Song Lyric Sunday: Good Vibrations

As my first go – last week – at Song Lyric Sunday (SLS) was well received I thought I’d do it again. This could become a regular part of my blogging week! For today, Jim’s post Positive Emotions invites us to share a song about excitement, pleasure, sentiment, spirit. The possibilities seem endless, but I stopped at the first of those words.

My chosen song begins with these lyrics:

I-I love the colorful clothes she wears
And the way the sunlight plays upon her hair
I hear the sound of a gentle word
On the wind that lifts her perfume through the air

Have you guessed what it is yet? The clue is in the title of this piece and in the image above, but maybe you need to go to the first chorus to be sure:

I’m pickin’ up good vibrations
She’s giving me the excitations (oom bop bop)

Yep, it’s THAT one:

This is what Wikipedia says about it: “Good Vibrations is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys that was composed by Brian Wilson with lyrics by Mike Love. It was released as a single on October 10, 1966 and was an immediate critical and commercial hit, topping record charts in several countries including the United States and the United Kingdom. Characterized by its complex soundscapes, episodic structure and subversions of pop music formula, it was the most expensive single ever recorded. Good Vibrations later became widely acclaimed as one of the finest and most important works of the rock era.” That seems a fair summary to me, and who knew that the Beach Boys were subversive? The song was recorded over seven months and is still one of the most expensive singles ever made, even after all this time. Although it was released as a standalone single it later featured on the band’s album Smiley Smile, which was released in September 1967, peaking at #9 in the UK and at #41 in the US.

The video was one of four that were apparently made to promote the record. Given that it was released in October 1966, a month after The Monkees tv show first aired, I wonder if there were any influences at work here, in either direction? This wouldn’t have looked out of place with Davy, Mike, Pete and Mickey running around in it, would it? I loved this song when it first came out, and still do. I was 13 when it was released, and was a big follower of the pop music charts – the days when music was good! I bought this one with my pocket money, and played it so much that even my parents grew to like it. I thought then, and still do, how incredibly clever the song was in the way the multiple layers were interwoven. It really is a fantastic piece of music, and I think it goes so well with Jim’s suggested themes: how many songs convey as well as this the sense of excitement about how someone makes you feel?

Doing a little research I looked up the song’s lyrics, to be able to include some of them for you. If that did nothing else for me, it cleared up what I have been mishearing for all these years in the final verse:

Gotta keep those lovin’ good vibrations a-happenin’ with her
Gotta keep those lovin’ good vibrations a-happenin’ with her
Gotta keep those lovin’ good vibrations a-happenin’

I’ve only spent 56 years wondering why they were having ‘London vibrations’ with her 🤣

See you next Sunday, I hope 😊