(Credits: Far Out / Ithaka Darin Pappas)
Wed 11 June 2025 19:03, UK
Brian Wilson was always more than a simple member of The Beach Boys. From the way he played bass to the way he harmonised with his brothers to the attention to detail he had in the studio, he was their resident musical genius every time they sat down to make a record. Even when he wasn’t with the group, he released some of the most spellbinding music anyone had ever heard. But since he never saw himself as a genius, he always knew there was room to improve on every project he worked on.
Despite having the ear of a sun-kissed angel, Wilson was always the most humble rock and roll genius that walked the Earth. He maintained that great music comes from the heart before anything else, and even when making some of his finest songs, he admitted that some tunes were greatly enhanced by having someone else sing, whether it was giving a track to his brother or having Mike Love help out on the lyrics to some of their greatest hits.
By the time he had hit on Pet Sounds, though, there was no arguing that he was leading the ship. The rock world had begun to progress by leaps and bounds, and when everyone else was telling him that he should make the next surf/car song for everyone to rally around, Wilson’s decision to take a chance on a operatic rock album about love and heartache was exactly what the psychedelic movement needed to kic into high gear. Everyone was paying attention, and no one was more attuned than The Beatles.
Because, really, the Fab Four were Wilson’s musical nemesis in many respects. It was all done in the service of making better music, but when Wilson heard Rubber Soul, he knew that Pet Sounds needed to be at least as good as that, so he could have something to be proud of. But when discussing this period of the band’s success, the ‘Fab Four’ should have been upgraded to five by including George Martin.
Throughout their time in the studio, Martin truly was the orchestrator behind everything they did. None of the members could properly read music, so the next best thing was to have Martin as their translator, whether that meant playing around with the levels to make certain instruments pop out of the mix, drafting the string arrangements for their later masterpieces like ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ or giving the circus atmosphere to ‘Being For the Benefit of Mr Kite’.
And when Wilson heard Martin playing with the master tapes of ‘God Only Knows’, he heard the sound that he had always dreamed about, telling The Beatles producer, “[I had the song] arrangement-wise but not sound-wise. I wouldn’t hear what it would sound like until I got there. That’s a better mix than I had. You’re making a better mix than what I did on the master. You did it! Something about the way you put the balance up makes better music. I can’t believe this is happening.”
Then again, it’s inconceivable to think that anything Wilson did on the final mix needs improving, but there are moments on Martin’s mix heard in the documentary that sound unique compared to everything else. His version helps bring out the voices a lot more, and when listening to all of those harmonies balance on top of each other, it’s easy to hear the symphonic aspect of what Wilson had been working towards.
One could only hope to imagine what a Beach Boys record would sound like with Martin at the helm, but given how Wilson reacted, it would have been a match made in the musical heavens. Both of them have given the world its fair share of good vibrations, but if they managed to create an entire record together, we may have had the first recorded document of what angels sound like.
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