Brian Wilson, 1942-2025
The Beach Boy legend is gone at 82.
Rolling Stone, “Brian Wilson, Beach Boys Co-Founder and Architect of Pop, Dead at 82“
Brian Wilson, who as leader of the Beach Boys and a founder of California rock invented a massively successful pop sound full of harmonies and sunshine, has died at the age of 82.
[…]
Wilson’s legacy includes dozens of hit singles with the Beach Boys, including three Number One singles (“I Get Around,” “Help Me, Rhonda,” and “Good Vibrations”). In the 1960s, the Beach Boys were not only the most successful American band, but they also jockeyed for global preeminence with the Beatles. And on albums such as Pet Sounds, Wilson’s lavish, orchestral production techniques dramatically expanded the sonic palette of rock & roll and showed how the recording studio could be an instrument by itself.
[…]
In 1961, Brian, Dennis, and Carl formed a band with their cousin Mike Love and their friend Al Jardine, managed by Murry Wilson; Brian played bass, took many of the lead vocals, and wrote the songs. Signed to Capitol Records and named the Beach Boys, they started to roll out hits like convertible Thunderbirds coming off an assembly line: “Surfin’ U.S.A.” (with music borrowed from Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen”), “Surfer Girl,” “Be True to Your School,” “Fun, Fun, Fun.” Those Brian Wilson compositions all sounded like insanely catchy jingles for the California teenage lifestyle — surfboards, hamburger stands, pep rallies — but on the flip side of the good times was a real sense of melancholy. Sometimes that was apparent in the lyrics — the lonesome “In My Room,” for example — and sometimes it was expressed nonverbally, with the Beach Boys’ heartbreaking multipart harmonies.
Wilson got more ambitious in his songwriting and experimented with new sounds—like the chunky surf guitar and falsetto lead on “I Get Around.” But he buckled under the stress of touring, having a nervous breakdown on the road in Europe in 1964. He decided that while the other Beach Boys toured the world, he would stay home and work on perfecting new material in the studio: When the band came back to California, they would step in and lay down their tracks. The results included gorgeous singles such as “California Girls” and the immortal 1966 album Pet Sounds.
The album, which regularly ranks at or near the top of the best albums ever made (Rolling Stone named it Number Two in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time), was inspired by the Beatles’ innovative work on Rubber Soul; in return, it inspired the Fab Four to new heights of experimentation on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Paul McCartney frequently cited Pet Sounds as a masterpiece, giving it particular credit for its innovative bass playing, and has called the aching “God Only Knows” his favorite song of all time. The album was orchestrated with instruments that included harpsichords, bicycle bells, and barking dogs. The culmination was “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” with its lyrics yearning for an adult life and love.
The other Beach Boys, particularly Mike Love, were not impressed by Pet Sounds, and Wilson considered releasing it as a solo record; as a Beach Boys album, it was only a middling success in the States, although its influence was huge and it was recognized as an instant classic in the U.K. Wilson followed up with the Beach Boys’ finest single, “Good Vibrations,” three-and-a-half thrilling minutes of electro-theremin and stacks of vocals, recorded over a period of six months in various studios at a cost that was reportedly, at that point, the most expensive single in history.
Wilson returned to the studio with plans to top himself: an album called Smile, which he told friends would be a “teenage symphony to God.” Working with lyricist Van Dyke Parks, he started to assemble an elaborate collection of musical suites, intended to change the face of popular music, but the sessions fell apart, weighed down by the indifference of the other Beach Boys, Wilson’s consumption of pot and LSD, and his growing mental instability. While recording “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow,” a piece of the “Elements” suite about fire, Wilson handed out plastic firemen’s helmets to the orchestra and actually lit a fire in the studio to inspire them. When he found out that a building near the studio had burned down, he thought he had caused the fire through his music, freaked out, and locked the tapes in a vault.
New York Times, “Brian Wilson, Pop Auteur and Leader of the Beach Boys, Dies at 82“
Brian Wilson, who as the leader and chief songwriter of the Beach Boys became rock’s poet laureate of surf-and-sun innocence but also an embodiment of damaged genius through his struggles with mental illness and drugs, has died. He was 82.
