Brian Wilson: 1942-2025

The Beach Boys, circa 1968

The Beach Boys’ brilliant, visionary leader Brian Wilson died last week at the age of 82. I’ve been a Beach Boys fan since I was, well, a boy. When I was 10 years old in 1991, the music I was into was Harry Belafonte and The Beach Boys. Very cool, I know. The music of the Beach Boys has stayed with me through all of those years, even during times when I wasn’t seeking their music out. Like the music of the Beatles, the Beach Boys songs were deeply ingrained in me, and I’ve known all of the words to their biggest hits for so many years now.  

I saw the Beach Boys in concert at the Minnesota State Fair when I was young, and that was a highlight of my early concert experiences. Since the Beach Boys played the Minnesota State Fair every year from 1988-1993, I can’t narrow down which year I saw them. I also saw Brian Wilson in concert when he was the co-headliner of a tour with Paul Simon in 2001. It was magical to hear those Beach Boys songs live.  

Brian Wilson went through so many hard times during his life. His later years were a joy to behold, that this man still toured the world and shared his songs with audiences was an amazing and powerful thing. Brian Wilson was proof that it’s never too late to start over.  

When I was a kid listening to the Beach Boys, I didn’t know their albums, I was only familiar with cassette tapes of their greatest hits that stopped after “Heroes and Villains.” In 2019, I dove into their back catalogue, listening to all of their original albums. It was a wonderful voyage of discovery. Sure, there were oddities, the goofball spoken-word tracks that they recorded as album filler, the whole Love You album, the 11-minute-long disco version of “Here Comes the Night.” But I was astonished at how much beauty I found. The Beach Boys will always be defined by their greatest hits, but fans will know their catalogue is so much deeper than that. That beautiful blend of voices elevated early album tracks like “In the Parkin’ Lot” and “All Summer Long” to things of beauty. Take the first 16 seconds of “In the Parkin’ Lot,” which features the 5 members of the band wordlessly harmonizing. Brian’s falsetto soars over the gorgeous harmonies of Al, Carl, and Dennis, with Mike taking the bottom “bau-bau” part. It’s simply beautiful—whatever disharmony existed among those 5 men, their voices combined so amazingly well.  

I think that one of Brian Wilson’s gifts was bringing an increased sensitivity to pop music. Songs like “In My Room” and “Don’t Worry Baby” show the sensitive soul that would flourish on the Pet Sounds album in songs like “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times.” Speaking of Pet Sounds, one of the most amazing songs Brian Wilson wrote was the sublime “God Only Knows.” And Brian let his younger brother Carl sing the lead vocal, a wonderfully generous gift.  

I was perhaps dimly aware of this, but it really struck me last week that Brian Wilson was born on June 20th—a day that is often the summer solstice, the first day of summer. How fitting for a man whose songs will always be a reminder of sunshine, beauty, and endless good vibrations.  

Concert Review: The Beach Boys and the Righteous Brothers at the Minnesota State Fair

The current touring lineup of the Beach Boys, 2018.

On Monday night I saw the Beach Boys at the Grandstand at the Minnesota State Fair. The Beach Boys were one of the first musical groups I really got into, and seeing them at the State Fair sometime in the late 1980’s or early 1990’s was one of my first concerts. (They played at the Minnesota State Fair in 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994, so I can’t pin down which year I saw them.) I’ve always loved the Beach Boys’ music, and I finally saw them again at Mystic Lake Casino in 2014, but the State Fair is just a perfect venue for their songs about cars, girls, and surfing. 

