The guitarist Brian Wilson thought could play anything: “He was dynamite”
Being a session musician involves knowing almost any kind of music that someone puts in front of you. Just ask anyone who has worked with the likes of Steely Dan back in the day, and they’ll be happy to tell you about how they had put to be put through the wringer to get the right sound for the record, even if it meant trying multiple guitars or crazy chords that no one had ever tried before in a pop song. Brian Wilson had a much softer touch than the likes of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, but when working on Pet Sounds, he had a secret weapon with Barney Kessel.
When The Beach Boys were starting out, rock guitar was still limited to two camps. Either people were taking the route that Chuck Berry had taken inspired by the blues, or they were interested in the countrified version of the genre made famous by the likes of Carl Perkins and Scotty Moore.
Wilson loved both of those styles of guitar, but what Pet Sounds turned into had to be more interesting than anything that had come before. Rubber Soul by The Beatles had already opened his mind to the possibilities of what music could be, so having a record that stood as a sonic statement needed the best musicians possible.
Despite having everyone on The Wrecking Crew on hand to create every track, Kessel never considered rock and roll his primary genre. He had been used to playing different jazzy runs in the past, so trying to put that kind of improvisational playing in the context of a pop song was always going to be a tight fit.
As soon as Wilson heard him on ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’, though, he knew he had a musical Swiss army knife at his disposal, saying, “Whew, he was dynamite. Just a really amazing guitar player; that guy was dynamite. He played the RUN introduction on ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice: Whew! Jazz guitar, any kind of guitar you want, he could play.”
For anyone remotely familiar with jazz, playing these songs made perfect sense. As much as jazz clubs are cluttered with artists noodling on different scales, this was about creating the pop-rock equivalent of jazz standards, complete with charted-out parts that gave every instrument a chance to shine.
While George Harrison delivered a few jazzy guitar lines on Rubber Soul, like on ‘Michelle’, Kessel definitely one-ups him on his songs, bringing a swing to the tune that keeps everything slightly bouncy. Compared to the serious groove The Beatles had on the best rock and roll tunes, hearing him glide across the track makes the Fab Four almost sound stiff by comparison when they made some of their refined masterpieces.
In fact, this kind of mentality may have paved the way for the Steely Dans of the world using different jazz players on major hits, including Larry Carlton’s fantastic solo on the track ‘Kid Charlemagne’. Artists like The Beatles and Bob Dylan were trying their best to go against rock and roll traditions, but hearing Kessel’s guitar work on Pet Sounds almost gave the world permission to think outside the box whenever they made a hit song.
