If "Don't Worry Baby" was on Pet Sounds

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by MelodyFair, Jan 19, 2018.

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  1. john lennonist

    john lennonist There ONCE was a NOTE, PURE and EASY...

    It would make "Pet Sounds" closer to the All-Time Great of which it's sometimes perceived (it's not even in the Top 10 for me)... just as "Sgt Pepper" would rise into contention for that honor if it had "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" in place of "Good Morning" and editing about 1:30 from of "Within You, Without You" (as would be need to end up with an album in the 40-minute range).
     
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2018
  2. john lennonist

    john lennonist There ONCE was a NOTE, PURE and EASY...


    I agree that Don't Worry Baby "would be the second best track on Pet Sounds" --

    but I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that what we consider the best track on it is different... for me, it's Caroline No".

    .
     
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2018
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  3. webmatador

    webmatador Friend Of The People

    Location:
    Austin, TX, USA
    This discussion makes me realize how prolific Brian Wilson was in the mid sixties. Yes, Pet Sounds would've been bolstered by "Don't Worry Baby" and a few tracks from Today and Summer Days released in the span of two years. In the modern era he wouldn't have been expected to churn out a few albums per year and might have consolidated his best material.

    Back then it wasn't the case and yet he still managed to concoct one of the greatest records ever made. We are forever armchair quarterbacks.
     
  4. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Wouldn't it be Nice
     
  5. I think "Don't Worry Baby" is a great song and fits perfectly right where it's at on Shut Down Vol. 2.

    Next topic: If "Surfin' Safari" was on Smiley Smile.
     
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  6. Rick Bartlett

    Rick Bartlett Forum Resident

    Yep, can't really even understand this discussion of DWB on Pet Sounds or even omitting
    SJB!!! What the What???
    DWB fits perfectly where it is, besides BW 64' and BW 65/65 are nearly light years apart.
    the only song that missed it's glorious opportunity is 'Guess I'm Dumb'.
     
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  7. EdogawaRampo

    EdogawaRampo Senior Member

    Coming out as early as it did, I continue to be astounded by In My Room, stereo mix. Cranked up loud it can pretty much move me to tears.
     
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  8. The Elephant Man

    The Elephant Man Forum Resident

    I don't think this can be said any better.
     
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  9. EdogawaRampo

    EdogawaRampo Senior Member

    Or, if Surfin' Safari had been released in 1967 and listeners knew how to contextually interpret the tunes:

    The Beach Boys Surfin' Safari album - Really that bad?

    "Surfin' Safari" is a great record. It's grungy and dirty and raw and I like it. It's the surfin' equivalent to "Never Mind The Bullocks".

    What's wrong with a group of enthusiastic young men singing about chicks, soft drinks, county fairs, and more chicks? Not to mention, the most earnest and heartfelt lead vocal ever, found on the overlooked masterwork "Cuckoo Clock"? Such a moving performance. The arrival of the Beach Boys was as Earth shattering as the Beatles landing in JFK. They had a fresh, energetic sound that kicked the whole 60's rock and roll scene in the ***. They provided the shot heard round the world which lead to all the great albums that followed. Friends, Sufin' Safari is as dangerous and dark as Velvet Underground & Nico 5 years later. Happier lyrics, yeah, but look at the muscianship. If Chug-a-lug was about liquid LSD you'd all see what I mean. Don't let the lyrics throw you. Messy haired teens with nothing to lose laying down some hot jams under the watchful eye of their lunatic father. Nothing was ever the same after it, and sweaty jocks everywhere put down their bat and gloves and picked up Fender stats all because of Brian and the gang.

    "Cuckoo Clock" is my favorite cut on the album, and it is as dark and cerebral as anything. "Ghosts crowd the child's fragile eggshell mind". It's all coming from the same troubing place.


    Surfin' Safari is a song about patricide. Read between the lines.

    Dare I say, aside from Johnny Cash, that Wilson was the only one gutsy enough to speak out against racial injustice on "Ten Little Indians". He could see that the California hills were stained with the blood of many a brave tribe. The tenth little indian acted like himself. He didn't succumb to the white man's ways and accept Jesus Christ as his savior.

