I’m pickin’ up good vibrations
She’s giving me excitations.

There are a few songs on this list that seem to transcend the rock genre: The Beach Boys “Good Vibrations” is bigger than labels like “Rock”, “Pop”, or “Folk”. Court of the Crimson King and Funeral for a Friend are two other examples of songs that are closer to symphonies than rock songs.

I mean, who uses a Theremin—and productively? This is Brian Wilson just about at the peak of his powers.

The lyrics in “Good Vibrations” are straightforward. They tell a story about getting a great vibe from a girl–and pursuing her. We know exactly what he’s talking about, and he describes his feelings in a colorful way, because when you are first attracted to someone you start to feel a little different. Maybe even happy. Also notice the experimentation with words like “excitations”…we don’t hear that word often in music. (Is it even a word?)

As with every Beach Boys song the harmonizing is amazing, so I am going to try and not concentrate on that too much. The call and response effect works sounds really good in this song, it is a tried and true technique.

Note the difference between the sounds of the chorus, verse and the two bridges.  They sound great together, but if you look at them individually, they are quite different. This is a feature of psychedelic rock. We usually don’t think Beach Boys when we think psychedelic rock but all the characteristics are here: dreamy or surreal lyrics, experimentation with new instruments and song structure and usually from 1965-70.

Good Vibrations 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.