As discussed in the movie thread, I recently saw Love and Mercy (the Beach Boys / Brian Wilson biopic) and thought it was great (and wound up seeing it twice). I had considered myself only an “average” Beach Boys fan - certainly enjoyed all the surf / car / hot rod / feel-good summertime music in that nostalgic-60s way and thought that “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “God Only Knows” and “Good Vibrations” were masterpieces in their own right. Without discounting their incredible vocal harmonies, I’d always heard “Brian Wilson was a genius” and wasn’t quite sure that those 3 songs qualified for genius status, though I was willing to give people the benefit of the doubt because the people who said it were people whose musical taste I trust.
I knew the broad strokes of the Brian Wilson story (abusive father, mental illness, LSD, lost years). I vaguely knew that his brothers had died. As an aside - man, I wouldn’t have kicked Dennis Wilson out of bed for eating crackers, as the saying goes
So. Well. After seeing the movie, I wanted to learn more. It so happens I’ve been sick in bed recently and while I was recovering, had enough energy to start YouTubing and learning more. Oh. My. Goodness. I discovered Pet Sounds and Smile work and so forth – things like “You Still Believe in Me” (which is in the movie), “Heroes and Villains”, “Roll Plymouth Roll,” “Cabinessence” and “Surf’s Up.” I now completely get why he’s regarded as a genius and have much admiration for his musical talent.
In any case, it made me wonder - surely I am not the only one out there who has either recently discovered or always listened to Brian Wilson? Any other fans out there?
My family saw the Beach Boys a couple of years ago and had so much fun. We see a lot of concerts but it’s rare that all four of us - I was 19 at the time and my brother 16 - all really enjoy the music.
DH was a Beach Boys fan before I even met him in college. We’ve always listened to and enjoyed Beach Boys songs.
S1 told us that they’ll be using “God Only Knows” as the recessional at their wedding, so I guess we were a good influence on him. Great song choice.
When S2 was around 2 years old, Honda’s commercials featured 'Help Me Rhonda", with Rhonda changed to Honda. DH drove a Honda at the time, so S2 was familiar with the brand. When we played the CD of “Help Me Rhonda”, S2 started laughing and said “Daddy, Help Honda”. He recognized that song as the one used in the commercial. We knew then that he had a good ear for music, and, in fact, was a music minor in college.
Beach Boys songs hold special memories for us. What a tragic life Brian Wilson’s led, but he sure is a genius when it comes to music.
“My family saw the Beach Boys a couple of years ago and had so much fun. We see a lot of concerts but it’s rare that all four of us - I was 19 at the time and my brother 16 - all really enjoy the music.”
Yeah - I know Mike Love keeps the band kind of embedded in the early 60’s Surfer Girl / Surfin’ USA / Little Deuce Coupe / California Girls / Help Me Rhonda / Little Deuce Coupe kind of stuff and I’m guessing that’s what you saw. It pays the bills, that’s for sure.
I think I was more asking if there was anyone who was into their more advanced stuff that bears as little resemblance to the surf / hot rod material as the Beatles’ “A Day in The Life” or “Sgt Pepper” bears to “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
My oldest brother was a huge BB fan when we were growing up so I was very familiar with of lot of Brian Wilson’s work including Pet Sounds. My mom heard it so much she became a big fan (still is).
I was never a big Beach Boys fan, but saw Brian Wilson (with The Wondermints) on the “Smile” tour a few years ago. He seemed to be enjoying himself and it was a great show. Looking forward to seeing the movie when it gets to Netflix.
“When I Grow Up To Be A Man” made a huge impression on me when I was a kid. I gravitated to California rock and roll bands and singers and the Beachboys were one of my favorite groups. I haven’t listened to some of the advanced songs you mentioned so can’t give an opinion. I like “Surfs Up”, “Heroes And Villains”, and “Sloop John B.”
Thank you for posting this, pizzagirl. I haven’t thought about the BB since I was a teenager, but I am vaguely aware that their later songs are considered important. I look forward to learning more about this. I hope the movie comes to Amazon Prime. Or maybe I’ll see it in the theater?
My art teacher gave me his Pet Sounds album when I was in middle school. Listening to it was life changing. I had no idea music could be that complex. That album was one of the greatest albums ever recorded.
