r/thebeachboys

Thanks for making this the best ‘The Beach Boys’ community on earth. That’s it. Feeling sentimental tonight. I blame the B side of TODAY!.

I see that the track is a little decisive among some people and it’s also incredibly unfinished, but I can’t help but be infatuated by it. Kind of an incredible song to me. I think the version from the SMILE sessions is my favourite. The strings and trumpet are just beautiful, I see his vision. I would love to hear other views on the song and the stories around it. Many different versions!

From CD scans, to books and magazines, and even recordings, it's an amazing resource!

Is the structure of songs such as Vegetables at least similar to their original intention? I know that version of H&V is unlikely, as it would’ve been Cantina, especially if Worms made the record, which I base my version off (12 track memo). I know some additions from later sessions are on songs like Fire but are these accurate? I know Dada wouldn’t have had the into part as that wasn’t even written until the Wild Honey sessions. Thanks

60 years ago today, Brian and the Boys finished recording “God Only Knows” and mixed it to mono for the last time. To commemorate, the one and only time we’ve managed to time one of these to the date, there’s a new essay on the Pet Sounds sessions page all about the making of the record, every exhaustive detail from writing to completion:

https://beachboyssessions.com/pet-sounds/god-only-knows/

This is the most comprehensive entry in the series so far, for us a payoff to years of hard digging and debating in the trenches to nail down every component of the track’s creation. “God Only Knows” is a pretty good song, so it felt worth the investment. The full arrangement score (I know we’ve fallen behind on getting these together) should be available pretty soon in PDF and Musescore format to download from the website.

Alongside that, to take a weird detour, there’s a second new essay all about the time Brian teamed up with Dick Reynolds to produce orchestrated covers of “Stella by Starlight” and “How Deep Is the Ocean” for his uncle, Carl Korthof. While at the studio with a leftover orchestra, Brian whipped up the track “Three Blind Mice” on the spot. We love an obscure side story:

https://beachboyssessions.com/pet-sounds/carl-and-mice/

On the main Pet Sounds page, there are now general overview credits for that whole era of sessions (which may be subject to adjustments as we cover the rest of the album). There’s more on the way for other albums and time periods. If you’d like to keep up to date with our work (as we know some were asking about a mailing list), subscribe to our Patreon to be notified with new posts: https://patreon.com/BeachBoysSessions?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

Donating is completely optional but welcome if you’d like to support what we do.

Was anybody else a member of BBFUN (Beach Boys Freaks United) in the 1980’s? I was a member for probably three years.

One year I mailed them my membership card and asked if they could get Carl Wilson to sign it—and he did!

I still have a Beach Boys bumper sticker and button from that era.