    "Chug-a-lug" is a naked assessment of the group. "Gary like's a girl's tight black pants". This was 1962. How did such a filthy sentiment get past the censors? Wilson and Usher pushing the envelope, as much as the Beatles would with "I'd Love To Turn You On" five years later. Each Beach Boy represents a different fraction of troubled youth. Carl's unhealthy obsession with food is explored, as well as Mike's secret need for alcohol to help him deal with the reality of knocking up girls. A generation lost in space, all described perfectly within the confines of a two-minute song.

    "409" is a song that deals with the loss of a boy's virginity at the hands of a hooker.


    "Surfin'", the song that started it all, is a desperate cry for help. "Surfin' is the only life". All other roads lead to death. The escapism of the beach and surf and sand is the only thing keeping them from ending their lives because of the hardships they face.

    The "Surfer Stomp" is referring to giving squares and greasers the beat down. It's kinda like an American Quadrophenia, this song.

    "Heads You Win, Tails I Lose" is about some of the seeder parts of town, where pimps and hookers rule, and smoke filled pool halls crackle with the sounds of gunshots and knife fights. Sometimes the kids from uptown sneak into the slums to get a taste of the action. Peeking through a filthy window smeared with blood and **** and yellowed from decades of cigar stench. The innocence of youth is lost in an instant as they witness a man stabbed to death for attempting to cheat at a game. Either way the coin falls, you lose. Death is at your door. Heavy, heavy stuff.


    "Cuckoo Clock" is for me the ultimate Brian Wilson statement. Before fame, fortune, drugs, self-confidence, women, and lawyers got in the way, we have a sweet young man with a voice as pure as God's linen, experiencing the joy of a simple, wholesome relationship with a nice young girl. The cuckoo clock is not literal; it is only in Brian's head. Each time things start to happen again, he thinks he's got something good going for himself, but what goes wrong? "Cuckoo! Cuckoo!" The cuckoo is in his head, man, it's one of the voices. I almost cry sometimes because I feel so bad for that young boy whose life was ruined by all sorts of outside influences. This recording is pretty much the last snapshot of Brian before that red-blooded, all-American kid got swallowed up forever inside the jaws of paranoia, depression, and record industry corruption. **** you, Doctor Landy.

    "The Shift" is an animalistic statement of human sexuality, the words most likely spat solely from the sinful mouth of Mike Love. The polar opposite of “Cuckoo Clock”, it is complete devoid of emotion and old fashioned social standards. Sex is a physical act, done only for sick pleasure, nothing more. Women are objects and should wear this "shift" in order to please the men folk around them. I find myself rather offended by this song, to be honest with you. "She'll ball you with the shift on". Mike would park at inspiration point and have his girl climb over on top of him and he'd slide up the shift and do his business. Easy access, they'd call it. One of the most explicitly sexual songs ever recorded by the Beach Boys. Disgustingly brunt, but again, honesty where honesty had seldom been seen before. No sugarcoating. The reality of the era. Biff, you take your damn hands off her.

    So you see, the "Surfin' Safari" album is just as deep and meaningful and groundbreaking as anything released during the 60's. The Beach Boys had arrived, before the Beatles shook the world, before Dylan became the voice of a generation, and they had already broken down many barriers and expanded the musical horizon with their dark, realistic view of life as a teenager.

    BEST. ALBUM. OF 1962.
     
  10. HarvG

    HarvG Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago Suburbs
    Interesting interpretation of the album to say the least.

    Edit: just realized this was from a prior post in another thread by forum member The Zodiac. My comment still stands though.
     
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2018
  11. I like your post, but that got me wondering if it's OK to like a post just because it emphatically agrees with something I said. It's akin to liking your own post which is not allowed.

    Seems sorta self-congratulatory and narcissistic. :D
     
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2018
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  12. Darrin L.

    Darrin L. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Golden, CO
    :crazy::biglaugh::laughup::biglaugh::crazy:
     
  13. drbryant

    drbryant Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Musically, it would have been put of place. As others have mentioned, it reflects a different era - it’s that Brill Buiding, Phil Spector melody and sound.
     
