-“God only knows what I’d be without you.”
“God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys is the Greatest Rock Song of all time. This is peak Beach Boys and we hear a lead vocal from Carl Wilson which is tender and loving. The harmonies are fantastic as with most Beach Boys songs. They are simply the best rock band at harmonizing.
The lyrics speak of the narrator’s love for a woman. He struggles to find the words to say how much he loves her. In fact, even in the song, he stumbles a bit. In a typical love song you might not say “I may not always love you”, but that is how the song starts.
He says that though he could go on living without her he doesn’t really know what he would do or how he would do it. So much so that he is invoking the heavens to show his gratitude and hope that the relationship will last. The only thing he can say is “God only knows what I’d be without you.” There is a sweet simplicity to that.
The structure of “God Only Knows” sounds more complex than your average rock song. There are a few rock songs that reach a higher plane of complexity and this is one of them. The three others I have mentioned are Court of the Crimson King, Bohemian Rhapsody and Good Vibrations. This are songs that transcend Rock or Pop and can almost go up against some of the Beethoven’s and Chopin’s. Almost.
The Beach Boys end “God Only Knows” with a unique set of rounds: like in elementary school, how one third of the class would start singing “row row your boat” and then the next third would jump in from the beginning and so on. I don’t know if I have ever heard that on a rock song before. It has a very similar effect as harmonizing does. If you have voices that blend well it can create quite a beautiful effect.
The production and instrumentation is incredible. Note that it is hard to pick out what type of instruments are being used. We are just overloaded with sound. For example, listen to what is going on with the percussion. There are drums toward the end, but what is that throughout the rest of the song? I’ll leave you to guess.
All of this music was written, arranged and produced by Brian Wilson (like all The Beach Boys music). At this point, he no longer toured with the band, he just wrote their albums. I consider him on the same level as Lennon, McCartney, Elton and Dylan.
God Only Knows Lyrics:
I may not always love you.
But long as there are stars above you,
You never need to doubt it,
I’ll make you so sure about it,
God only knows what I’d be without you.
If you should ever leave me,
Though life would still go on, believe me.
The world could show nothing to me.
So what good would living do me?
God only knows what I’d be without you.
God only knows what I’d be without you.
If you should ever leave me,
Though life would still go on, believe me.
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me?
God only knows what I’d be without you.
God only knows what I’d be without you.
Songwriters: Brian Douglas Wilson / Tony Asher