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Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942 in Hawthorne, California) is a Grammy Award-winning American musician best known as a member of the American rock and roll band, the Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass, keyboards, provided part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group.
Wilson was the primary songwriter in the Beach Boys, also functioning as the band's main producer, composer, and arranger.
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Quotations
Dennis surfed. I couldn't surf. I never learned how.
Humor — it helps to make the vibe better — it loosens up the vibrations.
I think about God, yes, and I wonder if there is a God. And if there is a God, will God please help me through my hard trips.
I was very, very surprised. I never thought I would be that loved or respected.
I went through a lot of changes in the years from when I first started out.
Spirituality amounts to love with me. I consider it the same as love. And my band members are full of love.
Encyclopedia
Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942 in Hawthorne, California) is a Grammy Award-winning American musician best known as a member of the American rock and roll band, the Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass, keyboards, provided part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group.
Wilson was the primary songwriter in the Beach Boys, also functioning as the band's main producer, composer, and arranger. In 1988 Wilson and his bandmates were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which refers to Wilson on its website as "One of the few undisputed geniuses in popular music." In 2008, Rolling Stone Magazine published a list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time, and Wilson was ranked at #52.
He is also an occasional actor and voice actor, having appeared in television shows, films, and other music artist music videos.
Biography
Early Years
At the age of two Brian Wilson's family moved to 3701 West 119th Street in Hawthorne, California, a town in the greater Los Angeles urban area about five miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. He spent his entire subsequent childhood years in this middle-class family home.
Brian Wilson's father Murry Wilson told of Brian's unusual musical abilities prior to his first birthday, observing that the baby could repeat the melody from "When the Caissons Go Rolling Along" after only a few verses had been sung by the father. Murry stated, "He was very clever and quick. I just fell in love with him."
At about age two Brian heard George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, which had an enormous emotional impact on him. Unfortunately, a few years later Brian was discovered to have extremely diminished hearing in his right ear. The exact cause of this hearing loss remains unclear, though theories range from Brian's simply being being born partially deaf, to a blow to the head from Brian's father, or a neighborhood bully, being to blame.
While father Murry was a reasonable provider, he was abusive and hard to please, liable to dispense harsh punishments for minor or perceived misdeeds. But Murry, a minor musician and songwriter, also encouraged his children in this field in numerous ways. At a young age, Brian was given six weeks of lessons on a "toy accordion", and at seven and eight sang solos in church with a choir behind him.
By most accounts a natural leader by the time he began attending Hawthorne High School, Brian was on the football team as a quarterback, played baseball and was a cross-country runner his senior year. However, the majority of his energy was directed towards music. He sang with various students at school functions and with his family and friends at home. Brian taught his two brothers harmony parts that all three would then practice when they were supposed to be asleep. He also played piano obsessively after school, deconstructing the harmonies of The Four Freshmen by listening to short segments of their songs on a phonograph, then working to recreate the blended sounds note by note on the keyboard.
Brian received a Wollensak tape recorder on his sixteenth birthday, allowing him to experiment with audio overdubs and early group vocals. A version of "Happy Birthday" sung to the Four Freshmen, circa 1960, is one of the first recorded examples of Brian Wilson's developing harmonic artistry (available on the two-CD set The Beach Boys: Hawthorne, CA, Birthplace of a Musical Legacy.)
First Steps: Carl and the Passions
Brian's surviving home tapes document his initial musical efforts singing with various buddies and family, including a song that would later be recorded in the studio by the Beach Boys, 'Sloop John B.' as well as 'Bermuda Shorts' and a hymn titled 'Good News'. In his senior year at Hawthorne High, in addition to his classroom music studies he would gather at lunchtime to sing with friends like the improbably-named Robin Hood, Keith Lent and Bruce Griffin. Brian and Lent worked on a revised version of the tune Hully Gully to support the campaign of a female classmate who was running for senior class president, and received a round of applause from the student audience.
Enlisting his cousin and often-time singing partner Mike Love, and Brian's reluctant youngest brother Carl Wilson, Brian's next public performance featured more ambitious arrangements at a fall arts program at his high school. To entice Carl into the group, Brian named the newly-formed membership 'Carl and the Passions'. The performance featured tunes by Dion and the Belmonts and The Four Freshmen (It's a Blue World), the latter of which proved difficult for the ensemble to carry off. But the event was notable for the impression it made on another musician and classmate of Brian's who was in the audience that night... Al Jardine, later to join the three Wilson brothers and Mike Love in a musical effort that would gain international fame and fortune.
