June 21, 2025 • 29 mins
Note: Due to some trouble on the back end, Spotify’s only letting us upload the audio version of this show.
We’re working our way through some of the critics’ greatest albums of all time - well, those we’ve never listened to before, anyway. 😉 These are mostly albums from the 60s and 70s, which are a HUGE blind spot for at least one of our hosts. This week the boys interrupt their summer breaks for a close look at “Pet Sounds” by The Beach Boys.What album have you just never got around to listening to? What do you think of this album? Let us know in the comments. Watch previous episodes.Please like/follow/subscribe to The Extended Play Podcast.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
With the recent passing of BrianWilson of The Beach Boys, we
thought we had to do a bonus episode of the classic catch up.
We're going to be talking about Pet Sounds today on the Extended
Play Podcast with the End Tank. That's right, you heard the man
it is. Welcome to Season 6.5 of the
(00:23):
Extended Play podcast. We were, I was, I was waist deep
in the waters of Tahiti. That's right.
With a collection of voluntarilypresent and paid fine young
ladies surrounding me. I had I had Mai tais, I had
drinks and coconuts. Yeah, I had multi colored
speedos and phone rings and it'sE and he's like hey, do you hear
(00:47):
about Beach Boys? I'm like no.
And he's like we got to do an episode.
I'm like, seriously, I'm in Tahiti and he's like, yeah.
That's how much we care about you, the extended family that we
had to get back together, you know, break up our summer
sojourn and I'm. Not getting my deposit.
He's he's not, he's not. So, but how, how appropriate
that it's The Beach Boys that we're actually going to talk
(01:08):
about. It's just kind of salt on the
wound and they're like. That's right.
Yeah, but yes, we are talking about pet sounds and we, you
know, after the passing, there'sbeen a lot in the news, a lot of
comments, Paul McCartney notablysaid.
Like, God only knows the Best Song Ever written.
So we're like, you know what? Kind of gotta address it and
(01:29):
it's a big deal. And it fits very nicely into how
we were ending the season with the classic ketchup.
Yep. And like, you know what Pet
sounds? Why not now?
Yeah. And then if for those not
familiar, Classic Ketchup is a series we just introduced fairly
recently, actually, where we look, we're looking through some
of the greatest albums of all time, primarily before we were
born and ones that we didn't have a lot of experience with
(01:49):
and really digging in deep on them.
I can, I'll confess that there was a time in my, I would say
early 20s, I must have been still buying CDs.
So early 20s, does that math work out?
Maybe not. I keep talking, I'll figure it.
Out OK and it does not OK it does not anyway there's.
Your teen late. Teens, late teens, OK.
And I was buying a lot of CDs. Well, you were buying tapes
(02:10):
pretty late in the game. I was no, You were buying CDs
really early. Maybe the truth is.
Somewhere I I was buying C DS asof 88 I would guess you were 94,
so let's say 18. OK, All right.
Regardless, the long and short of it is I was doing what we're
doing with the classic catch up years ago in that I was just
like I heard like Springsteen's supposed to be the best.
(02:32):
All right, buy a bunch of Springsteen albums.
What about Dylan? Bought a bunch of Dylan albums
and most of them only got through a a single listen.
And I was not, I was just clearly wasn't ready for it at
the time. So I do believe I had listened
to Pet Sounds before. So I think this is actually my
second, third, 4th, 5th listens but.
Yeah, I had not. OK, great.
And like a lot of artists of this era, I noticed it with with
(02:56):
Elton John when we did that is I'm surprised at, well, I'm
always surprised at how many albums they put out, but also
how spread out the hits that everyone knows are.
Yes, there are no albums with like 5 of them.
Luckily, there's one or two, right, which which we will
address here. Actually in one of my notes
about how the record industry worked at that time, Yes.
(03:17):
But yeah, we actually my first, well, one of my notes here is I
always assumed this was their debut album.
Wow, Incredible. Yeah.
It's their 11th album. It is their 11th album.
Like 4 years after they started.Yeah, 1966.
Yeah. And so we should get into the
context a little bit about the history of The Beach Boys.
(03:39):
So up until this point, they're primarily known as this sort of
surf pop group, right? So that famously they're called
The Beach Boys. They lean into that and they
have songs about surfing, about cars, about girls and about
school. And that's really all, all their
songs, right? And they're just cranking out
hit after hit after hit. A lot of cover songs as well,
(04:00):
which was also a part of the part of the time.
But I think, and one of the things I really want to get into
eventually is context around this particular album, both sort
of historically in music and in The Beach Boys Canon.
Right. It was very much a focused
project. Yes, it was an intentional
delivery. It didn't just, yeah, it didn't
(04:21):
just happen like, oh, look, we had a great album.
Yeah, it deviates. So the subject, the subject
matter, the instrumentation, everything, the sound, the
overall sound of the album deviates.
It's just a huge left turn for the band.
And I think that's important to know coming in.
If you've never listened to Pet Sounds before, if you're
thinking like I had some friendsover the other night and mutual
friends and they were were they're thinking when they think
(04:43):
The Beach Boys, they think help Me, Rhonda, they think Good
Vibrations, they think Surfing USA, They think all of those
things. They know, God only knows, and
wouldn't it be nice? But they don't, I think.
I think the tendency for people of our generation is to just
think about the sort of the surf, poppy, throwaway, Yeah,
songs good. Vibrations cut from this album,
by the way. Yes, right.
And it sounds like it could be on this album.
(05:04):
First, the song Good Vibrations.Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, it's a fucking well, it
sounds like a theremin. I guess it's not a theremin.
Yeah. Yeah.
But yeah, the the 11th album thing was crazy.
Yeah. And the first thing I thought
when I sat down and hit play waswhen it comes to the to The
Beach Boys. Yes, you know, and.
(05:25):
Everything about them, Yeah, I think it's the perfect example
of that old cliche I had heard The Beach Boys.
OK, but did I really listen? Sounds trite, but that's true.
It's true. It is because you, I mean, let's
face it, for anyone of our age, which means anyone who listened
to The Beach Boys, period. Because God knows the kids
aren't listening to the fucking beach.
Boys can't imagine we should talk.
(05:46):
About that, maybe Kokomo? Oh, Gee, I gotta hope not.
That's probably, probably. No.
They don't listen to them. They hear Kokomo.
They're like, no, yes, we're good.
No, but even think about medium and equipment, like when did we
listen to Beach Boys? We were probably kids.
We were probably in our parents like 83 Chevette.
Yeah, the fucked up Stereo 8. Track then into tapes.
(06:06):
Oh, absolutely. You know, so scratched up vinyl.
Yeah, so most. Of our experience is probably on
crappy audio sources to begin with.
Yeah. Not that, you know, not that
this is, you know, Steely Dan of, you know, production
excellence, but but there's there's a lot going on that you
would not catch a if you weren'tlistening and B if you weren't
the right environment to catch it.
(06:26):
Absolutely, yes. This takes a focused listen for
sure, but one of the amazing things and we'll get to overall
impressions and we'll talk aboutmaybe favorite songs and all
that kind of stuff. But what I'm was really take,
what I was really struck by was that it works on both of those
levels, though. It works from a pop melody
standpoint to at least 2-3 radiohits.
