All I Wanna Do (Beach Boys song)

"All I Wanna Do" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1970 album Sunflower. Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, the recording's use of layering, reverb and delay effects led it to be retrospectively cited as the earliest example of chillwave[1][2] and a precursor to the shoegazing genre.[2][3][4] It was also influential for many lo-fi acts.[5]

Not to be confused with All I Want to Do (Beach Boys song).
"All I Wanna Do"
Song by the Beach Boys
from the album Sunflower
ReleasedAugust 31, 1970 (1970-08-31)
RecordedMarch 19, 1969
StudioGold Star and Beach Boys Studio, Los Angeles
Genre
Length2:34
LabelBrother/Reprise
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)The Beach Boys
Music video
"All I Wanna Do" on YouTube
Audio sample
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The song was initially attempted for the albums Friends (1968) and 20/20 (1969). Carl Wilson produced the version that appeared on Sunflower, with lead vocals by Love. The arrangement features multiple vocal parts sung in counterpoint, 12-string guitar, Rocksichord, electric sitar, and a Moog synthesizer played by engineer Stephen Desper.

Brian later said that he felt it was "a boring song" that "wasn't done right". The band never performed it in concert, although Love's touring edition of the group did, in 2015. In 2018, an earlier version of the track was released on the compilation I Can Hear Music: The 20/20 Sessions.

Composition

"All I Wanna Do" was written by the band's Brian Wilson and Mike Love. The instrumentation consists of 12-string guitar, Rocksichord, electric sitar, drums, double bass, electric bass, piano, shaker, and Moog synthesizer.[6] According to academic Philip Lambert,

In "All I Wanna Do" the lush backing chorus grows in intensity along with the love expressed in the lyric. By the time the chorus arrives, the depth and complexity of the singer's feelings are captured by an intricate layering of a main tune repeating the song title, a midrange non-texted countermelody in response, a "doot-doot-doot" line reaffirming the mellow beat, and a foundational bass line. It's the next step beyond the elegantly transparent layered endings of "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "God Only Knows" and so many others.[7]

Talking about the song in 1995, Brian expressed: "That was one of those songs that had a nice chord pattern, but I think it was a boring song, and I thought it wasn't done right. I thought it should have been softer, with boxed guitars."[8] In 2000, he called the song "a real nice one".[9] In 2015, Love commented that "All I Wanna Do" was "totally poetic and quite heartfelt".[10]

Recording
Carl Wilson (pictured 1969) produced the song's recording sessions, sang backing vocals, and played the lead guitar line

"All I Wanna Do" was produced by Carl Wilson, likely with assistance from Brian, at various professional studios, including the band's own private studio.[11] On February 24, 1968, an early version of the song was recorded during the Friends sessions. Another version was recorded on May 24 and June 8.[12] One of these versions, which makes use of a sitar-like instrument,[13][14] appears on the 2018 compilation: I Can Hear Music: The 20/20 Sessions.

Another session for the song took place on March 19, 1969, at Gold Star Studios.[15] The final arrangement opted for a guitar line which Mathew Greenwald of AllMusic describes as "Byrds-like".[16] Heavy reverb was applied to the mix.[17] Carl played 12-string guitar, Rocksichord, and electric sitar, while engineer Stephen Desper played Moog synthesizer. The remaining instrumentalist roles were filled in by various session musicians.[6] The vocals were recorded at the band's studio, as overdubs onto the Gold Star track, and feature all six members, with Love handling the lead.[11]

Legacy

In 1970, Jim Miller of Rolling Stone noted production elements made the listening experience "mind-wrenching".[18] Greenwald called the song a lost classic, writing: "Possibly one of the most beautiful and unusual songs and recordings on the Sunflower album... Mike Love deserves high marks for his vocal and lyric contributions, which may be his most tasteful in the scope of the entire Beach Boys canon. Brian Wilson's haunting, minor-key melody and ghostly arrangement is truly bittersweet evidence that he had certainly not lost his artistic grasp."[16] Greenwald afforded accolades to the song's arrangement, citing the effectiveness of the piccolo snare drum and the well-executed harmonies.[16] A 2016 reader's poll conducted by Rolling Stone ranked it the fourth-best Beach Boys song that was not a hit record.[19]