Initial Compositions and the Pendletones
Brian enrolled at El Camino Community College in Los Angeles, majoring in psychology, in September of 1960. However, he continued his music studies at the college as well. At some point in the year 1961 Brian wrote his first all-original melody, loosely based on a Dion and the Belmonts version of When You Wish Upon a Star. Brian's tune would eventually be known as Surfer Girl. Brian has commented that he wrote the melody in his car, then later at home finished the bridge and harmonies. Although an early demo of the song was recorded in Feb. 1962 at World-Pacific Studios, it was not re-recorded and released until 1963, when it became a top ten hit.
Brian and his brothers Carl and Dennis Wilson along with Mike Love and Al Jardine first jelled as a music group in the summer of 1961, initially named the Pendeltones. After being prodded by Dennis, Brian and Mike Love together wrote what would become the first single for the band, Surfin'. Recorded by Hite and Dorinda Morgan and released on the small Candix label, the song became a top local hit in Los Angeles and reached number seventy-five on the national Billboard sales charts. Dennis later described the first time Brian heard their song on the radio as the three Wilson brothers (and soon-to-be-band member David Marks) drove in Brian's 1957 Ford in the rain: "Nothing will ever top the expression on Brian's face, ever ... THAT was the all-time moment."
However, the Pendeltones were no more. Without the band's knowledge or permission, Candix Records had changed their name to The Beach Boys.
First Performances and the Quest for a Major Label
Brian Wilson and his bandmates, following a set by Ike and Tina Turner, performed their first major live show at The Ritchie Valens Memorial Dance on New Year's Eve, 1961. Three days previously, Brian's father had bought him an electric bass and amplifier; Brian had learned to play the instrument in that short period of time, with Al Jardine moving to rhythm guitar.
Looking for a followup single for their radio hit, Brian and Mike wrote "Surfin' Safari," and attempts were made to record a usable take at World Pacific, including overdubs, on February 8, 1962, along with several other tunes including an early version of "Surfer Girl". Only a few days later, discouraged about the band's financial prospects, and objecting to adding some Chubby Checker songs to the Beach Boys live setlist, Al Jardine abruptly left the group.
Murry Wilson had become the Beach Boys manager, and when Candix Records ran into money problems and sold the group's master recordings to another label, Murry terminated the contract. Brian, worried about the Beach Boys' future, asked his father to help his group make more recordings. But Murry and Hite Morgan (who at this point was their music publisher) were turned down by a number of Los Angeles record companies.
As "Surfin'" faded from the charts, Brian, who had forged a songwriting partnership with Gary Usher, created several new tunes, including a car song, "409", that Usher had helped write. Recruiting Carl and Dennis's friend, thirteen-year-old neighbor David Marks, who had been playing electric guitar (and practicing with Carl) for years, Brian and the revamped Beach Boys cut new tracks on April 19th at Western Recorders including an updated "Surfin' Safari" and "409". These tunes convinced Capitol Records to release the demos as a single; they became a double-sided national hit.
The Beach Boys and success with Capitol Records
After signing with Capitol Records in mid-1962, Brian Wilson wrote or co-wrote (most often with Mike Love) a series of hit singles including the aforementioned "Surfin' Safari", "Surfin' USA", "Shut Down", "Little Deuce Coupe", "Be True to Your School", "In My Room", "Fun, Fun, Fun", "I Get Around", "Dance, Dance, Dance", "Help Me Rhonda", "California Girls" and "Good Vibrations". These songs and their accompanying albums were internationally popular, making the Beach Boys one of the biggest acts of their time.
Recording sessions for the band's first album took place in Capitol's basement studios (in the famous tower building) in August 1962, but early on Brian lobbied for a different place to cut Beach Boy tracks. The large rooms were built to record the big orchestras and ensembles of the 50's, not small rock groups. At Brian's insistence, Capitol agreed to let the Beach Boys pay for their own outside recording sessions, which Capitol would own all the rights to, and in return the band would receive a higher royalty rate on their record sales. Additionally, although it was very rare at the time for rock and roll band members to have a say in the process of making their records, during the taping of their first LP Brian fought for, and won, the right to be totally in charge of the production- though his first acknowledged liner notes production credit did not come until the band's third album 'Surfer Girl', in 1963.
