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.

"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.

The Beach Boys: Making Pet Sounds (2017)

*** (out of 4)

Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, David Marks, journalists and members of The Wrecking Crew are interviewed about the landmark album Pet Sounds. This documentary talks about the various things that were happening to The Beach Boys including Brian Wilson dropping off their tour and how this led to them creating this masterpiece album.

There have been quite a few documentaries on the making of this album and even more documents highlighting what The Beach Boys were able to do during their era. If you're a fan of the album or of the band then you'll certainly enjoy this documentary even though it really doesn't feature anything new. What's great about this is that the majority of the people behind the album are interviewed here including Brian Wilson who sits at his piano and tells his stories as well as plays some tunes.

Some of the highlights including the fighting that happened during the production and especially between Love and Wilson when it came to a certain song and what its meaning was. The drug use and what influence it had on the album is discussed as is the final album and the way it was accepted.

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!?)