WEBVTT - Brian Wilson Is Seeing Vibrations (The Brian Wilson Story, Chapter 2) 0:00:04.640 --> 0:00:09.080 Double Elvis. Blood on the Tracks is a production of 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:13.319 I Heart Radio and Double Elvis. Brian Wilson was a 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:16.600 musical genius and one of the greatest songwriters of all time. 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.120 He caught melodies like they were waves. He bottled good 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:23.640 vibrations like no one else, and he picked up bad 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:28.360 vibrations too. He broke down, he tripped hard. He didn't 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:31.960 just hear music, he heard voices. He tried to lose 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:35.600 those voices by making a teenage symphony to God called Smile. 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:40.440 But somewhere along the way, Brian Wilson lost his mind instead. 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:50.000 This is his story. Hello, this is Rhonda Masson again. 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.920 I'm still compiling these Brian Wilson tapes, and the more 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:56.440 I listened, the more varied these tapes seemed to be. 0:00:57.160 --> 0:01:00.120 There are so many recordings here. I mean, here is 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:10.560 one that's just labeled vegetables. It goes on for ages 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:13.360 like that. But this is what I really wanted to 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:17.200 show you. I've just stumbled across something pretty incredible. It 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:20.200 was just labeled with the doodle of the sun. From 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:22.880 what I can hear, it's just one session, but it 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:27.360 seems to be around ninety hours of tape. I haven't 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:30.120 got through it all yet as it's so you know long, 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:32.760 but it looks to be all of the parts of 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:36.080 the Beach Boys classic Good Vibrations. Let me play the 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:38.759 bit I've just found. This is from in between some takes. 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:49.920 Sorry for the pause, everyone, I just need to make 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:52.639 sure that this room is right. It has to be right. 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:58.160 The vibrations need to be perfect. Okay, listen, listen with me. 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:03.600 Do you hear that? God, this whole thing isn't right. 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:10.880 This place is tainted? Can anyone else feel that? Wait? No, no, 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:14.960 this won't work. I'm canceling the session. I'm sorry everyone, 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:19.320 pack up. This isn't right. The vibrations aren't They aren't right. 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:22.600 If the vibrations aren't right, we can't get the music. 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:24.760 And if we can't get the music, we'll just put it. 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:49.000 We'll just put with blood on the tracks. Chapter two, 0:02:50.560 --> 0:03:07.240 Brian Wilson is seeing vibrations one oh five point four 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:11.119 b r I a n FM. Good morning, the sun 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.080 is rising on another day and we're feeling good, good good. 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.240 Let's stay healthy out there today. Don't forget to eat 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:22.720 your vegetables and catch those rays. There's just one remember please, 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:31.760 and if you You'll be just fine. That little arrangement 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:33.840 we had where the Beach Boys toured and I stayed 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:37.120 behind the studio was really paying off. We were making hits. 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:40.040 The music sounded great, but it was about to get 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:42.640 a whole lot better. We were about to release our 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:46.120 best album to date. We began making Pet Sounds in 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:50.080 the middle of and by February sixty six, we were 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:54.120 pretty much done with the music. Geez. I loved making 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:57.000 those songs. The studio had become a place where I 0:03:57.040 --> 0:04:01.920 felt safe, happy, even down know, I didn't feel like 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:05.200 that outside the studio. While I was making those songs. 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:08.080 The guy who had that whatever it was, that that 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:11.280 breakdown on the plane, he felt like he was a 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:15.440 completely different person. It was like I didn't even know him. 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:19.000 One time, we were cutting a track called That's Not Me, 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:21.880 and one of the musicians, a guy called Steve, turned 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:24.320 to me and said, you're nothing like I thought you 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:26.880 would be. I asked him what he meant. He said 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:29.040 he thought I might be a bit more out there. 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:33.799 That kind of exchange hasn't really stopped over the years. 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:36.760 People think of me as some sort of volatile or 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.520 unstable person, but that's not really true, there's just some 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:41.960 uneven parts of my brain that can get the better 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:46.679 of me. But when I was in the studio recording 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:50.920 those tracks, I really felt at ease. The serene studio 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:55.080 atmosphere would eventually be shattered. Of course, everything delicate in 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:57.360 this world manages to get crushed one way or another. 