I Know There's an Answer
"I Know There's an Answer" (alternately known as "Hang On to Your Ego") is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1966 album Pet Sounds.
The instrumentation also includes guitars, tambourine, tack piano, banjo, clarinets, flutes, electric keyboards, and timpani.
An earlier mix of the song, featuring the group singing the "Hang On to Your Ego" lyric revision, was released as a bonus track on the album's 1990 CD reissue.
Cover versions of "I Know There's an Answer" have been recorded by artists such as Sonic Youth and the Pixies' Frank Black, the latter using the "Hang On to Your Ego" lyric.
Originally conceived as "Let Go of Your Ego",[2] the song was first written by Brian Wilson and Terry Sachen; the latter had been hired as the band's road manager in January 1965.
[8] Wilson was fascinated by the drug at the time, having had what he called a "religious experience" on the occasion that he used it,[9] but was less enamored with many of the so-called "acid heads".
"[10][nb 1] Having predated Wilson's collaboration with Tony Asher for the Pet Sounds album,[12][13] it is one of the five (of 13) tracks on the LP that the pair did not write together.
"[16] Al Jardine recalled that "Brian was very concerned" and asked the rest of the band for their opinions: "To be honest, I don't think we even knew what an ego was ...
At this juncture, the lyrics referenced acid-induced ego death[17] and advised users of LSD to be wary of the drug's effects on the mind.
[28] In the interpretation of author Donald Brackett, the song warned against "losing touch with one reality through effortless chemistry while coming closer to another one through the determined effort of talent", in other words, "don't let your identity be melted away during your search for enlightenment.
Like most songs on Pet Sounds, she believed that Wilson was writing about his frustrations relating "to life and how people think ... musically or intellectually or whatever".
[28] Most of the other lyrics stayed the same,[27] and despite concerns over the song's drug references, the key line "they trip through the day and waste all their thoughts at night" was kept.
[32] According to musicologist Philip Lambert, the revision introduced contradictions: If the message is to "seek answers within", then the song's opening line, "I know so many people who think they can do it alone" (which Mike didn't change), no longer makes sense as an argument to be refuted.
"[37] In Lambert's estimation, "This is one of Wilson's most vibrant instrumental conceptions, featuring organ, tack piano, harpsichord [sic], banjo, guitar, and bass harmonica.
"[38] Session musician Carol Kaye commented, "Brian's putting us all on here with this royal 'blues' start and finally pretty song with its many facets of moods.
[39] Wilson produced the backing track for "I Know There's an Answer" (then slated and logged as "Let Go of Your Ego") on February 9, 1966 at Western Studio.
"[12] Love continued to joke around and distract Jardine, causing Wilson to lose his patience and shout through the studio intercom, "Hey, you guys.
[40] Reviewing the Pet Sounds album upon its release, Record Mirror's Norman Jopling wrote that "'I Know There's An Answer' is a bell-like item and starts off Ronette-ishly.
Rock is supposed to be about, you know, fucking, and Brian Wilson was recording a song ('I Know There's an Answer') that was originally entitled 'Get Rid of Your Libido.'
[sic]"[47] Consequence writer Ben Kaye described "I Know There's an Answer" as an "ode to finding yourself", while praising the harmonies and the song's unique place within the band's catalogue.
[48] In 2015, Mojo ranked it as the 20th-greatest Beach Boy song, describing it as a "fried treatise on how LSD separates the turned-on 'us' from the uptight 'them'.
[40] The Beach Boys Session musicians (later known as "the Wrecking Crew") Technical staff Credited to his moniker Frank Black, Pixies member Charles Thompson recorded a cover version of "Hang On to Your Ego" that was issued as a single from his first solo album, Frank Black (1993).
[51] Pixies biographer John Mendelssohn remarked that Thompson's rendition "could be played in actual discotheques – the kind in which men in tight-fitting shirts with extremely pointed collars try to persuade women with big hair and ankle bracelets to have sex with them – without there being a stampede for the exits!
It was the second music video directed by They Might Be Giants' John Flansburgh and featured cameo appearances from Tony Asher and Charles' younger brother Parker Thompson.
According to a contemporary report, "The video treatment for 'Hang On to Your Ego' juxtaposes the concept of not loving yourself too much against images of people caught in the act of self-loving, says Flansburgh.
The clip combines hi-tech, pop-art effects with a low-tech video portrait inspired by amateur public-access shows.
