Step by Step

How to Write One of the Greatest Pop Songs of All Time

1. Think about what your contemporaries are doing in their music. Do the opposite.

2. Establish yourself as something of a genius.  Then find someone equally brilliant to be your lyricist.

3. Do some noodling at the piano (Footage originally shot for the amazing 60s special, Inside Pop: The Rock and Roll Revolution with Leonard Bernstein).

4. Take psychedelics. Repeat this step as necessary.

5. Decide you need some really far out horn sounds.  Spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on production.

6. Fight off the forces of evil:

7. Have a bit of a breakdown and hide your end result for years:

Tickets for the Beach Boy’s reunion tour go on sale tomorrow.  Additionally, the whole gang is working on a new album.  (I’m not saying that these are necessarily good things, just that they’re both happening.) 

 Brian Wilson pretends that performing at the Grammys with Mike Love and Foster the People isn't eating away at his soul