I have major issues with MikeLove… Did you know Brian Wilson and Al Jardine were not even allowed to use the Beach Boys name. Mike love actually sued Al for this and it ended up being settled after 5 yrs in court. In addition mike love actually "fired Brian and Al from the reunion tour. Lots of bad blood here. It is pretty sad.
Lots written on it. Brian Wilson’s dad sold publishing rights to the songs long,long ago.
I saw them many times, including when Brian made his zombie-like comeback appearances with them.
My thoughts about Brian’s work have changed many times over the years. They now are:
Brilliant but limited by his 50's style, Four Freshman-like vocal harmonies. That's how he heard things. It made his music sound dated by the end of the 60's as harmony style changed.
I think his arrangements may be over-sophisticated, meaning they tend to be art-pop and there's a limited market for art music. His hits tended to have stronger, more urgent beats but he liked a slower mid-tempo and if you're going to do mid-tempo the melodic and rhythmic hooks need to grab you. The Stones were the masters of mid-tempo rock. Songs like Tumbling Dice are the speed Brian liked but they're clearly rock songs and his aren't.
Part of his sophistication is a love of dissonance and ambiguity that I think can turn off people if not constrained. The Beatles used a lot of dissonance but in bits while all of terrific songs like Caroline, No are rife with tonal ambiguity that makes you feel, if you like the song, a sort of poignant loss but if you're a casual listener then you feel maybe somewhat uncomfortable because the notes don't resolve neatly the way pop music does. Compare Burt Bacharach, who used jazz touches in every song versus pop but resolved the tones in ways that jazz generally doesn't. With Burt, that gives the music a lightness - sometime a corny sound with his strings, etc. - without a sense of being uneasy. I've listened to a version of Caroline, No that's slower than the album version, which was sped up a half-step, and I think it's better. The slightly less bright vocal is to me more in the pocket and conveys the emotion more clearly, while I gather Brian preferred it brighter and "sweeter".
If you listen to “Caroline, No” from the 1972 live album (2 “record” set) and do not shed a tear, you are not human. Puts the studio version to shame. You feel the pain in Carl Wilson’s (RIP) voice.
H and I saw Brian Wilson in concert about three weeks ago, which was about four weeks after we saw the movie. The Beach Boys were in town the week before, but after seeing the movie, we decided it was Brian Wilson that we wanted to say. It was very bittersweet. The Beach Boys was the first concert H ever took our daughters to, when they were quite young… maybe 5 and 7.
The concert allowed me to see in person how damaged he is. Some of that is due to lots of self-destructive behavior over the years, and some of it is his emotional demons. Sadly, I think I saw him crack a smile perhaps two or three times the whole night. He just didn’t seem like he wanted to be there. I wonder if he tours because he needs the money (geez his dad was a bastard for selling the BB out). He actually lived here in Chicago for a couple of years when he moved here to be near a music producer. He burned a lot of bridges here, though. Very, very sad. The upside of the concert was Al Jardine’s presence. He probably took lead vocals about half of the songs. Brian Wilson probably sang lead vocals for maybe three or four songs, and the rest were split up among other members of the band - one of which is Al Jardine’s son… nice to know he has that kind of a relationship with his father. BW didn’t get up from his piano once the entire concert, and when he got up to leave, he had a person on either side of him, holding their elbows as he walked off stage, or should I say practically stumbled off stage. I doubt very seriously he was under the influence of any drugs or alcohol… he’s just got a very worn-out body. He did come back on stage for an encore set. But you just felt like he didn’t want to be there. He only mentioned the movie very briefly in passing before he sang the title song.
D knows a girl who has done tutoring work for BW’s family. She has told D some interesting stories… he must live a very haunted life. I do feel sorry for him. I don’t know if I could have taken the kind of abuse and exploitation he endured and turn out any better. But he is a musical genius.
Coincidentally, my 23 year old twins were both around this weekend and for some reason, the 3 of us were singing Beach Boys songs. I did have to pull up some of the lyrics for them, though. They had no idea that in the olden days there were station wagons called “woodies.” I have been a BB fan since the 60’s and still have a bunch of their albums, from the surfin’ songs through the more complex Pet Sounds. We last saw them in concert when Carl Wilson made what had to have been one of his last appearances. He was dying of lung cancer and sat on a stool the whole concert while he played the guitar. The Wilson’s were one cursed family.
My older bro and sis were diehard BB fans. They went to their concerts ( attended the Ed Sullivan Show) and played their albums constantly. I knew every word of every song on Pet Sounds, one of my favorites. Songs like “God Only Knows,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “In My Room” still get me emotional and excited.
