The extraordinary life of Beach Boy Brian Wilson
As told by Mick Brown at the Port Eliot Lit Fest
The Port Eliot Literature festival is situated on the landscaped grounds of the 18th century Port Eliot House at St Germans in Cornwall. Taking part over three days, the Lit fest attracts a diverse range of performers, and has something for all tastes. Whether you want to catch some music, listen to poetry, see talks by authors about their work, watch films, or take part in a pub quiz, the Port Eliot Lit fest will not disappoint.
With flooding in the Midlands, and trains not running, a few of the artists didn’t manage to make it to the festival, and I was disappointed when I turned up to see Mick Brown talk about the life of Brian Wilson, and found he was another victim of the floods. When I heard later he had managed to get down after all, and was talking at seven I hot tailed it over to see him and it was well worth it.
Mick Brown is a freelance writer and journalist who has written for publications such as Rolling Stone magazine, the Observer, and the Daily Telegraph. He’s also the successful author of books such as ‘Tearing down the wall of sound: The rise and fall of Phil Spector’, and 'American heartbeat: A musical journey across America from Woodstock to San Jose'. He has interviewed, and written about, many legends of the music scene, including David Bowie, Santana and the Sex Pistols. His article ‘Brian Wilson – Beach Boy, Pop Visionary, Wounded Soul’ appeared in GQ magazine in 2004.
Joined by his friend Colin Midson, and intermingled with recordings of Beach Boy’s classics, they recounted the extraordinary life of Beach Boy, Brian Wilson.
The Beach Boys were a family band consisting of Brian Wilson, his brother’s Dennis and Carl, their cousin Mike Love, and a school friend Al Jardine. They all grew up in the suburban wasteland of Hawthorn, 30 miles down the freeway from LA. Father Murray was a machinery sales man, failed songwriter, and a bully. He frequently beat Brian and his two younger brothers. But he saved his most sadistic behaviour for Brian, his most gifted and sensitive son. Brian later remembered his childhood as hell and misery.
As a child Brian was a socially awkward boy, he was kind of kid who spent most of the time in his room, and never seemed to successfully manage the transformation from adolescence to adult hood. While Brian’s songs evoked a California dreamscape of surfing hot rods and sun kissed girls, Brian was a lonely person, only truly at ease at his piano or in the recording studio.
In the first 4 years of their existence the Beach Boys produced 12 albums all written and produced by Brian, but the intense pressure of writing, producing, and touring took it’s toll on Brian, and in 1964 he suffered his first nervous breakdown. He retreated to the studio and began to dream of a more sophisticated grown up music. The talk had started off with a rendition of ‘Barbara Ann’, a hit for the Beach Boys in 1965. Brian disliked it saying it wasn’t the Beach Boys sound. He wanted the band to evolve from a band with a formulaic showbiz persona, to a band producing the most spiritual advanced and intricate music ever. At the end of 1965 he began work on what was to become ‘Pet Sounds’.
However he had opposition. The leader of the band on stage; Mike Love liked the showbiz persona, the Beach Boys delivered hits and that delivered royalties, he loved the fun fun fun party Beach Boy style. He didn’t want to trade the hit making machine for un-commercial art music. Other members of the band agreed with Mike. So when Brian Wilson said ‘Barbara Ann’ was not the Beach Boys he actually meant ‘Barbara Ann’ was not Brian Wilson. In 1966 Brian and the band were on a collision course.
By now rock was beginning to address the broader issues of the world, it was becoming politicised. Wilson immersed himself in the hippy culture and discovered pot. Years later he said when smoking grass he could feel the inspiration coming fast.
Working with lyricist Tony Asher on the album 'Pet sounds', he wrote arrangements that were sophisticated and complicated and were way beyond the simplicity of Beach Boy’s earlier songs. When Wilson delivered 'Pet sounds' to Capital records, they considered ditching it and releasing a greatest hits album instead. The greatest hits album came out 2 months later, taking the steam out of ‘Pet Sounds’ sales. In Britain however, 'Pet Sounds' reached no 2 in the charts, and although it took a couple of years to reach the same sort of success in America, it did eventually become regarded as one of the greatest albums ever made.
The apparent failure of 'Pet sounds' angered Love, who wanted the group to go back to simple undemanding pop songs, which kept fans happy and maintained the beach boys in the affluent style they had become accustomed to.
