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Wall Street Journal
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, My Endless Inspiration
I had called my friend Gary Griffin to shoot the breeze, as I'd been doing a couple of times every week. This was in the early 1990s; Gary was the keyboard player for surf rockers Jan and Dean, and I had just started to tour with them singing backup. He was at home in Panorama City, Calif., and I was in Chicago. He was out in his recording studio. 'My friend Brian's here,' Gary said.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Endless summer: how Brian Wilson soundtracked California
In July 1963, Jan and Dean's Surf City spent two weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the first surf rock song to top the charts. Co-written by Brian Wilson, the tune describes a halcyon place where there's always a party brewing and the romantic odds are in the narrator's favor – two girls for every boy! In this rock'n'roll era just before the Beatles shook up the US, surf culture had gone mainstream via films (the Annette Funicello-Frankie Avalon vehicle Beach Party) and music (the ferocious guitarist Dick Dale, quirky hits like the Surfaris' Wipe Out). Wilson's own Beach Boys were arguably the driving force behind this movement, having debuted in late 1961 with Surfin', a single that doubled as an early mission statement: 'Surfin' is the only life, the only way for me.' The fresh-faced band members struck wholesome poses in magazine ads, wearing matching plaid shirts while standing in a line clutching a surfboard, as they sang pristine, intricate harmonies that radiated warmth. By summer 1963, the Beach Boys' second album, Surfin' USA, was perched at number four on the album charts. The title track had been a top five hit several months before, thanks to hip-swiveling riffs, references to hip fashion and shout-outs to various California locales (eg, Redondo Beach, La Jolla). For Wilson and the Beach Boys, the Golden state was the place to be for anyone who wanted to be cool. But California wasn't exclusionary: in Surfin' USA, the lyrics note that everybody's there in the water, meaning if you show up, you belong too. Wilson favored bucolic imagery in many of his songs, imagining California as a mythical place full of fancy cars (Little Deuce Coupe; the drag race chronicle Shut Down) with the best-looking women (California Girls) and tastiest surf reports (Catch a Wave). These lyrics captured charming – and innocent – scenes that resembled colorful postcards mailed to the rest of the world: joyriding to the beach, spending the day surfing and dreaming of romance. But Wilson's songs also praised California for its consistency; the state represented a respite from turbulent politics and shifting cultural norms. That's not to say Wilson ignored the outside world. But The Warmth of the Sun, which was written and recorded in the wake of the 1963 assassination of John F Kennedy, doesn't touch on the tragedy; instead, it's a breakup song where the heartbroken protagonist finds a silver lining by turning to sunshine. In dark times, the sun is never far away; it's always guaranteed to rise again or provide comfort. In ways big and small, Wilson established California as a place of possibility, where songs often possessed twinges of melancholy, but never lost their optimism. Surfer Girl nodded to When You Wish Upon a Star from Disney's Pinocchio – a fitting reference for lyrics that wonder wistfully if the titular character will reciprocate a crush – while Wilson associated In My Room with teaching his brothers Carl and Dennis how to harmonize growing up. The title character of Noble Surfer survives oceanic uncertainty and triumphs over nature, a resilient and heroic figure on the water. Perhaps even more, Wilson viewed California as a place of sonic possibility. He produced the Beach Boys' third album, 1963's Surfer Girl, incorporating instrumentation from session icons the Wrecking Crew or flourishes like a trilling harp on Catch a Wave. And his magnum opus, Pet Sounds, while not explicitly about California, built on Phil Spector's lush, Los Angeles-recorded creations and created a blueprint for the kaleidoscopic pop productions, including the Beach Boys' own 1968 LP Friends. Even as Wilson increasingly navigated mental health challenges and struggles with drugs and alcohol, he kept his beachy early days as a touchstone, a nostalgic place he'd revisit in song. Within the dewy California Feelin', written in the early 1970s, he notes: 'Sunlight chased my cares away / The sun dances through the morning sky.' Decades later, he released the solo album That Lucky Old Sun, a 'concept album' that's 'about LA, and life in LA and the different kind of moods of LA. Call it the Heartbeat of LA'. Wilson said. One of the most poignant songs on the album was Southern