Wouldn't It Be Nice by the Beach Boys revisited GUEST BLOGGER

Guest blogger, Craig R. Clemens, offers valuable insights into the musical aspects of "Wouldn't It Be Nice" not covered in the first post about the song.

 "...if it weren't for the glorious music on WIBN (Wouldn't It Be Nice), it's not a song.

I think there is a place for lyric analysis, but I also don't think the lyrics should stand alone without mentioning how the rhythmic flow of the words depends on the music to deliver the message.

In the case of WIBN, I've said many times on this board (Smiley Smile) and anywhere else that it is my all-time favorite song, #1 on the list without doubt. I can appreciate the lyrics, but from the first notes of that amazing guitar duet in the intro, it becomes special, it becomes a listening experience, I'd even say the original studio version captured all the magic of that song in one recording which no live or cover version can ever match.

In the case of the music on that song, Brian as a musician in his early 20's used nearly every technique he had perfected over the previous run of Beach Boys hit singles and song to create a classic. Everything from the seemingly disconnected intro theme which surprisingly reoccurs in the bridge, to the stop-on-a-dime pauses and breaks, to the soaring falsetto, to the surprising chord changes that take the song out of the verse and into the next section, and perhaps most surprising to the listener both a ritardando and a revisiting of the main groove as the outro but with brand new melodic material on top of that groove. And the structure itself - is there a chorus in the traditional way? yet the main hook of the song, the title "wouldn't it be nice?" is featured prominently enough for everyone listening to recognize that question as the main theme.

Brian threw everything that "worked" for him on previous songs into this one. His arrangement and production did the same thing - he took what he had done one step further, if not ten. And the melody working with the chords creates both a sophistication through the jazzy minor 7ths and ii-V-I standard jazz resolutions as well as a childlike longing and almost an aching quality by using his higher-range voice in a very masculine and powerful way. It's hard to describe, the way Brian belts out the song with pure grit and power, yet uses a high range, makes it sound like a kid approaching adulthood looking ahead and an adult man looking back at when he was that age at the same time...I can't explain it other than it's one of the most perfect lead vocals which fits exactly into the theme of the song and the story, and it could be any one of us at any age relating to what he's singing about.

Almost any cover, including the hundreds of live versions by the Beach Boys themselves, seems to miss the fact that Brian is going all out on that lead vocal, just sheer power and emotion to the point where even in his higher "sweet" voice you hear the gritty quality that comes from giving an all-out, no-holds-barred performance at the mic. Again, that quality of the voice has never been equaled from the original studio version by anyone, and those covering it seem to key in on the sweeter side of the vocal rather than the grit. 

That's just a few thoughts, I could ramble on for pages but I'll spare everyone. I'll say again that recording is my favorite, and one which I have always felt a deep connection with on a personal level that few recordings or songs can reach. So I tend to ramble about it…"

originally posted on Smiley Smile by Craig R. Clemens.  Reposted here with author's permission.  Thanks, Craig!
Visit Craig's blog here http://www.classicstudiosessions.blogspot.com/

"Can't Get You Off My Mind" by Lenny Kravitz

Lyrics

(4 bar intro)

Life is just a lonely highway

I'm out on here on the open road

Very general setting here. It establishes that he's alone. Kinda cliche. Two lines that work off the same metaphor.

I'm old enough to see behind me

but young enough to feel my soul

Continues to establish his situation. He is somewhat young, but young enough to still have passion. Anyone fits that though, but it's a cool line. Also, these first four lines barely rhyme.

I don't want to lose you baby

and I don't want to be alone

Now, we know it's definitely a love song. These first two lines say basically the same thing, just a little differently.

I don't want to live my days without you

but for now I've got to be without you

The third and fourth line here say the same thing as the first and second, but the plot thickens because now we learn that he can't be with her at this time. Also, the rhyme scheme differs here from the first stanza.

I got a pocket full of money

and a pocket full of keys that have no bounds

He has a lot of opportunity in worldly things like money and opportunities. Kinda cliche.

but then I think of lovin

But, love trumps those things.

and I just can't get you off of my mind

He wants her. Very simple. After all that: his situation, alone, his age, he's not with her but there may be some history or maybe he could have had her but has to be on his own for some reason, but in the end, "I just can't get you off of my mind." That last line becomes powerful after everything that precedes it.