Brian became known for his unique use of vocal harmonies, his trademark style of lyrics and incessant studio perfectionism. Early influences on his work included not only the previously mentioned Four Freshmen, but also Chuck Berry and Phil Spector, the latter of whom obsessed him for years. He later considered The Beatles to be his chief rivals, and they in turn would cite his work as a major influence. Wilson also produced records for other artists, but to much lesser success. He also co-wrote many of Jan and Dean's biggest hits during this period. In 1965, due to his dislike of touring and in an effort to concentrate on songwriting and studio production, Brian Wilson stopped performing live with the Beach Boys and Glen Campbell was called in as a temporary replacement. Wilson then chose Bruce Johnston as a long-term replacement, who remains with the Beach Boys today.
In 1966 he released Pet Sounds, which sold only modestly at the time, but has since become widely critically acclaimed and often cited among the all-time greatest albums. After Pet Sounds, "Good Vibrations" was released as a single, giving the Beach Boys their third U.S. number-one hit, after "I Get Around" and "Help Me, Rhonda", and selling over a million copies. Wilson then began work on a new album, originally called Dumb Angel but soon re-titled Smile, which he described as a "teenage symphony to God". A combination of resistance from within the group and Wilson's own growing personal problems led to the cancellation of the project in May of 1967. The hastily compiled Smiley Smile was released in its place, and the Smile sessions became the stuff of rock 'n' roll legend. For many years Wilson would refuse to even discuss the project, calling it "inappropriate music". He would ultimately re-record Smile as a solo artist in 2004.
Mental illness
Psychologically overwhelmed by the cancellation of his pet SMiLE project and the birth of his first child in 1968, Wilson began to take on a diminished creative role within the Beach Boys. Until about 1970 he remained the group's principal songwriter, but increasingly production reins were handed to younger brother Carl. Wilson mostly oversaw the albums Smiley Smile, Wild Honey and Friends and while these were not without merit they performed only modestly on the charts. After that, he all but stopped writing songs and was frequently seen partying in the company of songwriter Tandyn Almer and Three Dog Night singer Danny Hutton. It was during this period that he was introduced to cocaine. The 1969 album 20/20 was made mostly without Wilson's participation, although the Wilson/Love-authored "Do It Again" was a major hit, topping the charts in the UK.
Wilson spent the majority of the following three years in his bedroom sleeping, taking drugs, and overeating. Many of his "new" contributions to Beach Boys albums were remnants of SMiLE (e.g., "Cabinessence", "Surf's Up"), and those that were genuinely new reflected his depression and growing detachment from the world ("'Til I Die", the EP "Mount Vernon and Fairway"). Reportedly, Warner Bros. Records was so desperate for material from Wilson that the single "We Got Love" (co-written by Ricky Fataar, Blondie Chaplin, and Love) was scrapped from the Holland album in favor of "Sail On, Sailor", a song mostly written by committee (including Chaplin,Almer and Parks) that happened to draw its initial germ from a Wilson chord sequence.
In 1975, Brian's wife and family enlisted the services of controversial therapist Eugene Landy in a bid to help Brian, and hopefully help revive the group's ailing profile. Brian did not stay under Landy's care for long, but during this short period, the doctor managed to help him into a more productive, social frame of mind. The new album 15 Big Ones, consisting of oldies and some new songs was released in 1975 and Brian began to regularly appear live on stage with the band. A Love-orchestrated publicity campaign announced that "Brian is Back". Brian was also deemed to be well enough to do a solo performance on Saturday Night Live in November 1976. In 1977 the cult favourite Love You was released, consisting entirely of new material written and performed by Wilson. He continues to say it is his favourite Beach Boys album.
By 1982, Wilson was regressing into old habits; he was taking large amounts of cocaine, he weighed over 300 pounds, and he was in danger of losing his life. Eugene Landy was once more called into action, and a more radical program was undertaken to try to restore Brian to health. This involved firing him from the Beach Boys, isolating him from his family on Hawaii, and being put onto a rigorous diet and health regimen. This, coupled with long, extreme counselling sessions, brought Brian back to reality. He was certainly healthier and more conversant than previously, but he was also under a strict level of control by Landy. Brian's recovery continued as he joined the band on stage in Live Aid in 1985, and recorded a new eponymous album with the Beach Boys.
