Sail On, Sailor

 

In the world of music, lots of artists have been called legendary. Music is personal; thus, as much as one may try to be objective about such things, it's almost impossible--because music touches each of us in ways we can't explain if we try.

My love of music began in a time before music was even considered "good", per se; yet there were lots of songs I heard on the radio as a child that captured me; disparate songs by a wide array of artists--one hit wonders, mostly. That's how music was in the early sixties. I instinctively knew, though I was just a kid, that when The Beatles arrived, these guys would go nowhere but to the stratosphere, because they were like nothing any of us had heard before.

So, I feel pretty confident in classifying The Beatles as a whole as legendary. I used to say it was just Lennon and McCartney, but that's not technically true. Remove one guy from that lineup and The Beatles would not be The Beatles.

My musical cognition wasn't as sophisticated in 1961 when The Beach Boys first showed up on radio. (Oh, what a difference two years makes!) Of course, I was six, so what do you want? My critiques of songs ranged from, "I like that" to "I don't like that". My TV probably informed me that the group consisted of five guys singing--in matching striped shirts. 

Don't get me wrong--it was good singing. I particularly liked the call and response aspect to their songs. See: "Little Deuce Coupe, you don't know"("you don't know what I got") or "I gotta dance" ("dance dance dance, now the beat's really hot"). Those call and response lines really added to the songs. I had no idea how they came up with that--I figured every group probably did it, except I couldn't name another that did. Must've just come naturally, I reasoned. Don't the guys just get together in front of the microphone and sing?

Little did I know at six that there was a thing called a "producer". Much later I learned that he was a guy who "makes songs sound good". I also learned that a really good producer also writes the songs.

The calendar continued to turn and I continued to like a lot of Beach Boys tunes, especially:

 

Admittedly, little kids gravitate toward uptempo songs. They haven't developed the "ballad gene" yet, but these two songs are superb:

 

But I have to say, when I first heard this song in 1965, that intro did it for me:

                          (Know how hard it is to find it not in stereo, which ruins the intro completely? But I found one!)

When The Beach Boys signed their first record contract in 1961, it was ostensibly the Wilsons' father, Murry, who produced that first album, which led to "differences" between father and son. Before long, Brian took over production completely, an auspicious decision. Brian Wilson had an ear (actually, only one ear, since he was deaf in his right) for original, harmonic arrangements. He actually "heard" the complete arrangements in his head.

Genius? Yep. 

I suspect that Brian was on the autism spectrum. He was uncomfortable in social situations, which in fact led to his retirement from the road in 1964, after which he devoted his full energies to writing and producing. A Scientific American article noted that "For certain individuals, such ailments may actually contribute to their soaring achievements." 

Google's AI (though info unattributed) states: "Brian Wilson's unique musical genius, marked by complex arrangements, innovative studio techniques, and extraordinary auditory perception (like absolute pitch), is often linked to autistic traits such as intense focus, sensory sensitivity (turning noise into music), and a unique way of processing information, allowing him to hear and construct entire sonic worlds in his mind..."

Whatever the source of Wilson's genius, it had no match in the pop music world, not even McCartney. Talking about the album Pet Sounds, Paul McCartney said: 

“We played it over and over all night… Between interviews, I played everybody Pet Sounds. All we did was talk Beach Boys.” In describing the band’s response to Pet Sounds, Paul commented: "Oh dear me. This is the album of all time. What the hell are we going to do?”

 The album, which had arguably the worst, least representative cover ever...

...featured instrumentation by The Wrecking Crew (which included Glen Campbell). By that time, Brian no longer had the band playing on their own records, instead using The Wrecking Crew exclusively. McCartney claims "God Only Knows" as his favorite, but there were a whole lot of stellar tracks on the album:

 

(Sorry, no decent performance video)

Brian's personal struggles have been rehashed many times, including in the movie, "Love and Mercy", but in the end, he had a good life with his wife and many children.

Brian Wilson wrote over 260 songs for the Beach Boys alone (sometimes co-written with Mike Love), as well as songs for other artists. His strengths were in composing and producing, perhaps not so much in lyrics, unless they were deeply personal, such as "In My Room" and the song below.

I feel confident in saying objectively that Brian Wilson was a genius and also a legend. 

I'm glad I was around to witness it. 

  

 

(Brian Wilson passed away on June 11, 2025.)