In his heart, Brian Wilson knew he was not a bass player. He was willing to do it because he knew Carl was already good at the guitar and Denny was only going to be able to handle the drums, and for a rock’n’roll group someone had to, but Brian wasn’t a bassist. But in 1961 it was really feasible for a garage band to bring an organ on-stage. And while they were a number of other more pressing factors that led to Brian quitting the road and choosing to stay at home in L.A. and just produce from the hits, I think people tend overlook the fact that he was saddled with an instrument that didn’t really fit him.

The Beach Boys’s formula was in its own way as incongruous as Dread Zeppelin’s. Four Freshman harmonies on top of Chuck Berry rock’n’roll with lyrics about surfing (or hot rods). But it proved to be very lucrative. And far more open to variation than one would initially surmise. Still it was a formula, and after a couple years – before the public started getting sick of it – Brian was chafing against these restrictions.

With their dad out as manager and Capitol Records seeing continued financial growth from the band, Brian was allowed the latitude to concentrate in the studio. On the road he was replaced briefly by Glen Campbell, and then more permanently by Brian Johnston. Brian was never the purest of rockers. He was far more interested in xylophones, theremins, and bass harmonicas than he was in a ripping lead guitar solo.

While he was never going to find a group of vocalists that would compete with the tight familial blend of the Beach Boys, he was no longer restricted to their limited instrumental prowess. Hal Blaine could do a lot more than his little brother Denny. And Brian was going to explore it.

This middle, pre-Pet Sounds period is interesting. There is certainly a tension between the Beach Boys not wanting to rock the boat and Brian wanting to stretch his creative wings. There’s a lot of compromise between the two. The instrumentals and covers are becoming fewer and less frequent. But they still happen. In fact the biggest drawback during this period’s album is that Brian clearly was thinking in terms of singles and not full albums. There’s all sort of very obvious filler that keep these records from being truly comparable to Pet Sounds.

Even without the time constraints of being out on the road, Brian still had to churn out so much product that he had to rely on stuff like “Cassius” Love vs. “Sonny” Wilson, Our Favorite Recording Sessions, and Bull Session With ‘Big Daddy’ to reach even the short running time of a Beach Boys album. But the singles that he did care about he poured his heart and soul into. When Help Me, Ronda didn’t quite come out the way he wanted it on The Beach Boys Today, he simply re-did it as Help Me, Rhonda on All Summer Long. And it worked! The sales not only continued to improve, but the recordings themselves were growing in sophistication and complexity.

It’s just that Brian figured no one really listened to a whole album anyway. It was all about airplay on the radio and singles in the marketplace. That’s why he could get away with with the whole Ronda/Rhonda thing. But that was about to change when Brian heard his rival’s latest album, Rubber Soul…