It was variously reported that Wilson had either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Dr. Landy's treatment regimen was not a recognized treatment for either of these mental illnesses. Rather, Landy provided a Svengali-like enviornment for Wilson, controlling his every movement in his life, including his musical direction. Landy's misconduct would eventually lead to the loss of his psychologist license, as well as, a court-ordered removal and restraining order from Wilson
Some years later, during his second marriage, he was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type which supposedly caused him to hear voices in his head. By 1989 the rumor was that Brian either had a stroke or had abused too many drugs and was permanently "fried." One biographer reported that the actual problem was that Wilson, who had been prescribed antipsychotic medicine by Landy since 1983, had developed tardive dyskinesia, a neurological condition marked by involuntary, repetitive movements, that develops in about 20% of patients treated with antipsychotic drugs for a long period of time. Wilson's drug regimen has now been reduced to a mild combination of antidepressants, and he has resumed recording and performing.
The effects of Brian Wilson's mental illness on his parenting skills were discussed by Wilson's daughter Wendy during her appearance in an episode of the British reality television program, Supernanny . Wilson's daughter Carnie and granddaughter Lola also made an appearance on the episode.
Solo career
Wilson launched a career as a solo artist in 1988 with limited success. It is possible that his efforts in this regard were both encouraged and hampered by Landy's influence. Partly due to the control that Landy exercised on his life, Wilson stopped working with the Beach Boys on a regular basis after the release of The Beach Boys in 1985. He had been signed to a solo record deal with Sire Records by label boss Seymour Stein.
Wilson released a solo album, Brian Wilson, in 1988 and a memoir, Wouldn't It Be Nice - My Own Story, in which he spoke for the first time about his troubled relationship with his abusive father Murry and his "lost years" of mental illness. Although it was written following interviews with Brian and others, Landy was largely responsible for the book, in conjunction with People magazine writer Todd Gold. The book describes Landy in terms that could be called messianic. In a later lawsuit over the book, Wilson testified in court that he hadn't even read the final manuscript. As a result, the book was taken out of press some years later.
A second solo album made for Sire, entitled Sweet Insanity, was never released.
Landy's illegal use of psychotropic drugs on Wilson and his influence over Wilson's financial affairs was legally ended by Wilson's brother Carl. In 1995, Wilson married Melinda Ledbetter after a longstanding relationship with Stephanie Marks and subsequently the couple adopted two girls, Daria and Delanie, and, in 2004, a son, Dylan. He has two daughters from his first marriage to Marilyn Rovell: Carnie Wilson and Wendy Wilson, who would go on to musical success of their own in the early 1990s as two-thirds of Wilson Phillips.
Also in 1995 he released two albums, albeit neither containing any new original material, almost simultaneously. The first, the soundtrack to Don Was's documentary I Just Wasn't Made for These Times, consists of re-recorded versions of songs from his Beach Boys and solo catalogue produced by Was, along with a 1976-vintage demo recording. The second, Orange Crate Art, saw Wilson as lead vocalist on an album of songs produced, arranged and (mostly) written by Van Dyke Parks, and was released as a duo album under both men's names.
His final release as part of the group was on the 1996 album Stars and Stripes Vol. 1, a group collaboration with select country music artists singing the lead vocals. After considerable mental recovery, he mended his relationship with his daughters Carnie and Wendy and the three of them released an album in 1997 titled "The Wilsons."
Wilson released a second solo album of (mostly) new material, Imagination, in 1998. Following this, he learned to cope with his stage fright and started to play live for the first time in decades, going on to play the whole Pet Sounds album live on his tours of the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe.
A new studio album, Gettin' in Over My Head, was released on June 22, 2004. It featured collaborations with Elton John, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, and Wilson's deceased brother Carl. Eric Clapton played on the track "City Blues." The album was almost entirely composed of re-recordings of unreleased material, and received mixed reviews.
Smile resurrected
With the improvements in his mental health, Wilson found himself finally able to contemplate returning to the Smile project. Aided admirably by musician and long time fan Darian Sahanahja of The Wondermints, and lyricist Van Dyke Parks, Brian painstakingly worked throughout 2003 to realise the dream that was "Smile". In February 2004, 37 years after it was conceived, Wilson debuted the newly completed Smile at the Royal Festival Hall in London and throughout a subsequent UK tour.
The debut performance at the RFH was a defining moment for Brian. The documentary DVD of the event shows Brian preparing for the big day and, right up to show time, expressing doubts over the concept of putting this legendary work before the public. He need not have worried. After an opening set of Beach Boys classics,he climbed back on stage to front the most breathtaking performance of his life. "Smile" was revealed to be the Holy Grail for which so many had searched. A 10 minute standing ovation left Brian stunned centre stage surrounded by the wonderful musicians who had made this moment real. Critical acclaim was unanimous, and the emotional presence of rock luminaries such as Roger Daltrey, Paul Weller, Sir George Martin and Sir Paul McCartney added to the sense that, finally, a weight had been lifted from Brian's shoulders.