California, with a chorus that stresses that anything is possible: 'In Southern California / Dreams wake up for you / And when you wake up here / You wake up everywhere.' Fittingly, the lyrics describe an idyllic day: a lazy, sunny day by the ocean capped by a cinematic night that resembles a romantic movie. But in the first verse, Wilson reminisces about something far more personal: hearing Surfin' on the radio, and how that reminded him of singing with his brothers, his dream coming true. Wilson last toured with the Beach Boys in 2012 and retired from the road as a solo act in 2022. And while his musical influence is heard on a global scale – among other things, the Elephant 6 collective from Athens, Georgia, and the New York City punks the Ramones cite the band as an influence – the Beach Boys' sound had an enormous impact closer to home. Think the gauzy California love letters of Best Coast; ambitious pop of Fleetwood Mac; surf-rock of Wavves; and the melodic chamber-pop of the Wondermints, the group that backed Wilson for years. Countless hip-hop artists have sampled the Beach Boys, while Beyoncé interpolated Good Vibrations on Cowboy Carter's Ya Ya, and the French duo Air sampled Do It Again for Remember on Moon Safari. On a broader scale, Wilson's songs have permeated pop culture in comedy and drama films (Happy Feet, Good Morning, Vietnam, The Big Chill) and TV shows (The Bear, WandaVision, Ted Lasso). On a TV show like Full House, Wilson and the Beach Boys became synonymous with an idealized version of sunny California. Fittingly, the Surf City Wilson once wrote about in 1963 now literally exists – Huntington Beach, California, officially became known as Surf City USA in 2006 – and the Beach Boys still tour consistently, keeping Wilson's California chronicles alive. 'Together, we gave the world the American dream of optimism, joy, and a sense of freedom,' the band wrote on Facebook upon Wilson's death. 'Music that made people feel good, made them believe in summer and endless possibilities.'
BBC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
From a Birmingham council estate to Beach Boys tour manager
A former tour manager for the Beach Boys has said the legendary frontman Brian Wilson would want to be remembered for his 82-year-old Californian singer's death was announced by his family on Wednesday, saying they were Tomes, who worked with the band on and off over 45 years, remembered a pinch-me moment when he first joined them on tour."I fly out of Northfield [in Birmingham] and I'm in South Africa, I'm standing watching the Beach Boys. I'm crying, because I'm like, wow, how did this happen?" he said. "It's quite surreal - I'm 25 years old, I'm a kid from a council estate in Northfield, and I'm a tour manager." The Beach Boys were one of the USA's biggest bands of the 1960s, who introduced surf-rock to worldwide audience with songs like I Get Around, Surfin' USA and Good group was formed by Wilson with his younger brothers Carl and Dennis, cousin Mike Love and friend Al has paid tribute to Wilson as a "humble musical giant" with "huge musical intellect".Mr Tomes, who had already worked with Alvin Stardust and Lulu before joining the Beach Boys on tour, described Wilson as "amazing" and his music as "timeless"."Brian was a very complex character. 'Genius' has been used a lot which is absolutely true," he said. "He always came back to music and that's the important thing." Speaking of the group's friendly rivalry with The Beatles, Mr Tomes said Wilson had initially abandoned his Smile album in the 1960s when he heard Sgt Pepper, "because he said it wasn't good enough".Eventually publishing it 45 years later, Wilson said he put the album on the shelf as it was "too far ahead of our time". 'Best song ever written' Sir Paul McCartney has written that he was "privileged to be around Wilson's "bright shining light for a little while".Mr Tomes said: "Brian was in awe of The Beatles and I remember at one of the gigs for the Smile album Paul McCartney was there and he said he believed that God Only Knows was the best song ever written... and he's probably right."Now a publicist, Mr Tomes described his memories of the band as "so special" and added he had kept in touch with them over the the sadness around Wilson's death, he said the "music lives on". Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Brian Wilson: iconic images of a Beach Boy's life
Brian Wilson, the lead singer, composer and front man of the Beach Boys, has died aged 82, his family have a statement shared online, they said they were "heartbroken" by his death and requested from fans and musicians saw him described as an icon, a genius and a pioneer. Born and raised in California, the musician brought surf-rock to the world with songs like I Get Around, Surfin' USA and Good Vibrations. Below is a selection of images from his life.
