So influential.
No Beach Boys->no Pet Sounds -> no Sgt Pepper?-->then what?
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I remember a long time ago there was a tune I had heard that I thought was kind of catchy (but not catchy enough that I knew the title of it or was inspired to buy the CD) with a corus that went "[. . .] I’m just lying in bed like Brian Wilson did [. . .]", anyway, many years later (probably ’06) I was listening to NPR and they were talking about Brian Wilson and I learned the song was Brian Wilson by Barenaked Ladies. On the program I was listening to they were talking about Brian Wilson’s battle with depression and all the time he spent in bed (like a year?); at the time I heard that on NPR I had just seen my career as an overpaid underworked lazy union airline mechanic going down the drain and I was finding nursing school to actually be Hell School . . . at that time I felt that a year in bed sounded pretty good. Later on (like 2014) I was going through a funk and working two back to back 16 hour 3p to 7a shifts on weekends (sat afternoon into sun morning & then sun afternoon into mon morning) and when I got home Monday morning it seemed like I was almost sleeping from when I got off work Monday morning until I went back Saturday afternoon. At that point I became more interested in depression and its effect on sleep habits and Brian Wilson. So then I ordered two books--the first one I read was BRIAN WILSON WOULDN’T IT BE NICE My Own Story WITH TODD GOLD, and if anyone is interested in reading about Brian Wilson, my advice is do not waste your time with that one. The second one I read was Catch A Wave The Rise, The Fall & Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson by Peter Ames Carlin (which turned out to be decently written and an interesting read). But what I also learned in the second book was that the first book was NOT written in Brrian Wilson’s own words, but in Eugene Landy’s words, and according to Catch A Wave, Landy was a psychologist who basically manipulated Wilson for a few years. Anyway, I found Catch A Wave to be interesting and a much better read than WOULDN’T IT BE NICE, and if you are looking for something to read about Brian Wilson, I would recommend that one. |
I have been anticipating this for a while. Brian is now finally resting in peace. The Beach Boys were the first live concert I attended, at The San Jose Civic Auditorium in the Summer of 1964. I spent that summer listening to their All Summer Long album every day. A year later they had been relegated to the Oldies category, no longer culturally relevant (along with many other early-60’s musical acts). I didn’t bother listening to their Today! and Summer Days (And Summer Nights!) albums, or the now-legendary Pet Sounds. Pet Sounds was followed by an album entitled Smiley Smile, which contained their hit single "Good Vibrations". Suddenly the BB were cool again, so I gave SS a listen. WTF?! Nothing could have prepared me for how odd (in a good way) the album was (is), and I became obsessed with it. To find out why, read the chapter on the making of the album in a Outlaw Blues, a great book written by Paul Williams (not the songwriter/singer). I played the album for the guitarist in my High School garage band, and he was as impressed as I with what he heard. Smiley Smile became for us a litmus test of other musicians. If you got it, you were "in". We of course got Van Dyke Parks’ (Brian’s collaborator on what was going to be the Smile album) Song Cycle album, which had been released in November of 67. Double WTF! Song Cycle is still quite capable of blowing your mind.
Now follows a personal story, one some of you (one of you at a minimum) may want to skip. You’ve been warned! Years passed, and that High School guitarist (now also a pianist) and I were recording his songs (he majored in music at San Jose State College and then the University of California at Riverside) in a little studio we built in his garage. I was engineering, with a pair of small capsule condenser mics, and Revox 2-trk. and Teac 4-trk. recorders. By the Summer of ’75 we had a demo tape done, and the songwriter suggested we fly to Los Angeles and submit the tape to a few record companies. And while we were at it, go to Brian’s Spanish-style mansion in Bel-Air (we knew what it looked like from the pictures of it on the Sunflower album cover) and deliver a copy to him. The songwriter wanted to have Brian produce us in a pro studio. How naive was that?! We arrived at Brian’s house on Bellagio Road, and walked up to the wrought iron gate that was in the middle of the stucco wall in front of the house. I rang the buzzer, and a voice that I assumed was Brian’s wife Marilyn (I was familiar with it, having a copy of The Honey’s album) asked "Yes?" I introduced us, and asked if Brian was home. Duh. Did we really think she was going to invite us in?! She responded "Yes he is. What do you want?" I told her, and she said to leave the tape at the gate. I did, and we drove back down to Sunset Blvd., contemplating what had just transpired. Not comfortable with having left our tape out in the elements (there was a gardening crew working in the property), we went back up to the house. The tape was nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t until the following year that Brian’s condition was revealed to the world. We of course never heard back from him, and the songwriter/pianist informed me he had decided to not pursue a professional career in music. I still have the tapes (and the Revox), which contain some wonderful music. The songwriter passed away in his sleep in early 2009, a heart attack at age 56.
