The song R.E.M. called their “tribute to The Beach Boys”
The influence of The Beach Boys on the musical landscape knows no bounds. Although they had a relatively short peak, the art created during those years pushed artists such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones to go the extra mile, encouraging their contemporaries to push boundaries in the studio.
While The Beach Boys’ influence can be traced back to artists from the 1960s, countless contemporary groups also took note. In the case of R.E.M, while they didn’t consciously go out of their way to imitate their heroes, it wasn’t until they finished work on ‘At My Most Beautiful’ that the members realised its development had been born out of their shared love of Brian Wilson.
The creation of ‘At My Most Beautiful’ began with singer Michael Stipe, who once revealed that the lyric, “I found a way to make you smile”, unexpectedly arrived at him while he was sitting in traffic. Speaking to Jam, the frontman revealed the majesty of the line instantly took him aback, and he knew there was the potential for a classic. “I just thought, that’s the most beautiful thing in the world,” he remembered.
At this point, the influence of The Beach Boys was yet to seep its way into the song, but that all changed when Stipe brought it into the rest of the band. Mike Mills was tasked with dealing with the arrangement of ‘At My Most Beautiful’ and couldn’t resist instinctively allowing his inner Beach Boys room to breathe.
Mills confessed in Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage: “Once I had written the piano part, I realized that in some small way, I might have been channelling Brian Wilson, so I ran with that in both the bass lines and the harmonies. Our deferential nod to one of the best musicians of all time.”
Meanwhile, Peter Buck said in their compilation In Time: “Obviously, this is our tribute to the Beach Boys. Mike told me that when he and Bill lived in Macon, they would cruise the city, singing along with a Beach Boys eight-track. He said it really stretched their upper ranges. Until the day Bill quit, they could still hit those notes.”
Buck also maintained that Stipe isn’t even a massive fan of The Beach Boys, but he and Mills were still able to bring him along for the ride. He continued: “I’m not sure that Michael even knows that the Beach Boys have an unreleased album called Smile, but he went along with the feel of the track, knowing that Mike and I are big fans. The bass part on this is probably my favourite line that Mike has ever come up with. When we play it live, I play bass. I feel like such a pro, up on stage playing this super cool part.”
While Stipe’s contribution doesn’t particularly resemble Wilson’s, the musicality of the track and the gorgeous harmonious backing vocals sound as if they were lifted straight from an album by The Beach Boys. Every act pays homage to their heroes in their own way, but few have done it as magnificently as on ‘At My Most Beautiful’.
