I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
| "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Song by The Beach Boys from the album Pet Sounds | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Released | May 16, 1966 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Recorded | February 14, March 10–April 13, 1966, Gold Star Studios and CBS Columbia Square, Hollywood | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Length | 3:21 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Label | Capitol | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Producer(s) | Brian Wilson | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Pet Sounds track listing | |||||||||||||||||||||
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"I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher for American rock band the Beach Boys, with lyrics about depression and social alienation. Also produced and sung by Wilson, it appears as the eleventh track on their 1966 album Pet Sounds. The piece is credited for being the first in popular music to feature the Electro-Theremin and the first in rock music to feature a theremin-like instrument. An early work of psychedelic rock with lyrics portraying Wilson's insecurities and perceived shortcomings, the track's accompanying instrumentation includes an almost atonal harpsichord and plucked bass.
The song was written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher. While it is commonly understood that Wilson composed the majority of the music on Pet Sounds, it has been claimed in Steven Gaines' book Heroes and Villains that "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" was one of three songs in which Asher contributed musical ideas rather than acting solely as a co-lyricist; the other two being "Caroline, No" and "That's Not Me".
On the song's meaning, Wilson stated "It's about a guy who was crying out because he thought he was too advanced, and that he'd eventually have to leave people behind. All my friends thought I was crazy to do Pet Sounds." Asher says "In many of the other songs, when Brian would express a feeling, I would say, 'Oh, yes, I've had those feelings,' maybe not in the same way or the same degree, but I understood them. But this one I didn't relate to. It was more trying to interpret what he was feeling than having this joint feeling in our various ways." In reviewer Donald A. Guercio's interpretation: "The lyrics are a first-person chronicle of disillusionment from a narrator who, despite being intelligent, can't find a place where he can comfortably feel like a part of the world." Alternatively, author Charles Granata reads the song as a "plaintive ballad about coming to terms with one's differences". On the relationship between words and music, Guercio elaborates:
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