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:01.520 The vibrations need to be perfect. Okay, Yeah. When the 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:06.080 band returned for touring, things didn't go so well. Mike, 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:10.240 al Carl, and Dennis had just played Asia. They were 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:12.599 all in good spirits, but it was kind of awkward 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:15.000 having them come back into this environment where I had 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:18.000 been in charge for so long. We said about recording 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:20.599 some of the vocals, and it was going fine at first, 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:22.800 but we hit a roadblock when it came to the song. 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:26.719 I know there's an answer. Mike Love didn't like the lyrics. 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:30.120 He read them through once and then threw the paper down. 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:34.520 I thought he was mad because I've been working with 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:37.840 other people on the words for the songs. I don't 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.520 know if you know, but I enlisted Tony Asher, who 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:44.400 worked in advertising. He joined me in writing this song, 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:47.880 as did our road manager Terry Satchin. But that's not 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:50.440 what Mike was annoyed about at least he said it 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:54.120 wasn't He was actually mad about the content of the lyrics. 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:59.040 Do you hear that? You see? The song was originally 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:02.440 titled hang On to Your Ego, and well it was 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:06.440 about taking LSD. Mike didn't like that, not one bit. 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:10.839 What the funk are these words? He yelled. I was 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.679 just about to reply, but he launched into his rant. 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.080 He screamed that every night on tour they see audiences 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:20.040 go wild for the normal beach boy material, and then 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:22.840 if we change, the fans will abandon us. This whole 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:26.599 thing isn't right. I told him it was just a 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:30.880 few different words. It's the words, the music, everything, He replied. 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:33.560 Someone told me you were recording dogs in here the 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:38.320 other day. Dogs we don't funk with the formula? Is 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:40.080 that really how you want to make a hit record? 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:43.760 I told him I didn't care, and then I don't 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:46.919 know why, but I just went for him. I guess 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:49.160 I was frustrated because I had poured my heart into 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:53.839 these songs. Maybe there's another problem here, I said, just 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:56.440 loud enough for Mike to hear. Can anyone else feel that? 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:00.880 I watched this puzzled look drip to cross his face 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:05.960 as my brothers and Al became even more uncomfortable. Aren't right? 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:09.400 I tried to sound off hand, but I knew my 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:13.360 next comment would land hard. I said, I don't think 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:16.000 you guys can hack this. You're not cut out for this. 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:22.320 Mike erupted and leapt towards me. Carl grabbed him. Fuck you, 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:25.880 He shouted, We're out here every single day playing to 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:28.280 our fans and you're in here doing god knows what 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:32.400 with fucking dogs and l s D. These are the songs. 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:37.600 I said, take them or leave them. We didn't speak 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:41.119 for the rest of the session. Carl eventually calmed Mike down, 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:43.840 but he was still angry. The last thing he said 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:45.720 to me that day was I've got a title for 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:50.880 the album, Brian's Ego Music. How does that sound. Eventually 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:53.000 we got the track down and it turned out pretty good, 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:56.560 even with the lyrics altered from the original. Maybe maybe 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:01.000 tension and pressure has its place in creativity. Years later, 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:03.640 Mike would say he liked the music, but he didn't 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:05.320 feel it was the right sound for the band at 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:08.960 the time, which is fair enough. We'll have to agree 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:13.080 to disagree. Mike's not stupid. You know, he was right 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:16.800 about one thing. Drugs. Drugs are at the center of 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.680 these songs, in fact, for right or wrong, or at 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.480 the center of my story. And it all started with 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:55.120 one trip that changed everything. It's so vast in here, 0:08:56.080 --> 0:09:00.960 it's so vast. I guess you're wondering how my brain 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:03.560 got like this. Man, That was a long time ago. 