![]() And though over the years the quality of the Pet Sounds cover has been questioned against the transcendent music inside, the composer has no such issue. I said to myself, I’m going to mow the lawn twice with this album.” He said, ‘When you mow the lawn, mow it twice!’ So that stuck in my mind when I did Pet Sounds. “My dad taught me how to be a perfectionist. “Really?!” asks Wilson when confronted with this news. The goat is one of the 12 zodiac animals, and it represents introversion, creativity, shyness and being a perfectionist. (Capitol Photo Archives) (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)Īt the time, Brian Wilson said he wanted to create “the greatest rock album ever made.” By many accounts he did, thanks, perhaps, to a shared trait. We were focused on the music.” Beach Boys Bruce Johnston, Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and Dennis Wilson (left to right) recording Pet Sounds. “I don’t think we were as fixated or focused on the covers as we could have been. “McCartney literally said, ‘Mike, I think you really ought to take more care with your album covers,’ because what was Pet Sounds? It was a big white goat’s butt on it taken at the San Diego Petting Zoo,” says Love. That was Mike’s way of saying, ‘I don’t understand it, but the dogs do.’” ![]() “‘Brian, you’re making music that only dogs can hear,’ which at the time was meant to be funny because of the amazing harmonies and ideas Brian was coming up with. “And a few minutes later, Mike goes, ‘Why don’t we call this album Pet Sounds?’ you know, because of the dogs. “We put my dogs Banana and Louie-my beagle and my Weimaraner-we put them barking right at the end,” confirms Wilson. The sounds of the pets close the final cut on the album, “Caroline No,” serenading the roar of a passing train. But I guess they may not have heard the material to realize we were really referring to Brian’s two dogs, Louie and Banana.” And of course when they heard the title Pet Sounds they thought we had to go to a zoo and take a picture with a bunch of animals. At that time, we were just young and naive, and if that’s what they want us to do we’ll do it. “And they took us all the way to the San Diego Zoo, not the LA Zoo. “I hated that sucker, it kept getting in my face,” he says. Specifically of a large white goat that Jardine will be forever feeding on the album’s cover. “Driving down Highway 1, cause you take the coast route if you know what you’re doing, you don’t go down the 5, you take the beach route, right? So we cruised by Trestles and Swami’s and all the good places and went to the zoo.”īut for guitarist and singer Al Jardine, that day in the petting zoo still holds dark memories. “Yeah, I remember I drove my new yellow XKE convertible down to the shoot,” recalls frontman Mike Love. But before we get there, let’s stay in that Thursday in 1966. In February of 1966, they were still young and happy and smilin’ and great. We all looked so good, you know, we were so young and happy and smilin’ and great, you know? The iconic cover (Capitol Photo Archives) (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.) “I don’t remember who thought of going to the zoo,” says Brian Wilson, “but when we got there we got some apples and we cut ’em in little pieces and we fed ’em to the goats, and they took a few pictures, and we decided to put that as our cover for Pet Sounds. For on this day, the greatest band in America will meet seven goats in a petting zoo. In Los Angeles, 150 miles to the north, the Beach Boys arise and prepare for a journey. ![]() The air is cool and still over San Diego, and the sky is cloudy. (Capitol Photo Archives) (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.) The Beach Boys take time off from recording Pet Sounds to visit a giraffe. In the decades since, critics and fans have scrutinized and analyzed every aspect of the album’s 13 tracks.īut the record’s genius was hardly represented by its incongruous sleeve art, which features only a snapshot of the band-Mike Love, Al Jardine, and the Wilson brothers, Brian, Carl and Dennis-standing in a San Diego petting zoo. Fifty years ago, the Beach Boys released the milestone album Pet Sounds, a collection of groundbreaking songs that redefined what pop music could be. ![]()
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