The Independent
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
10 songs to celebrate the life and legacy of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson
The musical world lost a giant with news Wednesday that Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys' visionary and fragile leader, had died. He was 82. Attempting to distill Wilson's talent and influence in a few short songs is an impossibility; even just focusing on a few select cuts from The Beach Boys' 1966 album 'Pet Sounds," routinely regarded as one of the greatest songs of all time, would feel short sighted. (Lest we forget, there is no The Beatles''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club' without it, and countless other classics past and present.) Instead, to celebrate Wilson's life and legacy, we've decided to identify just a few songs that made the man, from the fiercely familiar to a few unexpected selections. Read on and then listen to all of the tracks on our Spotify playlist, here. 1963: The Beach Boys, 'Surfin' USA' The song of the summer in 1963 — heck, the song of any summer, ever — 'Surfin' USA' at least partially introduced the group that would forever become synonymous with an image of eternal California bliss, where the sun always shines, the waves are always pristine, and paradise is a place on Earth. It's hard to imagine the beach existing before these wake-up riffs, the guitars that sparked a surf rock movement and then some. (Though it is important to mention that the song borrows heavily from Chuck Berry's 'Sweet Little Sixteen.") It's hard to think that surf music was once mostly just instrumental — even when Wilson and his cousin, fellow Beach Boy Mike Love, hastily wrote up their first single, 'Surfin,'' a minor hit released in 1961. 1964: The Beach Boys, 'Don't Worry Baby' Think of it as a response to The Ronettes' 'Be My Baby.' The hot-rod hit 'Don't Worry Baby' is the cheery B-side to 'I Get Around," and has one of the most transformative key shifts in pop music history, from the man's perspective in the verse to the woman's response in the chorus. Brilliant! 1965: The Beach Boys, 'California Girls' Headphones on, stereo up. The Beach Boys' 'California Girls' sounds massive. It is no doubt the result of Wilson's love and admiration for Phil Spector's 'Wall of Sound," which lead to the song's use of guitar, horns, percussion and organ as its overture. The song is a sunshine-y good time — and would later inspire Katy Perry's 'California Gurls,' among countless others. But most importantly, the song establishes the band — and Wilson's own — larger-than-life aspirations, where pop music could be both avant-garde and built of earworms. 1966: The Beach Boys, 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' Wilson's voice is the first one heard on the Beach Boys' unimpeachable 'Pet Sounds.' 'Wouldn't it be nice if we were older? / Then we wouldn't have to wait so long,' he sweetly sings on the album's opener. 'And wouldn't it be nice to live together / In the kind of world where we belong?' Optimism and innocence are the name of the game, and the listener is the winner. 1966: The Beach Boys, 'God Only Knows' If Wilson must be known for one thing, let it be his inimitable sense of harmony, perfected across his craft and completely unignorable on 'God Only Knows,' a master class in vocals, love, emotional depth, harpsichord and the intersection of all such forces. 'God Only Knows' is also one of Paul McCartney's favorite songs of all time, one known to bring him to tears. 1967: The Beach Boys, 'Good Vibrations' What kind of vibrations? Good, good, GOOD vibrations. And at a cost. As the story goes, one of the Beach Boys' best-known hits — and, arguably, one of the most immediately recognizable songs in rock 'n' roll history — was recorded over seven months, in four different studios, reportedly costing up to $75,000. And it is an absolute masterpiece of theremin, cello, harmonica and so much more. Pop music has never been so ambitious — and successful. 1967: The Beach Boys, 'Heroes and Villains' 'Heroes and Villains' might be one of the most complex songs in The Beach Boys' discography, and with good reason. It is the opener of 'Smile,' what Wilson called a 'teenage symphony to God,' a whimsical cycle of songs on nature and American folklore written with lyricist Van Dyke Parks. It was delayed, then canceled, then rerecorded and issued in September 1967 on 'Smiley Smile,' dismissed by Carl Wilson as a 'bunt instead of a grand slam.' In moments, 'Heroes and Villains' is psychedelic, in others, it embodies an otherworldly barbershop quartet. It is off kilter and clever, as Wilson's band so often proved to be. 1967: The Beach Boys, 'Darlin'' The late-60s are an undercelebrated time in Wilson's creative oeuvre — no doubt an effect of his declining mental health — but there are many rich songs to dig into. Particularly, the soulful, R&B, Motown-esq. harmonies of 'Darlin'.' 2004: Brian Wilson, 'Don't Let Her Know She's an Angel' As the story goes, 'Don't Let Her Know She's an Angel' was originally record for his 1991 unreleased album 'Sweet Insanity,' but did not officially appear until it was rerecorded for his 2004 album 'Gettin' in Over My Head.' The song features a bunch of programming, synths and percussion, which might strike The Beach Boys' fan as odd. But trust us, it works here. 2012: The Beach Boys, 'Isn't It Time' This pick might come as a surprise for many fans of The Beach Boys. 'Isn't It Time' is a cut from 'That's Why God Made the Radio," the album the legendary group put out to celebrate their 50th anniversary that left a lot to be desired. But within its filler, this song is undoubtedly catchy, with its ukulele and handclap percussion. ___ AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report.