[…]
On mid-1960s hits like “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” “California Girls” and “Fun, Fun, Fun,” the Beach Boys created a musical counterpart to the myth of Southern California as paradise — a soundtrack of cheerful harmonies and a boogie beat to accompany a lifestyle of youthful leisure. Cars, sex and rolling waves were the only cares.
That vision, manifested in Mr. Wilson’s crystalline vocal arrangements, helped make the Beach Boys the defining American band of the era. During its clean-cut heyday of 1962 to 1966, the group landed 13 singles in the Top 10. Three of them went to No. 1: “I Get Around,” “Help Me, Rhonda” and “Good Vibrations.”
At the same time, the round-faced, soft-spoken Mr. Wilson — who didn’t surf — became one of pop’s most gifted and idiosyncratic studio auteurs, crafting complex and innovative productions that awed his peers.
“That ear,” Bob Dylan once remarked. “I mean, Jesus, he’s got to will that to the Smithsonian.”
Mr. Wilson’s masterpiece was the 1966 album “Pet Sounds,” a wistful song cycle that he directed in elaborate recording sessions, blending the sound of a rock band with classical instrumentation and oddities like the Electro-Theremin, whose otherworldly whistle Mr. Wilson would use again on “Good Vibrations.”
[…]
Hailed as a master hitmaker while in his early 20s, Mr. Wilson soon showed signs of instability. Some of his behavior, like placing his piano in a giant sandbox inside his Hollywood Hills home, might have seemed the foibles of a coddled celebrity.
But in following up “Pet Sounds,” he stumbled. Over months of sessions for an album he intended to call “Smile,” Mr. Wilson indulged his every eccentricity, no matter how expensive or fruitless, and his growing drug habit fueled paranoia and delusion. Recording a song called “Fire,” he outfitted studio musicians in toy firefighters’ helmets and placed a smoldering bucket in their midst. When he later learned that a nearby building had burned down about the same time as that session, he scrapped the track, spooked by the thought that his studio “witchcraft” was responsible.
Abandoned by Mr. Wilson, “Smile” entered rock lore as a lost document of a brilliant but troubled mind. Mike Love, the Beach Boys vocalist and longtime foil of Mr. Wilson’s, called it “a whole album of Brian’s madness.” It remained unfinished for nearly 40 years.
[…]
After “Good Vibrations” in 1966, the band did not have another No. 1 single until “Kokomo” in 1988, which was made without Mr. Wilson’s involvement.
The Beach Boys’ apex came around the time I was born, and I didn’t discover their music until my junior high days. There are certainly some great songs in their catalog, but the band as a whole ranks well below that of their British contemporaries–the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, and the Who in terms of my tastes.
While the label “genius” is overused, Wilson certainly qualifies. But he seems to have also personified the “mad genius,” suffering severe mental health issues through most of his adult life. No cause of death has been released but he was known to be suffering from dementia.
“Help Me, Rhonda” is my Roman Empire.
Rest in peace, to a legend.
I remember in the 1980s wandering around at a very big party in a loft in Charlestown, Mass. when the sound system played “Surfin’ USA.” I screamed, “Oh, God, I wanna dance!” Immediately some guy reached out of the crowd, grabbed my hand, and pulled me onto the floor. Never knew his name, never saw him before or after. But we danced great. RIP, Brian.
Not that it really matters, but Zeppelin.
Brian Wilson, the consummate “eccentric,” had a large sandbox installed in his home, surrounding his grand piano, so he could have his beach boy toes immersed in sand as he composed music to our delight.
Good Vibrations, still gets me rockin’ everytime, and I am transported to the beach where I first heard it when it hit the airwaves. Magic.
@Connor:
To each his own.
@CSK:
It’s worth mentioning that their compilation double album Endless Summer served up some of their great songs from the early- to mid-1960’s to the public of the mid-1970’s. And it was hugely popular.
