Don’t Talk – A Cappella Section

(Brian Wilson – Tony Asher)

Music: Brian Wilson
Arrangement: Brian Wilson

Producer: Brian Wilson
Engineers: Bill Brittan, Ralph Valentin

Personnel:
Brian Wilson – harmony vocals

Recorded to 1″ 8-track:
Circa March 13 to 19, 1966 / Columbia Recording Studios – Studio A

Mixed to 1/4″ mono:
Circa March 13 to 19, 1966 / Columbia Recording Studios – Studio A

Initial Release:
1990 Mono Mix – Pet Sounds 1990 CD Reissue (Capitol Records, 1990)
1996 Stereo Mix – The Pet Sounds Sessions (Capitol Records, 1997)

 

---

Stack-o-Brian

At some point in the history of “Don’t Talk,” Brian worked out a four-part backing vocal arrangement to accompany the verse progression. As noted earlier, it seems quite likely that he once intended for vocal harmonies to appear at the top of the song based on comments from himself and Chuck during the original session. However, the idea was nixed – Brian was careful to remain judicious about overloading a track with information that might diminish the overall mood, even if it involved throwing away hard work. He was a smart producer, and could be quite ruthless about checking his own impulse to add more. 

On an unknown date during that stretch in the middle of March while the Beach Boys were away (circa Sunday 13 to Saturday 19), Brian spent an evening at Columbia tweaking “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “God Only Knows,” and found himself with leftover time in the big studio to experiment. He had the three Rovell sisters, Dennis’ wife Carole, and Ralph Valentin the respectable union engineer take part in a string of dopey comedy routines to get their laughter on tape, purpose unknown (probably just fun); the session’s other engineer Bill Brittan stayed put in the control room recording them get delirious for 15 minutes. Brian then took advantage of the eight-track machine to stack Marilyn, Diane and Barbara singing a psychedelic a cappella round version of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” At the tail end of the session, perhaps realizing in the moment that a double-tracked, four-part vocal piece performed by one singer could all fit onto one strip of the thick inch-wide tape format, Brian decided to record another a cappella experiment alone, metamorphosing into The One Freshman – that being a multitracked production of his “Don’t Talk” harmony arrangement. 

This wasn’t done for the purpose of inclusion over the main song, as it was recorded separately to the existing track at an unrelated tempo and could not be layered on top. In fact, the intention of the recording isn’t entirely clear; if Brian wanted to use it as part of the record, it would only make sense for this to be an introduction module, à la the short, separately-tracked piece that was tagged onto the beginning of “You Still Believe in Me.” This seems like an entirely plausible reason for doing it. On the other hand, it’s the whole progression of the verse, weighing in at a behemoth 18 seconds long, and the chords would more intuitively set up the chorus than they would cycle back around to the start. We also don’t have reason to assume that “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” was meant for the album either. Perhaps alternatively, Brian was just proud of the rejected arrangement that he’d spent time voicing, so he wanted to record the parts anyway to play for himself and for others with no higher mission in mind. 

After explaining what he wanted to do, Brian went out into the large Studio A as Brittan and Valentin armed track 8 on the tape machine. “I’m all set,” Brian calls out to the control room after quietly rehearsing, and counts himself in. Starting with the highest part (a falling, mostly chromatic line starting at a Bb4), Brian’s voice wobbles while holding the final note. “Do it again,” Bill tells him. 

The next take goes better, and Brian asks to double it immediately after: “Okay, let’s overdub that voice.” Onto track 5, he doubled it in one attempt. “Okay!” Brian calls back. 

The second highest part was added next onto track 2. Even without the context of the other harmonies, one can already tell how special these chords are going to be. The voices never all move at the same time, demonstrating Brian’s “geometric” philosophy to writing changes, and a sweet dissonance is created when the notes rub against each other in close intervals, at one point only a minor second apart. “Let’s overdub that.” The second part was doubled onto track 4, again in a single pass. “Next. Next two,” Brian signals to the booth. 

The third part was then overdubbed to track 1 and doubled on track 3, perhaps the hardest of the four to remember, featuring the weirdest jumps. It’s these middle parts that handle most of the melodic busywork, as they take turns to weave chromatically through passing eighth notes. Finally, the low bass voice was overdubbed and doubled on tracks 6 and 7, landing right down near the bottom of Brian’s vocal range at an Ab2 (taking him across more than two octaves from the first harmony to the last).  

In just a few minutes, all eight tracks of the tape had been filled, and Brian had Bill mix the “Don’t Talk” piece to mono, opting for a completely dry sound plus some additional limiting. The fragment was leadered with its count-in removed and then likely dubbed to a lacquer disc. [Note: This vintage mono mix has not been released at the time of writing. A 1987 mono remix of the recording first appeared as a bonus track on the first Japanese CD release of Pet Sounds in 1988, then later on the worldwide 1990 CD release, and a stereo mix was created in 1996 for Capitol’s The Pet Sounds Sessions boxset released in 1997, both featuring Brian’s false start.] 

It might be because of the apparent stalemate between the song’s composer and the song’s name that no real title was slated or written down for this thing. Later, on the track sheet for “Here Today,” an engineer (probably Bill) noted that its place on the reel was “preceded by Row and Wild Tracks Bryan.” 

Needless to say, Brian didn’t splice his a cappella creation onto the final “Don’t Talk,” or anywhere on the album, but he was apparently later playing it to people to impress them (deservedly so). Carol Kaye recalled that, “During Pet Sounds, one time, Brian played this multitrack a cappella voice track he had done – it was all him. As we listened to it, our mouths dropped. Barney Kessel, who was a great kidder (and a great jazz legend), said ‘I take back everything I ever thought about you.’ When Brian realized it was a joke, he laughed.” This would by elimination have to be during a session on April 9 for “Good Vibrations” – Barney Kessel wasn’t there, but she could’ve misremembered him for somebody else. The Beach Boys had done something similar back in 1963, when they recorded “The Lord’s Prayer” and excitedly premiered it to an audience of studio musicians later in the night. 

 

---

 

 

---

Sources

Based on original research by John Brode, Will Crerar, Joshilyn Hoisington and Craig Slowinski.

Tapes and associated documentation from Brother Records, Capitol Records, and private collection.

Carol Kaye, Sid Sharp – interview conducted by David Leaf, appear in “The Making of Pet Sounds,” The Pet Sounds Sessions, Capitol Records, 1997. 

Andrew Doe, www.bellagio10452.com.

Ian Rusten, www.beachboysgigs.com.