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:06.360 Now things got a little bigger in here. When I 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:10.679 smoked grass and listened to the Beatles album Rubber Soul 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:17.360 Norwegian would Michelle Man. The songs blew my mind. They 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:22.520 literally took my mind away. I felt so competitive in 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:24.920 that moment. I thought, God, I want to do something 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:28.120 good like that. You know. I felt like music could 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:30.600 be more than it was. I felt like I could 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:33.520 be more than I was. I just needed some inspiration. 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:36.520 The grass and Rubber Soul gave me a good idea. 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:39.360 But the real change that came later. That happened the 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:44.199 first time I took acid. My life change forever. Lauren Daro, 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:47.439 a talent agent I knew, introduced me to acid. Everyone 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:49.400 was doing it, and I was interested to see what 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:51.360 it could do for me, how it could help me. 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.280 I still remember taking the acid and putting it on 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:57.000 my tongue. It was like my life had been a 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.560 black and white movie and now everything was in technicolor. 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:03.040 It felt so vivid and crisp, like I'd been seeing 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:05.960 the world in a blur this whole time. I remember 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:08.880 instantly feeling thirsty and going to get a glass of water. 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:12.760 After I poured it, I found myself just staring at it. 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:14.760 It looked like the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:17.240 The way the light caught it, the way it moved 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:21.120 in the glass just incredible. I brought it to my 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.640 mouth and tasted water for the first time. High God, 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:27.920 it tasted so fresh. I felt like it was my 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:35.440 first drink of water ever, water water water. I gulped 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:40.920 it down and then immediately had another glass water water bottom. 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:45.520 It was like it had fallen from heaven, like I've 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:47.440 been in the desert for years, or dried it out, 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:49.800 and someone had dumped the Pacific Ocean on my head. 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:53.120 As I was drinking, something else caught my eye. It 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:55.760 was the strangest thing in the air before me. I 0:10:55.800 --> 0:11:00.080 saw staffs and notes fly by, actual musical notation and 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:05.240 just hanging there interrupt your scheduled programming. But this just 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:09.280 is the sky's orange black and the grass of light 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:14.600 have a break day. Now I was floating. I felt great, 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:19.640 But then it all changed. There was this rising feeling 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:22.320 of anxiety. It had been there since the start, but 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:24.640 I hadn't noticed it until the walls began to move. 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:27.640 It was like they were this uh. They were huge 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:29.760 all of a sudden, like everything was getting bigger and 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:33.040 I was getting smaller. I was suffocating under the pressure 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:38.000 of the room. The vibrations aren't there. I ran into 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.760 my bedroom and put my head under the pillow. I 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:42.560 don't know why, but I kept thinking of my mom 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:48.560 and dad, then just my dad. No. I closed my 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:52.280 eyes and saw myself as a younger person, like everything 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.680 was going backwards faster and faster than I was getting 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.920 younger and younger. Suddenly I was just a baby sitting 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:02.480 there in a diaper, small little, fragile baby. And then 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:05.000 I was in the womb, and then I was an egg, 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:11.120 and then I was gone, just nothing. I didn't exist, 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.800 I was no longer there. It wasn't sad. I just 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:19.200 didn't exist. I thought of how strange that was, How 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:21.680 you couldn't be sad about being gone if you'd never 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:24.720 existed in the first place. But at the same time 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:27.720 I was there, I was thinking all of these things, 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.000 so I existed in some form. I couldn't get my 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:34.200 head around it. I felt separate from myself, like I 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:37.960 had a subjective sense of my life. I didn't know 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:40.959 it then, but I clung onto that idea and it 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:43.520 found itself in the song I Know there's an answer. 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:48.360 That's what the whole trip was like. Scary but compelling. 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:51.319 I experienced so much in a short amount of time. 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:53.880 I felt like I had seen the entire universe in 0:12:53.920 --> 0:13:01.559 a matter of hours. Sponsor from reality? Do you have 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:06.080 to face the real world? I want to feel closer 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:10.800 to God. Where what you need is acid? Acid, which 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:14.840 is not illegal yet anyway, so it must be doctor recommended. 