistakes" come along. Also, the musicians were mostly 5-10 years older than Brian (not quite old people, as portrayed in the film) and so they were still young adults who could relate to Brian's humour, youthful attitude and his musical creations.

I'm Waiting For The Day:
This sessions comes off as less well done than the others, despite having studio atmosphere content in it. The musicians come across as very awkward and nervous, which was not the case in the sessions at all. When the pianist (Al de Lory) makes his mistake and Brian inquires he becomes the most bashful non-player you could imagine. Then when Brian directs the question to the other musicians they are the most awkward bunch ever rather than the real Wrecking Crew who would be having a laugh instead.

Wouldn't It Be Nice:
The only weird part of this session is when Karol asks about "two different bass keys" playing at once, which she points out is clearly a mistake, but then Dano is given this weird line of having it "make sense" in his head, which alludes to the sounds he's hearing, but more likely Brian would be very laid back about it by saying something more about being a new sound he wants to try out etc. Also, as has been pointed out, it would be unlikely that Karol would make such a comment in any case because she would be familiar with Brian's way of working and as a professional session musician it would be highly unlikely that Brian would know better than her about how a bass will sound in a record.

The other sessions (both studio and vocal) are pretty fantastic!

[Emily]

I think they were trying to get a lot of information from different sources and different times into a quick depiction of a short time.
I know I’ve read, and if necessary will spend some time finding sources for:
-that there was a distinct younger/older dynamic between Brian and a lot of the musicians. I think if they had younger looking actors they would’ve had to have some awkward exposition to make this dynamic evident in the time given.
-That there was a discussion with a musician, I think Lyle Ritz maybe, about music being in two keys and whether it would work.
-on a SMiLE piece, Brian says, paraphrasing, to let things fall apart at the end of a passage. Carol Kaye expresses concern that it won’t work; Brian says don’t worry; she says I worry.
I think these last two were conflated in the film for time and simplicity.
I think that with the Wouldn’t it be Nice piano thing, they were trying to use some musicians who seem to have worked with Brian longer giving the (newer to the scene, in the movie) pianist a kind of “see what I mean? He’s odd but wow he’s good” face. This is to communicate, again without drawing it out or too much exposition, that Brian had strange for the time methods, but everyone appreciated that they really worked.
So, while a blow-by-blow reenactment of everything that happened would be something that uberfans would happily watch every evening for years, for the sake of a < two hour movie, they had to compress in order to give non-uberfans a sense of what went down.

[37!ws]

Wouldn't It Be Nice:
The only weird part of this session is when Karol asks about "two different bass keys" playing at once, which she points out is clearly a mistake, but then Dano is given this weird line of having it "make sense" in his head, which alludes to the sounds he's hearing, but more likely Brian would be very laid back about it by saying something more about being a new sound he wants to try out etc. Also, as has been pointed out, it would be unlikely that Karol would make such a comment in any case because she would be familiar with Brian's way of working and as a professional session musician it would be highly unlikely that Brian would know better than her about how a bass will sound in a record.

In the commentary, it's explained why this is there. The explanation....blew my mind, actually.

[puni puni]

Also, as has been pointed out, it would be unlikely that Karol would make such a comment in any case because she would be familiar with Brian's way of working and as a professional session musician it would be highly unlikely that Brian would know better than her about how a bass will sound in a record.

It's just as likely that Kaye would have questioned the use of two keys in a way that's like, "Hey, this kid wrote in two keys. That has to be a mistake -- it's too complex for a rock and roll record." Which is exactly how Lyle Ritz cites the story. https://youtu.be/93lduXoNuCE?t=46