"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. Written by Brian Wilson, Terry Sachen, and Mike Love, the song was inspired by Wilson's experience with the drug LSD and his struggle with ego death. Musically, it is distinguished for its colorful arrangement, unorthodox structure, and bass harmonica solo. The instrumentation also includes guitars, tambourine, tack piano, banjo, clarinets, flutes, electric keyboards, and timpani. Wilson, Love, and Al Jardine trade the lead vocal, for which the melody spans two octaves.
The subject matter was unusual for rock music of the era. Originally titled "Let Go of Your Ego", Love refused to sing the first draft of lyrics, recalling that they had promoted the use of LSD. After voicing his objections, Wilson allowed him to revise the song's message to be about finding meaning within oneself and allowing others to live as they wish, despite having reservations against those who abuse LSD as a form of escapism.
Love was not granted an official writing credit for his contributions to both "I Know There's an Answer" and "Hang On to Your Ego" until 1994. 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. Session highlights were released on the 1993 box set Good Vibrations. Further highlights from the vocal sessions were released on the 2016 box set reissue of Pet Sounds.
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.
Background
Originally conceived as "Let Go of Your Ego", 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. Wilson was inspired to write the song following his experience with the drug LSD (or "acid"). Loren Schwartz, a talent agent who supervised Wilson's first LSD trip, recalled that Wilson had achieved "full-on ego death" through the drug. Explaining Sachen's background, Schwartz wrote that Sachen had met Wilson through Wilson's younger cousins. "Terry ingratiated himself with Brian by supplying him with marijuana, hashish and tempting him with other substances."
LSD first became a widely available street drug in early 1965. Wilson was fascinated by the drug at the time, having had what he called a "religious experience" on the occasion that he used it, but was less enamored with many of the so-called "acid heads". His 2016 memoir, I Am Brian Wilson, stated of the song: "People took [acid] to get away from themselves, but that wasn't the right way to take it. It was supposed to make you go deeper into yourself. I wanted to remind people that they could survive everything best if they remembered who they were."
Having predated Wilson's collaboration with Tony Asher for the Pet Sounds album, it is one of the five (of 13) tracks on the LP that the pair did not write together. Asher recalled, "Brian startled me one afternoon by saying 'Oh listen—I just wrote a song with Terry.' I listened to it and said to myself, 'You mean I'm not writing all the songs for the album?' ... I didn't feel betrayed—I was just surprised."
Controversy and rewrite
The song was rewritten after Mike Love voiced objections to the lyrics. Love stated in a 1993 interview that he found the original lyrics "so totally offensive [and] nauseating" that he refused to sing them. He told Wilson that he was strongly opposed to drugs such as LSD and did not wish for the Beach Boys to be associated with its culture. In his recollection, he was aware of the fact that Wilson had experimented with LSD and knew that the "prevailing drug jargon [suggested] that doses of LSD would shatter your ego, as if that were a positive thing... I wasn't interested in taking acid or getting rid of my ego." He said, "The people that I'd seen indulge in those things exhibited behaviors and mannerisms that left much to be desired."