Brian Wilson names “the most satisfying” song he ever made
When Brian Wilson goes down in history, the first thing people will discuss is his knowledge of harmony. Beyond being a musical genius who could go toe-to-toe with the greatest composers of the 20th century, Wilson’s way of blending his voice with his brothers during The Beach Boys’ prime sounded like a choir of California angels serenading you the minute their songs came on. While most of Pet Sounds contains the best music that the 1960s ever spat out, Wilson admitted that one of his proudest musical achievements didn’t even have any of his brothers on it.
Then again, Pet Sounds wasn’t necessarily concerned with having hit singles. Sure, there are probably most pop artists today that would kill to make something as catchy as ‘Wouldn’t it Be Nice’, but what could justifiably be considered one of the greatest albums of all time couldn’t even get arrested on the charts upon release, leading to the band’s label releasing a greatest-hits album in case it didn’t sell.
But maybe fans just did not understand what they were hearing. This was a sophisticated take on pop music, and Wilson was the mad scientist putting everything in its right place to create musical symphonies. As the first side winds down, Wilson decides to give his audience a bit of a breather on ‘Let’s Go Away for A While’.
Even though an instrumental track pretty much guarantees that a song won’t get airtime on the charts, this feels like if a pop band decided to make a classical piece of music. For all the ethereal harmonies that Wilson had previously put together, you can really feel the power of the session band, The Wrecking Crew, here, almost like they made a little nugget of studio jamming that happened to find its way onto the album.
This is far from just a loose jam, though. Once you start paying attention, everything is meticulously planned, from the violins adding a sense of drama to the guttural sound of the basses plodding along. Whereas most fans would skip a song like this every time it comes on, this was as good as it gets for Wilson.
Shortly after the album’s release, Wilson claimed ‘Let’s Go Away for A While’ was one of his finest moments, recalling, “[It’s] the most satisfying piece of music I’ve ever made. I applied a certain set of dynamics through the arrangement and the mixing and got a full musical extension of what I’d planned during the earliest stages of the theme. I think the chord changes are very special…The total effect is ‘Let’s Go Away For Awhile,’ which is something everyone in the world must have said at some time or another”.
It’s hard to really defend a song like this when it’s placed next to tracks like ‘God Only Knows’, but this is probably the closest to hearing what Wilson heard in his head when he was making the record. He had the potential to make pop songs for the rest of his life, but he knew he could take things further, and The Wrecking Crew was his musical instrument to get what he was looking for.
The song also helps you appreciate the idea of the record as an album rather than a collection of singles. The Beatles may have already been working on making the album format work as a cohesive statement, but if you didn’t have ‘Let’s Go Away For a While’ right before ‘Sloop John B’, it might have been a bit too jarring for most fans to take in.