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:17.920 It's the eper only way to escape the day troubling 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:23.120 upbringing acid, pressuring your professional life, ascid problems at home 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:27.439 with your wife. Acid it's the only way to escape 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.640 the day. Acid make our hallucinations like being on flyveryliving 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:32.559 your birth and non existence. It also could result in 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:37.400 a flashback. You're not consult your doctor. Oh man, sorry, 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:42.199 I drifted off there Where was I? Oh? Yeah? Later 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:44.960 and still tripping I stumbled around until I found my 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.120 way back into the living room. Time was meaningless. I 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:50.280 saw my piano, so I sat on the bench and 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:54.520 started to play. Played a B, than a in F sharp, 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:57.560 than a G sharp, before going back to F sharp. 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:00.240 I played all those notes again in the in and 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:04.800 again for maybe an hour. I just went round and 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:07.760 round and round with it. I must have fallen asleep 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.360 at the piano, because when I woke up, a whole 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:13.280 day had passed. I still felt a little dizzy, and 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:15.719 everything looked a little bright, but I knew I was 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:20.000 coming back down to earth. I sipped the same glass 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:22.400 of water from before, but it didn't taste like it 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:25.320 did before. I figured I was finally back to normal. 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.800 But that's the funny thing with drugs. You're never sure 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.640 when they're done with you. Things were far from being 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:34.440 back to normal. In fact, things were about to change forever. 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:39.000 Can anyone else feel that? At the piano I started 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.600 to play something straight away. My hand was possessed, like 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:45.800 it had been taken over by God or something. More likely, 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:49.240 it was the muscle memory from the trip. I started 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:53.240 playing those same notes from before again, to B, the 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:57.600 F sharp, the G sharp. I then started mumbling over it. 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:01.280 All of a sudden, I saw the melody. I didn't 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:04.640 hear it, I actually saw it just hovering over the keys, 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:08.360 suspended in mid air. I grabbed it, but not with 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:11.280 my hands, but with my mind, and I started singing 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:15.160 it as loud as I could. Thirty minutes later and 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:16.840 I had the song that would go on to be 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:22.400 California Girls done and dusted in half an hour. That's 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:26.080 the moment I realized how powerful LSD could be. But 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:30.160 you know, stuff like that, songs like California Girls, you 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:33.080 have to pay for it. The universe or God or 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:36.640 whoever just doesn't give you stuff like that on a plate. 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:40.520 You have to pay for it. And I wasn't an exception. 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:45.280 Just a week after that first trip, the voices began 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:52.200 to speak inside my head. Hello, Brian, your father, and 0:15:52.400 --> 0:16:01.040 they'd never ever leave. We'll be right back after this. 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:12.520 We were were. There's things we can't see, things will 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:20.840 never see, things we shouldn't see. Vibrations, Vibrations are everywhere. 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:25.560 Ignore them at your peril. Vibrations need to be perfect. Okay, 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:30.400 they scare me because they're moving around us, dictating how 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:33.440 things are all without us being able to see them? 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:37.960 Can anyone else feel that? When I wrote good Vibrations, 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:41.400 I was thinking about how people sense instinctively if something 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:44.400 is good news or bad news. You know, like when 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.240 the telephone rings. Sometimes you just know what type of 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.320 news is waiting for you at the other end. We 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:55.040 can sense those vibrations, but we often aren't open to them. 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:56.920 This idea first came to me a long time ago, 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:59.720 back when I was just a child. I was walking 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:02.600 with my mother near our house. Across the street was 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:05.159 this huge German shepherd. I had seen him around the 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:07.720 neighborhood many times, and on this day he was dozing 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:11.920 in someone's front yard, basking in the morning heat. There 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:14.359 was a man walking on the sidewalk right past the dog. 