Okay, now to the important part of my post. After having heard Pet Sounds, I of course went back and listened to the Today!, Summer Days, and Pet Sounds albums. On Pet Sounds I heard a song I now consider one of the (if not THE) greatest ever written: "God Only Knows". The song is a master class in composition, and for those interested enough as to why that is so, the video below explains it all.
https://youtu.be/PjPN9zRUrgI?si=IXBsgx0oYei7MSC9
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Love Brian Wilson RIP, I watched a live performance where he said he was the first to use God in the title of a Pop Song, AI The Beach Boys’ "God Only Knows" was one of the first pop songs to use the word "God" in the title. Brian Wilson and Tony Asher co-wrote the song, and they debated whether to include the word "God" in the title, which was considered unconventional and potentially controversial at the time. Wilson initially worried about radio stations refusing to play the song due to the title, but Asher convinced him that it was a spiritual and ground-breaking choice. The song was released as the B-side to "Wouldn’t It Be Nice" in 1966 |
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While I think Brian wilson was super smart and talented and gave alot to society and brought many talented people together, I can't help think influence by Manson and heavy drugs led to his mental depression. I have seen patients self medicated with mental disease. The movie a beautiful mind is a fantastic look into that world with some brilliant people with mental disease.. he will be missed.i have almost all of his music and have followed alot of his interviews. He simply could visualize music in his mind and bring it out. He has my respect for the legacy he has left and is now at rest. Enjoy the music. |
@mark200mph: It was actually Dennis Wilson who was "influenced" by Manson. In 1968 Dennis picked up a couple of chicks who were hitch-hiking on Sunset Blvd., taking them back to his rented house on Sunset. The girls were members of Charlie Manson’s commune in the desert, and they returned to the commune and told Charlie about Dennis’ house. In short order Manson and many of his followers took over the house, and Dennis soon moved out. Before he did he bought from Charlie his song "Cease To Exist", changing many of the lyrics and renaming the song "Never Learn Not To Love". The Beach Boys’ recording of the song may be found on their 20/20 album.
Another Beach Boys story, again a personal one. If that doesn’t bother you, read on: Before The Viper Room was The Viper Room, it was a club named Blackie’s. There was a second Blackie’s, this one in Marina del Rey, located near the harbor where many SoCal boat owners moored their sailboats. One such sailboat owner was Dennis Wilson, who was living on his. On one night in the Summer of 1982 my then-current band was playing the Marina del Rey Blackie’s, and a bandmate of mine (who knew of my love of Brian Wilson) told me there was a guy sitting at a table whom I might want to talk to. It was Dennis, drinking alone. I had a nice little chat with him, telling me of my having seen The Beach Boys live in 1964, and about my fondness of his 1977 solo album. Dennis didn’t live much longer, drowning in 1983.
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When I first read this, @bdp24 , I actually thought of Charles Manson/Dennis Wilson/Terry Melcher/and the song Manson sold to The Beach Boys. But I am not comparing you to Charles Manson, it’s just what it made me think of. |
Very interesting sounds like you were around back then.what an opertunity to discus music with one of the greats and thanks for the first hand info. That's what's great about this forum there are people with talent on here that have done many things in thier life and are willing to share.enjoy the history. |
Brian Wilson and Sly Stone. Different musical genres (obviously) but a lot in common: Their songwriting and musical styles created new paths in music that basically did not exist beforehand; their (Top 40) popularity was only a few years each - but their influence on fellow songwriters and musicians spanned decades. 2 musical giants; 2 troubled geniuses. 2 musical legacies that will live on. RIP to them both. |
What a loss. Knew Brian a bit.His oldest daughter Carnie and my Daughter went to school together in Sherman Oaks , Ca. and were in the Brownies together then Girl Scouts. He lived up at the top of the hill off Mulholland Drive at the time and we lived down on the flats. He picked Carnie up I recall twice at our house and I was at his place couple of times. He was very cordial and just a regular guy. That was around 1973-1976. Twenty years later I was a service advisor at Martin Cadillac in W.L.A; and took care of his Cadillac for him. At first he didn't recognize me then it came to him. He hung around quite a bit after that because he started dating a sales gal there named Linda Ledbetter who he later married about 1995. He was the same cool dude. I always treated guys like him just like regular people which is what they wanted. I never told him that I thought he was the greatest voice that ever lived and I loved the Beach Boy's music. I you want a great album it's The Beach Boys Classics selected by Brian Wilson. The two copies I have are both HDCD's and a very good recording for a redbook. It is relatively unknown but if they ever make a SACD of it , I'll be first in line. I remember the first time I heard Surfer Girl , I was dating one at the time and almost flipped. What a beautiful young woman she was , hope she has had as good a life as mine. R.I.P. Brian as you cross the rainbow bridge. |
Good Vibrations was a timeless masterpiece. I often use it as an audio reference track. A Wall of Sound indeed. |
@zx10 do you realized you were practically in the movie ? That is wild... Love & Mercy (2014) |
I watched a lot of interviews with him. He was such a nerd, socially awkward, yet cocky, stubborn like a little kid but talented and focused and down to earth. Probably no one appreciated him more than his contemporaries, other world class musicians. The regular audience just thought it was easy what he did, they knew it required a genius. |
