but now what about California Girls

california Girls the track was being

done by my cousin Brian at Studio 3 in

Western Studios with the Wrecking Crew

it was a great track that intro is

almost it’s like a prelude to some kind

of great piece of music

and the track was going on but he didn’t

have the words so I stepped out in the

hallway while they were still finishing

the track and wrote out “I want to give

the accolades to all the great girls

around the different parts of the US

east Coast girls are hip southern girls

way they talk Midwest farmers daughters

um you know northern girls the way they

kiss keep their boyfriends warm at

night.” So it was just a it’s kind of a

traalog of from a young guy’s fantasy

and then it talked about all girls

around the world and Hawaiian Island

dolls and by a palm tree in the sand and

then the chorus wish they all could be

California girls that’s Brian Wilson he

came up with the brilliant high parts

and did all the vocal arrangements and

stuff but I came up with all the lyrics

for that song and it’s it’s one of our

favorite songs it’s one of the favorite

songs of a lot of people yeah

fortunately tell me in brief if you will

how Good Vibrations came to be good

Vibrations was a monumental effort it

started uh months before the song came

out my cousin Brian went in with the

best studio musicians in LA they called

themselves the Wrecking Crew it’s so

funny how they got the term the Wrecking

Crew because all the more respected

musicians that played in symphonies and

various orchestras and big bands thought

that these guys would wreck the business

because they’re doing rock and roll so

they became the wrecking crew they’re

brilliant and great musicians and he

would go to Gold Star Recording where

Phil Spectre did his stuff to get a

certain sound and that when I say he I

mean Brian and he would go to Studio 3

at Western Recorders on Sunset Boulevard

and because it had other sounds and so

he did three or four or five studios and

we ultimately did the vocals for the the

single record but this took several

months because he did sections of the

track and experimented with the the the

different sections and different sounds

and different tempos so the composite

was finally put together and I was due

to write the lyrics and I put it off and

I’m pretty good at procrastinating and

so I wrote the the words i dictated a

poem while I was driving in the in our

Xke to the studio on the way to the the

session i and I dictated to my then wife

Suzanne who was pregnant with our

daughter Haley and I said “Take this

down i I love the colorful clothes she

wears and the way the sunlight plays

upon her hair.” This was 1966

the track was incredible it was so

unique mystical sounding with the

theramin going on nobody had ever used a

theramin in rock music but what is a

theramin theamin is a it’s

electrotheramin it was invented by a

Russian inventor and it has this weird

soundoo

you’ve only heard it in scary movies and

TV shows and stuff like that it was an

eerie sound but it was brilliant with

with good vibrations so I I came up with

the lyrics just on the way to the studio

and my cousin Carl sang it beautifully

so it was a real it it had the structure

of of all these this different studios

and different types of experimentation

but it had the spontaneity of the lyrics

that I wrote about a girl who was all

into peace and love and flower power it

was it was 1966 and the psychedelic era

of music was was going on in Southern

California i know it’s hard to choose

what’s your own personal favorite

there are so many favorites uh Dan

because it’s about your mood we did a

song the night of November 23rd was it

in 1963 my cousin Brian and I got

together and wrote this beautiful

haunting melody beautiful song great

harmonies and were awakened in the

morning to the news that President

Kennedy had been taken to the hospital

in Dallas so we all know what happened

there but it was a very sad melancholy

song and the lyrics were not changed to

conform to that event but it was about

the loss of someone you love but still

you had felt that that love at one time

and so even though it was not great how

it ended

there was still something good about it

and in a sense the same thing president

Kenny was not great how his life ended

by any stretch of the imagination but

there was a lot of idealism and

positivity in his messages and what he

represented to to the United States and

to the world picture

California 1960 mhm what’s going on out

there and what are you trying to capture

in your music about it well what was

going on is is an practically an idilic

setting for us uh middle class kids

growing up in Southern California my

grandfather love and my grandmother and

grandfather Wilson they had the good

sense to migrate from rural Louisiana

and Kansas to come to California which

is where I was born and my cousins were

born so uh my grandfather

called California the ultimate which I

think that was right on it was he came

from outside of Shreport Louisiana to

California worked very hard in the sheet

metal industry and uh provided us a

really good life and a in a beautiful

environment southern California in in

the late 50s early 60s was fantastic we

were just a few miles from the beach uh

the mountains the desert you know we’d

take vacations to go to Mexico on the

weekends and it was a fantastic

experience growing up well one of the

many things the Beach Boys have been

known for over the years is the the

vocal harmonies oh yeah of all of you

how did you reach that unique Mhm

combination of vocal harmonies the

harmonies that distinguished the Beach

Boys for so many other rock groups came

from my childhood growing up

every holiday every birthday party every

special occasion at my house my mom was

such a fan of music that everything

centered around music i mean you could

have the uncle that’s not talking to my

dad or you could have somebody didn’t

pay somebody back or got drunk at a

party or embarrassed somebody or you

didn’t always get along maybe 100%

but music was the bond that brought

everybody together and the singing of

two and three and four part harmonies

that was something we love to do so the

essential ingredient I believe in our

music is the love of getting together

and creating those sounds together and

because we’re brothers and cousins and

and so on I I think there’s a sort of a

genetic kind of aspect to it you know

the Everly brothers had such a beautiful

blend they they Oh they harmonized they

were a big inspiration to us but then

the four freshmen were these fantastic

musicians and great singers with these

great

intricate chord progressions that

inspired us and made us want to achieve

more in our particular abilities so

those were the inspirations but the

basis of it all was the love of getting

together and harmonizing that had

nothing to do with music or fame or

fortune or any of those kinds of

aspirations

well what’s been the best of it let’s

face it it’s been a long mostly good

road for you at least professionally

personally we’ll talk about a few things

later yeah I figured but what’s been the

best of it where was the absolute best

moment for you there’s so many great

moments i’d say three years ago we were

backstage and and a young girl who who

was a Makea-Wish type girl she was going

through some challenges healthwise 10

years old and I asked her “What’s your

favorite Beach Boy song?” She says “49.”

Well 409 was the Bside or the flip side

of the 45 single Surf and Safari with

the backside being 409 it was about a

hot Chevy car you know and so that blew

my mind it came out 40 years before she

was born and here it is her favorite

Beach Boy song and And so and to see all

ages senior citizens down to children

loving the music and and families all

together getting together enjoying

something together that’s pretty rare

these days you know i mean everybody’s

so segmented and fragmented and going

this way and that way and their

electronic stuff and this kind of music

and that kind of music the Beach Boys

music can is I I sometimes call it a

sonic oasis it’s it’s a place to get

away for a song or an album or an

evening out and and the entire family

can enjoy