The Sound of a Gentle Word

“Everything in life is vibration.” –Albert Einstein

In 1966, the Beach Boys had one of their biggest hits with “Good Vibrations.”

The song, composed by Brian Wilson with lyrics by Mike Love, was an immediate commercial and critical success, topping the charts in American, England and many other countries.

“Good Vibrations” featured the use of an instrument called an Electro-Theremin that gave off a weird, funky sound. Sales of Electro-Theremins and synthesizers soared after the record came out.

Wilson got the song’s title from his fascination with cosmic vibrations after his mother told him when he was growing up that dogs sometimes bark at people in response to their “bad vibrations.”

Love got his inspiration to write the lyrics from the “Flower Power” movement.

I have a vague memory of watching The Beach Boys perform the song on “The Ed Sullivan Show”—it was on Oct. 13, 1968—that included some rather strange and cheesy camerawork to give off a supposedly psychedelic feeling.

“Good Vibrations” won a Grammy award, made the number six spot on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time", and was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.”

However, despite all the awards and praise, I never really warmed up to this song. I don’t dislike it, but I like many of the other Beach Boys’ hits much more.

Still, I respect its importance in rock and roll history and I recognize that the band was trying to do something more sophisticated than just singing about surfing and drag racing.

And now some 57 years later (ye, gods…) I’ve found a new meaning for the song.

The first week of the new year is in the history books and it was a bruiser. My resolutions about accepting nothing but the best in thoughts, words and deeds were put to one hell of a test.

My neighbors have been overhauling their home for the last several weeks. Every day at about 9 am the building would shudder with the sound of hammers and power saws.

To A Blossom World

But last week they brought in the heavy artillery. I’m not sure what device they were using but it sounded like they were coming through my living room wall. These were some seriously bad vibrations.

I had to wonder what they were building in there. A panic room? A torture chamber? Maybe it was a padded cell, which was I going to be needing awfully soon.

The old anger management skills crumbled under the daily onslaught, and I began my usual cursing and fuming routine.

And somewhere during this awful first week of 2023, I came across a video by some self-help speaker—I forget which one-who condemned the use of affirmations.

I was shocked. I quite literally start my day reading off Joel Osteen’s list of “I Ams…” that came with one of his books and now adorns my medicine cabinet.

Your subconscious mind listens to everything you say, so you should pick your words carefully.

But this woman said it was better to raise your vibrations rather than merely repeating phrases. That sounds great, but what does “raise your vibrations” mean and how the hell do I do it?

Deepak Chopra defines vibration as a “state of being, the atmosphere, or the energetic quality of a person, place, thought, or thing.”

He lists several ways to increase your vibration frequency, including gratitude, love, generosity, meditation, forgiveness and healthy eating.

These are all things I understand, and most of which of I’ve been doing already, at least to some degree. But I like the idea of uniting all these concepts into one theme of overall mental health.

For the last few days, I’ve been playing an Electro-Theremin in my head anytime I got stressed and it has helped. I’m going to add “Good Vibrations” to my mental health soundtrack, along with Frank Sinatra’s “Nothing But The Best.”

I am not calling for the elimination of affirmations, but I see that they do have their limitations. (I’m sorry, I just had to write that.)

Affirmations are like signpost that point you in the right direction. But you have to go deeper to make real progress.

You’ve got to get those good vibrations.