My Dad was was a man of music, although that was not his way of making a living. Every night he would come home from work in Manhatten and sit and play the baby grand Steinway piano in our living room. He was the director/ conductor of the Staten Island Men’s Barbershop and Sweet Adeline’s, which both participated and competed in national concerts, through most of the sixties. He was a member of an award winning barbershop quartet and knew and sang in shows with the Buffalo Bills- the group in the movie The Music Man. He was our church organist and choir director. He was music!!
He was born in 1919 and loved the big band music of the 40’s. Many parents hated “our” music. But my Dad always recognized the brilliance of the Beach Boys and the Beetles. He would have been 96 yesterday.
I saw the Beach Boys in concert when I was in high school, and my mind was completely blown by how perfect they were live. I wasn’t a particularly strong Beach Boys fan prior to that, and only attended the concert because one of my best friend’s dad purchased tickets for our foursome of besties. It was only afterward that I really began to appreciate the place they held in the pantheon of American music. Years ago, I saw a VH1 “Behind the Music” documentary on the Beach Boys, and was amazed by the sheer amount of tragedy, drama, and general crapitude that group has endured along fame’s road. How many musical geniuses have lived self-destructive, emotionally haunted lives? For a lot of them, there seems to be a eerie correspondence between level of their genius and the amount of existential chaos in their lives. Brian Wilson seems to exemplify that.
The BB were a little before my time as a kid but I do, of course, remember them but only vaguely. I am sure the movie will reawaken some feelings I have for the BB and the responses before mine are really cool.
I don’t really remember BW much. I remember the Beatles, The Rolling Stones (who I hate or disrespect, same thing) and The Who. The British Invasion signaling the end of the Elvis era. The BB were America’s only group that could keep pace with the Brits during that period is how I look at it.
The BB’s had some good songs but didn’t seem to have the charisma or marketing genius the Beatles had. The Stones were R&R with not as much melodies and The Who were brilliant in their own way, I loved The Who, but The Who were always the after thoughts, the third wheels. The Beatles were beyond compare, at least in my mind.
I heard an interesting story a long time ago. Basically, Paul was so impressed by Pet Sounds that he and John wrote one of the Beatles albums, I forgot which one, to answer it. Think about that. Just think about that for a second. Pet Sounds was so freaking amazing that the Beatles decided to answer it. That amazes me.
I think part of the BB’s story is that they sank into relative oblivion. They just disappeared except for a few sad reunion or knock off tours on the West Coast. That is sad. YT helps a little but it is isn’t like I can talk about the BB’s with my kids. I also remember my eyes being opened to music in the early 70’s … and this embarrasses me to say it … but in the post Beatles void … Elton John was huge. I spent the night at a friend’s house, I still see him on Facebook, and he was really into EJ. I feel violated and scarred. It was a longgggggg weird night but that is all I am saying. Really cool thread, Pizzagirl.
@Pizzagirl , I just did the exact same thing. Liked the Beach Boys back in my younger days, but wasn’t a huge fan. I also just saw the movie “Love and Mercy” and loved it (saw it twice, too). I’ve been listening to Beach Boys music the past week or so and really enjoying it.
“I heard an interesting story a long time ago. Basically, Paul was so impressed by Pet Sounds that he and John wrote one of the Beatles albums, I forgot which one, to answer it. Think about that. Just think about that for a second. Pet Sounds was so freaking amazing that the Beatles decided to answer it. That amazes me.”
Yes, that’s a big part of it. Rubber Soul inspired Pet Sounds. Pet Sounds inspired Sgt Pepper. Paul McCartney has long said that God Only Knows is perfection.
Lergnom, that’s the kind of analysis I love … And why, musically, BB harmonies are so different from Beatles harmonies.
When I was little I would play my dad’s albums (what a collection of vinyl!) and the two BB songs I can remember listening to over and over are God Only Knows and Don’t Worry Baby. Such beautiful songs.
When the show Big Love was on I never skipped the opening credits so I could hear God Only Knows!
When I was 20 or so Wilson Phillips came out with Hold On, which was a huge hit. Two daughters of Brian Wilson and the daughter of a Mama and a Papa. While the music was completely of its time, there was something about the three of them harmonizing together that reminded me of those older songs, perhaps influenced a bit by the music of their parents?
