Carl Wilson - "God Only Knows" (intimate setting)
April 27, 2012 5:41 PM Subscribe
Wonderful. Thanks for posting!
posted by kryptondog at 6:11 PM on April 27, 2012
posted by kryptondog at 6:11 PM on April 27, 2012
Those Wilson boys sure could sing.
I guess the Beach Boys have a new single out (with all surviving members participating), and a new album out in a couple of months, and are going out on a huge tour. Opening night they performed 42 songs.
Apparently the new album will have a track or two which were built from incompleted songs by Carl and Dennis, similar to the new Beatles songs which came out a number of years ago. Kind of a cool celebration of their 50th anniversary, I think.
And man, that new song... scary how much it sounds exactly like the Beach Boys.
posted by hippybear at 6:12 PM on April 27, 2012 [2 favorites]
I guess the Beach Boys have a new single out (with all surviving members participating), and a new album out in a couple of months, and are going out on a huge tour. Opening night they performed 42 songs.
Apparently the new album will have a track or two which were built from incompleted songs by Carl and Dennis, similar to the new Beatles songs which came out a number of years ago. Kind of a cool celebration of their 50th anniversary, I think.
And man, that new song... scary how much it sounds exactly like the Beach Boys.
posted by hippybear at 6:12 PM on April 27, 2012 [2 favorites]
Beautiful. Today's Beach Boys are...so not beautiful.
posted by Isadorady at 6:21 PM on April 27, 2012
posted by Isadorady at 6:21 PM on April 27, 2012
This song still breaks my heart, every time. One of the most vulnerable and sincere love songs I've ever heard.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 6:43 PM on April 27, 2012 [6 favorites]
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 6:43 PM on April 27, 2012 [6 favorites]
Now I need to listen to Pet Sounds. Thanks!
posted by princelyfox at 6:51 PM on April 27, 2012
posted by princelyfox at 6:51 PM on April 27, 2012
"most vulnerable and sincere" pretty much describes all of Pet Sounds. Even Sloop John B is steeped in melancholy somehow.
posted by hippybear at 6:52 PM on April 27, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 6:52 PM on April 27, 2012 [3 favorites]
Also, wow - just read the YouTube comments. This was the only song he performed, at a private setting that the uploader doesn't want to disclose, a few years before he died. I'm glad to have read those comments on the one hand, because just watching the video I was like "WTF was Carl Wilson doing performing at a Red Lobster?" but on the other hand, now I really want to know the backstory behind this performance.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 6:53 PM on April 27, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 6:53 PM on April 27, 2012 [2 favorites]
because just watching the video I was like "WTF was Carl Wilson doing performing at a Red Lobster?"
Yeah, there was a tinge of Hedwig's tour of Bilgewaters restaurants going on.
posted by hippybear at 6:54 PM on April 27, 2012
Yeah, there was a tinge of Hedwig's tour of Bilgewaters restaurants going on.
posted by hippybear at 6:54 PM on April 27, 2012
I know right? I kept cringing in anticipation of having the song interrupted with "*DING!* Order up!"
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 6:58 PM on April 27, 2012
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 6:58 PM on April 27, 2012
This is pure gold. Where the hell did you find this? God only knows how much I miss that wonderful voice.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 7:15 PM on April 27, 2012
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 7:15 PM on April 27, 2012
God, this song just kills me so hard. Sometimes when I was watching Big Love, I'd play the theme song three or four times just so I could listen longer.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:19 PM on April 27, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:19 PM on April 27, 2012 [1 favorite]
Someday I'd like to get in on one of Jon Brion's sing-along renditions of the song.
posted by Iridic at 7:24 PM on April 27, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by Iridic at 7:24 PM on April 27, 2012 [2 favorites]
My wife and I led a sing-along of this song at our wedding ceremony. Best opening lyric to a love song ever: "I may not always love you." Thanks for posting!
posted by Catchfire at 7:29 PM on April 27, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by Catchfire at 7:29 PM on April 27, 2012 [2 favorites]
Carl was apparently blown away when Brian gave him the role of singing lead vocals for the song, and deeply honored. It's clear the song was very special to him, right though to the end of his life.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 7:45 PM on April 27, 2012 [7 favorites]
Wilson was diagnosed with brain and lung cancer in early 1997. Despite his illness and chemotherapy treatments, Carl continued to perform after diagnosis. Carl played through the Beach Boys' entire summer tour which ended in the fall of 1997. He sat down most of the time and needed oxygen after every song, but he still had his unique voice. The only time he stood during concerts was when he sang "God Only Knows" to his fans.*I mean god damn. That is some serious long-term devotion to a song. But a song like that, I think it'd be pretty easy to always love playing.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 7:45 PM on April 27, 2012 [7 favorites]
I guess the Beach Boys have a new single out (with all surviving members participating) ...
