The Beach Boys had a very humble beginning. The sound they started off with was a lot of fun. The first albums were all very happy surfing music with lots of vocal harmonies. They were inspired by Dennis’s passion for surfing. Brian saw this huge fad that was about to start and decided to use surfing as the primary focus of their songs.
Brian Wilson was the writer of all the Beach Boys music. He was also the bassist for the band. A lot of the responsibilities of the band came onto his shoulders with having to write full length albums for him and his brother and having a full tour to play for. Right before a tour date, he flipped out on the plane and announced his stepping down from performing live. He wanted to just spend all of his time in the studio to write and record. He also experimented with drugs.
Pet Sounds was greatly influenced by Phil Spector’s work. While Phil would be producing, Brian would sit in the back and listen and see how Phil worked in order to learn the tricks of the trade. He would watch to see where he put microphones, levels on the boards and so on.
While recording Pet Sounds, the Beach Boys used a lot different techniques. While the other brothers were on tour in Japan, Brian and his good friend Tony Asher recorded all the instruments for Pet Sounds. They used studio musicians to record this album. When the other brothers came back, they then recorded all the vocal tracks and doubling for the album. They also used sounds from animals to create very unique music. The album was also written as a complete album instead of just a bunch of singles compiled into the same album.
The album Pet Sounds is a very different album. I really like the fact that the album is a true album just flowing from one song to another. The harmonies that the Beach Boys created for this album and really all of their albums are really cool. I wish more artists today would create harmonies like the Beach Boys.
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