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:18.280 He seemed nervous, but kind of angry too. Without warning, 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:22.480 the dog leapt up from its slumber ran towards the fence. No, no, 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:26.800 this won't work. It jumped up, but it couldn't clear it, 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:29.640 so it just stood and barked wildly at this guy. 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:33.639 Rather than move on or pacify the dog, he hit 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:36.879 the fence aggressively and just taunted the dog. The German 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:41.159 shepherd was furious. This whole thing isn't right. It buttered 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:44.720 against the wire fence, growling. It's spit was all over 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:47.879 the hot ground. The man laughed as he walked away 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:51.240 and disappeared around the corner. My mother made me cross 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:53.399 the road, and slowly we made our way towards the 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:57.440 angry beast. I didn't want to go anywhere near it. 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:01.160 I couldn't have nderstand why she would want to put 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:04.960 us in danger like that. She tapped the fence lightly 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:09.000 and bent down to the dog's level. Tentative at first, 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.280 but eventually the dog stopped barking came over to my mother. 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:15.440 It pushed its head into the fence and my mother 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:19.479 rubbed its head. She turned to me and she said, Brian, 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:22.919 would you like to pat him? Only moments ago this 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:25.720 thing looked like it would feast on my blood. Now 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:29.800 it was relaxed, docile, and before I could stop myself, 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:34.200 my hand was moving toward it. Right before I touched 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:37.959 the dog's fur, my ears buzzed with the tension, and 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:40.639 then the dog was resting its head on the fence, 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:45.639 pushing against my forearm. You see, my mother said, dogs 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:48.960 can pick up on vibrations. It could read a situation 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:54.119 or a person immediately. She had a hard job tearing 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:57.439 me away from that dog. I wanted to stay there forever. 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:00.320 It was all I could see in my mind eyes. 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:03.680 I stood in gold Star Studios years later. It was 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:05.480 the day of the Beach boys were cutting my song 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:10.159 good Vibrations. It was completely silent in the studio. I 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.960 walked around. Eight or nine musicians stood there watching me, 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:20.159 hardly breathing. Do you hear that? I asked that. No 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:24.320 one replied, it's not it's not right. I said, it's 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:29.200 just not right. No, no, this won't work. I moved 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:33.040 to the wall and touched the paneling nothing. Then I 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:43.480 put my ear to the wall. All I heard was dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:50.760 dumb dumb, dumb, dumb dumb. I pulled my head off 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:53.879 the wall quickly and turned to face everyone that They 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:58.120 were all looking at me with white eyes full of expectation. No, no, 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:02.200 this won't work, I said, I'm canceling this session. I'm sorry, everyone, 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:06.399 pack up. This isn't right. The vibrations aren't right, the 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:08.720 vibrations aren't right, and we can't hit the music in 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:15.240 Chuck Britts my recording engineer begged me to reconsider. He 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:19.080 told me I had wasted fifty dollars already wasted. I 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:23.400 said to him, wasted. We're making a pocket symphony here. 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:27.240 Stuff like this takes time. I explained to him that 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:30.200 everything had to be just right in these sessions, how 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:34.120 we were creating something we've never made before, something that 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:37.480 no one had ever made before. I told him how 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:41.040 I wanted this to be like a Beach Boys Gershwin movement, 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:46.119 but with Phil Specter's production. No better than Phil Specter. 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:50.640 You hear that Phil. I wanted this to be something 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:53.639 that would challenge the Beatles to be better. I wanted 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:56.679 those lads in Liverpool to hear and feel how I 0:20:56.800 --> 0:20:59.080 felt when I heard Robert Soul for the first time. 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:02.560 It took a while to get the song right. Of course. 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:06.399 I stitched together a lot of ideas feels as I 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:10.879 called them together, you know, to make a song. We 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:14.400 recorded it like that too, all in blocks. It took 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:17.960 months and yes, a lot of money. I guess Check 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:20.760 was right about that, but I didn't mind. I knew 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:24.959 we were onto something. Can anyone else feel that everything 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:28.040 came together on that track? It's full of good ideas, 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:31.760 and not just from me. My brother Carl suggested the cello, 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:35.760 and we had the inventor of the electro thereman Paul Tanner, 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:40.200 playing his instrument on the track. The music came together slowly, 0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:43.760 but it was like being born. It was a process. 