(4bars)

Babe can't you see

that this is killing me?

I don't want to push you baby

I don't want you to be told

Gets apologetic right before the most desperate statements of desire in the song.

It's just that I can't breath without you

Feel like I'm gonna lose control

Ok, this verse is all about how much he wants her. It drops any reference to how they can't be together, and that issue gets picked up again in the bridge.

I've got a pocket full of money, oh yes I do

and a pocket full of keys that have no bounds

but when it comes to lovin

I just can't get you off of my mind ya

Am I a fool to think that there's a little hope? ya

So there is definitely some unknown reason for why they are not together.

tell me baby ya

what are the rules, the reasons, and the dos and don'ts? ya

Love, the feeling, is the most important thing, but it gets hampered by fronts and expectations.

tell me baby, tell me baby, ya

what do you feel inside?

The bridge contains the real conundrums. The point of the matter. Is there hope? What am I supposed to do? And, what do you really feel? These questions get us to feel vulnerable. And the emotion carries on into the...

(guitar solo)

I've got a pocket full of money

and a pocket full of keys that have no bounds

but when it comes to money

I just can't get you off of my mind ya

I just can't get you off of my mind ya

Summary of Lyric Structure

Verse 1: I'm going through life alone.

Verse 2: I don't want to be alone, but for now, I have to be

Chorus: I've got some things going for me, but then I think of love and I think of you.

Verse 3: I don't mean to sound overly desperate, but I can't live without you.

Chorus: I've got some things going for me, but then I think of love and I think of you.

Bridge: The desire comes to a point of crisis and questions. But at the heart of the matter is what

do you (the girl) feel?

Chorus: I've got some things going for me, but then I think of love and I think of you.

Melody

First of all it's important to notice that the electric guitar plays a four-bar musical phrase for the intro. So, even though the acoustic guitar only strums two chords during that time, the melody played by the guitar provides a sense of musical direction.

The structure of the verse follows a very balanced, classical format. Each line of lyrics is a one-bar melodic bit, so each verse is made up of four one-bar melodic pieces. Every line follows a pattern of musical question then answer with the first line "answered" by the second line and the third line "answered" by the fourth. But, the "question-answer" scenario doesn't stop there. The first half of the verse (or two lines) is a "question" that gets "answered" by the second half of the verse (or the last two lines). One thing that ties all of those phrases together is their is their rhythm. All four lines of the verse contain the same syllabic rhythm. Try singing the third line with the melody of the first for instance, and you will find that the syllables fit. This helps to make all the lines of the verse sound like they belong in the same verse together.

Then the chorus comes with different pitches and rhythms from the verse. Notice that the pitches are generally higher and therefore more exciting than the verse's pitches. The first three lines all start the same way, and that makes the fourth line, the hook, sound very distinctive. The hook begins lower and the rhythm is different from the three preceding lines.

Then in place of a third verse we get this really cool "Babe can't you see that this is killing me?" line, which takes its time, leaves a lot of space, features the electric guitar part, and is sung in falsetto. Probably no step-by-step songwriting book will tell you to take a liberty like that, but do you like it in this song? I do. Then the actual third verse comes to us in a familiar fashion. However, there's no verse four because of the "Babe can't you see..." bit, and the return of the verses feels half as long as the first part of the song. Like we saw in "Yesterday," this makes for a pleasantly surprising return of the chorus.

Finally the bridge takes us into a whole other world harmonically and melodically. These are the highest pitches in the song. The harmony may be the biggest difference here from the rest of the song, and the music is allowed to be featured by the long breaks between the lyrics. The background vocals get some time to be heard between the singer's desperate questions, instead of filling the bridge with lots of words from end to end. There are only three choice questions over ten bars of music.

The rest of the song doesn't give us much else to talk about here, but it is important to note that the vocal performance continues to be creative all the way to the end. There are little melodic liberties that are taken just to be at least a little fresher with the chorus that we are now hearing for the third time.

Harmony

Just a quick note about the harmony in this song. The verses use very few chords, only two in fact. The changes in the chorus happen a tad bit more rapidly but remain still quite simple. The most interesting part of the instrumentation are the electric guitar lines that are played over these chords and still manage to stay out of the way of the vocals. While the chords in the bridge are more "out" they still don't change very often. Harmonically this song is very different from the many-chorded "Yesterday" by The Beatles.