So, yes, I distinctly remember some kids of the 70’s liking both the Beach Boys and Led Zeppelin at the same time.
While I understand why Pet Sounds is musicologically and historically significant, my gawd, the songs, eeewwww!
He was the poster child for the dangers of LSD, gifted tunesmith, and a creative force few can rival. RIP, Brian.
@Eusebio:
Oh, I have no objection to Led Zeppelin.
I saw him in concert. He played and sang great, but he was clearly not neurotypical. His music had a sweetness and innocence that was engaging and reminiscent of long, long ago when I was sweet and innocent. We’ll miss Sly Stone too. He got you grooving and stomping; his contribution was also big.
@CSK: So you understood that? Kudos!
Until recently, I was unaware of the extent to which the Beatles’ and the Beach Boys’ work cross-pollinated, but it just goes to show that real genius is not overly possessive.
@Connor:
“…. their British contemporaries–the Beatles, Stones, Zepellin, and the Who in ….”
@CSK:
Yeah, my reply should’ve been directly to Connor. I wanted to acknowledge that despite the Beach Boys’ apex having been a decade earlier, Endless Summer did indeed help to make their music a cultural phenomenon of the mid-70’s, so it wasn’t unusual to hear them and Led Zep playing as we went about our days. A friend of mine at the time went so far as to paint his skateboard with “Endless Summer” in neat hand-painted lettering.
@Connor:
These groups represent different styles of rock music. It’s purely a matter of personal taste whom you prefer, not an occasion for argument. Live and let live.
@CSK: What doesn’t constitute an occasion to argue for Connor? Fortunately, with his newer, more cryptic style, he’s even easier to ignore now.
But not as laugh provoking, so it’s not all upside.
@Connor:
Not that is matters, but “The Doors”.
WTF dude?
Growing up I listened to the Beach Boys, Zepplin, the Stones, Eagles, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Bachman Turner Overdrive, The Carpenters, Carol King, The Spinners, Al Green, The O’Jays, CCR, Black Sabbath, Derek and the Dominos, The Commodores, Stevie Wonder, and too many others to list, including many Latino and African artists of which you’ve never heard, like Vicente Fernandez, Jose Jose, Miriam Makeba, Assagai, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. They were all great, and different.
Why do you insist on shitting in the pool every fucking day?
@EddieInCA:
Are you doing The History of Rock Music in 500 songs?
Brian Wilson is the mirror image of his admirer and fellow musical genius, Paul McCartney. One the tortured genius, and the other the stable and enduring genius.
@EddieInCA: Not to defend the resident troll but I believe Connor was merely correcting the spelling of Zeppelin.
No dispute on the older songs. Have to circle back and check out the more recent ones.
@Jobeth: And it went over like a lead balloon.
@Jobeth: I hadn’t noticed the spelling in the post. Not having student papers to grade has really blunted my edge.
And the degree to which I care.
@CSK:
It was the spelling.
@EddieInCA:
It was the spelling, dumbass.
@Michael Reynolds:
I can do it in 20 songs….
Rock around the Clock – Bill Haley and the Comets
Hound Dog – Elvis
Johnny B Goode – Chuck Berry
Surfing USA – Beach Boys
Respect – Aretha
Hey Jude – Beatles
Superstition – Stevie Wonder
Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
Sweet Child o’ Mine – GNR
Billie Jean – MJ
Living on a Prayer – Bon Jovi
With or Without You – U2
Losing My Religion – REM
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
Seven Nation Army – White Stripes
Single Ladies – Beyonce
Lose Yourself – Eminem
Rolling In the Deep – Adele
Good 4U – Olivia Rodrigo
Lose Control – Teddy Swims
@Connor:
Point stands.
Everyone knew who was being discussed.
Everyone knew about The Beach Boys but I first heard Pet Sounds in the 90s when it was ‘rediscovered’ by the hipsters who told me what to listen to when I was in college. It’s a very strange piece of music. I think I listened to it a lot for some years and then just stopped.