  14. Daniel Plainview

    Daniel Plainview God's Lonely Man

    "Sloop John B" is perfect on "Pet Sounds". You need a little pick-me-up midway on the album. Otherwise it's all a little too heavy. For instance, Beck's "Sea Change" is an album that desperately needed a "Sloop John B". It all gets a little too monotonous. Same with Neil Young putting "Piece of Crap" on "Sleeps with Angels". You need to come up for air sometimes.

    "Pet Sounds" is perfect, and I can't comprehend the idea of airlifting "Don't Worry Baby" into it. If I had to move anything from Shut Down II to Pet Sounds I'd reach for "Warmth of the Sun" first.

    Good to see my old "Surfin' Safari" review still getting mileage. :)
     
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  15. VeeFan64

    VeeFan64 A 60s Music Kind of Guy

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    So silly. It's one of their best but has no place on any of their post-1964 albums.
     
  16. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    I love it, but it would have been out of place, Brian had moved on.
     
  17. AudiophilePhil

    AudiophilePhil Senior Member

    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    Actually, the "Let Him Run Wild" fits nicely with album tracks from Pet Sounds.
     
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  18. Andreas

    Andreas Senior Member

    Location:
    Frankfurt, Germany
    The Little Girl I Once Knew is basically a rewrite of California Girls, even for the arrangement. I like it for what it is, but it is derivative and it always seemed to me that Brian wanted to buy some time while he was writing for Pet Sounds. That song is far from the lush melancholy and introspection that dominates Pet Sounds.
     
  19. Tommyboy

    Tommyboy Senior Member

    Location:
    New York
    Doesn’t fit Pet Sounds
     
  20. Crimson jon

    Crimson jon Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston
    I have always wished two things in music....

    One is that sloop John b would have been left off of pet sounds because it just doesn't fit the feel of the masterpiece

    Two is that Maxwell's silver hammer would have been left off abbey road and in its place come and get it.
     
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  21. DK Pete

    DK Pete Forum Resident

    Location:
    Levittown. NY
    ...what can I say...I'm not as adverse to Maxwell as most people are. That said, i do like it more as an album-side-context track as opposed to an individual song in and of itself. But i agree that CAGI is by far, the better song. How cool it would be if a full-band Beatles version (even as a rough outtake) existed somewhere in the vaults which we have no idea about....
     
  22. idleracer

    idleracer Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    :kilroy: If you ask me, "Let's Go Away For Awhile" is the weakest cut on the album. It sounds like exactly what it is. A bunch of chords in search of a melody. "Summer Means New Love" is a stronger instrumental in that vein, and so is this:

     
  23. If I Can Dream_23

    If I Can Dream_23 Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Yeah, Maxwell is actually a favorite of mine off Abbey Road! I never understood the disdain. I mean it's meant as flat-out humor. Not every track needs to be "Let It Be" or "Revolution". :)

    It's the same reason I adore "Octopuses Garden" as well. Especially George's "bubbly solo break".

    I far prefer both tracks to the swampy yet more popular "Come Together". And both tracks very much enhance and contribute to Abbey Road as a whole. Certainly sonically. On the other hand, "Sloop John B" is almost an antithesis to the vibe and lush melancholy that "Pet Sounds" rest on. It just is extremely jarring and out of context to hear alongside such truly beautiful, almost classical-style, works such as "Don't Talk", Let's Go Away For Awhile" or "God Only Knows".

    I still think it's the greatest album ever produced. I mean it's not hard to just enjoy the Mozart-like masterpiece that is there and not listen to "Sloop John B". :)
     
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2018
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  24. apesfan

    apesfan "Going Ape"

    Yeah I used to think about other tracks that could of should of been on Pet Sounds. Good Vibrations, Don't worry baby, and The Warmth of the Sun, I liked.
    When it comes to Sgt. Pepper, I always thought the SFF/Penny Lane should of been on Sgt. Pepper especially since I was told by one of the "in the know" EMI cronies that was at a Beatles fest in Conneticut (1984-85) that PennyLane was to end side 1 and Strawberry would start side 2.
    That was info that my friend and I loved, however aprocryphil it might of been. Take care John M.
     
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2018
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  25. chacha

    chacha Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    mill valley CA USA
    No to this on Pet Sounds
     
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