"Brian was at the piano. I asked him if I could sit down & show him something. I laid out the chord pattern for
#SloopJohnB. I said, "Remember this song?" I played it. He said, "I'm not a big fan of the Kingston Trio." He wasn't into folk music. But I didn't give up on the idea.
So what I did was to sit down and play it for him in the Beach Boys idiom. I figured if I gave it to him in the right light, he might end up believing in it. So I modified the chord changes so it would be a little more interesting.
The original song is basically a three-chord song, and I knew that wouldn't fly. So I put some minor changes in there, and it stretched out the possibilities from a vocal point of view. Anyway, I played it, walked away from the piano and we went back to work.
The very next day, I got a phone call to come down to the studio. Brian played the song for me, and I was blown away. The idea stage to the completed track took less than 24 hours."
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@ALANJARDINE