How Brian Wilson's music changed the world (and 10 of his best songs)
The former Beach Boy's distinctive sound - sunshine tinged with melancholy - still rings true, writes longtime fan Nik Dirga.
Brian Wilson’s music felt like the sound of America - beautiful, optimistic, full of big dreams and more than a little sad sometimes.
Beach Boys founder and principal songwriter Wilson has died at 82, after a career that changed American pop music and the world.
I was very glad to see Wilson perform his classic album Pet Sounds in Auckland at the Civic in 2016 in what turned out to be his final show in Aotearoa. Then in his early 70s, he was fragile and seemed a bit off in his own reality, but he played those songs and gamely sang along the best he could (of course, the younger band members took those high falsetto notes).
Former Beach Boy Brian Wilson (L) is joined on stage by the members of Wilson Phillips, his daughters Carney Wilson (2nd from L) and Wendy Wilson (R), and Chyna Phillips (2nd from R), during the final song in the Brian Wilson tribute at the Radio City Music Hall in New York 29 March, 2001. Wilson Phillips performed for the first time in 10 years during the tribute.
AFP / Henny Ray Abrams
Related stories:
We loved Wilson, that night, simply for showing up and for all that his music represents. Backed by a crack band, he sat at the piano for most of the show and the audience banter was mostly left to fellow ex-Beach Boy Al Jardine. But for anyone who made it there that night, it was a rare glimpse at genius. A nod and a smile from Wilson felt like the sun breaking through clouds.
I admit, I took a while to warm up to the Beach Boys, who seemed inescapably cheesy when I was growing up in the 1980s, when their only songs you heard were the incredibly catchy and annoying ‘Kokomo’ from Tom Cruise’s movie Cocktail and a painful duet of ‘Wipe Out’ with novelty rap trio The Fat Boys.
But then, something clicked after I listened to The Beach Boys’ landmark 1966 album Pet Sounds several times. Wilson led the group’s transformation from singing about sand, girls and cars to the existential yearning of ‘God Only Knows.’
Brian Wilson, leader and co-founder of the rock band the Beach Boys, performs on the Pet Sounds: The Final Performances Tour at ACL Live on May 13, 2017 in Austin, Texas.
AFP / Suzanne Cordeiro
The charming harmonies of their earlier frothier work were still there, but instead of surfin’ and chicks, Wilson’s gorgeous tunes like ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice,’ ‘Caroline, No’ and ‘I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times’ tapped into some more elemental form of longing. The glossy surface of the best Beach Boys songs hid a world of emotion beneath. Why isn’t life as perfect as we dream it should be, and how do we survive it all?
After Pet Sounds, Wilson became lost in a fog of drug use, collapsing mental health and creative frustration. The Beach Boys long-delayed album Smile became his waterloo, “lost” and never officially released until it finally came out in several versions years later.
Wilson battled mental health problems and the trauma from an abusive childhood in an era where help wasn’t easy to get, where you were just told to toughen up and stop your moaning.
Still, he came back from some incredible lows to perform and write again. He got back up, made it here to Auckland in his 70s and still was able to sing those songs about surf, girls and the inner workings of the heart.
The Beach Boys' 1966 album, Pet Sounds.
wikipedia
The early Beach Boys song ‘In My Room’ is a gorgeous melody, but in those lyrics - “In this world I lock out / All my worries and my fears / In my room” - they summed up how all of us feel on our bad days, and our hopes for a better tomorrow.
The Beach Boys weren’t quite as Godlike as the Beatles, as dangerous as the Rolling Stones or as groovy as Sly and the Family Stone. Yet their music changed the world by selling that quintessential California optimism worldwide - surf culture everywhere, including New Zealand, would never quite be the same. But it was also selling Wilson’s more subtle messages, of working with your mental health and of finding peace in a complicated life.
The 1960s saw American optimism start to crack for the first time, in ways we’re still seeing echoes of today. The Beach Boys were never revolutionary, but the best of their songs told us it was okay to sing about your feelings, to admit you were scared and to look for the beauty where you could find it. “Still, I have the warmth of the sun,” Wilson sang in another one of those songs about a girl who left him. There’s always sunshine somewhere.
Ten of Brian Wilson’s best songs
Once you become a Beach Boys fan, you can get lost in it all. But here are 10 of Brian Wilson’s best songs, classics and less-remembered songs ripe for rediscovery.
In My Room (1963)
The Warmth of the Sun (1964)
God Only Knows (1966)
Wouldn’t It Be Nice? (1966)
Good Vibrations (1967)
Add Some Music To Your Day (1970)
This Whole World (1970)
Surf’s Up (1971)
Love and Mercy (1988)
Summer’s Gone (2012)
