The Beach Boys: Making Pet Sounds

Let me begin by saying that I'm not a fan of The Beach Boys. I watched this merely because I'm interested in the songwriting and recording process. Sadly, for someone like me there's precious little of the detail that I sought, so it's a mediocre effort from my point of view. If you're a fan of the music, then you can easily add another star or two to my rating.

Albums like Pet Sounds are serrendipitous like a random aligning of stars. Something that stuns for various reasons initially and evolving over time as to reveal it's wonders. This is Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys' masterpiece. Upon release it was a bit of an enigma as it wasn't "the formula" of previous Beach Boy albums. As Mike Love recounts: "it took 20-years to reach platinum status". Now, at over half-a-century it is without doubt the crown jewel in The Beach Boys catalog. This certainly adds to the mystical music itself and warrants this film.

1965 was a complex time for The Beach Boys. Brian, not unlike Lennon & McCartney, had tired of live performances and life on the road. Wisely he decided to make it his job to discontinue touring and work writing and arranging "new" songs with all the complexity only he could hear inside his head. Before drugs and mental illness would later hinder his unbridled creativity, Brian, along with new writing partner Tony Asher, crafted a quantum shift for the band. This doc uses stock film and footage along with later day interviews to topically reveal what was happening during this amazing time in the history of The Beach Boys.

If, like me, you've read countless articles and interviews regarding Pet Sounds you won't find any surprises here. It's not even really too in-depth. But, it gets the big picture across and does so with great interview snipets from the surviving band members and the occasional vintage clip such as the great comments by Dennis on his boat admitting how much Pet Sounds meant to him personally. If you're a big fan this film is a must. If you love the album itself it is certainly welcome. What I'd really like it to do is to inspire someone who hasn't really connected with The Beach Boys to get busy with discovering the greatness of this album. It this way it can push it forward once again for the next half-century dropping it's nuggets of sonic spledor on new generations.

If you like the clean-cut, wholesome, Californian "surfer sound" of the Beach Boys in their early years - Then - This "Pet Sounds" rockumentary should be of some significant interest to you.

Through stills, archival footage, and interviews (including those with band members) - "Pet Sounds" is an enjoyably nostalgic look back at the Beach Boys' early success which (at one point) actually rivaled that of the Beatles.

The only real drawback to this 60-minute presentation was that I found a few people who were being interviewed here had the annoying knack of insinuating that if the viewer didn't appreciate the greatness of the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" album, then they didn't understand true genius.

(Oh!? Really!?)

"The Beach Boys: Making Pet Sounds" (2017 release; 59 min.) is a documentary about the making of the Beach Boys' ultimate album (released in May, 1966). As the documentary opens, we get a couple of quick quotes from current-day interviews with several of the main players (Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, among others), before we go back in time for a thumb-nail review of the Beach Boys' early years of surf and hot rod music. In 1965, Brian Wilson decides he has had enough of the endless touring AND of the surf and hot rod music and retreats to concoct the band's next album...

Couple of comments: if you are somewhat familiar with the Beach Boys' history, none of what you will see in this documentary will come as a surprise or new revelation. Instead, we rehash the some ol' same ol', and that makes for pleasant viewing, nothing less but nothing more eitehr. THe documentary focuses on a number of the album's key songs: "Sloop Johnny B." (suggested to Brian by Al Jardine, who loved the folk version from the late 50s), "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times", and last but certainly not least "God Only Knows". Thankfully the documentary has extensive interview clips with Tony Asher, who wrote the brilliant lyrics. Asher, Johnston and others all make the same comment about Brian Wilson's musical genius: "it was all here in his head". Mention is made that "Pet Sounds" was released the very same day as Bob Dylan's monumental "Blonde On Blonde" album, and only 2 months before the Beatles' revolutionary "Revolver" album (in my book, the best Beatles' album ever). 1966 was the year!

The thing that struck me the most about this documentary is how relaxed and good-natured the main characters are in these interviews, in particular Brian Wilson and Mike Love. I say this because one might not necessarily expect this, given that Love essentially kicked out Brian Wilson (again) following the 50th anniversary reunion tour in 2012. (I had the good fortune of seeing the band on that tour here in Cincinnati--what a magical evening of music that was!) If you are a Beach Boys fan, "Making Pet Sounds" is pleasant if non-essential viewing. I caught it the other night while browsing my Spectrum On Demand library of documentaries but it is of course available on VOD,

I could have easily watched 10 hours of documentary featuring the Beach Boys talking about their records and songs. It probably helps that Pet Sounds is one of my favourite albums, but I really loved this.

It was overwhelmingly positive, without shying away from any conflict within the band and disagreements with songwriting. They all had such nice things to say about the band, the record and the talents involved. For a band well-known for conflict, it was refreshing to watch. Just wish that Dennis and Carl had been alive for it. I loved members of "the wrecking crew" being featured also.

Experiencing Brian talk about the songwriting process is like Einstein sitting down with you and talking about the theory of relativity. It really makes you want to not only listen to Pet Sounds with renewed appreciation, but to delve into the entire Beach Boys catalogue.

Definitely recommend for Beach Boys fans, and music fans in general.