Brian was too far gone to go back, and in spring 1966 he started work on a song that would prove to be a leap into a different kind of music for the Beach Boys. The song was ‘Good Vibrations’. It took six months before Brian was happy with the final version.
In August 1966 two songs about loneliness dominated the charts; the Beatle’s ‘Eleonor Rigby’, a song by a pretend lonely person, and at no2 ‘God Only Knows’ a song by a real lonely person. At the same time Brian was finishing ‘Good vibrations’ and it was released in October to rave reviews. Again Brian encountered opposition from the other Beach boys and ‘Good Vibrations’ was actually recorded by session musicians. People questioned why it did not sound so good live.
Seated at his piano fuelled by amphetamines and hash, Wilson started work on an album he intended to call ‘Dumb Angel’ but was later called ‘Smile’. To realise his dream he employed a new lyricist Van Dyke Parks. They wrote together at Brian’s Beverly Hills mansion, where he had a purple and gold silk Arabian tent erected for creative pot smoking, and in the dining room he had a fourteen foot square box filled with sand so he could be on the beach while he composed. In this period Wilson is portrayed as mad, out of control and devoid of creativity. In fact it was arguably his most creative focused period.
This was the beginning of Wilson’s next mental breakdown which would last for the next twenty five years. When Mick Brown went to interview Brian, he found him sitting on a sofa, staring into distance and clutching a cushion to his chest. It wasn’t until Mick was sat opposite him that Brian even seemed to know he was there. People had described Brian as childlike, and Mick found he replied to questions with no more than the question demands, often only with yes or no.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s while Brian lapsed into drug induced obesity, the other beach boys toured the world resentful of their reliance on Brian. It was during this period Brian met psychiatrist; Dr Eugene Landy who put Brian under 24 hour surveillance, and a punishing regime of dieting, physical fitness, and mind altering drugs. He became a surrogate Murray figure and it took a court order to finally remove Landy from his life.
The Beach Boys were now middle aged men with middle aged problems singing about teenage life. In 1983 the Beach boys were invited to the White house by Ronald Reagan who described them as a National treasure. They posed for pictures, where Brian’s brother, Dennis was seen bloated and stoned in the background. Two months later he was dead.
Brian Wilson’s life story is very depressing, from his father Murray who stole the copy write to Brian’s songs, and Landy who bled his bank accounts dry, and Mike into success Love who was driven by envy. The tragic truth of Wilson’s life was that he was continuously manipulated and exploited by others. His comeback is another example of this, as he would probably be happier at home with his piano. In Mick Browns words, Brian Wilson is a wounded soul and a vulnerable visionary.
Mick Brown is a freelance writer and journalist who has written for publications such as Rolling Stone magazine, the Observer, and the Daily Telegraph. He’s also the successful author of books such as ‘Tearing down the wall of sound: The rise and fall of Phil Spector’, and 'American heartbeat: A musical journey across America from Woodstock to San Jose'. He has interviewed, and written about, many legends of the music scene, including David Bowie, Santana and the Sex Pistols. His article ‘Brian Wilson – Beach Boy, Pop Visionary, Wounded Soul’ appeared in GQ magazine in 2004.
Joined by his friend Colin Midson, and intermingled with recordings of Beach Boy’s classics, they recounted the extraordinary life of Beach Boy, Brian Wilson.
The Beach Boys were a family band consisting of Brian Wilson, his brother’s Dennis and Carl, their cousin Mike Love, and a school friend Al Jardine. They all grew up in the suburban wasteland of Hawthorn, 30 miles down the freeway from LA. Father Murray was a machinery sales man, failed songwriter, and a bully. He frequently beat Brian and his two younger brothers. But he saved his most sadistic behaviour for Brian, his most gifted and sensitive son. Brian later remembered his childhood as hell and misery.
As a child Brian was a socially awkward boy, he was kind of kid who spent most of the time in his room, and never seemed to successfully manage the transformation from adolescence to adult hood. While Brian’s songs evoked a California dreamscape of surfing hot rods and sun kissed girls, Brian was a lonely person, only truly at ease at his piano or in the recording studio.