(06:48):
And it rewards a deep lesson, which I think is really tough.
It's not one of those albums where it's like, it's only for
nerds. Like I don't get Steely Dan.
Yeah, right. Because it seems to be a thing
for music nerds. I could.
Be wrong to be the next classic ketchup.
Oh, gosh. OK, Yeah, well, we should do it.
No, we should do it. Absolutely.
We should give them a fair shot.But no, the this, I I grabbed
this quote from Wikipedia. I don't know who said it.
(07:08):
I don't fucking care. You look it up if you care.
I'm not gonna do all the work for you, it says.
Pet Sounds revolutionized music production in the role of
producers, especially through its level of detail in Wilson's
use of the studio as a compositional tool.
It elevated popular music as an art form and heightened public
regard for albums as cohesive works.
Absolutely. So that it's very clear that
(07:31):
prior to this, and especially where The Beach Boys are
concerned, albums were filler toget singles to mark.
Yes, you were just trying to write 10 pop songs, right?
Some of them caught, some didn't.
And that's. Why they would have 5 albums in
a two year period? Because by today's standards
that would be one album, right? But then it was like OK, that's
that's a hit now record 7 piece of shit songs and we've got an.
(07:52):
Album that's right, that's rightand this is not that so a little
more background about the album again, I'm not I'm not totally
sure of our audience and how much they would already know
about about this album. Probably not much, probably not
much. OK, so a little bit of
background is so Brian Wilson, who is the primary, Well, he is
the songwriter essentially that he wrote all the music.
He did Co write the lyrics with someone named Tony Asher, but
(08:16):
he's the architect of this album.
And what happened right before this album, before they made
this album is Brian Wilson was going through some stuff,
notoriously had a bunch of mental health issues and and
then was experimenting with LSD and marijuana as well as you did
in 1966, as one does and decide.And then had issues with crowds.
And so he said, I'm not doing the road anymore.
(08:37):
And so he let the rest of The Beach Boys and there were five
other Beach Boys at the time go out and play shows.
And he hung back and said, I'm just going to be in the studio.
And this is what comes out of that is a guy, a singularly
focused vision of what he thinksmusic should sound, what pop
music should sound like in the future.
Right. And he really, really, really
(08:59):
targeted rubber sole. Yes.
When you read about this album, yeah, it's crazy.
He was obsessed with making it equivalent to what he thought
was the peak of pop music at that point in time.
He wanted to make his own rubbersole.
And it's, I mean, it's funny when you read through the
Wikipedia and that's what I got obsessed by the songs.
We'll talk about it, sure, but it was the lore and the intent
(09:21):
and the but the competition withThe Beatles, this is probably
the only time it was really. That close, yeah.
Right. Honestly, yeah.
But for a period of time there, it was like, OK, we're gonna
match what you're doing. Yeah.
And after this, The Beatles makeSergeant Pepper's as a as a
intentional response to this album.
Like they took direct inspiration from that.
(09:42):
It's just amazing. I mean, there's so few moments
in history where there's times like this.
Like there's like the blur Oasisthing, but I feel like that's
not as I don't know, this is themoment where.
Sounds, Sergeant. Pepper, no, it certainly is not.
It's not. Yeah.
So yeah, that provides you with some context.
So that being said so The Beach Boys are off touring.
So when Brian Wilson goes to record the music of this album
(10:02):
he doesn't invite any of The Beach Boys to play any music on
this album. So they do not play any
instruments they are only there to do vocals.
So he instead he has the Wrecking Crew, which is this
famous group of studio musicianswho played all over every pop,
soul, jazz record of the time. They're they're Phil Spector,
yes, largely creation, yes. So the we, I mean, you're going
(10:24):
to touch up with the the whole wall of sound production was
basically this is Brian Wilson'stake on the wall of sound
approach. Yes.
He took what Phil Spector did and said I'm going to do my
version of that. Yes, Wall of Sound being and I
didn't really know about this until I watched a documentary on
it a little bit. Essentially, you still only had
so many tracks you could record on at the time.
But what they did to circumvent that and sort of make the sound
(10:47):
bigger is they literally had four piano players in a room to
make the sound bigger, or two bassists or three guitarists all
playing simultaneously or just off of each other to make this
make it sound so much bigger. And they.
Would they would be like 1/2 key?
They Yeah, their tones and keys would be slightly different.
Yeah. And they said it was a Speaking
of equipment, that this was intentional to sound big on
(11:09):
shitty radios because this is pre compression.
Yeah, sure. Compression doesn't really
become a thing until late 70s, early 80s.
Yeah, good point. When everything got compressed
to shit. Right.
So they they in a way, they madetheir own natural compression.
Yeah. But by pushing everything up,
Absolutely. And making everything loud.
Yes, yes, with so without sacrificing like like the
loudness wars in the 90s with Oasis and how it just sounds so
(11:31):
harsh on your ear. Listen to this.
Listen to any of the Phil Spector stuff, like think of
what I always think of as a Christmas gift for you, the
Christmas album, like The Ronettes and all that kind of
stuff. It is you are being assaulted by
this again. It's a wall of sound.
It seems to surround you even before spatial audio was the
thing. Yeah, they, and actually a lot
of this was done on a four track.
(11:52):
They said it was the the the drums, the bass and all
percussion was one track. The vocals was another and the
like guitars and orchestra and piano and all that was another
track. Amazing.
And then they left 1/4 for overdubs.
OK. So you did like everything on
three and then there was one forlike miscellaneous?
It's crazy. Whereas now, I mean, again, if
you're not familiar with the waythis stuff works, you have
(12:12):
infinite track. I mean shit, we have 16 we do a
Dick with. It that's right.
I mean, but if you're working from from your computer, you
have an infinite amount of layers, an infinite amount of
tracks. This just was not you're still,
you're working with tape at thistime.
So the fact that they can make this sound as rich, as full, as
loud as they did with only four tracks is absolutely incredible.
(12:34):
So now when it comes to the songs, remember, this is
technically your suggestion. It is meaning you have to guess
my three favorite Yes, as OK as the.
So we we can start with that. Sure, let's get an intro to the
songs. I've got them marked down here.
OK, so I'm I'm going to go. God only knows.
(12:55):
That's incredible. I know.
Are you being hipster ish? No.
OK, all right, how about let's go with Sloop Zombie?
Oh my God, I know there's an answer.
Yes, OK, I had. That was my #2.
OK, so I got one of them, yeah. Wouldn't it be nice?
(13:17):
OK, which I do need to talk about that, yes.
And then here today. Here today's great.
Yep. So I mean, yeah, God only knows
what was because I listened to this in order and God only knows
was one of the top three. OK, but then I got knocked out
by later. So yes, it's definitely I I my
(13:38):
note on it. I feel like it was building up
to something but then it never happened.
Interesting. Like I'm.
Like I kept waiting for like this crescendo.
Maybe cuz the chorus is so short.
The song is, I mean, it's like, it feels like it's going up and
up and up, and then I'm like, like, I'm being edged, OK, all
right. And then it's like, oh, just end
it, OK. There's no grand thing, which is
(13:59):
fine. Yeah.