In later years, the song was cited as the origin of the shoegaze and chillwave genres.[2] In his retrospective review of Sunflower, Pitchfork's Hefner Macauley acknowledged the song as a work of "proto-shoegaze" and as a standout track on the album.[3] Katie Cameron of Paste concurred that the song was an "undeniably cool shoegazing precursor".[4] Writing in Record Collector, Jamie Atkins said that the song "ranks among their most subtly influential – makers of ambrosial lo-fi, from Galaxie 500 to Ariel Pink to Panda Bear, owe plenty to its reverb-heavy sound."[5]

The band never performed the song in concert. In 2015, Mike Love's touring version of the Beach Boys briefly began playing the song live for the first time.[19]

Personnel

Credits sourced from Beach Boys archivist Craig Slowinski.[6]

The Beach Boys

Additional musicians and production staff

References
  1. "Song Premiere: The Bright Light Social Hour "All I Wanna Do" (Beach Boys Cover)". Relix. March 14, 2016.
  2. Polinice (November 25, 2013). "Gli Uomini del Capitano: pezzi scritti dai membri secondari di una band". Polinice.
  3. Macauley, Hefner (July 18, 2000). "The Beach Boys: Sunflower/Surf's Up". Pitchfork Media Inc. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
  4. Cameron, Katie (August 8, 2018). "The Eight Best Beach Boys' Albums". Paste.
  5. Atkins, Jamie (July 2018). "Wake The World: The Beach Boys 1967-'73". Record Collector.
  6. Slowinski, Craig (Summer 2020). Beard, David (ed.). "Sunflower: 50 Year Anniversary Special Edition". Endless Summer Quarterly Magazine. Vol. 33 no. 130. Charlotte, North Carolina.
  7. Lambert, Philip (2007-03-19). Inside the Music of Brian Wilson: The Songs, Sounds, and Influences of the Beach Boys' Founding Genius. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 395. ISBN 978-1-4411-0748-0.
  8. Benci, Jacopo (January 1995). "Brian Wilson interview". Record Collector. UK (185).
  9. White, Timothy (2000). Sunflower/Surf's Up (CD Liner). The Beach Boys. Capitol Records.
  10. Sharp, Ken (September 9, 2015). "Mike Love of the Beach Boys: One-On-One (The Interview Part 1)". Rock Cellar Magazine. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
  11. Slowinski, Craig (October 9, 2009). "Re: All I Wanna Do (SFlowr): are there vocals only, and backing tracks?". The backing track was produced by Carl at Gold Star, but the vocals were probably co-produced by Brian and Carl at Brian's home studio.
  12. Doe, Andrew G. "Sessions 1968". Bellagio 10452. Endless Summer Quarterly. Retrieved November 28, 2018.
  13. Chidester, Brian (March 5, 2014). "Brian Wilson's Secret Bedroom Tapes: A Track-by-Track Description". LA Weekly. Archived from the original on 2014-03-07. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  14. Doe, Andrew G. (2018). "GIG68". Archived from the original on November 30, 2018. Retrieved November 28, 2018.
  15. Doe, Andrew G. (2013). "GIG69". Retrieved March 7, 2014.
  16. Greenwald, Matthew. "All I Wanna Do review". AllMusic. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  17. Carlin, Peter Ames (2006). Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. Rodale. ISBN 978-1-59486-320-2.
  18. Miller, Jim (October 1, 1970). "Sunflower; Albums Reviews". Rolling Stone. Retrieved March 7, 2014.
  19. Greene, Andy (July 27, 2016). "Readers' Poll: The 10 Best Beach Boys Deep Cuts". Rolling Stone.
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