In the first 4 years of their existence the Beach Boys produced 12 albums all written and produced by Brian, but the intense pressure of writing, producing, and touring took it’s toll on Brian, and in 1964 he suffered his first nervous breakdown. He retreated to the studio and began to dream of a more sophisticated grown up music. The talk had started off with a rendition of ‘Barbara Ann’, a hit for the Beach Boys in 1965. Brian disliked it saying it wasn’t the Beach Boys sound. He wanted the band to evolve from a band with a formulaic showbiz persona, to a band producing the most spiritual advanced and intricate music ever. At the end of 1965 he began work on what was to become ‘Pet Sounds’.
However he had opposition. The leader of the band on stage; Mike Love liked the showbiz persona, the Beach Boys delivered hits and that delivered royalties, he loved the fun fun fun party Beach Boy style. He didn’t want to trade the hit making machine for un-commercial art music. Other members of the band agreed with Mike. So when Brian Wilson said ‘Barbara Ann’ was not the Beach Boys he actually meant ‘Barbara Ann’ was not Brian Wilson. In 1966 Brian and the band were on a collision course.
By now rock was beginning to address the broader issues of the world, it was becoming politicised. Wilson immersed himself in the hippy culture and discovered pot. Years later he said when smoking grass he could feel the inspiration coming fast.
Working with lyricist Tony Asher on the album 'Pet sounds', he wrote arrangements that were sophisticated and complicated and were way beyond the simplicity of Beach Boy’s earlier songs. When Wilson delivered 'Pet sounds' to Capital records, they considered ditching it and releasing a greatest hits album instead. The greatest hits album came out 2 months later, taking the steam out of ‘Pet Sounds’ sales. In Britain however, 'Pet Sounds' reached no 2 in the charts, and although it took a couple of years to reach the same sort of success in America, it did eventually become regarded as one of the greatest albums ever made.
The apparent failure of 'Pet sounds' angered Love, who wanted the group to go back to simple undemanding pop songs, which kept fans happy and maintained the beach boys in the affluent style they had become accustomed to.
Brian was too far gone to go back, and in spring 1966 he started work on a song that would prove to be a leap into a different kind of music for the Beach Boys. The song was ‘Good Vibrations’. It took six months before Brian was happy with the final version.
In August 1966 two songs about loneliness dominated the charts; the Beatle’s ‘Eleonor Rigby’, a song by a pretend lonely person, and at no2 ‘God Only Knows’ a song by a real lonely person. At the same time Brian was finishing ‘Good vibrations’ and it was released in October to rave reviews. Again Brian encountered opposition from the other Beach boys and ‘Good Vibrations’ was actually recorded by session musicians. People questioned why it did not sound so good live.
Seated at his piano fuelled by amphetamines and hash, Wilson started work on an album he intended to call ‘Dumb Angel’ but was later called ‘Smile’. To realise his dream he employed a new lyricist Van Dyke Parks. They wrote together at Brian’s Beverly Hills mansion, where he had a purple and gold silk Arabian tent erected for creative pot smoking, and in the dining room he had a fourteen foot square box filled with sand so he could be on the beach while he composed. In this period Wilson is portrayed as mad, out of control and devoid of creativity. In fact it was arguably his most creative focused period.
This was the beginning of Wilson’s next mental breakdown which would last for the next twenty five years. When Mick Brown went to interview Brian, he found him sitting on a sofa, staring into distance and clutching a cushion to his chest. It wasn’t until Mick was sat opposite him that Brian even seemed to know he was there. People had described Brian as childlike, and Mick found he replied to questions with no more than the question demands, often only with yes or no.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s while Brian lapsed into drug induced obesity, the other beach boys toured the world resentful of their reliance on Brian. It was during this period Brian met psychiatrist; Dr Eugene Landy who put Brian under 24 hour surveillance, and a punishing regime of dieting, physical fitness, and mind altering drugs. He became a surrogate Murray figure and it took a court order to finally remove Landy from his life.
The Beach Boys were now middle aged men with middle aged problems singing about teenage life. In 1983 the Beach boys were invited to the White house by Ronald Reagan who described them as a National treasure. They posed for pictures, where Brian’s brother, Dennis was seen bloated and stoned in the background. Two months later he was dead.
Brian Wilson’s life story is very depressing, from his father Murray who stole the copy write to Brian’s songs, and Landy who bled his bank accounts dry, and Mike into success Love who was driven by envy. The tragic truth of Wilson’s life was that he was continuously manipulated and exploited by others. His comeback is another example of this, as he would probably be happier at home with his piano. In Mick Browns words, Brian Wilson is a wounded soul and a vulnerable visionary.
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