This song (the lyrics to which were formerly given in a write up above, now deleted) was recorded by the
Beach Boys for the
Pet Sounds album. Written by
Brian Wilson with lyrical help from Beach Boy
road manager Terry Sachem (although I believe
Tony Asher has claimed he wrote the bulk of the lyric uncredited) the song is clearly one of the first indicators on record of Wilson's mental problems.
However, 'lead singer' Mike Love (who actually had minimal involvement in the album, which he was unimpressed with at the time) objected to the lyrics - he claims now on the ground that they glorified loss of ego, which he sees as a damaging idea. This strikes me at least as bizarre as not only is that exactly the opposite of the meaning of the lyrics as I read them, but also Love is a devotee of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and the practice of Transcendental Meditation is supposed to lead to precisely that result.
Love therefore rewrote the lyrics, changing the chorus to 'I know there's an answer/I know now but I had to find out by myself' and the line 'Now how can I say it ?/How can I come on when I know I`m guilty ?' to 'Now how can I come on/And tell them the way that they live could be better?'
For these changes this song was included in Love's lawsuit against Brian Wilson for co-writer credit, which he now has (see the Tony Asher node for more on this suit). The song was retitled I Know There's An Answer and included on Pet Sounds.
Two versions of this song were recorded, not counting I Know There's An Answer, both with the same instrumental track. The first (available on all single CD versions of Pet Sounds as a bonus track) has Wilson as sole vocalist. The second splits the lead vocals between Love (first line of each verse), Al Jardine (second line) and Wilson (chorus), in the same way that I Know There's An Answer does. This version is available on the Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations box sets and is (in my opinion) the superior version.