Wow, thanks for posting this. Great song. That should be the FPP.
posted by John Cohen at 7:56 PM on April 27, 2012
Wow, thanks for posting this. Great song. That should be the FPP.
posted by John Cohen at 7:56 PM on April 27, 2012
beautiful song. One of my favorites.
posted by beau jackson at 8:01 PM on April 27, 2012
posted by beau jackson at 8:01 PM on April 27, 2012
Even Sloop John B is steeped in melancholy somehow.
The beep of my answering machine is the same pitch as the first note in Sloop John B. Every time I screen my calls, I'm reminded of that song. And every time I hear that song, I'm reminded of the people I screen my calls for.
posted by grog at 9:37 PM on April 27, 2012 [5 favorites]
The beep of my answering machine is the same pitch as the first note in Sloop John B. Every time I screen my calls, I'm reminded of that song. And every time I hear that song, I'm reminded of the people I screen my calls for.
posted by grog at 9:37 PM on April 27, 2012 [5 favorites]
The absolute perfect beauty of this song and the sad, cheesy abasement of performing it in a pizza parlor are both essential to the Beach Boys story. Touches my heart, even though it misses the best part, which is the inverted harmony at the end -- "God only know what I'd do (God only knows) (God only knows) (God only knows)" on the original. One of the pinnacles of sixties pop singing. God bless you Carl.
posted by Fnarf at 9:40 PM on April 27, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Fnarf at 9:40 PM on April 27, 2012 [1 favorite]
Notice that the chefs in the background stop to listen.
posted by WalkingAround at 12:26 AM on April 28, 2012
posted by WalkingAround at 12:26 AM on April 28, 2012
So Carl Wilson is at a private party, a social obligation of the formal dress variety, and gets cajoled into doing a number...the drummer and keyboard player are ready to fake it, and seasoned enough to lay back and let Carl do the thing...a mic is put up to the hole of the acoustic guitar, there's a standard portable club PA, a little reverb on the vocals at best...the star very graciously proceeds to get it over with...and somehow re-inhabits a song he has no doubt sung a thousand times...impossibly he seems sincere...and the fabled fragility is not just apparent but heightened by the "intimate setting"...is he uncomfortable? resigned? serene in the surrender his brother's song demands of him? what kind of grace is this? As noted above, the chefs pause, mesmerized...indeed, the whole world seems rapt at this moment...Shocked and awed, the drummer jumps on the ending, unable to take any more, rescuing us from drifting too far away from this earth...
posted by bonefish at 2:11 AM on April 28, 2012 [8 favorites]
posted by bonefish at 2:11 AM on April 28, 2012 [8 favorites]
The links in the previous FPP featuring the isolated vocals of this track are now borked so here's a new link. These vocals should be savoured. It's such a good song. Thanks for linking this version.
posted by h00py at 4:49 AM on April 28, 2012
posted by h00py at 4:49 AM on April 28, 2012
Went to YT to see the original Beach Boys version. I hadn't listened to them a lot. (My wife hates them, and I had different favorites in the 60's, like a lot of us old hippies) But, boy, that is some song. Very interesting chords. In a way it reminds me of trying to play Nirvana tunes (I mostly play jazz): the melody seems to tie together chords that seem almost random (although they are really genius...I'm just in a less-than-genius box when it comes to putting chords together...)
posted by kozad at 9:17 AM on April 28, 2012
posted by kozad at 9:17 AM on April 28, 2012
I guess the Beach Boys have a new single out (with all surviving members participating)
Wow. It's a beautiful sounding track. Too bad it's such an awful song. God Only Knows works not only because it's beautifully sung, but because it's a great, simple song. I can only hope the material on the rest of the album is better.
posted by anastasiav at 10:58 AM on April 28, 2012
Wow. It's a beautiful sounding track. Too bad it's such an awful song. God Only Knows works not only because it's beautifully sung, but because it's a great, simple song. I can only hope the material on the rest of the album is better.
posted by anastasiav at 10:58 AM on April 28, 2012
It's funny: no one's mentioned that the well-known fact that Paul McCartney thought this song to be the best single of all time. Now that's saying something.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 4:34 PM on April 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 4:34 PM on April 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
Yes, I'm with Paul McCartney. Thanks gfrobe for sharing this gem. I got the shivers just watching this video.
posted by chairish at 8:31 PM on April 28, 2012
posted by chairish at 8:31 PM on April 28, 2012
It's funny: no one's mentioned that the well-known fact that Paul McCartney thought this song to be the best single of all time. Now that's saying something.
Yeah, the dynamic between the Beatles and the Beach Boys was pretty interesting.
Beatles make Rubber Soul > Brian Wilson blown away, makes Pet Sounds > McCartney blown away, Beatles make Sgt. Peppers > Brian Wilson hears Day In The Life, never quite recovers from it.