I mean, but beautiful song nonetheless.
But I used a big crescendo, all right.
Nice. Yeah, my favorite's not that
anyone's asking. I'm asking, hey, what's your
favorite? I actually have here today, God
only knows. And then my other one was I
mean, wouldn't it be nice? Yes, but I think I know there's
(14:20):
an answer. Would be my other one.
Yeah, which I really like. Yeah, my note there is I really
like the instrumentation and howthey change directions in it,
which is what I wanted out of God Only Knows.
Gotcha, Gotcha. OK.
But see. So wouldn't it be nice?
Yeah, to me is transcendent. It's incredible, like so.
I I that, how is it not your topthree?
Yeah. No, it was.
(14:41):
It was, it was. I didn't want to be too obvious.
Well, it is. It is.
We got to keep it real. The top three in reality with no
bias and like not trying to be ahipster are wouldn't it be nice?
God only knows and I know there's an answer.
Those would be my top three. So wouldn't it be nice?
You know, I, I mean, it's probably been 20 years since I
(15:02):
listened to that song, right? But like, you know, it starts
off with just a few seconds of like lead up and then when it
hits it's, I had the same kind of visceral reaction that I did
with the Tyler Childers. Yes, absolutely wouldn't.
It be nice, then we wouldn't have to wait so long.
(15:28):
And wouldn't it be nice to live together in the kind of world
where we belong? Know what's going to make it
that much better when we can saygoodnight stay together.
Wouldn't it be nice if we'd wakeup in the morning when the day?
(15:54):
And it was like whoa. And nothing else on the rest of
the album came close to that to me.
I would agree. So there's a definite, I don't
want to call it a big fall off because it is a great album, but
like that. You could.
Tell that they put everything into that, yeah.
Absolutely. And for those of you new to the
extent of Play podcast, first ofall, like and subscribe.
(16:15):
But also we did an episode recently on our 100 for our
100th episode spectacular, our 100th favorite music moments.
So just parts of songs and I listed that drum hit and
wouldn't it be nice is one of myfavorites.
Absolutely. And perfectly placed at the
beginning of the album. Yep.
As sort of like a pay attention.Shit's different now.
Yeah, which is amazing. Yeah, yeah.
(16:37):
Yeah, but the harmonies, the. Oh my God.
Just. Yeah, it really I, I think it
kind of for me ended up doing a disservice a bit because I kept
waiting for another one of thoseand it didn't it didn't happen.
It's. Kind of unfair, right?
Yeah, sure. No, I can see that, yeah.
So overall as an album, OK, so this is typically listed as a.
(16:57):
Top number it's the. Number.
Two on all the Rolling Stone lists since 2000. 13 OK, so.
I I don't know, it's no mis education of Lauryn Hill.
I don't know how I feel about that ranking.
I do think that the context plays a outsized role in
(17:17):
people's impression of how good this album is because there is
there are some songs that aren'tgreat.
Agreed. To me, yeah, there's a.
For me, don't talk. Don't talk, OK yes, I have a
down arrow next to them. Don't talk.
Put your head on my shoulder. Yeah, I'm not a fan.
You still believe in me The second like there is a huge drop
off from wouldn't it be nice to you still believe in me?
(17:39):
Absolutely. Because and the Tebow slows way
down, the richness of the production slows down a little
bit. Yeah.
So there's a little bit too muchof that to make this for me in
the top whatever, 5, it's still top ten, 2000 whatever.
So I didn't plan on reading my notes.
It's like 5-5 words per song. Wouldn't it be nice Was it's a
transcended and experience? Yeah.
(18:00):
Next song. You still believe me?
Beautiful, Simple, but sounds big.
Yeah. Next song.
It's fine. Nothing really stands out.
Yeah. Next song.
Don't Talk. Maybe notable for how slow and
odd it is. Yeah, from a 1966 song from a
pop group. But nothing I want to listen to
again. I literally my first note is
forgettable for that song. Yeah, we're on the same page for
sure. So yeah.
(18:21):
So there are moments, but, and again, if you're listening in
your cans or if you got it cranked up, even the songs that
aren't that great lyrically, andthere are some real like rope
lyrics in some of these, even songs I really like like here
today. It makes you feel so bad, it
makes your heart feel sad. It makes your days go wrong.
(18:44):
It makes your night so long. I mean, it is elementary school
level lyrical stuff, but it doesn't matter because either
the melody is so catchy, the harmonies are incredibly
impressive, right? 456 part harmony.
There's six part harmonies on I just wasn't made for these times
6 or the production is so rich and the instrumentation, which
(19:10):
we haven't talked about yet. It's not just guitars based
Trump's. I mean you've got like theremin
a full orchestra, full brass section.
You've got banjo. Glenn Campbell plays the banjo
and the guitar on one of these songs.
So there's there's just so much going on that even the crappy
songs are like, this is still really impressive, right?
It's sort of like if you got like a new eight KTV, it doesn't
(19:32):
matter how bad the movie is, you're just enjoying the movie.
That's true. That's true.
That is, it's like, that's kind of like what this is, yeah.
No, I I felt the same way and itwas and it really got me kind of
going down this ruminating rabbit hole of it is a great
album, no doubt, no doubt. But like, I do wonder if like
albums get the benefit of being older in terms of their
(19:56):
greatness just keeps expanding. Yes.
Absolutely. Like cuz it's like a Pet Sounds.
It's like if you were to say allthis is, you know, if you were
to pick a album for the last 10 years and say it's better than
Pet Sounds, it's like you're a fucking idiot.
But like, OK, it's a great album.
Yeah, absolutely. But I think it's super
interesting to effectively listen to it for the first time
in 2025. Yes, yes.
And, and putting aside technology things you just said,
(20:16):
yeah, lyrically. Yeah, right.
And. Arrangements.
Very good, certainly. Groundbreaking, yes.
And again, there's a huge difference between giving
someone credit for being the 1stand breaking ground but
acknowledging. OK, but is the end product as
good or better? Sure.
Than other stuff? Sure.
And I think Pet Sounds is a great example of that.
Yeah, I I agree. And I, and I think it's telling
(20:39):
one that the album wasn't a hugehit at the time.
It took there was a long gestation period before it was
actually a big hit. Did I think it didn't go go
platinum until like the 90s? Like, it was a long time.
And that's partly because that'snot what anybody really wanted
from The Beach Boys at the point.
Like, literally no one was asking for this album.
So much so, in fact, that monthslater.
(21:01):
So this came out in May, in October, the record company put
out a Beach Boys greatest hits. Yeah.
And they were. And The Beach Boys were not
happy about it. They're they're basically trying
to hedge their bets. Like, we need to keep milking
this cash cow, Right. And this album wasn't doing it
for them. But I agree.
I I think the, the further you get away from this stuff, the
more, the more romance there is as well.
(21:23):
From a from a bygone time legend.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
That. And that's one of the notes I
wrote in my overall, in my overall impressions of the
album. How vital is the context, if
you're if you are. So we're going into this knowing
the context, doing our due diligence, doing the research
for you, the extended family. For once, we actually did the
(21:45):
research, Yeah. Rare, but it happened.
