Brian Wilson

In his book There’s Only This Year, Hanif Abdurraqib wrote about the reasons Wilson has said that he ended God Only Knows on a fade out loop of the chorus:

When Brian Wilson completed the song "God Only Knows," he spoke of the impulse to fade the song out on a loop of the chorus, suggesting that it creates a sort of infinity spiral. A world where the song is still going on, always, somewhere. And you, the listener, are still in it, as you were at the time of listen-ing. A dream with no exit. There is a universe, always, where you are joyfully encased in the endless return of chorus, and you might age there, but let's say you don't. Let's say you and the chorus both lock into a type of eternity, a forever of wondering God only knows what I'd be without you, an eternity of praising the fact that you'll never have to find out.

Beautiful. And, I hope, true.