Summary Of God Only Knows By Brian Wilson

“God Only Knows” is taken from The Beach Boys’ album Pet Sounds. Brian Wilson, the artistic visionary and sole composer on the album, was inspired to begin working on Pet Sounds after hearing The Beatles’ Rubber Soul in December 1965. He was shocked by the lack of filler tracks and the cohesive artistic goal of the album, features unheard of at a time when full-length LPs were used as a method to sell more profitable singles rather than as artistic statements. Inspired by these ideas, Wilson is quoted as exclaiming to his wife, “I'm gonna make the greatest album! The greatest rock album ever made!”. The high level of musicianship and studio artistry present on Pet Sounds went unnoticed at its release in 1966, overshadowed by the release of The Beatles’ Revolver two months after it, but critics in retrospect now place the album amongst the best of all time. Wilson created one of the first concept
After the intro, the limited instrumentation allows the vocals to be the main focus of the piece, emphasising the meaning of the lyrics. The addition of the string quartet builds dynamic tension and by the third verse, where the lyrics repeat themselves, Wilson builds the instrumentation with the flute playing call and response to emphasise each line specifically. The rigidity of the percussion and bass beating away in the background gives the piece a forward motion with a large amount of reverb applied to the sparse instrumentation filling the space in the mix. When the full ensemble returns at the end of the piece, it feels as if we have returned to the intro, with the unresolved chord sequence offering no sense of closure. The perpetual round and fade out that ends the song gives the effect that it continues on forever unresolved. The line “God only knows what I’d be without you” now feels uncertain and tense, rather than the return to stability of the earlier