Brian Wilson, co-founder and principal songwriter for the Beach Boys, has died. The man responsible for writing some of the greatest songs in the history of recorded music, has passed away after living with a neurocognitive disorder similar to dementia. He was 82.
“We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away,” Brian’s family wrote in a statement shared on his official Facebook and Instagram pages. “We are at a loss for words right now. Please respect our privacy at this time as our family is grieving. We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world. Love & Mercy.” The musician’s family confirmed his passing on social media. The creative force behind the mid-century pop-focused favourites, who contributed to California’s cool and laid-back aesthetic.
Wilson was born on June 20th 1942, and began to play the piano and teach his brothers to sing harmony as a young boy. The Beach Boys started as a neighbourhood act, rehearsing in Wilson’s bedroom and in the garage of their house in suburban Hawthorne, California.
Brian Wilson, born in Inglewood and raised in Hawthorne, formed a band called the Pendletones with his brothers Dennis and Carl, cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Candix Records changed the band’s name to the Beach Boys and, in 1963, they found their first Top 10 single in “Surfin’ U.S.A.” A year later, Wilson suffered a significant panic attack and subsequently quit touring with the band.
Wilson married singer Marilyn Rovell in 1964 and the couple welcomed daughters Carnie and Wendy, whom he became estranged from following their divorce.
The Beach Boys released their most recognised album, “Pet Sounds”, in May 1966, His group’s acknowledged masterpiece, 1966’s “Pet Sounds“, has been widely acclaimed as one of the greatest albums ever, with Wilson recognised by musicians worldwide as a songwriting genius for his innovative, ground breaking and hugely influential compositional skills, his use of complex harmonies, his arrangements and orchestration. “I believe that without Brian Wilson’s inspiration, “Sgt Pepper” might have been less of the phenomenon that it became,” Beatles producer George Martin is quoted as saying in Charles L Granata’s book Brian Wilson And The Making Of Pet Sounds. “Brian is a living genius of pop music. Like The Beatles, he pushed forward the frontiers of popular music.”
The next chapter of Wilson’s tenure in the Beach Boys was marked by difficulty. He was placed in a psychiatric hospital for treatment in 1968 and, in the 1970s, struggled with drug addiction and obesity. His relationship with psychologist Eugene Landy, which became the subject of the Beach Boys biopic “Love & Mercy”,
In 2012, following the 50th anniversary of the Beach Boys being founded, Wilson took to the road with Mike Love, Jardine and others for a tour.
Wilson’s brother Dennis died in 1983 while Carl died in 1998.
Songs like “Don’t Worry Baby,” “God Only Knows,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” and “Surf’s Up” are some of the most important creations in modern recorded music. And that’s not even including “Good Vibrations,” a perfect, audacious invention not yet replicated or rivaled. Had Wilson successfully completed his “teenage symphony to God,” “Smile”, in 1967, there would’ve been no debate between the Beach Boys and Beatles. Suffice to say: A world without Brian Wilson in it isn’t a very good one.
The Beach Boys’ “Surf’s Up2 was released in the waning days of summer 1971. The album began with a warning – “Don’t Go Near the Water” – and ended with two successive gut punches that left no doubt Daddy had indeed taken the T-bird away…perhaps for good. Before the ironically titled “Surf’s Up” brought the album to a close, Brian Wilson’s “‘Til I Die” took hold. I’m a rock in a landslide/Rolling over the mountainside…I’m a leaf on a windy day/Pretty soon I’ll be blown away... In just over two and a half minutes, the leader of The Beach Boys had distilled his innermost feelings of hopelessness, and the seeming inevitability of forces greater than he, into a soundscape of glistening beauty and profound sadness.
The Rolling Stone’s guitarist Ronnie Wood said in a social media post: “Oh no Brian Wilson and Sly Stone in one week – my world is in mourning, so sad.” His message was punctuated with praying hands and heart emojis, and featured pictures of Wilson and American funk singer Stone, real name Sylvester Stewart, who died on Monday, also aged 82.
Keith Richards posted an extract of his 2010 memoir, “Life”, about Wilson on Instagram with the caption “Rest in Peace!”. In the excerpt, Richards, 81, recalls hearing The Beach Boys for the first time on the radio, and his reaction to their 1966 album “Pet Sounds”. The extract reads: “When we first got to American and to LA, there was a lot of Beach Boys on the radio, which was pretty funny to us – it was before “Pet Sounds” – it was hot rod songs and surfing songs, pretty lousily played, familiar Chuck Berry licks going on…
Cusack, 58, who played Wilson in a 2014 biopic, said in a post: “The maestro has passed — the man was a open heart with two legs — with an ear that heard the angels. Quite literally. Love and Mercy for you and yours tonight. RIP Brian.”
Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood added: “Anyone with a musical bone in their body must be grateful for Brian Wilson’s genius magical touch!!
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