The hassles and frustrations of the external world were cast aside, and new visions put in their place. The word " vibrations " had been employed by students of Eastern philosophy and acid-heads for a variety of purposes, but Wilson uses it here to suggest a kind of extrasensory experience.
Reportedly, Capitol Records executives were worried that the lyrics contained psychedelic overtones, and Wilson is said to have admitted to basing the song's production on his LSD experiences.
Records , and then to singer Danny Hutton , before eventually confiding in it as the next Beach Boys single. The recording and production style used on the "Good Vibrations" single established Wilson's new method of operation: the recording and re-recording of specific sections of music, followed by rough mixes of the sections edited together, further recording as required, and the construction of the final mix from the component elements.
This was the modular approach to recording that was used during the sessions for Smile , and to a slightly lesser degree, Pet Sounds. The instrumental of the first version of the song was recorded on February 17, After 26 takes, a rough mono mix completed the session.
Rough guide vocals were recorded the following day. The original version of "Good Vibrations" places the track as a "funky rhythm-and-blues number" and would not yet resemble the appearance of a "pocket symphony". By February 25, Wilson had placed the recording on hold in order to devote attention to the Pet Sounds album. The track was revisited on May 24, and worked on until June 18, at which time he put it aside again until August The various sections of the song were then edited together by Wilson into an innumerable amount of sound collages.
The production of the song spanned seventeen recording sessions at four different recording studios. I can remember doing vocal overdubs of the same part, and when I mean the same part, I mean same section of a record, maybe no more than two, three, four, five seconds long. Recording of the vocals for "Good Vibrations" took place at Columbia studio between August 24 and September 1. The two bridges and chorus bass vocal are sung by Mike Love with Brian on top of the harmony stack during the " good, good, good vibrations " part of the chorus.
Brian later recalled that prior to mixing down "Good Vibrations", he attended a session for the Rolling Stones song " My Obsession " when record producer Lou Adler gave him marijuana, explaining: "They got me all stoned, they laid all this stuff on me and I couldn't find the door.
It wiped me out so much I didn't know where the door was to get out of the studio. There was a lot of "oh you can't do this, that's too modern" or "that's going to be too long a record. Your manager? The record company? We just had resisting ideas. They didn't quite understand what this jumping from studio to studio was all about. In a interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Brian recalled the moment he finished the song: "I could feel it when I dubbed it down, made the final mix from the sixteen-track down to mono.
It was a feeling of power, it was a rush. A feeling of exaltation. Artistic beauty. It was everything. I remember saying 'Oh My God. Sit back and listen to this! The "woooo wooow" sci-fi sound that can be heard on Good Vibrations comes from a Theremin, an instrument that looks as strange as the sounds it makes. Invented by Russian scientist Lev Sergeyvich Theremin in , the Theremin consists of a box of radio tubes attached to an antennae.
The musician who plays it doesn't actually touch the instrument, but changes the volume and pitch by moving their hands around the antennae. Over the years, the song has mainly been performed as one of the group's many show-stopping encores. In the early '70s however, the group sometimes took fans by surprise by opening their concerts with the song. It was not only successful — really successful — but it was very unique. It was probably the least derivative of our hit singles.
Meaning, y'know, everything is based on something that came before — that's what I mean by derivative. But with 'Good Vibrations,' it was so darn different , so unique sounding. And yet it was successful as well. And I admit to liking things that are both successful and creative laughs. We got together and had a discussion beforehand. We all wanted to do something different, make some music that would last forever. Not just surf songs and car songs. It was all about creating lasting music.
It was one giant step forward. I wanted something with real merit to it, artistic and smooth. Some people say it was written on acid. I smoked marijuana just before I wrote it. I was playing at the piano and began singing about good vibrations, just fooling around.
Then I came up with a little melody at the piano [sings it]. Tony Asher had written some original lyrics, but my cousin Mike Love had some great ideas. I never would have thought of that myself. Recording it was a long process, but I was determined to stick it out until the end. It took six weeks to record. The voices were all recorded at Columbia Studios in LA. I recorded the voices in sections. Then a week later, I said there should be something coming right after that.
The idea was to overlap and create a double dose of harmonies. And the bass part was important to the overall sound. Carol played bass with a pick that clicked real good. It worked out really well. It gave it a hard sound. It was scary to hear that sound, but good scary. The Capitol execs loved that tune. There are several different versions and it took months for my cousin Brian to decide which one would be the final one.
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