1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 64. The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds (1966)

You know, for such an iconic album, I was expecting more of the “surf rock” stuff that the Beach Boys are most famous for, but according to Professor Wikipedia these days happened before the Beach Boys even made it to Dimery’s list.  

What I do know about this album, is it’s notable for the complexity of the track mixings which at the time had to involve all kinds of shenanigans with physically cutting and gluing tapes together, weaving together lots of different layers made in different takes. The final track on the album, Caroline No, includes various sound effects as well, which really weren’t a thing up until now (trains passing, dogs barking etc.). The pinnacle of this kind of sound collage is arguably going to be on the Pink Floyd albums coming up later; Brian Wilson and co. did it here long before. 

There are three well known tracks off this album – God Only Knows, Wouldn’t It Be Nice, and Sloop John B. Wouldn’t It Be Nice is probably the most “classic” Beach Boys, a poppy tale of young love frustrated by the bounds of society. God Only Knows is slower and somewhat more melancholy or wistful, even a little insanely possessive, with the singer effectively threatening to kill himself if his girl leaves him. 

Listening to Sloop John B, I wondered if, under the jaunty shanty, there’s actually a darker song about slavery. “My grandfather and me” coming out of Nassau Town, with a darkly sardonic undertone that “I want to go home, this is the worst trip I’ve ever been on”, which it would be if you were crammed into the hold of a slave ship. “Don’t think much of the service aboard this cruise....”. But apparently not. It does, however, refer to a real incident, but it was more of a disastrous charter voyage than anything more sinister. 

And what’s with the goats on the album cover? 

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