27 - Wouldn't It Be Nice (The Beach Boys)

Let's get inside Brian Wilson's head with this classic off 'Pet Sounds'. Imaginative, concise, adventurous. One of a kind!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Okay, I want to dive into Wouldn't It Be Nice by the Beach Boys. It's the first song off the 1966 pet sound album. It's one of their biggest songs ever. And it was largely written by Brian Wilson, and Tony Asher wrote the lyrics. And apparently Mike Love had some hand in the composition. I know there's like kind of controversial or disputed. But oh, I want to get into the musicality of the song. It has three different key changes, which is awesome. And he does a lot of like abrupt modulations. Like the key changes are pretty abrupt. It's like good vibrations. You know, like the key will just instantly change. And sometimes the tempo will change. In good vibrations, it does that too. And in this song it does it. It starts with a slowdown, which is rare in a pop song. And uh let's get into it. So it starts with it sounds like harp is in the intro, but I looked it up, and it's actually like a combination of 12-string Mando guitar and 12-string guitar. And they like played it directly into the recording council. Console. And uh it had like a kind of harp-like tone quality to it. So this is it on guitar, it goes. Like that, that's like the pivot chord right there, okay? So this that's the two chords it's outlining. A major to F sharp minor, which is the relative minor of A major. Then it goes to the minor two chord. It goes to D major. So it's outlining A major, F sharp minor, B minor, D major. So that is B minor to D major. So it's just like one to six, two to four. So it sounds like kind of jolly and nice, like everything's fine and dandy. Like it just instantly goes to C. It's key's kind of outlining C6. C6 just has like the major six. It just looks like that. C major, but it has that has like an A in it, right? Or you can play it like this. There's a bunch of different ways to play it, but I like to play it like this. So it's like and but right away it's like that's like the chord right there. That's like, what? And it's like wouldn't it be nice if we like whoa, like this is F major. This is like the main key of the song, right? Instant. It's just so instant, a huge color change, and everything kicks in, like the drums and everything. Wouldn't it be nice if we were older? It's so high, but he's like belting it, right? He's like, wouldn't it be nice if we were older? Then we wouldn't have it's like he's really like using his chess voice there, it sounds like. Then we wouldn't have. There's the four chord B flat standard to do that, but it's like a really nice color. Then have to wait so long. And wouldn't it be nice? So that's a two-five one. So we're in F major, right? So two five one, maybe you've heard of that cadence. It's a very common chord progression, very common in jazz. Pop music has it a lot too. So it's like major one, F, then we wouldn't to the four, and then two, five, one. Okay, so the two is G minor and then C. Or you do C seven, or it might be even G minor seven. And maybe C seven, yeah. Dominant seven. Just like a nice extra flavor. Wouldn't it be nice to live together in the kind of world where we belong. And then it goes, what happens now? It goes to the relative minor. This is not a key change, it just goes to the relative minor. It's common, F major to D minor. It's nice to do this between sections, it because this is like major based, and then this is minor based. You know what's gonna make it that? I love that. Like every syllable has a different note. It's so nice. He's like going up the G Dorian scale. Like completely, just like root, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh. Octave. Um, but the chords are D minor seven, which is the relative minor of F major. You know what's gonna make it? No, this is awesome. That much better. Like that is so cool. It's F sus 9. I used to think it was C minor seven, like a lot of chords online say and it sounds like very similar. They're like almost almost identical. You know what's gonna make it that much better. But the bass is definitely playing an F. And it's like F sus 9. So you got the F there, and then you got the fifth, F again. That's the fourth, okay? And then that is awesome. Yeah, that's the seventh there. And then that's the ninth, so that's got G in it. Look at that chord. So Brian Wilson. I'm just doing three, three, three, four, three starting in the A string. You know it's gonna make it that much better. Look at that, so dreamy. That much better. And then when we can say goodnight um, and he doesn't repeat that chord, he's moving on, man. Brian Wilson's moving on. Stay together. What'd it be nice? It's so beautiful. So he does A minor seven, which is the minor three chord of F. Okay, the minor three chord, but he makes it a minor seven. Stay together. Here's a two-five one. Back to the major section. Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up in the morning when the day is new, and after having spent the day together, hold each other close the whole night through. Back to it. So we we've kinda had like intro and then verse chorus verse chorus. So I guess you call this a chorus. I like how he says the title of the song in the verses. Um What happy What happy times together? Be spending. D minor seven to F sus9. We'd be spending. I wish that every kiss was depending. I like to remember the first time I heard that. I was like, man, that's like so romantic. Never ending, so like classy. Wouldn't it be nice? And then it's like, this is like that Brian Wilson moment where everything transforms. And then what is happening here? We enter a different key. D major. Okay, not D minor, which is the relative minor of F major. We're now in D major. And this is the section where it goes, maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true. This is really cool because the that harp sound is going on in the background, the from the intro, but the chords aren't. Like the um the harp is outlining that, but there's like new chords going on here, and it's D major seven. Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray. That's G major seven now. Super dreamy. It might come true. Okay, so F sharp minor seven, and then B minor seven. Like just listen to the chords. Nice. Maybe then holding an E there. It's like D like add nine, adding a nice ninth. We think it wishes and hope to pray. I love I love that melody. Maybe then there wouldn't be a single thing we couldn't do. Gorgeous. So according to D major, we're doing major one, but doing a major seven chord, right? So it's the one, it's the root, and then we go to the four, which is G, major seven. And then we go to the minor three, and then to the sixth, which is the relative minor of D major. And then there wouldn't be a single thing we couldn't do. And then this part is awesome.

unknown 9:48

We could be married, and then we could be married.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

It just oscillates between F sharp minor and B minor. Seven, right? And then we'd be happy, then we'd be happy. That's that pivot chord from the intro. What a phase right there. It's C, and that's what happens there. When we'd be happy, and then we'd be happy. Sudden, super abrupt. Wouldn't it be nice? And it's going, it's just holding on F and it starts to slow down. It does a retard. And then it goes back to that chorus, right? The you know it seems no more we talk about it. It's so like free time now, right? It only makes it worse to live without it. But let's talk about it. It's so gorgeous, but let's talk about it. Wouldn't it be nice? Gorgeous. I love how they they live without it. That's A minor seven to G minor, and it doesn't go to C right away, it doesn't go to the five chord, it goes back, it repeats it. But let's talk about it. Wouldn't it be nice? This holds just the one chord. That's all you need after all that complexity. Just holding that one until the outro, just until the fade out. And I think this outro, like that lyric, is what Mike Love contributed, but if you guys know any more, please comment. I'd love to know. Um but yeah, just such a gorgeous song, like starting from A major, and then wouldn't it be F. And like and it goes at relative minor, and then it goes back and then like staying in F. And then we do this weird, and now New World D major, D major seven. Just so nice. And then again, another pivot, we could be happy, wouldn't it be? F major one, man. Oh man, so it's in the key of A, F, D, F. Really, really nice. And perfectly executed. Everything happens so concisely in two and a half minutes. Like what a blast of color in just two and a half minutes. Hope you enjoyed that, guys. Please leave a rating if you're listening to this on a podcast platform. And if you're interested in working together on a music production level to not only bring your songs to life, but to really define and shape your sound with me, just go to learn.dambarricuda.com slash own your sound. So check it out if you're interested, and I'll see you in the next episode.