The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds
- Episode aired Nov 19, 2010
- 59m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
129
YOUR RATING
A look at the creation of the Beach Boys' classic album "Pet Sounds", including conversations with Brian Wilson and group members, lyricist Tony Asher, and members of the studio supergroup T... Read allA look at the creation of the Beach Boys' classic album "Pet Sounds", including conversations with Brian Wilson and group members, lyricist Tony Asher, and members of the studio supergroup The Wrecking Crew.A look at the creation of the Beach Boys' classic album "Pet Sounds", including conversations with Brian Wilson and group members, lyricist Tony Asher, and members of the studio supergroup The Wrecking Crew.
Photos
Four Freshmen
- Themselves
- (archive footage)
Dennis Wilson
- Self - The Beach Boys
- (archive footage)
The Beach Boys
- Themselves
- (archive footage)
- Directors
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe musical tracks for Pet Sounds were recorded by the famed Los Angeles session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew.
Featured review
Great series, great album, but this is the laziest of the C.A. episodes I've seen
My weak 6/10 rating is NOT for the album, the band, or the music. It's for the way this episode is put together. Compared to the other excellent Classic Albums episodes which dissect each song often down to the most infinitesimal instrument, "Classic Albums: Pet Sounds" amounts to 30 mins of people fanboying on Brian Wilson, 15 mins of Beach Boys nostalgia, 10 mins of wordless photo montages over Beach Boys music, and only 5 mins, at best, of what we've come here for: actual quantitative information about the album.
We are shown copious interviews with the band and with Brain, but they all seem to be saying the same thing: that Brian is "genius", "visionary", all the superlatives in the book without explaing exactly why they think so. They do often mention that Brian could hear all the parts in his head, but that's what every composer should be able to do, so I'm not sure why they dote on this quality so much. We all know Brian is quite talented, but how exactly? You won't find that answer here. Beyond that noticeable oversight, there is another glaring omission: everyone seems to be carefully, deliberately dancing around the subject of Brian's mental health issues and the (autistic? We don't know) eccentricities that made him such an unusual person and unique musician. Furthermore, there are virtually no allusions to the inter-band clashes and tension that we all know existed. Aside from a brief mention that Mike Love didn't agree with Brian experimenting with LSD and that they sharply disagreed on the drug fueled lyrics to "Hang on to your Ego" (later changed to "I Know There's an Answer"), the gang acts like they were one big happy family which we know they were not. Thus, if you came here after watching the excellent Beach Boys biopic "Love & Mercy" hoping to learn more, you'll be very disappointed. In this documentary everyone seems to be walking on eggshells, painting a rosy picture, almost as if Beach Boys management was heavily censoring anything that could possibly be interpreted as anything but wholesome good time fun and a deification of Brian Wilson.
Oddly, the best part of this entire production is not included in the 60 min episode but can be found in the bonus menu of the DVD. It's the segment about the song "Good Vibrations" which did not appear on the album but was written, recorded and produced in the 6 months after the album sessions ended. In the "Good Vibrations" segment we get generous portions of mix engineer Mark Linett, Brian Wilson and others in the studio talking about exactly how the song was recorded, how the Theramin was used with cellos, pianos, and of course the magical layered harmonies that made "Good Vibrations" such a great song and an indication of Brian Wilson's true visionary nature. Finally they explain something of substance: that Brian used, in this song, a modular approach of writing the sections piece by piece and assembling them after the fact.
If you're new to the Classic Albums series, I would suggest that you start elsewhere to get a taste of what this otherwise excellent show does. The episode "Black Sabbath: Paranoid" is wonderful because it breaks down each track, talking about the parts as well as what the lyrics mean and how they applied (and still apply) to society. Band members play their individual parts for us live so we can see exactly what went onto tape. And the control room scenes show us exactly how it came together. That's a great episode for everyone, regardless of if you're a Sabbath fan. "Beach Boys: Pet Sounds" by comparison is just plain lazy. Still a worthwhile watch, but not nearly as good as it should have been.
We are shown copious interviews with the band and with Brain, but they all seem to be saying the same thing: that Brian is "genius", "visionary", all the superlatives in the book without explaing exactly why they think so. They do often mention that Brian could hear all the parts in his head, but that's what every composer should be able to do, so I'm not sure why they dote on this quality so much. We all know Brian is quite talented, but how exactly? You won't find that answer here. Beyond that noticeable oversight, there is another glaring omission: everyone seems to be carefully, deliberately dancing around the subject of Brian's mental health issues and the (autistic? We don't know) eccentricities that made him such an unusual person and unique musician. Furthermore, there are virtually no allusions to the inter-band clashes and tension that we all know existed. Aside from a brief mention that Mike Love didn't agree with Brian experimenting with LSD and that they sharply disagreed on the drug fueled lyrics to "Hang on to your Ego" (later changed to "I Know There's an Answer"), the gang acts like they were one big happy family which we know they were not. Thus, if you came here after watching the excellent Beach Boys biopic "Love & Mercy" hoping to learn more, you'll be very disappointed. In this documentary everyone seems to be walking on eggshells, painting a rosy picture, almost as if Beach Boys management was heavily censoring anything that could possibly be interpreted as anything but wholesome good time fun and a deification of Brian Wilson.
Oddly, the best part of this entire production is not included in the 60 min episode but can be found in the bonus menu of the DVD. It's the segment about the song "Good Vibrations" which did not appear on the album but was written, recorded and produced in the 6 months after the album sessions ended. In the "Good Vibrations" segment we get generous portions of mix engineer Mark Linett, Brian Wilson and others in the studio talking about exactly how the song was recorded, how the Theramin was used with cellos, pianos, and of course the magical layered harmonies that made "Good Vibrations" such a great song and an indication of Brian Wilson's true visionary nature. Finally they explain something of substance: that Brian used, in this song, a modular approach of writing the sections piece by piece and assembling them after the fact.
If you're new to the Classic Albums series, I would suggest that you start elsewhere to get a taste of what this otherwise excellent show does. The episode "Black Sabbath: Paranoid" is wonderful because it breaks down each track, talking about the parts as well as what the lyrics mean and how they applied (and still apply) to society. Band members play their individual parts for us live so we can see exactly what went onto tape. And the control room scenes show us exactly how it came together. That's a great episode for everyone, regardless of if you're a Sabbath fan. "Beach Boys: Pet Sounds" by comparison is just plain lazy. Still a worthwhile watch, but not nearly as good as it should have been.
helpful•20
- rooprect
- Apr 3, 2021
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Klassiska rockalbum: Pet Sounds
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime59 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1
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