Our Prayer

{{about||the album by the Chris McGregor Trio|Our Prayer (album)}}

{{Infobox song

| name = Our Prayer

| type = Hymn

| artist = the Beach Boys

| album = 20/20

| released = February 10, 1969

| recorded = September 19, 1966 {{snd}} November 17, 1968

| studio = Columbia and Capitol, Hollywood

| genre = Hymn

| length = 1:07

| label = Capitol

| composer = Brian Wilson

| lyricist =

| producer = The Beach Boys

| misc = {{External music video|type=song|header=Licensed audio|{{YouTube|X76ejh4EIV4|"Our Prayer"}}}}

}}

"Our Prayer" is a wordless hymn by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1969 album 20/20 and their never-finished Smile project.{{sfn|Lambert|2007|p=47}} Composed by Brian Wilson, it was originally planned to be the introductory track on Smile. He later rerecorded the piece for his 2004 version of Smile in medley with the 1953 doo-wop standard "Gee".

Background and recording

{{Quote box

|quote = I was sitting at my piano thinkin' about holy music. I poked around for some simple but moving chords. Later I sat down and wrote 'Our Prayer' in sections. ... I was definitely into rock church music.

|source =—Brian Wilson, writing in the liner notes of the 1990 reissue of Friends and 20/20{{cite AV media notes| title = Friends / 20/20 | others= The Beach Boys| year = 1990| first = David| last = Leaf|author-link=David Leaf|publisher=Capitol Records|type=CD Liner|url=http://albumlinernotes.com/Friends___20_20.html}}

|width = 25%

|align =

}}

"Our Prayer" is a wordless, a cappella piece that Wilson originally composed for the band's Smile album.{{sfn|Badman|2004|p=147}} The title may be a reference to the 1939 traditional pop standard "My Prayer".{{citation needed|date=November 2020}} It was originally simply titled "Prayer".{{sfn|Badman|2004|p=147}}

"Prayer" was tracked during the Smile sessions on September 19 and October 4, 1966, at Columbia Studio. Wilson later wrote, "The boys were overtaken by the arrangement. I taught it to them in sections, the way I usually do." On the session tape, Wilson announces, "This is intro to the album, take one." Al Jardine is heard remarking to Wilson that the piece could be considered its own track, but Wilson rejects the suggestion.{{sfn|Carlin|2006|p=112}} This information makes "Prayer" the only part of Smile that is known to have had a definitive placement on the album.{{cite web|last=Howard |first=Ed |title=Smile: The Definitive Lost Album |url=http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=59 |work=Stylus |publisher=stylusmagazine.com |date=July 28, 2003 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510110322/http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=59 |archive-date=May 10, 2012 }} At another point in the session, Wilson asks for a hash joint and remarks, "Do you guys feel any acid yet?"

After Smile was scrapped, the track was revisited for inclusion on the 1969 album 20/20 and renamed "Our Prayer". Additional vocals were overdubbed onto the original recording by Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, and Bruce Johnston on November 17, 1968, at Capitol Studios.{{sfn|Badman|2004|p=231}}

Composition

Music journalist Paul Williams wrote,

{{quotation|It's a wonderful wordless beginning for a record that for the most part uses words the same way it uses strings and keyboards—for their sounds. This is in sharp contrast to Pet Sounds where most of the songs have titles and lyrics that evoke specific situations and feelings. Smile's radicalism begins with and centers around the fact that it is abstract, whereas all previous Beach Boys records and most rock-and-roll songs are concrete in their imagery. They have words, and those words generally tell a story.{{sfn|Williams|2010|p=84}}}}

Musicologists John Covach and Graeme M. Boone wrote: "An exquisite exercise of harmonic virtuousity, 'Our Prayer' allowed the Beach Boys once again to show off their vocal abilities and stylistic influences earlier demonstrated on such songs as 'Their Hearts Were Full of Spring'."{{sfn|Boone|1997|p=51}} Philip Lambert described the piece as "every technique of chromatic harmony [Wilson] had ever heard or imagined."{{sfn|Lambert|2016|p=90}}

Personnel

Per band archivist Craig Slowinski.{{cite AV media notes| title = The Smile Sessions | others= The Beach Boys| year = 2011|publisher=Capitol Records|type=deluxe box set booklet}}

The Beach Boys

Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, Mike Love, Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson – vocals

Cover versions

2001 – "An All-Star Tribute to Brian Wilson"
2011 – Salyu, s(o)un(d)beams+ (as "Our Prayer ~ Heroes and Villains")

Samples

2013 – Odesza, "Keep Her Close", My Friends Never Die{{citation needed|date=November 2015}}

In popular culture

The opening track "Mic Check" from Cornelius' 1997 album Fantasma is a reference to "Our Prayer".{{cite book|last=Roberts|first=Martin|title=Cornelius's Fantasma|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-5IyEAAAQBAJ|year=2019|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|isbn=978-1-5013-3017-9}}
The song plays over the credits of the third episode of Our Flag Means Death.

References

Citations

Bibliography

{{cite book|last=Badman|first=Keith|title=The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America's Greatest Band, on Stage and in the Studio|url=https://archive.org/details/beachboysdefinit0000badm|url-access=registration|year=2004|publisher=Backbeat Books|isbn=978-0-87930-818-6}}
{{Citation|last=Boone|first=edited by John Covach & Graeme M.|title=Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis|year=1997|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=0195100050|edition=[Online-Ausg.]}}
{{cite book |first=Peter Ames |last=Carlin |author-link=Peter Ames Carlin |title=Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eYyovo_AbqAC |year=2006 |publisher=Rodale |isbn=978-1-59486-320-2 }}
{{cite book|last=Lambert|first=Philip|title=Inside the Music of Brian Wilson: the Songs, Sounds, and Influences of the Beach Boys' Founding Genius|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7XsZAQAAIAAJ|year=2007|publisher=Continuum|isbn=978-0-8264-1876-0}}
{{cite book|editor-last=Lambert|editor-first=Philip|title=Good Vibrations: Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in Critical Perspective|url=https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/nv935376j|year=2016|publisher=University of Michigan Press|doi=10.3998/mpub.9275965 |isbn=978-0-472-11995-0}}
{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Paul|title=Back to the Miracle Factory|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=COfUbzOvmmkC|access-date=8 August 2013|year=2010|publisher=Tom Doherty Associates|isbn=978-1-4299-8243-6}}