I was going to say I'm not promising anything going
forward, but but we also listen to a lot of modern music.
So I feel like that gives us a sense of like we can make real
comparisons. Because if you do a search for
Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, Pet Sounds on YouTube, you're going
to get a lot of takes that are like, they don't make music like
(22:06):
this anymore. A lot of people that are like
music is, you know, it's been a slowly downhill since this time,
which we've addressed a little bit a little bit before in one
of our episodes. But I don't think that's the
case. I think it's a case of
romanticizing this period in rock history when things were
new and fresh, I mean. And, and when I related it to
(22:27):
things that I like, I mean, I couldn't help but think about my
beautiful dark twisted fantasy that it's like, it's like it's
the, I think it's the modern dayequivalent of the same thing.
It's like, OK, going in to say we're gonna craft something
beautiful. It's gonna have all these moving
parts and pieces and I'm gonna just micromanage it to the
smallest detail. Yeah.
It seemed very similar to me andhow ground breaking it was at
(22:49):
the time. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. And The Beach Boys documentary,
I watched a documentary about the making of Pet.
Sounds like Brian Wilson was like the number of takes it took
for them to get God only knows and and they've interviewed all
The Beach Boys, the living BeachBoys separately.
All of them to a person were like that was song was a pain in
(23:09):
the ass like, but you just got like do it again, do it again,
do it again over and over and over again.
But you hear the results. You can't argue with the
results. The thing that kind of blows me
away about again the context is how does this not happen again
for them? Yeah.
Where did this like they'd made eleven, yeah, 4-6 years or
whatever it was. They made 11 albums.
(23:30):
But, and I guess I do have the answer to that, is that Brian
Wilson kind of descends into sort of this LSD, marijuana
mental health struggle that lasts for the rest of his life.
Essentially the mental health stuff.
I don't know if you read about this where he was like basically
there was a, a, a, a psychiatrist running his life
for years. Like he had, like he got, got
himself written into his will. He had full control.
(23:52):
Like, Brian Wilson couldn't do anything if this guy didn't get
so craziness. But yeah, for this just to be
such a, well, you know, unique thing in their catalog.
So, but you had Smile, right? So Smile was supposed to be the
follow up. That's true.
Instead, they went with an entirely different album, Smiley
Smile. Yeah, Jesus, Yeah.
(24:13):
I know, but what that's the one note also that came up a lot was
that this is essentially Brian Wilson viewed this as a solo
album, right? That this was his album.
Yeah, in fact, one of these songs was a solo song that they
just put on this record. Yeah, but they, the rest of the
band, there's conflicting narratives about how embracing
was the rest of the band, of this stuff.
(24:33):
But it could have been that the band, maybe the reason there was
only one was the band was like, OK, we'll give you one, right?
It's like, you do your thing, we'll do whatever.
And then after that, we're doingbeach poison.
Yeah. Sure, sure, because that's what
they signed up for initially. Right, they didn't sign up to be
his background singers. Right.
Exactly. Yeah, Yeah.
Fascinating stuff. I, I could not stop reading
(24:53):
about it, watching things about it, you know, just, you know,
Wilson's, Brian Wilson's obsession with, like you said,
with Phil Spector, with like theraw Nets, with this band called
the the four freshmen, I think, which were essentially like a
barbershop quartet, which is howthey got all those harmonies,
all the, to take all of these disparate influences, to take
(25:14):
everything that you've been doing and to throw it all
together and throw half of it out.
And then to come up with this, it's just, it's a feat of
artistic. It's just an artistic statement
that it's it's incredibly impressive.
And I think kind of sadly too, I, I think the the current
landscape of music and entertainment and really
humanity right now, it's like, is anyone going to bother to do
(25:35):
this again? I thought the same thing.
And I and I think a lot because of the record industry.
I think because of the of the the idea of the band, like
people not caring about music made by four or five, you know,
musicians at least rock music. What other chance do you have?
Like so these guys, So you've got Brian Wilson, two brothers,
two of his brothers, Dennis and Carl, and then a cousin, Mike
(25:57):
Love, and then their friend who grow up singing together.
And so they have all of this experience working on these
harmonies and they love music. So they're listening to music.
If you're becoming a musician today.
And none of that, like the incentive, just isn't there to
work. This time you're not leaving the
house. Yeah, you're in your basement or
your bedroom doing. Right.
(26:19):
And so you don't get the benefitof all that stuff.
It's true. Yeah.
And what I'm saying is I don't even blame current musicians,
right? It's not their fault that we're
not seeing this kind of greatness.
No. Yeah.
I don't know. Fascinating stuff to me, yeah.
But I mean it in the end, so when we we don't review these
albums because, right, that'd befucking stupid, right?
But what we do do is we say, didit surpass meet or fail to meet
(26:44):
our expectations going in? Yeah, for this one I haven't met
my expectations, which is sayinga lot because I went into it
thinking this is the top five album of all so.
OK, OK. So I get it, but again, the drop
off from wouldn't it be nice is where it's like, that was
definitely better than I expected.
I'm like, this is so much more than I remember.
(27:05):
Yeah. But then the rest of it was
there was this drop and I'm like, OK, averages out to what I
expect. Sure, that makes sense.
Yeah, Yeah, I said it was betterthan I expected.
But in a strange way is in that that this, like I said, the
songs weren't actually that manyof them were not memorable.
But I'll never, like listen to it the same way again because of
the production. It changed that.
(27:25):
Even kind of just hearing murmurs about how impressive the
production was on the album, I wasn't ready for it.
That part was way better than expected.
I think probably the sum greateror the it's greater than the sum
of its parts. Absolutely, 100%, yeah.
Yeah. What do you think about Pet
Sounds if you haven't listened to it yet?
I hope. And I know like our, I've talked
to my buddies about this, our buddies, that they haven't
(27:45):
really listened to the whole album.
They think of them as the surf rock band.
What do you think? Dig into Pet sounds highly.
Recommended 37 minutes. Yeah.
No kidding. In a row, yeah.
That's true, it is. Technically it is 2
instrumentals. Yeah, right.
Yeah, the first one didn't see coming.
No, I think. The whole vocal harmonies.
And how about Oh, no vocals? All right, it was great.
(28:07):
I really like the instrumental. Yeah.
OK. Yeah.
Tell us. Let us know in the comments.
What do you think about pet sounds?
What do you think about our impression of pet sounds?
Are we right on? Are we just idiots for finally
of coming to this? But hey, you know.
Hey, fuck you, you do it. Hey, and we interrupted our
summer break for this. We sure did so.
So he so tanks now, hopping right back on a plane.
Right back, it's actually it's idling outside the studio.
(28:29):
That's right, just. Totally environmentally ill
advised. That's right.
But you know, the money that's rolling in from the Extended
Play podcast, we can afford these kind of luxuries.
Really. Yeah.
Yeah. I flew the woman with me here.
They're just waiting. Amazing.
Yeah. Anyway, we may or may not be
back soon in case I call another.
Maybe he'll just call me to Tahiti for an emergency pod.
