Song 25: I'm Waiting for the Day

I'm Waiting For the Day - The Beach Boys
I thought it was about the time I wrote about a Beach Boys song, but I then realised that there were a lot of Beach Boys songs I wanted to write about, so sorry, there are going to be three Beach Boys entries in quick succession. Apologies if that's not your cup of surf.

The first song is from 'Pet Sounds', perhaps one of the lesser known songs on the album, widely acknowledged as one of the Greatest Albums of All Time!! You got that, mortals? Indeed, it topped the first Greatest Albums of All Time!! list I ever read, so it's been embedded in my head as a GOAT since then.

I got it for Christmas 1995 and I think my initial reaction to the album was a tacit disappointment. I felt like the best songs on the album were the ones I already knew, like Wouldn't It Be Nice and God Only Knows, and the rest was nice but not the other planet I'd been promised.

However, it didn't take me long for me to love it, it's such a beautiful album, 'That's Not Me', 'I Just Wasn't Made For These Times' and in particular 'Caroline No' just being utterly sad and wonderful. It is, lyrically (as I once saw the great journalist Ian McDonald argue) quite a callow, immature album, it's pre-enlightment, pre-adulthood, pre-Dylan, if you will - it's innovation lies in its extraordinary musical complexity. It took until their next album 'Smile' for Brian Wilson to try to wed lyrical sophistication to his musical vision, with the introduction of Van Dyke Parks (even in the re-imagined, remastered, recent versions, I'm not sure it's all entirely successful).

So I loved Pet Sounds, I loved its mood, its magical voices, its musical madness, I did get what the fuss was about. There is one song that rather stood out for me though as not quite in keeping (apart from 'Sloop John B', which I always just ignore and imagine is 'Good Vibrations', which was almost written in time for the album, dammit!), and that's 'I'm Waiting for the Day'. Cos I'm Waiting for the Day is a bit mental ...

I should perhaps choose my words more sensitively considering Brian Wilson's history, but I just mean it's got a darkness, a wildness which the rest of the album doesn't possess. Incidentally, it is apparently Brian Wilson's least favourite track on the album - he claims cos he doesn't like his vocal on it, but it sounds good to me. I wonder if he retrospectively disapproved of this creation of his.

In what way is it wild and dark? It certainly doesn't start off that way. It's your standard Beach Boys lyrical sweetness and light about loving a girl whose heart another boy broke. So far, so good. But the signs begin to emerge in the second verse, which kicks on a bit, and Brian puts a bit more oomph into his vocal, to the extent of almost sounding like a different person, and you know what, the lyrics seem to be fixating a little on this other fellow.

Squabbling, jealousy, rivalry, that's really not what Pet Sounds is meant to be about? But, fear not, it gets sweet again, and then is about to come to a graceful natural end ....

But, then, it all kicks off. From somewhere, an outro of genuine fury emerges. Interestingly, this is one of the few songs on the album which is a co-write with cousin/enemy Mike Love. Well, ironic if one of my favourite bits on the whole of Pet Sounds was dreamed up the man who was supposedly it's main Doubting Thomas.

"You didn't think that I would sit around and let him work! You didn't think that I would sit around and let him take you! You didn't think that I would sit around and let him go! You didn't think that I would sit around and let you go!"

What the fuck? What have you done to him, Brian? What have you done to her? Suddenly, you remember all the dark sides of the Beach Boys, the drugs and despair and Manson and internecine rivalry. And, right there, I love it. It gives the song and the album the one thing it lacks, a bit of edge, a bit of rock, a bit of ambiguity.

This is one of the least celebrated songs on Pet Sounds, sure, but it's always been one of my favourite moments, and I've got to say, when I saw Brian Wilson doing those wonderful Pet Sounds gigs at the Royal Festival Hall a few years ago, he really spat the outro out with some real relish ...

The Beach Boys are such a weird band with such a weird chequered history, and this moment somehow sums that up for me.