The legend of Brian Wilson – and perhaps what might have been
Another in my series referencing music and musicians – mostly from eras that Rusters generally will be familiar with and/or recall with affection – with assistance from videos or other items that I’ve found online since the Covid-19 crisis hit the world.
It could be argued that the culture of rock music revels in ‘living in the moment’, not holding back, rebellion, outrageous behaviour, ‘attitude’ (of whatever nature), hedonism, drugs, excess, damaged genius, eccentricity and success against the odds.
It’s why musicians such as Keith Richard become icons. His ‘outlaw’ reputation affords him semi-national treasure status alongside our acting Dames – to a degree it is as if we admiring senior citizens are celebrating the fact that as long as “Keef” is still living the rock & roll life for us, we don’t have to.
And it’s why the 1984 mockumentary movie This is Spinal Tap was such an enduring success – it was so over the top and yet so accurate that it transcended satire and came right back out the other side.
I have to confess that I love the music of the Beach Boys and am a Brian Wilson nut. His place in the history of 20th Century American music was secure by 1970 which in one sense is just as well because he has been unable to produce a great deal since.
His story – with its untold numbers of ups and downs – scarcely needs repeating here because Rusters will know it so well.
I must have seen the Beach Boys in the UK – with and without Brian on stage – six or seven times in concert since the 1960s and Brian Wilson himself – augmented by the Wondermints band who specialise in re-creating his music – at least a similar number of times since 2003 as he has toured shows recreating the whole of the Pet Sounds album note for note and then later its ‘lost’ (and never issued) intended masterpiece successor Smile.
Today I would like to begin my appreciation of Wilson and his music by mentioning a couple of things said or written about him.
The first came from an exceptionally comprehensive and extended feature article on the history of the Beach Boys that appeared in the American monthly rock music magazine Rolling Stone across three consecutive issues in about 1971.
In the middle of the article, covering the mid-1960s period by when Brian had written and/or produced twenty hit albums before the age of 23, suffered a nervous breakdown through overwork and then ‘retired’ from performing with the Beach Boys to concentrate upon writing songs at home for them, Nick Venet, an in-house producer at Capitol Records at the time, was being interviewed.
Referring to occasional criticisms from the music press and elsewhere that Brian’s lyrics were somewhat child-like and facile compared to those of Bob Dylan, The Beatles and other leading acts, Venet came out with a classic:
“It really annoyed me when people used to say that. Nobody ever asked Chopin what the fucking words were!”
In 1972 the Beach Boys – without Brian Wilson – produced their eighteenth studio album entitled Carl And The Passions: “So Tough” on the Brother/Reprise album.
By the time it was made, Brian was out of the band, undergoing a difficult period of mental health and had metaphorically (and probably also literally) “taken to his bed”.
The songs on the album were all written by other members of the band. When they presented the finished product to the record company they were told it was disappointing. In fact, worse than that, without a Brian Wilson song on it, it was going to be rejected.
A short while later Brian was visited by members of the band and asked to come up with a tune – anything – as fast as he could.
A few days later Brian had knocked out a song called Marcella which went straight on the album and has become an all-time Beach Boys favourite.
Writing a review of the album in the New Musical Express, a top rock journalist of the time – Nick Kent – wrote “An inspired doodle like this by Brian Wilson is worth more than the entire output of 75% of other composers working today”.
Here is a link to a remastered version of the song made in 2000, courtesy of YouTube – MARCELLA
Next, Brian’s song Surf’s Up was written as a contribution to his famous – or infamous – Smile album intended to be the descendant in line from Pet Sounds. It never sought the light of day as Brian destroyed the tapes, legend has it because he feared that a song on it celebrating fire had actually caused some fires in Los Angeles.
It did later appear on the 1971 Beach Boys’ eponymous album Surf’s Up with other songs built around it, but not those that had been intended for the aborted Smile project.
Here, again courtesy of YouTube is a short video of Brian playing the song solo on piano as part of a 1966 music documentary called Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution in which contributor Leonard Bernstein called Brian the greatest American composer of the 20th Century – SURF’S UP
Lastly – to finish – here’s a link to a 2007 event at the Kennedy Centre dedicated to celebrating the lifetime works of great American artists – on this occasion Brian.
The finale was a live (augmented) performance of his song Love and Mercy – from his 1988 debut solo album Brian Wilson – by a British choir of schoolboys called Libera. Brian, supported in the VIP seats by his wife and Diana Ross, seems appreciative but also not quite all there – see here – LOVE AND MERCY