That'd be great. It's possible, yeah.
(28:50):
Although can you walk there? Can you drive to Tahiti?
I I. Believe not.
OK. So I don't think I'll be coming.
No. All right, everybody.
Thanks for hanging out with us and we will see you sometime
soon. Bye folks, see you.
With the recent passing of BrianWilson of The Beach Boys, we
thought we had to do a bonus episode of the classic catch up.
We're going to be talking about Pet Sounds today on the Extended
Play Podcast with the End Tank. That's right, you heard the man
it is. Welcome to Season 6.5 of the
(00:23):
Extended Play podcast. We were, I was, I was waist deep
in the waters of Tahiti. That's right.
With a collection of voluntarilypresent and paid fine young
ladies surrounding me. I had I had Mai tais, I had
drinks and coconuts. Yeah, I had multi colored
speedos and phone rings and it'sE and he's like hey, do you hear
(00:47):
about Beach Boys? I'm like no.
And he's like we got to do an episode.
I'm like, seriously, I'm in Tahiti and he's like, yeah.
That's how much we care about you, the extended family that we
had to get back together, you know, break up our summer
sojourn and I'm. Not getting my deposit.
He's he's not, he's not. So, but how, how appropriate
that it's The Beach Boys that we're actually going to talk
(01:08):
about. It's just kind of salt on the
wound and they're like. That's right.
Yeah, but yes, we are talking about pet sounds and we, you
know, after the passing, there'sbeen a lot in the news, a lot of
comments, Paul McCartney notablysaid.
Like, God only knows the Best Song Ever written.
So we're like, you know what? Kind of gotta address it and
(01:29):
it's a big deal. And it fits very nicely into how
we were ending the season with the classic ketchup.
Yep. And like, you know what Pet
sounds? Why not now?
Yeah. And then if for those not
familiar, Classic Ketchup is a series we just introduced fairly
recently, actually, where we look, we're looking through some
of the greatest albums of all time, primarily before we were
born and ones that we didn't have a lot of experience with
(01:49):
and really digging in deep on them.
I can, I'll confess that there was a time in my, I would say
early 20s, I must have been still buying CDs.
So early 20s, does that math work out?
Maybe not. I keep talking, I'll figure it.
Out OK and it does not OK it does not anyway there's.
Your teen late. Teens, late teens, OK.
And I was buying a lot of CDs. Well, you were buying tapes
(02:10):
pretty late in the game. I was no, You were buying CDs
really early. Maybe the truth is.
Somewhere I I was buying C DS asof 88 I would guess you were 94,
so let's say 18. OK, All right.
Regardless, the long and short of it is I was doing what we're
doing with the classic catch up years ago in that I was just
like I heard like Springsteen's supposed to be the best.
(02:32):
All right, buy a bunch of Springsteen albums.
What about Dylan? Bought a bunch of Dylan albums
and most of them only got through a a single listen.
And I was not, I was just clearly wasn't ready for it at
the time. So I do believe I had listened
to Pet Sounds before. So I think this is actually my
second, third, 4th, 5th listens but.
Yeah, I had not. OK, great.
And like a lot of artists of this era, I noticed it with with
(02:56):
Elton John when we did that is I'm surprised at, well, I'm
always surprised at how many albums they put out, but also
how spread out the hits that everyone knows are.
Yes, there are no albums with like 5 of them.
Luckily, there's one or two, right, which which we will
address here. Actually in one of my notes
about how the record industry worked at that time, Yes.
(03:17):
But yeah, we actually my first, well, one of my notes here is I
always assumed this was their debut album.
Wow, Incredible. Yeah.
It's their 11th album. It is their 11th album.
Like 4 years after they started.Yeah, 1966.
Yeah. And so we should get into the
context a little bit about the history of The Beach Boys.
(03:39):
So up until this point, they're primarily known as this sort of
surf pop group, right? So that famously they're called
The Beach Boys. They lean into that and they
have songs about surfing, about cars, about girls and about
school. And that's really all, all their
songs, right? And they're just cranking out
hit after hit after hit. A lot of cover songs as well,
(04:00):
which was also a part of the part of the time.
But I think, and one of the things I really want to get into
eventually is context around this particular album, both sort
of historically in music and in The Beach Boys Canon.
Right. It was very much a focused
project. Yes, it was an intentional
delivery. It didn't just, yeah, it didn't
(04:21):
just happen like, oh, look, we had a great album.
Yeah, it deviates. So the subject, the subject
matter, the instrumentation, everything, the sound, the
overall sound of the album deviates.
It's just a huge left turn for the band.
And I think that's important to know coming in.
If you've never listened to Pet Sounds before, if you're
thinking like I had some friendsover the other night and mutual
friends and they were were they're thinking when they think
(04:43):
The Beach Boys, they think help Me, Rhonda, they think Good
Vibrations, they think Surfing USA, They think all of those
things. They know, God only knows, and
wouldn't it be nice? But they don't, I think.
I think the tendency for people of our generation is to just
think about the sort of the surf, poppy, throwaway, Yeah,
songs good. Vibrations cut from this album,
by the way. Yes, right.
And it sounds like it could be on this album.
(05:04):
First, the song Good Vibrations.Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, it's a fucking well, it
sounds like a theremin. I guess it's not a theremin.
Yeah. Yeah.
But yeah, the the 11th album thing was crazy.
Yeah. And the first thing I thought
when I sat down and hit play waswhen it comes to the to The
Beach Boys. Yes, you know, and.
(05:25):
Everything about them, Yeah, I think it's the perfect example
of that old cliche I had heard The Beach Boys.
OK, but did I really listen? Sounds trite, but that's true.
It's true. It is because you, I mean, let's
face it, for anyone of our age, which means anyone who listened
to The Beach Boys, period. Because God knows the kids
aren't listening to the fucking beach.
Boys can't imagine we should talk.
(05:46):
About that, maybe Kokomo? Oh, Gee, I gotta hope not.
That's probably, probably. No.
They don't listen to them. They hear Kokomo.
They're like, no, yes, we're good.
No, but even think about medium and equipment, like when did we
listen to Beach Boys? We were probably kids.
We were probably in our parents like 83 Chevette.
Yeah, the fucked up Stereo 8. Track then into tapes.
(06:06):
Oh, absolutely. You know, so scratched up vinyl.
Yeah, so most. Of our experience is probably on
crappy audio sources to begin with.
Yeah. Not that, you know, not that
this is, you know, Steely Dan of, you know, production
excellence, but but there's there's a lot going on that you
would not catch a if you weren'tlistening and B if you weren't
the right environment to catch it.
(06:26):
Absolutely, yes. This takes a focused listen for
sure, but one of the amazing things and we'll get to overall
impressions and we'll talk aboutmaybe favorite songs and all
that kind of stuff. But what I'm was really take,
what I was really struck by was that it works on both of those
levels, though. It works from a pop melody
standpoint to at least 2-3 radiohits.
(06:48):
And it rewards a deep lesson, which I think is really tough.
It's not one of those albums where it's like, it's only for
nerds. Like I don't get Steely Dan.
Yeah, right. Because it seems to be a thing
for music nerds. I could.
