Beach Boys fans seem to fall into 2 categories: most people just think of them as the peppy,
surfy, sing-along-music from our childhood, maybe our parents would play in the car - goofy
songs like Fun, Fun, Fun and Surfin USA.
And that’s not an invalid way of appreciating their music.
But I want to talk about the other camp.
The Beach Boys die-hards, like me.
If you haven’t already heard their 1966 album Pet Sounds, then you’ve probably had
a musically inclined friend say something to the effect of: “What the fuck?” or
“It’s the greatest album of all time brah!”
In this short video essay, I’m gonna try to clearly explain what made Brian Wilson
and The Beach Boys such a phenomenon, and why there seems to be a kind of reverence
about their music among artists and musicians.
I’m also gonna try to not make this just a love letter to my favorite band.
Without going too deep into detail, basically what you need to know about the The Beach
Boys history is that they were a family band, and that they were originally managed by their
horribly abusive father Murry Wilson.
It’s believed he even caused Brain’s deafness in the right ear by striking him in the side
of the head with a 2X4 as a toddler (yup!
Look it up!).
But he did introduce Brian to both the piano, and the music business - he himself was a
failed Hollywood hit-maker.
But Brian was going down his own path.
He became obsessed with Doo-Wop bands like The Penguins and The Four Freshmen, he used
to say that Bob Flanegan taught him how to sing falsetto.
Sorry I just love that song.
Anyways, young Brian began imitating those complex Doo-wop harmonies, and teaching them
to his brothers and friends.
Next they heard Rhythm and Blues, which in the early 60s was exploding all over the country.
I wonder if someone could still be sued for that.
Anyways once they combined this new fad of R&b and electric guitars with Brian’s unique
gift for jazz and Doo-Wop harmonies, you basically have the essential Beach Boys formula at its
core.
Cars, girls, and surfing were the main subject matter, and they became a massive overnight
sensation.
Dennis became a sex-symbol.
Not so much Brian.
This is essentially when they wrote all their hits, singlehandedly creating surf rock.
But even in these early, somewhat simple years, you start hear this underlying complexity
in Brian’s music trying to break through, and the further and further into the 60s you
go,you start to hear it.
As they grew older they naturally wrestled control of the band away from Murry Wilson,
and more and more authorship was given over to Brian.
It was the 1960s, so naturally I have to show you footage of Vietnam and student demonstrations-
here’s MLK.
But in reality, Brian did start taking drugs during this time, and I won’t make the argument
either way over the extent to which his drug use helped or hindered the Pet Sounds era,
because literally everything in his life was changing.
He pit himself in a production race against The Beatles- he quit touring to be a full-time
producer and songwriter - and he was a damn good one.
You see unlike the Beatles who were produced by Master engineer George Martin, and also
collaborated within the group - Brian was was completely by himself - often producing,
writing, arranging, and performing on each track.
He was so prolific in the 1960s that he even became a producer for Capitol Records, making
hit records for Jan and Dean and other groups.
Still not focused on being a rockstar- he was taking after his idol- producer Phil Spector.
The story goes is that when the other Beach Boys
returned from a 1966 tour of Japan, they found that Brian had used studio musicians to produce
an entire album of radically new music that was unlike any Beach Boy record they had ever
heard.
Or anybody had heard for that matter.
The label didn’t know what to make of it, his brothers didn’t know what to make of
it - even the studio musicians he organized to record it didn’t know what to make of
it- but once he cut it all together...
It’s easy to take for granted how ground breaking this was, given the barrage of advanced
production techniques used in today’s music - but at time this blew peoples’ minds - they
had never heard music like this before.
It was the first time anyone had ever put the theramin in a rock song.
It featured cellos and woodblocks, timpanis and sleighbells- people didn’t know if it
was a classical record or a rock record, and the idea that something could be both was
radically new.
Still think
The Beatles started that?
Pet Sounds draws on all kinds of different genres like exotica, calypso, even classical
motifs inspired by Gershwin and Bach.
On paper, the music was advanced and complex- it featured unusual jazz and avant-garde arrangements
with strange poly-rhythms- but somehow, it simultaneously sounded poppy, and extremely
catchy.
People could relate to the lyrics.
And music critics were calling this the first true concept album, the first rock record
that was made not be danced to, but explicitly to be listened to.
Art-rock.
Other pretentious definitions.
But seriously, it’s hard to understate the impact of that album, and ‘Good Vibrations,’
their million-selling follow-up single.
The deep seated psychological issues caused by years of abuse at the hands of his father
were compounded by his excessive drug use and indulgent lifestyle.
He ballooned up to 300lbs, and ultimately he faded into the background of the band.
His brothers continued to put out records - meanwhile Brian opened a vitamin store,
stayed in bed for two years, and for decades he was held hostage by an insane therapist
Eugene Landy.
Despite what a lot of people say, there were some good songs here and there.
But they were few and far between.
And for years, Brian's creativity languished under Eugene Landy.
And even since he's gained his freedom and made a return to music, it's easy to look
at his life as a sad story of mental illness and drugs.
It really is, especially when you imagine all the music that could have been.
Despite what the average listener may think, Brain Wilson of The Beach Boys was leading
the charge of musical revolution in the 1960s, and it’s difficult when people only identify
his music with Surfin’ USA or Barbara Ann.
Like the Beach Boys were just a joke band, or nothing but The Beatles Jr., who never
rose to the same height of sophistication as their counterparts.
And I’m not saying you have to like the Beach Boys over the Beatles, or that you should
even compare the two.
It’s just interesting when you look at the legacy of a band, and how over time, some
become immortalized as icons of musical advancement, and others get relegated to the footnotes
of embarrassing karaoke performances.
But frankly music history is full of Brian Wilsons- artists who anticipated the massive
trends before they caught on, or found themselves hopelessly lost in the middle of them.