Writing
Brian Wilson has explained that the melody of "God Only Knows" was inspired by a John Sebastian song that he had been listening to.
Asher felt confident when writing the song that it would be a big hit. As he explains, "This is the one that I thought would be a hit record because it was so incredibly beautiful. I was concerned that maybe the lyrics weren't up to the same level as the music; how many love songs start off with the line, 'I may not always love you'? I liked that twist, and fought to start the song that way. Working with Brian, I didn't have a whole lot of fighting to do, but I was certainly willing to fight to the end for that. I was probably saying to myself, 'God, I hope I'm right about this,' because you're never quite sure. But I knew that it would work, because by the second part, the real meaning of the song has come out: 'I'll love you till the sun burns out, then I'm gone,' ergo 'I'm gonna love you forever.' I guess that in the end, 'God Only Knows' is the song that most people remember, and love the most."
Wilson "hated the opening line" of the song as "it was too negative." He eventually gave in after hearing the following lines in the song.
Read more about this topic: God Only Knows
Famous quotes containing the word writing:
“Even in writing an annual report, the unconscious plays a role.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“When you are writing before there is an audience anything written is as important as any other thing and you cherish anything and everything that you have written. After the audience begins, naturally they create something that is they create you, and so not everything is so important, something is more important than another thing ...”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“All the critics who could not make their reputations by discovering you are hoping to make them by predicting hopefully your approaching impotence, failure and general drying up of natural juices. Not a one will wish you luck or hope that you will keep on writing unless you have political affiliations in which case these will rally around and speak of you and Homer, Balzac, Zola and Link Steffens.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)