Meet The Beach Boys
THE BEACH BOYS formed in Labor Day weekend, September 1961, in brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson's home in Hawthorne, a suburb of Los Angeles. Brian sang (they all sang) and played bass and wrote the songs with his cousin, Mike Love, the frontman, Dennis played drums, Carl was the lead guitarist and Brian's high school football team friend Al Jardine played rhythm guitar. One day after surfing, Dennis suggested to Brian and Mike that they should write a song about surfing. They did. The rest is, as the cliché goes, is history. They became successful, then really successful, then critically adored, then unsuccessful, then eventually they became known and beloved as an American institution, America's premier band. But the full story, with all the nitty gritty details, is a lot more complicated and fascinating than I can ever express in just one long paragraph.
They are my favorite band. Brian Wilson's 1966 masterpiece, Pet Sounds, is my favorite album of all time and the opening track, 'Wouldn't It Be Nice', is my all-time favorite song in all the universe. The amazing quality of their songs and their voices, the towering, astounding heights and the terribly embarrassing lows and everything in between all conspire to make them one hell of an interesting band to have as my favorite. I wouldn't have it any other way.
They are my favorite band. Brian Wilson's 1966 masterpiece, Pet Sounds, is my favorite album of all time and the opening track, 'Wouldn't It Be Nice', is my all-time favorite song in all the universe. The amazing quality of their songs and their voices, the towering, astounding heights and the terribly embarrassing lows and everything in between all conspire to make them one hell of an interesting band to have as my favorite. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Brian Wilson
Born June 20, 1942, Inglewood, CA
Vocals, bass, keyboards
Brian Wilson has been, off and on, the leader of the group, the principal songwriter and musical visionary. Brother Dennis once said of him, "Brian Wilson is the Beach Boys. He is the band. We're his f*****g messengers. He is all of it. Period. We're nothing. He's everything." While I wouldn't entirely say the other guys are nothing (when Brian distanced himself from the group later on, it was guys like Carl and Dennis who picked up the slack and wrote some great tunes), one could argue the band simply wouldn't exist without him and his
genius. And that is what he is, a musical genius. His best music dwarfs even the best stuff by my second favorite band, the Beatles, who, during the mid-'60s, were his primary musical rivals. Hell, even Paul McCartney supposedly called 'God Only Knows', one of Brian's greatest works, his favorite song of all time.
Brian's primary influence when he first started writing songs were the Four Freshmen, a 1950s jazz vocal group that he fell in love with as a child. He wed the Freshmen's harmonies with the propulsive rock and roll of Chuck Berry and the sound of the Beach Boys was born. Phil Spector's Wall of Sound production aesthetic further influenced Brian as he took command of the producer's chair on the band's albums. Spector would combine two instruments to make one sound, and quickly Brian began to do the same on his recordings. In late 1964, Brian quit touring so he could focus full time on producing records. The first result of his refocusing entirely on production was The Beach Boys Today! album in early '65. The second side of the album featured a more complex and full sound and more mature lyrical themes. That same sound continued on Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) released a few months later. The hit single 'California Girls' was of particular interest, as it featured a then-unheard of nearly orchestral opening. Then, in May of the following year, Brian sprang his masterpiece, Pet Sounds on the world. Finally dispensing with surf, fun and car themes, each song on the album built upon the lyrical themes of the Today! album while the music became even more complex and beautiful than ever before. Though they sang all their parts, not every band member was fully on board with Brian's new music and their label, Capitol Records, released it to little fanfare compared to their previous albums and as a result, though 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' and 'Sloop John B' did well on the charts, the album wasn't quite as commercially successful as what came before, in the US anyway. In the UK, the album rocketed to #2 and many respected musicians, producers and critics praised the album and Brian for his great artistic leap forward.
Though disappointed that Pet Sounds hadn't been the big hit he'd dreamed, Brian returned to the studio to complete an unfinished tune from the Pet Sounds sessions. In all, 'Good Vibrations' took almost six months and thousands of dollars to complete, but when it was released as a single in the fall of '66, it burned up the charts to #1 on both sides of the Atlantic. Brian had more up his sleeve. Before 'Good Vibrations' was even released, his was already working on his next masterpiece with lyric writer Van Dyke Parks, a conceptual work called Smile.
to be continued...
Born June 20, 1942, Inglewood, CA
Vocals, bass, keyboards
Brian Wilson has been, off and on, the leader of the group, the principal songwriter and musical visionary. Brother Dennis once said of him, "Brian Wilson is the Beach Boys. He is the band. We're his f*****g messengers. He is all of it. Period. We're nothing. He's everything." While I wouldn't entirely say the other guys are nothing (when Brian distanced himself from the group later on, it was guys like Carl and Dennis who picked up the slack and wrote some great tunes), one could argue the band simply wouldn't exist without him and his
genius. And that is what he is, a musical genius. His best music dwarfs even the best stuff by my second favorite band, the Beatles, who, during the mid-'60s, were his primary musical rivals. Hell, even Paul McCartney supposedly called 'God Only Knows', one of Brian's greatest works, his favorite song of all time.
Brian's primary influence when he first started writing songs were the Four Freshmen, a 1950s jazz vocal group that he fell in love with as a child. He wed the Freshmen's harmonies with the propulsive rock and roll of Chuck Berry and the sound of the Beach Boys was born. Phil Spector's Wall of Sound production aesthetic further influenced Brian as he took command of the producer's chair on the band's albums. Spector would combine two instruments to make one sound, and quickly Brian began to do the same on his recordings. In late 1964, Brian quit touring so he could focus full time on producing records. The first result of his refocusing entirely on production was The Beach Boys Today! album in early '65. The second side of the album featured a more complex and full sound and more mature lyrical themes. That same sound continued on Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) released a few months later. The hit single 'California Girls' was of particular interest, as it featured a then-unheard of nearly orchestral opening. Then, in May of the following year, Brian sprang his masterpiece, Pet Sounds on the world. Finally dispensing with surf, fun and car themes, each song on the album built upon the lyrical themes of the Today! album while the music became even more complex and beautiful than ever before. Though they sang all their parts, not every band member was fully on board with Brian's new music and their label, Capitol Records, released it to little fanfare compared to their previous albums and as a result, though 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' and 'Sloop John B' did well on the charts, the album wasn't quite as commercially successful as what came before, in the US anyway. In the UK, the album rocketed to #2 and many respected musicians, producers and critics praised the album and Brian for his great artistic leap forward.
Though disappointed that Pet Sounds hadn't been the big hit he'd dreamed, Brian returned to the studio to complete an unfinished tune from the Pet Sounds sessions. In all, 'Good Vibrations' took almost six months and thousands of dollars to complete, but when it was released as a single in the fall of '66, it burned up the charts to #1 on both sides of the Atlantic. Brian had more up his sleeve. Before 'Good Vibrations' was even released, his was already working on his next masterpiece with lyric writer Van Dyke Parks, a conceptual work called Smile.
to be continued...