It's almost a good thing that rivalry ended there. I'm not sure the world of music could've handled the subsequent volley of increasing awesome.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 8:47 PM on April 28, 2012
Yeah, the dynamic between the Beatles and the Beach Boys was pretty interesting.
Beatles make Rubber Soul > Brian Wilson blown away, makes Pet Sounds > McCartney blown away, Beatles make Sgt. Peppers > Brian Wilson hears Day In The Life, never quite recovers from it.
It's almost a good thing that rivalry ended there. I'm not sure the world of music could've handled the subsequent volley of increasing awesome.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 8:47 PM on April 28, 2012
Beatles make Rubber Soul > Brian Wilson blown away, makes Pet Sounds > McCartney blown away, Beatles make Sgt. Peppers > Brian Wilson hears Day In The Life, never quite recovers from it decides to try to make SMiLE, consumes immense amounts of drugs, becomes convined that the fires in the LA area during recording are the result of the songs he has been writing, takes to his bed for a decade or more as a retreat from the horrible power of his gift.
FTFY.
posted by hippybear at 9:00 PM on April 28, 2012
FTFY.
posted by hippybear at 9:00 PM on April 28, 2012
I was *this* close to using the a cappella version of "God Only Knows" that h00py linked to at my wedding. The round at the end is haunting!
posted by Jezebella at 4:33 PM on April 29, 2012
posted by Jezebella at 4:33 PM on April 29, 2012
Wow! That was so lovely. Thanks for sharing, gfrobe. That song is so timeless ... it's one of the few tunes that I can listen to over and over again and never get tired of.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 1:21 PM on May 1, 2012
posted by LuckySeven~ at 1:21 PM on May 1, 2012
Beatles make Sgt. Peppers
You're missing out a year of chronology, and the album Revolver. When Rubber Soul came out, in December '65, the Beach Boys had just released the rather embarrassing pastiche Beach Boys Party!. Rubber Soul was a huge game-changer, not just for the Beach Boys but for everybody, and it was pretty obvious that Brian and Co. were being left behind, not just by the Beatles but the folk-rock sounds of The Byrds, whose Mr. Tambourine Man single and album had ruled the summer of '65, and the harder rock of The Rolling Stones ("Satisfaction", also summer '65).
So Brian went to work creating his masterpiece. Pet Sounds came out in May '66. But almost immediately after, "Yesterday"...And Today came out, in June, in America, revealing that Rubber Soul had been an even stronger album than the crippled US version suggested, and including several blistering new songs from the as-yet-unreleased Revolver.
Coming so quickly upon Brian's masterpiece, he had to have been shattered. And for the next year, while the Beatles released the full Revolver in August, Brian worked on his doomed followup, Smile, which came to nothing (until forty years later).
One last gasp -- "Good Vibrations" in October '66. When the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's the following June, barely nine months after Revolver, and the Beach Boys were only able to answer with the one single and a couple of slapped-together Greatest Hits packages, it was all over. But the album that put the game out of reach was Revolver, not Pepper. By the time Smiley Smile arrived, in September '67, cobbled together out of the remains of Smile, it was basically the squarest thing in the world.
posted by Fnarf at 4:02 PM on May 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
You're missing out a year of chronology, and the album Revolver. When Rubber Soul came out, in December '65, the Beach Boys had just released the rather embarrassing pastiche Beach Boys Party!. Rubber Soul was a huge game-changer, not just for the Beach Boys but for everybody, and it was pretty obvious that Brian and Co. were being left behind, not just by the Beatles but the folk-rock sounds of The Byrds, whose Mr. Tambourine Man single and album had ruled the summer of '65, and the harder rock of The Rolling Stones ("Satisfaction", also summer '65).
So Brian went to work creating his masterpiece. Pet Sounds came out in May '66. But almost immediately after, "Yesterday"...And Today came out, in June, in America, revealing that Rubber Soul had been an even stronger album than the crippled US version suggested, and including several blistering new songs from the as-yet-unreleased Revolver.
Coming so quickly upon Brian's masterpiece, he had to have been shattered. And for the next year, while the Beatles released the full Revolver in August, Brian worked on his doomed followup, Smile, which came to nothing (until forty years later).
One last gasp -- "Good Vibrations" in October '66. When the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's the following June, barely nine months after Revolver, and the Beach Boys were only able to answer with the one single and a couple of slapped-together Greatest Hits packages, it was all over. But the album that put the game out of reach was Revolver, not Pepper. By the time Smiley Smile arrived, in September '67, cobbled together out of the remains of Smile, it was basically the squarest thing in the world.
posted by Fnarf at 4:02 PM on May 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
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posted by Joey Michaels at 6:02 PM on April 27, 2012