Не Говори (Положи Голову Мне На Плечо) - Песня The Beach Boys

1966 song by the Beach Boys
the Paul Anka song

"Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1966 album Pet Sounds. Written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher, it is a ballad about nonverbal communication between lovers. Musically, the song is distinguished for its chromaticism, the use of a string sextet, and its key ambiguity. It is among the most harmonically complex songs that Wilson ever composed. Wilson sang lead and produced the track in early 1966 with the aid of 14 session musicians who variously played guitars, vibraphone, timpani, organ, piano, upright bass, a ride cymbal, and strings. It is one of three tracks on Pet Sounds where he is the only Beach Boy featured. Acts who have covered the song include Linda Ronstadt, Fennesz, Anne Sofie von Otter with Elvis Costello, and Jeff Beck with Johnny Depp.

"Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" was written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher about nonverbal communication between lovers. In the lyrics, the narrator observes of his lover, "I can hear so much in your sighs / and I can see so much in your eyes / There are words we both can say / But don't talk, put your head on my shoulder". The narrator is generally celebratory of the time that the couple are spending together, although the line "let's not think about tomorrow" implies that he is also feeling a sense of desperation. According to Asher, "It's strange to sit down and write a song about not talking but we managed to do it and it came off well." Wilson thought that "Don't Talk" had an overall mood similar to his 1963 song "Lonely Sea", explaining, "It's a different setting, but the emotion is the same." His then wife Marilyn opined that the lyrics demonstrated Wilson at his most "romantic", and that "[o]ther people would have thought [the message] was sissyish, but he was very romantic, and that was just coming from two people just being close." In reference to the line "Listen to my heartbeat", Brian reflected, "I felt very deeply about that line. One of the sweetest songs I ever sang. I have to say I'm proud of it. The innocence of youth in my voice, of being young and childlike. I think that's what people liked." Music journalist Geoffrey Himes describes the song as a "ballad that featured Brian singing in a devotional high tenor about the romantic moment when words fail." Moreover, he writes, "A string [sextet] played the minor seventh chords at close intervals, while the tympani boomed and a fat toned electric bass drifted from the expected root note to create harmonic tensions within the lush sound." Prior to "Don't Talk", Wilson had rarely used string sections in his work. In this song, he augmented the basic track with an overdubbed string sextet (four violins, one viola, and a cello) in pursuit of a "dark, expressive" effect that Granata compares to "the sound favored by Johannes Brahms". Record producer Phil Ramone said of this song, "Though [Brian] might not have studied Brahms or Ravel, he heard them in his head. That is evident in these chords, and the way they were voiced. It was unusual for pop music at that time." Violinist Nancy Ciminnisi commented,

Wilson recorded a piano demo of "Don't Talk" in late 1965. Lambert identified several differences between the final composition; the piano rendition is "faster, more rhythmic, less contemplative [and] has some additional bars between phrases different chord changes, in spots, and includes only the verses, with no hint of the 'listen' section at the end." He also noted similarities with the opening of Jan and Dean's 1964 hit "Dead Man's Curve", a song that Wilson had co authored. The tape of Wilson's demo was lost and later rediscovered in the 1990s; it was then included on the 1997 box set The Pet Sounds Sessions. On October 13, 1965, the same day Wilson produced the backing track of "The Little Girl I Once Knew", he recorded an eight part a cappella version of "Don't Talk" at Western Studios that was ultimately discarded. Two days later, on October 15, he recorded renditions of the standards "Stella by Starlight" and "How Deep Is the Ocean?" with orchestral arrangements by Dick Reynolds. Biographer Mark Dillon surmised that these recordings were experimental exercises in recording orchestras, and that Wilson "felt the need to hone his chops in that area" before recording "Don't Talk". Weeks after he had begun writing with Asher, on February 11, 1966, Wilson recorded the basic track and vocal at Western Studios with assistance from eight session musicians, including drummer Hal Blaine, guitarists Glen Campbell and Billy Strange, percussionist Frank Capp, pianist Steve Douglas, and bassists Carol Kaye and Lyle Ritz. Reviewing the song for AllMusic, Jim Esch praised "Don't Talk" as among "Brian Wilson's lushest romantic compositions" and "a hymn to love's tactile sensibility a gorgeous love song by any standard, and a triumph of Wilson's mature arranging powers." Asher remembered that he was "literally speechless" when he heard the completed track. He reflected, "I always thought this song was one hell of an example of Brian's musical sophistication I never realized that Brian had that kind of talent for serious arranging before I heard this recording." Bruce Johnston said, "I think I was in awe of the string arrangement, how so few strings could do so much. He had very small, 'baby' orchestras. He made everything sound like you could set it up in your living room and stand in the middle. And maybe add some echo later. He absolutely under produced his sweetening."

Musician Elvis Costello commented, "I heard 'Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)' played on the cello. It sounded beautiful and sad, just as it does on Pet Sounds. So now you know, if all the record players in the world get broken tomorrow, these songs could be heard a hundred years from now." Cibo Matto's Yuka Honda commented, "Brian Wilson’s chord progressions tell the most heartbreaking yet beautiful and silently intense story of the duality of life, all from a place of hope. The six bar intro of 'Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)' is worth a thousand books. I consider it to be one of the greatest chord changes ever written."