The Beach Boys - Wouldn’t It Be Nice “[Verse] Wouldn't it be nice if we were older? Then we wouldn't have to wait so long And wouldn't it be nice to live together In the kind of world where we belong? [Chorus] You know it's gonna make it that much better When we can say goodnight and stay together [Verse] Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up In the morning when the day is new? After having spent the day together Hold each other close the whole night through [Chorus] But happy times together we've been spending I wish that every kiss was never-ending Oh, wouldn't it be nice? [Bridge] Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray, it might come true (Run, run, we-ooh) Oh, baby, then there wouldn't be a single thing we couldn't do Oh, we could be married (Oh, we could be married) And then we'd be happy (And then we'd be happy) Oh, wouldn't it be nice? [Chorus] You know it seems the more we talk about it It only makes it worse to live without it But let's talk about it But wouldn't it be nice?” In 2006, the National Review ranked Wouldn’t It Be Nice number five in a list of the greatest politically conservative rock songs, describing the song as “pro-abstinence and pro-marriage”, a fact made all the more darkly humorous by the song’s scandalous potential inspiration: Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson’s infatuation with his sister-in-law, Diane Rovell. Tony Asher, Brian’s lyrical collaborator on the 1966 song, and its album Pet Sounds, once recalled: “He'd stop in the middle of writing a song or a conversation or whatever and start going on about Diane, about how innocent, sweet, and beautiful she was. I'd be thinking, 'Huh! Your wife's in the next room, and you're talking about her sister!'" (Carlin, 2006). Moments of naivete like these helped contribute to an image of the late Brian Wilson as a “genius musical mind” but “amateur human being” (Matijas-Mecca, 2017) as his career evolved — and it’s through this lens that I’ll be examining the upbeat “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” in its role as a deceptively happy song, specifically as a tale of forbidden love, toying with the idea of what could be versus what is. The first two lines of the song (“Wouldn’t it be nice if we were older? Then we wouldn’t have to wait so long”) take on a very unique meaning in the established context, with old age symbolizing, in the eyes of the narrator, a time where the social obstacles that make his fantasy impossible are gone. The lyrics reflects a common idea, in which one’s desires in youth would no longer be forbidden in given time, yet the slow unfolding of life’s stages appears as a major obstacle to this change. The next line (“Wouldn’t it be nice to live together in the kind of world where we belong?”) adds to the narrator’s desires by justifying them, to an extent. “Where we belong” is a product of the narrator’s imagination, pushed as the ideal setting where love is not hindered by existing social norms. The line is reminiscent of the star-crossed lovers trope, in that the infatuated narrator views his love as something that would be celebrated elsewhere. While the instrumentation remains upbeat, the narrator’s expression of his unfulfilled desire is sharpened. Even the second verse, which conjures up an image of a loving couple, able to “[spend] the day together”, “wake up in the morning when the day is new” and “hold each other close the whole night through”, is marred by the presence of the title question, which serves as a reminder that this intimate, shared life that the narrator speaks of is an idealized fantasy, not a reality. Yet the clarity in the writing feels almost tactile, as if the narrator is trying to will the romance into reality through detail. It’s the level of detail, though, that can create a serious dilemma for the narrator: while these vivid fantasies can provide a greater sense of comfort, it can also make confronting and accepting reality much more painful. It’s Brian’s tendency towards naïveté that adds immensely to the heartfelt quality of the song. His personal expression is disarmingly earnest and, in spite of the song’s unorthodox origin, is told without a hint of malice. Instead of disguising the source of his attraction and its effects on him, he seems rather incapable of not talking about it. This is a large part as to why Wouldn’t It Be Nice stands out in the pantheon of classic tunes: the narrator’s feelings are expressed in an entirely unblemished and direct way. Yet, with the backstory in mind, the song appears both scandalous and, to an extent, sad in its hope for an impossible scenario. The bridge of the song (“Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray, it might come true… We could be married; And then we’d be happy”) further expresses the narrator’s childlike faith in his belief that he and his love interest can think their fairytale romance into existence. In the context of forbidden love, this reads as pure fantasy, bordering on denial. It’s a wish not just for the fulfillment of his desire, but also for the erasure of the social norms preventing it from happening. From this view, marriage can be seen as both legitimizing, and providing a happy ending for, the narrator’s love. It’s in the final chorus (“You know it seems the more we talk about it; It only makes it worse to live without it; But let's talk about it”) that the narrator shows his awareness of the paradox which guides this song: talking about this unreachable vision only makes experiencing reality more painful, yet in an almost Sisyphean way, it’s also a source of comfort and inspiration for the narrator to keep living. But in spite of the pain he’s experienced because of the paradox, and showing his continued hope for a different future, he concludes by asking once more, “But wouldn’t it be nice?” Wouldn’t It Be Nice is a song that’s been used for a wide range of purposes, each providing their own unique interpretation of the song. Its use in some LGBT rallies (Lambert, 2016) could perhaps be described as more faithful to the idea of longing for a forbidden love, though not entirely accurate to the underlying circumstances that led to the song’s creation. Other mentions of the song, such as the one seen in the opening paragraph, drift further away from the original meaning. The fact that this song has produced a wide range of meanings for different people could be best attributed to the ambiguity in the lyrics. Without context, some of the lyrics could be described as more of a harmless daydream. Maybe they represent teenage impatience for more of the freedoms that adults experience. Perhaps the song, as a whole, could be interpreted more as a lighthearted plea to a nervous love interest. But, as it stands, the song was most likely created with a much more melancholy attitude in mind. Ultimately, the enduring success of Wouldn’t It Be Nice could simply be attributed to there being more than initially meets the ear. Behind the dense arrangements and bright sounding optimism of the narrator lies the issue of impossibility; despite the vivid details, his love is based on imagination, not memories. Viewing the song through the lens of Brian Wilson’s forbidden love, the title question goes from rhetorical to tragic, exacerbating the narrator’s desire for something that will never arrive. The tension between what is and what could be is never resolved, but is instead increased by the narrator’s continued daydreams and hopes. In this way, Wouldn’t It Be Nice captures a universal aspect of the human experience (dreaming about something you can never reach), and expresses it, through music, in a way that’s deeply complex yet incredibly relatable and human. Works Cited Carlin, Peter Ames (2006). Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. Rodale. ISBN 978-1-59486-320-2. Lambert, Philip, ed. (2016). Good Vibrations: Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in Critical Perspective. University of Michigan Press. doi:10.3998/mpub.9275965. ISBN 978-0-472-11995-0. Matijas-Mecca, Christian (2017). The Words and Music of Brian Wilson. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-4408-3899-6. Miller, John J. (May 26, 2006). "Rockin' the Right: The 50 greatest conservative rock songs". National Review.