Tom Dowd and Song Deconstruction: "Good Vibrations"

Tom Dowd was an American recording engineer and producer for Atlantic Records. He is most well-known for revolutionizing the multi-track recording method, which is the recording of multiple sounds to create a new sound. He worked on a virtual “who’s who” of recordings that encompassed music records from a variety of different genres.

He worked as an engineer and producer for Atlantic Records from the 1940s until the beginning of the 21^st century. His first well-known hit was a song by Eileen Barton called “If I Knew You Were Comin’ I’d’ve Baked a Cake.” Shortly afterwards, he became a top recording engineer and recorded popular artists such as Ray Charles, The Drifters, The Coasters, Ruth Brown, Bobby Darin, and more.

The following song that I deconstructed was "Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys:

1.) The song starts off with a duet between a stringed instrument and a male voice.

2.) They melody picks up as it is soon joined by more instruments, including some drums and a tambourine.

3.) As the melody continues, the chorus starts to sing in a low-pitched voice and says “I’m picking up good vibrations, she’s giving me excitations” a few times. The chorus is later joined by more male voices that sing, which is later joined by males singing in a higher pitch. As the chorus goes on, an echo effect is added.

4.) After the chorus, it is just the lone voice again with a few instruments.

5.) More instruments are added, and it goes back to the chorus (see number 3).

6.)Shortly after the second chorus, there are less instruments and the male singers hum. After a few seconds, they start to sing again.

7.) After some time later however, the tempo slows down a lot. The song now has a calming effect instead of an upbeat tone. The voices fade out and only instruments are playing. After a solo, the voices come back and start to sing in an upbeat tone again.

8.) The song then fades out with the singers humming and instruments playing in an upbeat tone.