Be wrong to be the next classic ketchup.
Oh, gosh. OK, Yeah, well, we should do it.
No, we should do it. Absolutely.
We should give them a fair shot.But no, the this, I I grabbed
this quote from Wikipedia. I don't know who said it.
(07:08):
I don't fucking care. You look it up if you care.
I'm not gonna do all the work for you, it says.
Pet Sounds revolutionized music production in the role of
producers, especially through its level of detail in Wilson's
use of the studio as a compositional tool.
It elevated popular music as an art form and heightened public
regard for albums as cohesive works.
Absolutely. So that it's very clear that
(07:31):
prior to this, and especially where The Beach Boys are
concerned, albums were filler toget singles to mark.
Yes, you were just trying to write 10 pop songs, right?
Some of them caught, some didn't.
And that's. Why they would have 5 albums in
a two year period? Because by today's standards
that would be one album, right? But then it was like OK, that's
that's a hit now record 7 piece of shit songs and we've got an.
(07:52):
Album that's right, that's rightand this is not that so a little
more background about the album again, I'm not I'm not totally
sure of our audience and how much they would already know
about about this album. Probably not much, probably not
much. OK, so a little bit of
background is so Brian Wilson, who is the primary, Well, he is
the songwriter essentially that he wrote all the music.
He did Co write the lyrics with someone named Tony Asher, but
(08:16):
he's the architect of this album.
And what happened right before this album, before they made
this album is Brian Wilson was going through some stuff,
notoriously had a bunch of mental health issues and and
then was experimenting with LSD and marijuana as well as you did
in 1966, as one does and decide.And then had issues with crowds.
And so he said, I'm not doing the road anymore.
(08:37):
And so he let the rest of The Beach Boys and there were five
other Beach Boys at the time go out and play shows.
And he hung back and said, I'm just going to be in the studio.
And this is what comes out of that is a guy, a singularly
focused vision of what he thinksmusic should sound, what pop
music should sound like in the future.
Right. And he really, really, really
(08:59):
targeted rubber sole. Yes.
When you read about this album, yeah, it's crazy.
He was obsessed with making it equivalent to what he thought
was the peak of pop music at that point in time.
He wanted to make his own rubbersole.
And it's, I mean, it's funny when you read through the
Wikipedia and that's what I got obsessed by the songs.
We'll talk about it, sure, but it was the lore and the intent
(09:21):
and the but the competition withThe Beatles, this is probably
the only time it was really. That close, yeah.
Right. Honestly, yeah.
But for a period of time there, it was like, OK, we're gonna
match what you're doing. Yeah.
And after this, The Beatles makeSergeant Pepper's as a as a
intentional response to this album.
Like they took direct inspiration from that.
(09:42):
It's just amazing. I mean, there's so few moments
in history where there's times like this.
Like there's like the blur Oasisthing, but I feel like that's
not as I don't know, this is themoment where.
Sounds, Sergeant. Pepper, no, it certainly is not.
It's not. Yeah.
So yeah, that provides you with some context.
So that being said so The Beach Boys are off touring.
So when Brian Wilson goes to record the music of this album
(10:02):
he doesn't invite any of The Beach Boys to play any music on
this album. So they do not play any
instruments they are only there to do vocals.
So he instead he has the Wrecking Crew, which is this
famous group of studio musicianswho played all over every pop,
soul, jazz record of the time. They're they're Phil Spector,
yes, largely creation, yes. So the we, I mean, you're going
(10:24):
to touch up with the the whole wall of sound production was
basically this is Brian Wilson'stake on the wall of sound
approach. Yes.
He took what Phil Spector did and said I'm going to do my
version of that. Yes, Wall of Sound being and I
didn't really know about this until I watched a documentary on
it a little bit. Essentially, you still only had
so many tracks you could record on at the time.
But what they did to circumvent that and sort of make the sound
(10:47):
bigger is they literally had four piano players in a room to
make the sound bigger, or two bassists or three guitarists all
playing simultaneously or just off of each other to make this
make it sound so much bigger. And they.
Would they would be like 1/2 key?
They Yeah, their tones and keys would be slightly different.
Yeah. And they said it was a Speaking
of equipment, that this was intentional to sound big on
(11:09):
shitty radios because this is pre compression.
Yeah, sure. Compression doesn't really
become a thing until late 70s, early 80s.
Yeah, good point. When everything got compressed
to shit. Right.
So they they in a way, they madetheir own natural compression.
Yeah. But by pushing everything up,
Absolutely. And making everything loud.
Yes, yes, with so without sacrificing like like the
loudness wars in the 90s with Oasis and how it just sounds so
(11:31):
harsh on your ear. Listen to this.
Listen to any of the Phil Spector stuff, like think of
what I always think of as a Christmas gift for you, the
Christmas album, like The Ronettes and all that kind of
stuff. It is you are being assaulted by
this again. It's a wall of sound.
It seems to surround you even before spatial audio was the
thing. Yeah, they, and actually a lot
of this was done on a four track.
(11:52):
They said it was the the the drums, the bass and all
percussion was one track. The vocals was another and the
like guitars and orchestra and piano and all that was another
track. Amazing.
And then they left 1/4 for overdubs.
OK. So you did like everything on
three and then there was one forlike miscellaneous?
It's crazy. Whereas now, I mean, again, if
you're not familiar with the waythis stuff works, you have
(12:12):
infinite track. I mean shit, we have 16 we do a
Dick with. It that's right.
I mean, but if you're working from from your computer, you
have an infinite amount of layers, an infinite amount of
tracks. This just was not you're still,
you're working with tape at thistime.
So the fact that they can make this sound as rich, as full, as
loud as they did with only four tracks is absolutely incredible.
(12:34):
So now when it comes to the songs, remember, this is
technically your suggestion. It is meaning you have to guess
my three favorite Yes, as OK as the.
So we we can start with that. Sure, let's get an intro to the
songs. I've got them marked down here.
OK, so I'm I'm going to go. God only knows.
(12:55):
That's incredible. I know.
Are you being hipster ish? No.
OK, all right, how about let's go with Sloop Zombie?
Oh my God, I know there's an answer.
Yes, OK, I had. That was my #2.
OK, so I got one of them, yeah. Wouldn't it be nice?
(13:17):
OK, which I do need to talk about that, yes.
And then here today. Here today's great.
Yep. So I mean, yeah, God only knows
what was because I listened to this in order and God only knows
was one of the top three. OK, but then I got knocked out
by later. So yes, it's definitely I I my
(13:38):
note on it. I feel like it was building up
to something but then it never happened.
Interesting. Like I'm.
Like I kept waiting for like this crescendo.
Maybe cuz the chorus is so short.
The song is, I mean, it's like, it feels like it's going up and
up and up, and then I'm like, like, I'm being edged, OK, all
right. And then it's like, oh, just end
it, OK. There's no grand thing, which is
(13:59):
fine. Yeah.
I mean, but beautiful song nonetheless.
But I used a big crescendo, all right.
