We’ve all been there. Sometimes, the world can be a little too much for anyone. We may need to take a step back, get away from at all, and retreat into our own personal safe havens. In our young age, that would often be our rooms – a place where we could take a time-out from whatever was going on. Our rooms gave us time to breath, could provide peace and quiet, a bit of solace, time to think, laugh, long, cry, listen to music, ponder things, and just be ourselves without needing to relate to others or anything else. At least for a short while.
Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys is someone who is famous for needing that solace from time to time. He used to suffer from severe agoraphobia (a type anxiety that involves fearing and avoiding places or situations that might cause panic and feelings of being trapped, helpless or embarrassed), and would at times refuse to leave his bedroom for a significant amount of time. The song he wrote about this really came from the heart.
In My Room is a song about embracing that safe haven, written from the perspective of a teenager who feels safe and comfortable in his bedroom. In the 1998 documentary Endless Harmony, Wilson described this song as about being “somewhere where you could lock out the world, go to a secret little place, think, be, do whatever you have to do.” And that really is all there is to it. No excessive analysis is needed to figure out what this song as about. The words are direct and simple, yet carry a huge emotional punch. They touch on something universal and timeless.
Wilson co-wrote the lyrics with Gary Usher – a well known musician, songwriter and record producer who worked with numerous California acts in the 1960s, including the Byrds, the Peanut Butter Conspiracy, and Dick Dale in addition to the Beach Boys. Usher and Wilson had forged a songwriting partnership early on, including 409, Lonely Sea, and Ten Little Indians (all from 1962).
As 1963 rolled around, they started taking their craft more seriously, as Gary Usher explain in the liner notes on a 1990s compilation: “Brian and I came back to the house one night after playing ‘over-the-line’ [a baseball game]. I played bass and Brian was on organ. The song was written in an hour. It’s Brian’s melody all the way. The sensitivity… the concept meant a lot to him. When we finished, it was late, after our midnight curfew. In fact, Murry [the Wilson brothers’ father] came in a couple of times and wanted me to leave. Anyway, we got Audree [the Wilson brothers’ mother], who was putting her hair up before bed, and we played it for her. She said, “That’s the most beautiful song you’ve ever written.” Murry said, “Not bad, Usher, not bad,” which was the nicest thing he ever said to me.”
There’s a world where I can go and tell my secrets to
In my room, in my room
In this world I lock out all my worries and my fears
In my room, in my room
Do my dreaming and my scheming
Lie awake and pray
Do my crying and my sighing
Laugh at yesterday
Gary Usher further describes that “Brian was always saying that his room was his whole world.” Wilson seconds this opinion: “I had a room, and I thought of it as my kingdom. And I wrote that song, very definitely, that you’re not afraid when you’re in your room. It’s absolutely true.”
The vocal harmonies in this song are exceptional even by The Beach Boys standards. The first verse starts with Brian Wilson’s voice first, then his brother Carl comes in, and finally his brother Dennis. The three of them sing the first verse alone, before Al Jardine and Mike Lowe joins them for the rest of the song.
There is a very touching back story to the three brothers singing it in this manner, as explained by Brian Wilson in 1990: “When Dennis, Carl and I lived in Hawthorne as kids, we all slept in the same room. One night I sang the song Ivory Tower to them and they liked it. Then a couple of weeks later, I proceeded to teach them both how to sing the harmony parts to it. It took them a little while, but they finally learned it. We then sang this song night after night. It brought peace to us. When we recorded In My Room, there was just Dennis, Carl and me on the first verse… and we sounded just like we did in our bedroom all those nights. This story has more meaning than ever since Dennis’ death.”
Now it’s dark and I’m alone
But I won’t be afraid
In my room, in my room
In my room, in my room
In my room, in my room
A fully developed demo of In My Room started appearing in the 1990s amongst the extra tracks on remastered albums and on rarities compilations. It has a number of interesting differences from the album version, including a unique intro that was later scrapped, and full five-part group vocals from the get-go. The tempo is quicker and somewhat uneasy, leading the guitar strumming and overall instrumentation to be less delicate than on the final version. It is interesting to hear the song played and sung with more urgency, but the extra work on vocal arrangements and getting the instrumental tracks just right definitely paid off.
The song was recorded on 16 July 1963, and included on the third Beach Boys album Surfer Girl from the same year. It was also used as the B-side to the Be True To Your School single on 28 October 1963, which peaked at #23 in the US. While the A-side did well enough, a lot of people have scratched their heads about its exalted position over the clearly better song on the B-side. One can only wish that a little more faith had been shown towards In My Room, which was crying out to be given the A-side position. It easily ranks among the most popular and enduring songs the band has ever released, and is still one of the most requested tracks when Brian Wilson and/or The Beach Boys play live. It also frequently ranks high in music polls – like the time it made #212 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The German record label took matters into their own hands. They flipped the sides, making In My Room the A-side. This was the only territory where that happened.
The band must have felt they could capitalise further on the song’s popularity there, as they recorded a German language version of the song. It was given the title Ganz allein, with the lyrics allegedly translated by a former German girlfriend of Mike Love’s. Ultimately, that version was not used. Its first appearance was on the 1983 album Rarities, then as a proper (but very belated) vinyl single in Germany in 1990, and later in the 1990s as a bonus track on the remastered Surfer Girl album.
One of the many who found solace in this song is Steve Perry of Journey fame, who told Rolling Stone: “This was an anthem to my teenage isolation. I just wanted to be left alone in my room, where I could find peace of mind and play music.”
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