Wouldn't It Be Nice: Brian Wilson and the Making of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds - Softcover

Granata, Charles L.; Asher, Tony

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1613738374 ISBN 13: 9781613738375

Publisher: Chicago Review Press, 2016

Synopsis

When he first started working on Pet Sounds, Brian Wilson said that he was going to write "the greatest rock album ever made." That album, released in 1966, fifty years ago, changed the face of popular music.
From conception and composition to arrangement and production, Pet Sounds was the work of one extraordinary man. Turning his back on the protest songs and folk rock of his contemporaries and even on the bright surf sound of his own creation, Brian Wilson reached deep within himself to make music that struck an emotional chord and touched people's souls. Embracing the rapidly advancing recording technology of the time, he expertly created an original studio sound that would inspire generations of listeners and musicians.
Featuring a detailed track-by-track analysis of the songs and extensive interviews with key personalities, Wouldn't It Be Nice reveals the influences--musical, personal, and professional--that together created this groundbreaking album. Now revised to include new information and recent developments, this is the definitive book on one of the greatest albums ever made.

About this title

About the Author

Charles L. Granata is a record and radio producer, music historian, and author of the award-winning Sessions with Sinatra as well as numerous essays on popular music and the history of sound recording. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Livingston, New Jersey. Tony Asher is a lyricist who collaborated with Brian Wilson on Pet Sounds. He lives in Los Angeles.

From Publishers Weekly

In 1965, Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys released a revolutionary rock album that would influence the Beatles' Rubber Soul as well as the music of the Who, Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones. As music historian Granata points out in this often passionate, sometimes pedantic history of Pet Sounds, U.S. audiences turned a cold shoulder to this album because it represented such a departure from the pleasing surf melodies that had made the Beach Boys famous. In spite of such a reception, the album showcases the soaring musical genius of Wilson, argues Granata, in what was perhaps truly the first ever "concept album." The innovative combination of folk, blues and jazz blended into the gorgeous harmonies of the Beach Boys. Granata traces the evolution of the album from its writing, mostly by Wilson and Tony Asher, to the long nights of production in the studio. He analyzes dispassionately each song on the album, from the jangly 12-string guitar chords of "Wouldn't It Be Nice?," which open the album, to the closing harmonies of "Caroline, No" that close it. Granata chronicles Wilson's well-known disappearance from the musical scene not long after the album's release to battle the demons of paranoid schizophrenia, as well as his recent solo appearances performing the songs from Pet Sounds. Granata devotedly tells a story whose contours are already well known, so the book at times appears to be a set of liner notes allowed to grow too large.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1613738374
• ISBN 13: 9781613738375
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 296