"Smile" was then recorded through April to June and released in September, to wide critical acclaim. The release hit #13 on the Billboard chart. The 2004 recording featured his backup/touring band, including Beach Boys guitarist Jeff Foskett, members of the Wondermints and backup singer Taylor Mills. In this version, "Good Vibrations" features Tony Asher's original lyrics in the verses, instead of Mike Love's lyrics from the released 1966 version.
Wilson won his first Grammy Award in 2004 for the track "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow (Fire)" as Best Rock Instrumental. In 2004 Smile was taken on the road for a thorough tour of Australia, New Zealand and Europe. In December 2005 he also released What I Really Want for Christmas for Arista Records. The release hit #200 on the Billboard chart, though sales were modest. Wilson's remake of the classic "Deck The Halls" became a surprise Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit.
Though no longer a part of The Beach Boys touring band, Brian Wilson remains a member of the Beach Boys corporation, Brother Records Incorporated.
Recent events/That Lucky Old Sun
In February 2005, Wilson had a cameo in the TV series Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century as Daffy Duck's spiritual surfing advisor. He also appeared in the 2005 holiday episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, performing "Deck the Halls" for a group of children with xeroderma pigmentosum (hypersensitivity to sunlight) at Walt Disney World Resort. On July 2, 2005 Wilson performed for the Live 8 concert in Berlin, Germany.
In September 2005, Wilson arranged a charity drive to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina, wherein people who donated $100 or more would receive a personal phone call from Wilson. According to the website, over $250K was raised. In November 2005, former bandmate Mike Love sued Wilson over "shamelessly misappropriating... Love's songs, likeness, and the Beach Boys trademark, as well as the 'Smile' album itself" in the promotion of Smile. The lawsuit was ultimately thrown out of court on grounds that it was meritless.
On November 1, 2006, Wilson kicked off a small but highly anticipated tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of Pet Sounds. He was joined by Al Jardine.
Wilson released a new album That Lucky Old Sun on September 2, 2008. The piece originally debuted in a series of September 2007 concerts at London's Royal Festival Hall, and in January 2008 at Sydney's State Theatre while headlining the Sydney Festival. Wilson describes the piece as "consisting of five 'rounds', with interspersed spoken word". A series of US and UK concerts led up to its release.
On September 30, 2008, Seattle's Light in the Attic Records released A World of Peace Must Come, a collaboration between Wilson and Stephen Kalinich, originally recorded in 1969, but later lost in Kalinich's closet.
Awards and recognitions
- Brian and the Beach Boys were inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame in January 1988, alongside The Beatles, and Bob Dylan.
- In 2000, Brian was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Paul McCartney introduced Brian, referring to him as "one of the great American geniuses".
- Pet Sounds has been widely ranked as one of the most influential records ever released in western pop music and has been ranked at number #1 in several music magazines' lists of greatest albums of all time. It was number #2 in Rolling Stone Magazine's list.
- On December 2, 2007, the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors committee recognized Brian for a lifetime of contributions to American culture through the performing arts in music.
Trivia
- In the mid 1990s, Brian Wilson lived in a house in St. Charles, Illinois in a semi-rural subdivision (known as The Windings) equipped with a small audio studio.
- On their 1995 album Afraid of Sunlight, the British band Marillion included a song about Brian Wilson called "Cannibal Surf Babe."
- A parody of Brian Wilson is included in the 1990's HBO series Mr. Show starring Bob Odenkirk and David Cross. The sketch included a Wilson-like song, "A Mouth Full Of Sores."
- "Weird Al" Yankovic recorded his 2006 song "Pancreas" in the style of Brian Wilson. Although not a direct parody of any one song, it takes many elements from both Smile and Pet Sounds, and was meant as an homage to Wilson.
Discography
- Brian Wilson (July 12, 1988)
- I Just Wasn't Made for These Times (August 15, 1995)
- Orange Crate Art (with Van Dyke Parks) (October 24, 1995)
- Imagination (June 16, 1998)
- Live at the Roxy Theatre (June, 2000)
- Pet Sounds Live (June 11, 2002)
- Gettin' in Over My Head (June 22, 2004)
- Smile (September 28, 2004)
- What I Really Want for Christmas (October 18, 2005)
- That Lucky Old Sun (September 2, 2008)
See also
External links
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