America’s musical wizard: Brian Wilson

Even though most of us remember the mental illness, composing songs on his piano in a sandbox, and staying in bed for three years, he became the Mozart of the pop/rock music world or, as someone once said, America’s resident answer to The Beatles. 

Brian Douglas Wilson, the oldest son of Murry and Audree Wilson, came into the world on June 20, 1942. He grew up in Hawthorne, California where he graduated from high school in 1960. As an infant, after hearing only a few verses of “When the Caissons Go Rolling Along,” his father remembers Brian being able to reproduce its melody.

Wilson, in his teens, was awe-struck by The Four Freshmen, whose vocal harmonies he found to be mesmerizing. For one year, he listened to their music, learned all of their songs, and honed his ability to sing high. Then he taught his two brothers, Carl and Dennis, how to sing the background harmonies.

The story goes that in 1961, when Murry and Audree went on vacation, they left their three sons with $100 for food. Along with their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine, they used the money to rent some instruments. By the time his parents returned, the Beach Boys had their first single, Surfin’.

It wasn’t long before their songs about surfing, cars, and fun catapulted them to become one of the most successful California pop/rock bands of the 1960s. Wilson’s more introspective biographical songs included “In My Room,” “Don’t Worry, Baby,” the soulful “Surfer Girl” and, later, the heartbreaking ballad “Caroline, No.” 

After writing or cowriting more than two dozen U.S. top 40 hits, Brian had a nervous breakdown on a plane bound for Houston in 1964. Glen Campbell stepped in to tour with the band, singing falsetto harmonies and playing bass guitar until March of the following year. 

Then, on Dec. 3, 1965, Rubber Soul was released. The Beatles’ sixth studio album contained new instrumentation, arrangements, and more mature lyrics. It topped the sales charts, both in Britain and the United States.

“Rubber Soul blew my mind,” Wilson said. 

Brian liked that it had a theme, that it “all went together.” Different music that he was hearing in his head, coupled with heartfelt emotions, could no longer be silenced. Hearing Rubber Soul is what motivated him to expand his musical horizons with their next album, Pet Sounds. 

While The Beach Boys went on tour in Japan, he and Tony Asher — an American songwriter and advertising copywriter — began working on his masterpiece in 1966. With the help of the Wrecking Crew, a group of highly trained session musicians, Brian began to surpass the Beatles’ in the art of studio perfection. Unusual sounds for their songs came from a bike horn, barking dogs, coke cans, sleigh bells, bongos and other exotic instruments including a timpani, güiro, and vibraphone.

About Pet Sounds, Brian said, “We were trying to capture spiritual love that couldn’t be found anywhere else in the world.” 

In the meantime, Good Vibrations — Brian’s “pocket symphony” to God — was held back for not being ready. It would take more than 90 hours of recording in four different studios at a cost of approximately $50,000, to finally release the song. Considered by Brian to be his whole life performance in one track, it quickly became the Beach Boys’ first million-selling single. 

Even though Pet Sounds is now considered to be one of the greatest albums of all time, the critics gave it a lukewarm review. After abandoning his next project, Smile, Brian retreated from the world where he grew more paranoid, suffered from depression, ballooned to 300 pounds, and continued to suffer from auditory hallucinations.

The Wilson family, along with his first wife Marilyn, appointed controversial psychologist Eugene Landy to help Brian lose weight and get his life back on track. While the 24/7 regime helped, Brian found himself face to face with a man much like his father. 

Murry Wilson abused him physically, similar to Landy’s emotional battering of him as an adult. Not only did both men instill fear, force, and control to motivate the sensitive genius, they also betrayed him in business with Murry selling the publishing rights to the Beach Boys music for only $750,000 behind their back.

Then, the late Melinda Ledbetter stepped into his life and became instrumental in getting him the real help he needed (they eventually married in 1995 and adopted five children). With her reach and the help of Brian’s family, Eugene Landy was barred from having any further contact with him.   

With Melinda as his new manager, Brian said that she encouraged him to make the music closest to his heart. However, some thought that she had too much control over his career, keeping him away from the Beach Boys. Still, in the years that followed, his musical accomplishments became an unparalleled body of work. 

In 2014, after the couple watched Love and Mercy, the biopic film about his life, Brian admitted that it was really a lot worse in real life. 

This, perhaps, is what motivated him to write music for the purpose of healing others and making people happy. Yet, for all that he did, when asked what he most wanted to be remembered for, the humble Wilson answered, “My singing.”

Kater Leatherman can be reached at [email protected].