The one song Brian Wilson never enjoyed listening to: “It’s a crapped-out lead”
The entire pop landscape wouldn’t have ever been the same without someone like Brian Wilson.
Although The Beach boys were never known as the coolest band in the world by any stretch, what Wilson did behind the scenes on every one of their classic albums has redefined how the new kids on the block look at structuring their songs, whether it’s layering harmonies on top of each other or finding that one fantastic melody to put on top of everything. But even if Wilson had high standards for himself, he could understand when he fell short of what the song needed.
Then again, Wilson was always the one who was cracking the whip on everyone else when they went into the studio. He may have been one of the most kindhearted people in the history of the music industry, but he was willing to fight to make sure that every single member of the Wrecking Crew was playing at the top of their game whenever he was trying to get the right sound for a song like ‘Good Vibrations’.
Granted, that also meant dealing with the rest of the Beach Boys as well. There are many great songs that Wilson helped arrange with his brothers in mind, but hearing Mike Love stick his nose in things was either going to be the best or the worst choice that the band could have made. Love wasn’t exactly untalented, but hearing about him sticking his nose into places it didn’t belong when working on Pet Sounds wasn’t going to ease Wilson’s state of mind when painting his masterpiece.
But Wilson wasn’t going to rest until he had scrubbed every bit of the surfer band out of his body. He didn’t want to be defined by fun in the sun tracks for the rest of his life, and there were already signs of him moving away from that sort of sound. Tunes like ‘She Knows Me Too Well’ from The Beach Boys Today is as good as anything that landed on Pet Sounds, but even going outside his comfort zone on a song like ‘Let Him Run Wild’, it wasn’t like he knocked it out of the park, either.
Granted, Summer Days and Summer Nights is already a strange record for the band. They were still firmly in summer fun mode, but there were also pieces that showed them moving further outward. ‘California Girls’ was their first real step into psychedelic-sounding harmonies, but when listening to how the rest of the band was working on ‘Let Him Run Wild’, Wilson thought he was selling himself short with his vocal performance.
Everyone else playing on the session was phenomenal, but even with someone like Leon Russell playing keyboards, Wilson felt that it could have been a lot better than it became, saying, “The only thing wrong with it was me. I never liked my lead on it. It’s a crapped-out lead. It’s an abortion of a lead. Sometimes I think about going back and fixing it. I could, but I haven’t. But I can hear everyone else and how great they’re doing.”
Hell, that wasn’t even the last time that Wilson felt a bit insecure about his voice on the record. ‘I’m Bugged At My Ol’ Man’ may have been completely justified given how cutthroat Murray Wilson could be towards his sons, but the fact that Wilson credited himself as ‘too embarrassed’ on the final version of the song really showed how nervous he was to be making a song so pessimistic.
Then again, all of the greatest Beach Boys songs needed to have a tinge of sadness between them to make everything work. Wilson’s goal may have been to make the world smile every single time he played music, but when you think about it, there’s no way to appreciate the happy times without recognising how sad life can get as well, and ‘Let Him Run Wild’ is the perfect example of taking sadness and turning it into happiness.