Nice. Yeah, my favorite's not that
anyone's asking. I'm asking, hey, what's your
favorite? I actually have here today, God
only knows. And then my other one was I
mean, wouldn't it be nice? Yes, but I think I know there's
(14:20):
an answer. Would be my other one.
Yeah, which I really like. Yeah, my note there is I really
like the instrumentation and howthey change directions in it,
which is what I wanted out of God Only Knows.
Gotcha, Gotcha. OK.
But see. So wouldn't it be nice?
Yeah, to me is transcendent. It's incredible, like so.
I I that, how is it not your topthree?
Yeah. No, it was.
(14:41):
It was, it was. I didn't want to be too obvious.
Well, it is. It is.
We got to keep it real. The top three in reality with no
bias and like not trying to be ahipster are wouldn't it be nice?
God only knows and I know there's an answer.
Those would be my top three. So wouldn't it be nice?
You know, I, I mean, it's probably been 20 years since I
(15:02):
listened to that song, right? But like, you know, it starts
off with just a few seconds of like lead up and then when it
hits it's, I had the same kind of visceral reaction that I did
with the Tyler Childers. Yes, absolutely wouldn't.
It be nice, then we wouldn't have to wait so long.
(15:28):
And wouldn't it be nice to live together in the kind of world
where we belong? Know what's going to make it
that much better when we can saygoodnight stay together.
Wouldn't it be nice if we'd wakeup in the morning when the day?
(15:54):
And it was like whoa. And nothing else on the rest of
the album came close to that to me.
I would agree. So there's a definite, I don't
want to call it a big fall off because it is a great album, but
like that. You could.
Tell that they put everything into that, yeah.
Absolutely. And for those of you new to the
extent of Play podcast, first ofall, like and subscribe.
(16:15):
But also we did an episode recently on our 100 for our
100th episode spectacular, our 100th favorite music moments.
So just parts of songs and I listed that drum hit and
wouldn't it be nice is one of myfavorites.
Absolutely. And perfectly placed at the
beginning of the album. Yep.
As sort of like a pay attention.Shit's different now.
Yeah, which is amazing. Yeah, yeah.
(16:37):
Yeah, but the harmonies, the. Oh my God.
Just. Yeah, it really I, I think it
kind of for me ended up doing a disservice a bit because I kept
waiting for another one of thoseand it didn't it didn't happen.
It's. Kind of unfair, right?
Yeah, sure. No, I can see that, yeah.
So overall as an album, OK, so this is typically listed as a.
(16:57):
Top number it's the. Number.
Two on all the Rolling Stone lists since 2000. 13 OK, so.
I I don't know, it's no mis education of Lauryn Hill.
I don't know how I feel about that ranking.
I do think that the context plays a outsized role in
(17:17):
people's impression of how good this album is because there is
there are some songs that aren'tgreat.
Agreed. To me, yeah, there's a.
For me, don't talk. Don't talk, OK yes, I have a
down arrow next to them. Don't talk.
Put your head on my shoulder. Yeah, I'm not a fan.
You still believe in me The second like there is a huge drop
off from wouldn't it be nice to you still believe in me?
(17:39):
Absolutely. Because and the Tebow slows way
down, the richness of the production slows down a little
bit. Yeah.
So there's a little bit too muchof that to make this for me in
the top whatever, 5, it's still top ten, 2000 whatever.
So I didn't plan on reading my notes.
It's like 5-5 words per song. Wouldn't it be nice Was it's a
transcended and experience? Yeah.
(18:00):
Next song. You still believe me?
Beautiful, Simple, but sounds big.
Yeah. Next song.
It's fine. Nothing really stands out.
Yeah. Next song.
Don't Talk. Maybe notable for how slow and
odd it is. Yeah, from a 1966 song from a
pop group. But nothing I want to listen to
again. I literally my first note is
forgettable for that song. Yeah, we're on the same page for
sure. So yeah.
(18:21):
So there are moments, but, and again, if you're listening in
your cans or if you got it cranked up, even the songs that
aren't that great lyrically, andthere are some real like rope
lyrics in some of these, even songs I really like like here
today. It makes you feel so bad, it
makes your heart feel sad. It makes your days go wrong.
(18:44):
It makes your night so long. I mean, it is elementary school
level lyrical stuff, but it doesn't matter because either
the melody is so catchy, the harmonies are incredibly
impressive, right? 456 part harmony.
There's six part harmonies on I just wasn't made for these times
6 or the production is so rich and the instrumentation, which
(19:10):
we haven't talked about yet. It's not just guitars based
Trump's. I mean you've got like theremin
a full orchestra, full brass section.
You've got banjo. Glenn Campbell plays the banjo
and the guitar on one of these songs.
So there's there's just so much going on that even the crappy
songs are like, this is still really impressive, right?
It's sort of like if you got like a new eight KTV, it doesn't
(19:32):
matter how bad the movie is, you're just enjoying the movie.
That's true. That's true.
That is, it's like, that's kind of like what this is, yeah.
No, I I felt the same way and itwas and it really got me kind of
going down this ruminating rabbit hole of it is a great
album, no doubt, no doubt. But like, I do wonder if like
albums get the benefit of being older in terms of their
(19:56):
greatness just keeps expanding. Yes.
Absolutely. Like cuz it's like a Pet Sounds.
It's like if you were to say allthis is, you know, if you were
to pick a album for the last 10 years and say it's better than
Pet Sounds, it's like you're a fucking idiot.
But like, OK, it's a great album.
Yeah, absolutely. But I think it's super
interesting to effectively listen to it for the first time
in 2025. Yes, yes.
And, and putting aside technology things you just said,
(20:16):
yeah, lyrically. Yeah, right.
And. Arrangements.
Very good, certainly. Groundbreaking, yes.
And again, there's a huge difference between giving
someone credit for being the 1stand breaking ground but
acknowledging. OK, but is the end product as
good or better? Sure.
Than other stuff? Sure.
And I think Pet Sounds is a great example of that.
Yeah, I I agree. And I, and I think it's telling
(20:39):
one that the album wasn't a hugehit at the time.
It took there was a long gestation period before it was
actually a big hit. Did I think it didn't go go
platinum until like the 90s? Like, it was a long time.
And that's partly because that'snot what anybody really wanted
from The Beach Boys at the point.
Like, literally no one was asking for this album.
So much so, in fact, that monthslater.
(21:01):
So this came out in May, in October, the record company put
out a Beach Boys greatest hits. Yeah.
And they were. And The Beach Boys were not
happy about it. They're they're basically trying
to hedge their bets. Like, we need to keep milking
this cash cow, Right. And this album wasn't doing it
for them. But I agree.
I I think the, the further you get away from this stuff, the
more, the more romance there is as well.
(21:23):
From a from a bygone time legend.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
That. And that's one of the notes I
wrote in my overall, in my overall impressions of the
album. How vital is the context, if
you're if you are. So we're going into this knowing
the context, doing our due diligence, doing the research
for you, the extended family. For once, we actually did the
(21:45):
research, Yeah. Rare, but it happened.
I was going to say I'm not promising anything going
forward, but but we also listen to a lot of modern music.
