Brian Wilson, the brains behind the phenomenally successful “sun ‘n’ surf” pop group, The Beach Boys, has passed away from unspecified causes at the age of 82.
Wilson was famous for signing off on all written correspondence and social media posts with ‘love & mercy’ (with an ampersand), which provides some insight into his complex personality. Wilson’s signature was both an expression of hope and a cry for help.
His life was tumultuous by all accounts. He was born Brian Douglas Wilson on 20 June 1942 in Inglewood, California, the first child and eldest son to Audree Neva (nee Korthof) and Murry Wilson, a violent and cruel machinist who was, according to Wilson’s 1991 autobiography Wouldn’t It Be Nice: My Own Story, the father from hell. Wilson had two younger brothers — Dennis (born in 1944) and Carl (born in 1946).
Their father, who fancied himself as a songwriter and musical producer, noticed that his eldest son displayed musical genius at a very young age. He was particularly good at playing by ear. As an infant, the child prodigy reproduced ‘When the Caissons Go Rolling Along’ after only hearing the song once. His father immediately signed him up for intensive accordion lessons and made him sing in the local church choir. His choir director said that Wilson had perfect pitch.
For his 16th birthday, Wilson received a portable two-track tape recorder that allowed him to play with rudimentary sounds and paved his way to the studio brilliance that followed. In addition to being a hitmaker and musician extraordinaire, Wilson was a dab hand in the studio and experimented with far-out sounds that were well ahead of their time.
In 1960, Wilson enrolled in a psychology major at El Camino College in Los Angeles but soon quit because his first entirely original melody, ‘Surfer Girl’, fell on deaf ears. As a result, in 1961, Wilson formed a band called The Beach Boys that comprised his two brothers, Dennis and Carl, a family friend called Al Jardine and their cousin Mike Love.
The Beach Boys had 13 singles in the Billboard Top Ten, three of which were number ones. They also sold more than 100 million albums worldwide. The founding members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
Their first big hit was ‘Surfin’ Safari‘ (1962).
This was quickly followed up with the timeless hits ‘Little Deuce Coupe‘ (1964), ‘Help Me, Rhonda‘ (1964), ‘California Girls‘ (1965) and ‘Barbara Ann‘ (1965).
Wilson was on a winning formula and kept pumping out hit after hit.
Controversially, only one Beach Boy actually surfed and that was Wilson’s younger brother, Dennis.
Wilson said:
“I wasn’t aware those early songs defined California so well until much later in my career. I certainly didn’t set out to do it. I wasn’t into surfing at all. My brother Dennis gave me all the jargon I needed to write the songs. He was the surfer and I was the songwriter.”
Despite his early success as a hitmaker, Wilson suffered from mental illness and had a nervous breakdown in 1964. While this kept him confined to barracks and unable to tour, he nonetheless produced a sublime album called Pet Sounds, which was all killer and no filler. It is one of the most sublime albums ever produced.
In 1966, Wilson outdid himself with a clever and intricate single called ‘Good Vibrations’. It topped the charts in several countries, including the UK and the United States. It was also the closest anyone could get to a perfect single. It was pure dead brilliance.
Meanwhile, Wilson hooked up with a decidedly dodgy “therapist” called Eugene Landy. The less said about him, the better.
In later years, Wilson started to deteriorate and was eventually diagnosed with dementia.
His passing prompted a flood of tributes.
Elton John described Wilson as a ‘musical genius’ and ‘a true giant’.
‘The biggest influence on my songwriting ever,’ John added.
‘The notes he heard in his head and passed to us were simple and brilliant at the same time. I loved him and was privileged to be around this shining light for a little while. How we will continue without Brian Wilson, “God Only Knows”.’
Songwriting extraordinaire Carole King described Wilson as her ‘brother in songwriting’ and said they shared a similar sensibility, as evidenced by the four-over-five chord she used in her song, ‘I’m Into Something Good’, and Wilson used in ‘Good Vibrations’.
King added:
‘We once discussed who used it first and, in the end, we decided it didn’t matter.’
American actor John Cusack, who played Wilson in the 2014 biopic Love & Mercy, said the “maestro” had died and that he was ‘an open heart with two legs and an ear that heard the angels’.
Jenny LeComte is a Canberra-based journalist and freelance writer.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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