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.  

Movie Review: The Beach Boys: An American Band, Directed by Malcolm Leo (1985)

The super cheesy poster for the 1985 documentary The Beach Boys: An American Band.

The Beach Boys in 1980. Front row: Bruce Johnston, Carl Wilson, Al Jardine. Back row: Mike Love, Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson. That's a lot of facial hair on display. Also, did Al steal Mike's hat?

The 1985 documentary The Beach Boys: An American Band, directed by Malcolm Leo, features a ton of archival footage of the group, but unfortunately falls short on delivering much insight into the band. Made with the cooperation of the Beach Boys, the film doesn’t have much of a narrative. And that’s too bad, since the story of the Beach Boys is pretty fascinating, full of ups and downs and lots of issues that this documentary glosses over. 

An American Band focuses a lot on Brian Wilson, which is to be expected, but the deeper I dig into the Beach Boys, the more intriguing I find the stories of all the other members besides Brian. And that doesn’t mean Brian’s story isn’t interesting, but I know the general outline of his story pretty well. What intrigues me more now is what happens to the band after the leading member suffers a nervous breakdown in 1967 and steps back from leading the band. 

A lot of the interview footage used in An American Band was shot for other projects. The interview footage of an overweight Brian in bed, which alternates between being campy and sad, was shot for the 1976 TV documentary It’s OK, which was promoting the band’s then-latest album, 15 Big Ones. It’s OK is also the source of the “Surf Police” sketch, in which John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd charge Brian with “failing to surf,” pull him out of bed, and take him surfing—which means they push him on a surfboard and make sure he doesn’t get pulled out to sea by the undertow. 

Beatles fan should be on the lookout for Paul and Linda McCartney in the footage at the beginning of the movie, as we get to see Brian Wilson’s 34^th birthday party. (Again, this was footage from It’s OK.) Paul isn’t interviewed, which is too bad, but he’s there, hanging out, having a good time. And Brian got out of bed for the party. 

One of the problems with An American Band is that it doesn’t do anything to put the Beach Boys’ music in any sort of context. It’s more like, “Here’s them singing ‘Surfin’ Safari,’ here’s them singing ‘I Get Around.’ Here’s a painfully unfunny clip of them singing ‘California Girls’ before they’re interrupted by Bob Hope and Jack Benny.” And while that reinforces how many amazing hits they had, it doesn’t do a lot to tell the story of their music, and how their music fit into the fabric of the 1960’s. 

Because there are so many clips of the Beach Boys in An American Band, there’s little time left over to tell their story. That being said, the clips are fantastic. You might not learn a lot about the inner dynamics of the Beach Boys from An American Band, but you will have fun, fun, fun. There’s a great clip of the band, dressed in white suits, probably around 1968, that highlights what a great band the Beach Boys were at that time. There’s also some nice footage of Dennis Wilson in the studio, most likely recording his 1977 solo album Pacific Ocean Blue. 

Had An American Band been released in 1982, it might have simply ended with the band singing “Barbara Ann” live. But 1983 was a big year in the history of the Beach Boys. The band had been headlining July 4^th concerts on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. since 1980. However, in 1983, clueless Secretary of the Interior James Watt banned the concerts, famously saying that they attracted “the wrong element.” This ended up being a public relations coup for the Beach Boys, as the public supported them, and they got a lot of press. The Beach Boys ended up being invited to the White House by President Ronald Reagan. The year ended on a tragic note with the drowning death of Dennis Wilson on December 28^th. The Beach Boys continued on, and An American Band ends with their triumphant return to the National Mall on July 4, 1984.

Book Review: Why The Beach Boys Matter, by Tom Smucker (2018)

Why The Beach Boys Matter, by Tom Smucker, 2018. (Pictured on the cover: Bruce Johnston, Al Jardine, Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson, and Mike Love. Not pictured on the cover: Brian Wilson.)

The Beach Boys have been one of my favorite groups since I was a little kid. Even before I got into the Beatles, I was a Beach Boys fan. I’ve been listening to a lot of the Beach Boys lately, so I was pretty excited to pick up a copy of Tom Smucker’s 2018 book Why The Beach Boys Matter. 

Smucker is a long-time fan of the Beach Boys, and his passionate defense of their importance is carefully thought out. Smucker also doesn’t overstate his case. He’s never arguing that the Beach Boys are better than the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, and he’s never arguing that Pet Sounds is the greatest album of all time. Smucker writes of Pet Sounds: “I never believed it should be everybody’s favorite album. Or everybody’s second-favorite album. Or that there was something insensitive about not responding to it at all.” (p.84) I strongly agree with this style of criticism. I try not to write in hyperbole about music, movies, or literature and I appreciate other critics who follow the same principle. 

Why The Beach Boys Matter is divided into short chapters that cover various aspects of the Beach Boys’ musical career, such as “Cars and Guitars,” “Suburbs and Surf,” and “Fathers, Shrinks, and Gurus.” At just 176 pages, Why The Beach Boys Matter packs a lot of content into a short volume. Smucker does an excellent job summarizing the Beach Boys’ long career, examining their influences and their place in American pop culture.

A lot of writing about the Beach Boys tends to lionize Brian Wilson and vilify Mike Love. Smucker doesn’t fall into this trap, and does an admirable job of being fair to both Brian and Mike. Smucker writes of Love: “Mike’s the Beach Boy who’s worked the hardest to puzzle out how and where they can position themselves in the current moment, and where they fit into the past.” (p.121) 

Smucker takes us through the up and down of the Beach Boys, from their staggering early success—13 Top Ten singles in the U.S. from 1963 to 1966—to Brian Wilson’s retreat from the group in the late 1960’s, as their commercial fortunes waned and the other Beach Boys stepped up and tried to fill the void. The band continued to make strong music during this era, but they didn’t produce any huge hit singles or albums. Then in 1974, the Beach Boys’ old label, Capitol Records, put out a greatest hits compilation covering their 1962-65 years. It was called Endless Summer, and it spent three years on the Billboard album charts, hitting number one four months after it was released. Suddenly the Beach Boys were hot again, but it was for their old songs. Rolling Stone magazine named the Beach Boys the “Band of the Year” for 1974. The Boys were back, but the success of Endless Summer meant that their old material would overshadow whatever new songs they came out with. Smucker points out that during the early 1970’s the Beach Boys turned into a great live band. They were a group so confident in their abilities that they would actually open concerts with “Good Vibrations,” a song considered by many to be the group’s masterpiece. 

The Beach Boys, and Brian Wilson, have continued to thrive well into the 21^st century. It’s now almost sixty years since the first Beach Boys record was made, and their music still sounds as vibrant as ever.

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.