So I feel like that gives us a sense of like we can make real
comparisons. Because if you do a search for
Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, Pet Sounds on YouTube, you're going
to get a lot of takes that are like, they don't make music like
(22:06):
this anymore. A lot of people that are like
music is, you know, it's been a slowly downhill since this time,
which we've addressed a little bit a little bit before in one
of our episodes. But I don't think that's the
case. I think it's a case of
romanticizing this period in rock history when things were
new and fresh, I mean. And, and when I related it to
(22:27):
things that I like, I mean, I couldn't help but think about my
beautiful dark twisted fantasy that it's like, it's like it's
the, I think it's the modern dayequivalent of the same thing.
It's like, OK, going in to say we're gonna craft something
beautiful. It's gonna have all these moving
parts and pieces and I'm gonna just micromanage it to the
smallest detail. Yeah.
It seemed very similar to me andhow ground breaking it was at
(22:49):
the time. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. And The Beach Boys documentary,
I watched a documentary about the making of Pet.
Sounds like Brian Wilson was like the number of takes it took
for them to get God only knows and and they've interviewed all
The Beach Boys, the living BeachBoys separately.
All of them to a person were like that was song was a pain in
(23:09):
the ass like, but you just got like do it again, do it again,
do it again over and over and over again.
But you hear the results. You can't argue with the
results. The thing that kind of blows me
away about again the context is how does this not happen again
for them? Yeah.
Where did this like they'd made eleven, yeah, 4-6 years or
whatever it was. They made 11 albums.
(23:30):
But, and I guess I do have the answer to that, is that Brian
Wilson kind of descends into sort of this LSD, marijuana
mental health struggle that lasts for the rest of his life.
Essentially the mental health stuff.
I don't know if you read about this where he was like basically
there was a, a, a, a psychiatrist running his life
for years. Like he had, like he got, got
himself written into his will. He had full control.
(23:52):
Like, Brian Wilson couldn't do anything if this guy didn't get
so craziness. But yeah, for this just to be
such a, well, you know, unique thing in their catalog.
So, but you had Smile, right? So Smile was supposed to be the
follow up. That's true.
Instead, they went with an entirely different album, Smiley
Smile. Yeah, Jesus, Yeah.
(24:13):
I know, but what that's the one note also that came up a lot was
that this is essentially Brian Wilson viewed this as a solo
album, right? That this was his album.
Yeah, in fact, one of these songs was a solo song that they
just put on this record. Yeah, but they, the rest of the
band, there's conflicting narratives about how embracing
was the rest of the band, of this stuff.
(24:33):
But it could have been that the band, maybe the reason there was
only one was the band was like, OK, we'll give you one, right?
It's like, you do your thing, we'll do whatever.
And then after that, we're doingbeach poison.
Yeah. Sure, sure, because that's what
they signed up for initially. Right, they didn't sign up to be
his background singers. Right.
Exactly. Yeah, Yeah.
Fascinating stuff. I, I could not stop reading
(24:53):
about it, watching things about it, you know, just, you know,
Wilson's, Brian Wilson's obsession with, like you said,
with Phil Spector, with like theraw Nets, with this band called
the the four freshmen, I think, which were essentially like a
barbershop quartet, which is howthey got all those harmonies,
all the, to take all of these disparate influences, to take
(25:14):
everything that you've been doing and to throw it all
together and throw half of it out.
And then to come up with this, it's just, it's a feat of
artistic. It's just an artistic statement
that it's it's incredibly impressive.
And I think kind of sadly too, I, I think the the current
landscape of music and entertainment and really
humanity right now, it's like, is anyone going to bother to do
(25:35):
this again? I thought the same thing.
And I and I think a lot because of the record industry.
I think because of the of the the idea of the band, like
people not caring about music made by four or five, you know,
musicians at least rock music. What other chance do you have?
Like so these guys, So you've got Brian Wilson, two brothers,
two of his brothers, Dennis and Carl, and then a cousin, Mike
(25:57):
Love, and then their friend who grow up singing together.
And so they have all of this experience working on these
harmonies and they love music. So they're listening to music.
If you're becoming a musician today.
And none of that, like the incentive, just isn't there to
work. This time you're not leaving the
house. Yeah, you're in your basement or
your bedroom doing. Right.
(26:19):
And so you don't get the benefitof all that stuff.
It's true. Yeah.
And what I'm saying is I don't even blame current musicians,
right? It's not their fault that we're
not seeing this kind of greatness.
No. Yeah.
I don't know. Fascinating stuff to me, yeah.
But I mean it in the end, so when we we don't review these
albums because, right, that'd befucking stupid, right?
But what we do do is we say, didit surpass meet or fail to meet
(26:44):
our expectations going in? Yeah, for this one I haven't met
my expectations, which is sayinga lot because I went into it
thinking this is the top five album of all so.
OK, OK. So I get it, but again, the drop
off from wouldn't it be nice is where it's like, that was
definitely better than I expected.
I'm like, this is so much more than I remember.
(27:05):
Yeah. But then the rest of it was
there was this drop and I'm like, OK, averages out to what I
expect. Sure, that makes sense.
Yeah, Yeah, I said it was betterthan I expected.
But in a strange way is in that that this, like I said, the
songs weren't actually that manyof them were not memorable.
But I'll never, like listen to it the same way again because of
the production. It changed that.
(27:25):
Even kind of just hearing murmurs about how impressive the
production was on the album, I wasn't ready for it.
That part was way better than expected.
I think probably the sum greateror the it's greater than the sum
of its parts. Absolutely, 100%, yeah.
Yeah. What do you think about Pet
Sounds if you haven't listened to it yet?
I hope. And I know like our, I've talked
to my buddies about this, our buddies, that they haven't
(27:45):
really listened to the whole album.
They think of them as the surf rock band.
What do you think? Dig into Pet sounds highly.
Recommended 37 minutes. Yeah.
No kidding. In a row, yeah.
That's true, it is. Technically it is 2
instrumentals. Yeah, right.
Yeah, the first one didn't see coming.
No, I think. The whole vocal harmonies.
And how about Oh, no vocals? All right, it was great.
(28:07):
I really like the instrumental. Yeah.
OK. Yeah.
Tell us. Let us know in the comments.
What do you think about pet sounds?
What do you think about our impression of pet sounds?
Are we right on? Are we just idiots for finally
of coming to this? But hey, you know.
Hey, fuck you, you do it. Hey, and we interrupted our
summer break for this. We sure did so.
So he so tanks now, hopping right back on a plane.
Right back, it's actually it's idling outside the studio.
(28:29):
That's right, just. Totally environmentally ill
advised. That's right.
But you know, the money that's rolling in from the Extended
Play podcast, we can afford these kind of luxuries.
Really. Yeah.
Yeah. I flew the woman with me here.
They're just waiting. Amazing.
Yeah. Anyway, we may or may not be
back soon in case I call another.
Maybe he'll just call me to Tahiti for an emergency pod.
That'd be great. It's possible, yeah.
(28:50):
Although can you walk there? Can you drive to Tahiti?
I I. Believe not.
OK. So I don't think I'll be coming.
No. All right, everybody.
Thanks for hanging out with us and we will see you sometime
soon. Bye folks, see you.
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