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:48.679 It had to be the lyrics, though they were even harder. 0:21:49.400 --> 0:21:52.040 Tony Asher had written some good words to go with mine, 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:54.520 but I wasn't that happy with them. To be honest, 0:21:54.920 --> 0:21:59.120 this whole thing isn't right. We had the good, good, 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:02.439 good vibration and bit, but not a whole lot else. 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:07.040 It needed something, but I didn't know what it. Turns out, 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:09.320 I didn't have far to look. I was at the 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:13.560 piano again in the studio one day, a little high again. 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:16.800 I was just playing the song on the keys, thinking 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:19.800 of all its different moving parts, singing what little lyrics 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:22.040 I had that I liked. And that's when Mike Love 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:25.160 came in. Is this the song you were talking about? 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:30.800 He asked, Sure, I answered, Vibrations, he asked. I told 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:32.960 him about the encounter with the dog and what it 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:35.160 meant to me, And as I did, his whole face 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:39.640 started to change. He got so excited. You're right, he said, 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:44.000 there's vibrations everywhere. This is what's happening down in San Francisco, 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:47.719 the peace and love movement down there. This is it, Brian. 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:51.399 It's all about vibrations, the feelings in the air. It 0:22:51.520 --> 0:22:55.480 has to be right. He grabbed a pen from the 0:22:55.520 --> 0:22:58.800 top of the piano scribbled something on his arm. I 0:22:58.800 --> 0:23:03.119 hadn't seen him like that. Ages so creatively inspired. We 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:06.240 didn't really discuss it after that. He kind of kept 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:08.480 me in the dark until we were all in CBS 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:12.240 Columbia Square ready to record the vocals. I was a 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:15.119 bit anxious, thinking maybe he'd given up on it, But 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:18.800 something incredible happened when we all got together. We were 0:23:18.840 --> 0:23:22.119 all standing around at the microphone. Then Mike finally walked in. 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:25.720 Are we ready, he asked, holding up a legal pad. 0:23:26.359 --> 0:23:28.399 He later told me he'd written the final draft of 0:23:28.440 --> 0:23:30.400 the lyrics in the car on the way to the studio. 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:34.280 I should have guessed they were so fresh. When I 0:23:34.320 --> 0:23:36.800 heard the vocals that day, complete with Mike's new words, 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:39.760 my mind raised. If this was how the next album 0:23:39.840 --> 0:23:43.119 was going to sound, it was going to blow everyone's minds. 0:23:44.560 --> 0:24:17.360 I was wrong, though, I wouldn't blow everyone's mind just mine. 0:24:19.520 --> 0:24:22.800 Louis Epstein walks down Hollywood Boulevard, gazing up at the 0:24:22.840 --> 0:24:26.960 street lamps adorned with multicolored Christmas lights. He stops and 0:24:27.000 --> 0:24:30.400 looks up at them properly before catching himself. He cannot 0:24:30.440 --> 0:24:33.280 be late today. He has to be at work on time. 0:24:33.960 --> 0:24:36.560 Today one of his regulars is coming in, and this 0:24:36.600 --> 0:24:40.960 one is a V I P. He sees the huge 0:24:41.040 --> 0:24:44.440 sign come into view as he briskly navigates the sidewalk. 0:24:44.960 --> 0:24:48.000 The words Pickwick Books dominate this section of the street. 0:24:48.520 --> 0:24:51.240 Louis feels a sense of pride when he sees them, 0:24:51.240 --> 0:24:53.879 and moments later he's unlocking the front door and stepping 0:24:53.920 --> 0:24:56.800 into the shop, with a familiar fragrance of old books 0:24:56.840 --> 0:25:00.480 greets him, as it does every day. It smells like home. 0:25:01.480 --> 0:25:04.600 Epstein turns on the shops radio and the sound of 0:25:04.760 --> 0:25:08.160 kf w B filsy air. He sits behind the counter 0:25:08.240 --> 0:25:10.600 and waits. He doesn't know what time it will happen, 0:25:10.640 --> 0:25:13.760 but he knows it will happen. It's not until the 0:25:13.840 --> 0:25:17.600 afternoon that he hears the corvette pull up outside, and 0:25:17.680 --> 0:25:20.080 as if by design, when the man steps out of 0:25:20.119 --> 0:25:23.840 the car, kf w B begins to play a California Girls. 0:25:24.760 --> 0:25:27.479 As the man enters the shop, he shoots Epstein a smile. 0:25:27.920 --> 0:25:31.640 That's a great song, he says, you should know. Epstein replies, 0:25:33.760 --> 0:25:36.600 he watches as Brian Wilson heads for the health section. 0:25:37.080 --> 0:25:40.520 Almost every week Brian visits the store, and almost every 0:25:40.520 --> 0:25:43.639 week he goes straight to that section. He's always buying 0:25:43.680 --> 0:25:47.520 books on physiology, which Epstein never knows how to take. 0:25:47.960 --> 0:25:50.000 Is this a joke? Is it a cry for help? 0:25:50.600 --> 0:25:53.359 The rumors of Wilson's drug taking and radical behavior have 0:25:53.440 --> 0:25:56.880 made l a showbiz gossip groups, and there's also talk 0:25:56.960 --> 0:25:59.440 that Brian is turning his famous group into a psychedelic 0:25:59.560 --> 0:26:04.200 rock band. Epstein can believe it because today Brian holds 0:26:04.200 --> 0:26:07.359 a copy of Psycho Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, which he 0:26:07.440 --> 0:26:13.280 clutches tightly to his chest. Epstein usually leaves his special 0:26:13.320 --> 0:26:16.480 guests alone, but today he can't help it. With the 0:26:16.520 --> 0:26:19.240 Beach Boys song still playing on the radio, he feels 0:26:19.240 --> 0:26:22.080 he can do what he never does. Engaged, the star 0:26:22.800 --> 0:26:26.359