Pet Sounds

The recording of Pet Sounds

With writing well underway, Brian worked rapidly through January and early February 1966, recording six backing tracks for the new material, productions which arguably surpassed anything else that was being done in popular music at the time. When the Beach Boys returned from a three-week tour of Japan and Hawaii, they were presented with a substantial portion of a new album, with music that was in many ways a radical departure from their earlier hits. Both Asher and Wilson state that there was resistance to the project from within the group, but on this occasion, Wilson's belief in his new work won the day and the band gave in.

Related Topics:
1966 - Japan - Hawaii

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All the backing tracks for Pet Sounds were recorded over a four-month period, using major Los Angeles studios (Gold Star, Western Recorders and Sunset Sound) and an ensemble that included some of the best session musicians in the country, including famed jazz guitarist Barney Kessell and legendary session drummer Hal Blaine. All tracks were co-written, produced and arranged by Brian Wilson.

Related Topics:
Los Angeles - Gold Star - Western Recorders - Sunset Sound - Jazz - Barney Kessell - Hal Blaine

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Wilson had developed his production methods over several years, bringing them to a high degree of perfection with the recording of Pet Sounds during late 1965 and early 1966. Wilson's approach was in some respects a refinement and development of the famous "Wall of Sound" technique created by his mentor and rival Phil Spector. Armed with new Ampex 8-track recorders, Wilson assembled tracks of unrivalled complexity and technical brilliance, using his regular team of 'first call' session musicians, who are sometimes known as "The Wrecking Crew".

Related Topics:
1965 - 1966 - Wall of Sound - Phil Spector - Ampex - The Wrecking Crew

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Wilson's typical production method on Pet Sounds was to record the instrumental backing tracks for each song as an ensemble performance, performed live and taped direct onto a 4-track recorder. His engineer Larry Levine has reported that Wilson also typically mixed these backing tracks live, as they were being taped. Like Spector, Wilson was a pioneer of the 'studio as instrument' concept, exploiting the novel sound combinations that arose from using multiple electric instruments and voices in an ensemble and combining them with echo and reverberation. He often doubled bass, guitar and keyboard parts, blending them with reverb and adding other unusual instruments to create startling new sound combinations. The deceptive simplicity of Wilson's music often covered the fact that his arrangements were more musically adventurous and complex than anything yet attempted in pop music.

Related Topics:
Larry Levine - Echo - Reverberation

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These backing tracks were then dubbed down onto one track of an 8-track recorder, and although much of the fine detail in the arrangements was often covered by the group's rich harmony vocals, Wilson's natural talent for arranging ensured that they interacted perfectly with the vocal tracks -- often to the surprise of the musicians who performed them.

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Six of the remaining seven tracks were usually dedicated to each of the Beach Boys' vocals (the five-piece group was by then being regularly augmented by singer Bruce Johnston, who later became a permanent member). The last track was usually reserved for additional vocals and/or instruments and other 'sweetening' elements.

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Although the self-taught Wilson often had entire arrangements worked out in his head (which were usually written in a shorthand form for the other players by one of his session musicians), surviving tapes of his recording sessions show that he was remarkably open to input from his musicians, often taking advice and suggestions from them, and even incorporating apparent 'mistakes' if they provided a useful or interesting alternative.

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It is also important to note that, in spite of the availability of complex multitrack recording, Wilson always mixed the final version of his recordings in mono, as did Phil Spector. He did this for several reasons; Wilson personally felt that mono mastering provided more sonic control over the final result that the listener heard, regardless of the vagaries of speaker placement and sound system quality. It was also motivated by the knowledge that radio and TV broadcast in mono, and most domestic and car radios and record players were monophonic. Another and more personal reason for Wilson's preference was the fact that he was deaf in one ear, rumored to be the result of childhood damage to his eardrum inflicted by a blow from his violent father Murry Wilson.

Related Topics:
Mono - Eardrum

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On February 15 the group travelled to the San Diego Zoo to shoot the photographs for the cover of the new album, which had already been titled Pet Sounds. Two days later, Brian was back in the studio with his session band, laying down the first takes for a new composition, "Good Vibrations". Around February 23, Wilson gave Capitol a provisional track listing for the new LP, which included both "Sloop John B" and "Good Vibrations". This list clearly contradicts later rumours that Wilson had not wanted "Sloop John B" on the record.

Related Topics:
February 15 - San Diego Zoo - Good Vibrations - February 23

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Wilson worked through February and into March fine-tuning the backing tracks. To the group's surprise, he also dropped "Good Vibrations" from the running order, telling them that he wanted to spend more time on it. Al Jardine remembers:

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:At the time, we all had assumed that Good Vibrations was going to be on the album, but Brian decided to hold it out. It was a judgment call on his part; we felt otherwise but left the ultimate decision up to him.

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Most of March and early April was devoted to recording the remaining backing tracks and to the crucial recording of vocals, a process which proved to be the most exacting work the group had yet undertaken, as Mike Love later recalled:

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:We worked and worked on the harmonies and, if there was the slightest little hint of a sharp or a flat, it wouldn't go on. We would do it over again until it was right. was going for every subtle nuance that you could conceivably think of. Every voice had to be right, every voice and its resonance and tonality had to be right. The timing had to be right. The timbre of the voices just had to be correct, according to how he felt. And then he might, the next day, completely throw that out and we might have to do it over again.

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