I also don’t think I’ve ever understood Brian Wilson. The logic of what The Beatles and Dylan were up to and how they evolved makes total sense to me, and I get where The Stones or the Velvet Underground were coming from. Brian Wilson though is a cipher. It’s like he tried to do what The Beatles in going from pop to art but he couldn’t pull it off, and not because of talent or vision.
@EddieInCA: Dude, you live in CA (assuming not Canada). Your list did not include any California tunes except Beach Boys. You left out the Dead, the entire Laurel Canyon legacy, the Whiskey AGoGo legacy, and the whole Bay Area scene (beyond the Dead), and desert denizens Zappa and Beefheart deserve mention. 25 songs doesn’t do the task justice. Maybe 500 is a better frame of reference.
@Rob1:
500 wouldn’t even be enough.
Saw The Police (1979), NIrvana, Soundgarden (90’s), at the Whiskey.
Saw The Motels at the Central, now the Viper room (mid 80’s).
Saw Counting Crows at a dive bar in SF before they hit it big (92)
Hung out with Oasis when they used our stages at Ealing Studios to film a music video in 1995.
Was backstage when REO Speedwagon played their last show at the San Diego Sports Arena.(85) A good friend was on their road crew.
Worked with Zappa shortly before he died (92) Cool dude.
Alot more stories, but I’ll stop there.
I’ve led a very fortunate life. And music has been a big part of it.
@EddieInCA:
Maybe a dozen years ago, we encountered him and his entourage on a casino floor in a Vegas. He was very gracious to a group of obnoxious, inebriated fraternity brats who accosted him screaming “El Chente!” and begging for photographs.
This was the same trip that Diana Ross, who, entering an elevator, caught us exiting the elevator drunkenly singing (screaming) her songs. Inspired by her image on posters around the hotel, we’d decided to pregame to The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Isley Brothers etc etc. She laughed at us and asked if we were seeing the show. Good times.
@just nutha: @Modulo Myself: There’s definitely some weird stuff on Pet Sounds, including the material that gives the album its name. But “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “Sloop John B,” and “God Only Knows” are classic Beach Boys.
@EddieInCA: Absolutely. The Beach Boys are well down my list of the great groups of their era, but they still have at least a dozen standards that I enjoy.
@James Joyner: Sloop John B is a great song. The other two are “classic” Beach Boys, and dreck. Both at the same time.
I get that tastes differ, but since you brought it up…
@just nutha: Yeah, they’re of the level of early Beatles hits like “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Catchy enough as pop ditties, but not of the same caliber as their work on Rubber Soul and later albums. Even among American contemporaries, the Doors and CCR hold up better.
@just nutha: @James Joyner: Wow, I had no idea how many eardrums are broken. Masterpieces like “California Girls,” “Fun Fun Fun,” “Good Vibrations,” “I Get Around,” “Don’t Worry Baby,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “Help Me Rhonda,” “Surfin USA,” and “God Only Knows,” Sir Paul’s favorite song ever, are…dreck? Well, some people just hate America I guess lolol. Creedence and The Doors are absolutely fantastic, but they don’t have half as many great songs combined.
(“She Loves You” is trash but “I Want to Hold Your Hand” is obviously golden. Btw.)
@DK: More a fan of Joni Mitchell, Ms Baez, and Al Stewart myself, but whatever rings your bell. I’ve always seen Mr. McCartney as “fill[ing] the world with silly love songs” (nothing wrong with that btw), so his best song evah choice fits, but isn’t mine.
@DK: I don’t think they’re dreck. For the most part, I see the Beach Boys as pop rather than rock, so it’s just a different sensibility.
Just looking at the CCR Greatest Hits album, we have “I Put a Spell on You, “Proud Mary,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Lodi,” “Down on the Corner,” “Fortunate Son,” “Travelin’ Band,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” “Up Around the Bend,” “Run Through the Jungle,” “Lookin’ out My Back Door,” “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” and “Someday Never Comes.” Those are just fantastic songs. Fogerty’s output during that short period was McCartneyesque.