The Righteous Brothers opened the evening. Surviving group member Bill Medley has recently started touring again under the Righteous Brothers name, with Bucky Heard replacing Bobby Hatfield, who passed away in 2003. Bucky’s unusual name prompted my wife to quip, “That’s a sentence: Bucky heard Bill’s medley!” Medley’s voice has aged well, and hearing him in concert made me realize what an excellent voice he has. One of the highlights of the evening was a blues song he sang, “This Will Be the Last Time.” That song really showed his full range as a vocalist. The excellent band backing Medley and Heard did a great job of making the Righteous Brothers’ songs come to life. And McKenna Medley did a lovely duet with her father on “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.” I thought to myself during the show, Bill Medley should have written a thank you note to Patrick Swayze for Dirty Dancing and Ghost. Bucky Heard has an excellent voice, but he has a somewhat thankless task of having to replicate Hatfield’s stirring vocal performances on songs like “Ebb Tide.” He’s spared from carrying the burden of “Unchained Melody,” because Medley performed that song solo, as a tribute to Hatfield. I was pleased with the Righteous Brothers’ set, and they worked well as an opening act—they definitely had enough hits to fill their set, which lasted for about an hour, but I wouldn’t necessarily want to see them for two hours as the headliners. 

The Beach Boys were led by Mike Love and Bruce Johnston, so we got two original, or original-ish, Beach Boys. Johnston joined the group in 1965, replacing Glen Campbell in live performances. Campbell was the first replacement for Brian Wilson, who had tired of touring and wanted to spend more time in the studio. The rest of the musicians did an amazing job of recreating the Beach Boys sound on stage. The harmonies were fantastic, and the lead guitarist did an excellent job of nailing Carl Wilson’s Chuck Berry homages on the group’s early records. In the 1960’s, The Beach Boys took Chuck Berry guitar riffs, Four Freshman-style close harmony singing, and combined those elements with songs about cars, girls, and surfing to create a beautiful and original sound.

The opening song was “Do It Again” which even on its first release in 1968 must have seemed like a retro throwback to the group’s trademark hits. Mike Love’s vocals are the same as they were then, with his trademark elongated vowels. “Let’s geet together and do it ageeen.” It really amazes me how little Love’s voice has changed. It struck me most during “Be True to Your School,” maybe because of the incongruity of a 77-year-old man singing a song about high school sports. As I listened to Love sing the song I thought, “Wow, he’s still singing it in the original key, and he sounds just like he did on the record in 1963!” (Side note to Star Tribune music critic Jon Bream: the flute player’s musical quote from “On, Wisconsin!” wasn’t done to piss off Minnesotans, it’s part of the original song. Also, the fight song for Hawthorne High School, the alma mater of the Wilson brothers uses the same melody as “On, Wisconsin!”) 

Joining the Beach Boys was actor John Stamos, who played guitar and drums, and jumped around the stage a lot. Stamos joked that he forgot to wear the standard Beach Boys striped shirt, but I think that might be the subtle way the group is telling him he’s not actually a Beach Boy. Stamos didn’t really add anything to the show, other than the fact that he’s a Beach Boy fan, and he reminded all the 30-somethings of their youth watching Full House. 

As one might expect, the set list was heavily weighted towards 1966 and earlier Beach Boy songs, but that’s to be expected. I think of all the Beach Boy tapes I had when I was youngster, the latest song I knew was 1967’s “Heroes and Villains.” And of course, I knew “Kokomo,” from 1988’s Cocktail, and the 1989 album Still Cruisin’, which I had on CD. 

There were some newer songs, as Mike Love sang “Pisces Brothers,” his moving tribute to George Harrison, complete with awesome footage of Love and the Beatles in India in 1968, studying transcendental meditation with the Maharishi. There was also “Unleash the Love” and “All the Love in Paris,” both from Love’s 2017 solo album, Unleash the Love. Both songs were pleasant enough, and invoked the spirit of mid-1960’s Beach Boys songs, but many fans chose those songs to take a bathroom break or grab another beer. 

The evening came to a close with some of the best songs from Pet Sounds, “Sloop John B,” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?” followed by “Do You Wanna Dance?” “Barbara Ann,” “Good Vibrations,” “Kokomo,” and “Fun, Fun, Fun.” I wish I could say that the entire audience was on its feet by the end of the concert, but that wasn’t the case, despite a thrilling performance by the Beach Boys. Maybe everyone was just tired from a long day at the fair.