Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. After signing with Capitol Records in 1962, Wilson wrote or co-wrote more than two dozen Top 40 hits for the group.[1] In addition to his unorthodox approaches to pop composition and mastery of recording techniques, Wilson is known for his lifelong struggles with mental illness. He is often referred to as a genius[2] and is widely acknowledged as one of the most innovative and significant songwriters of the late 20th century.[3]
The Beach Boys were formed by Wilson with his brothers Carl and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Brian, who grew up influenced by 1950s rock and roll and jazz-based vocal groups, originally functioned as the band's songwriter, producer, co-lead vocalist, bassist, keyboardist, and de facto leader. In 1964, he suffered a nervous breakdown and stopped touring with the group, which led to more personal work such as Pet Sounds (1966) and the unfinished Smile. As his mental health deteriorated, his contributions to the band diminished, and over the next decade, he was reputed for his reclusive lifestyle and substance abuse.[4] Following a 1992 court-ordered removal from the care of psychologist Eugene Landy, Wilson started receiving conventional medical treatment, and in the late 1990s, he began performing and recording consistently as a solo artist. He remains a member of the Beach Boys' corporation, Brother Records Inc.
Wilson was the first pop artist credited for writing, arranging, producing, and performing his own material. He is considered a major innovator in the field of music production, the principal originator of the California Sound, one of the first music producer auteurs, and the first rock producer to use the studio as its own instrument. The unusual creative control Capitol gave him over his own records effectively set a precedent that allowed other bands and artists to act as their own producers or co-producers. Wilson's success also led to a proliferation of like-minded California producers who helped supplant New York as the center of popular records. The zeitgeist of the early 1960s is commonly associated with his early songs, and he was a major influence on the retrospectively-termed "sunshine pop" and Flower Power music that proceeded.
In later years, Wilson became influential to the spirit of punk rock and was regarded as "godfather" to an era of indie musicians who were inspired by his melodic sensibilities, chamber pop orchestrations, and recording explorations. His honors include being inducted into the 1988 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and winning Grammy Awards for Brian Wilson Presents Smile (2004) and The Smile Sessions (2011). In lists published by Rolling Stone, Wilson ranked 52 for the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time" in 2008[5] and 12 for the "100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time" in 2015.[6] In 2012, music publication NME ranked Wilson number 8 in its "50 Greatest Producers Ever" list, elaborating "few consider quite how groundbreaking Brian Wilson's studio techniques were in the mid-60s".[7] His life was dramatized in the 2014 biopic Love & Mercy.
Contents
1 Biography
1.1 1942–1962: Early years and performances
1.2 1962–1964: Success and record producing
1.3 1964–1967: Artistic growth
1.3.1 Resignation from touring and changing scene
1.3.2 Pet Sounds, "genius" promotion, and Smile
1.4 1967–1975: Career decline
1.4.1 Home studio, institutionalization, and reduced band involvement
1.4.2 Bedroom Tapes, American Spring, and the Radiant Radish
1.4.3 Recluse period
1.5 1975–1992: Landy interventions
1.5.1 First treatment
1.5.2 Second treatment
1.5.2.1 Debut solo album
1.6 1990s–2010s: Touring and solo resurgence
1.6.1 Collaborations and unfinished projects
1.6.2 Brian Wilson Presents Smile
1.6.3 That Lucky Old Sun and Beach Boys reunion
1.6.4 2013–present
2 Musicianship
3 Personal life
3.1 Relationships
3.2 Spirituality
3.3 Health
4 Legacy and influence
4.1 Cultural impact
4.2 Awards and honors
4.3 In popular culture
4.3.1 Love & Mercy
5 Discography
6 Filmography
7 Notes
8 References
9 Bibliography
10 External links
Biography[edit]
1942–1962: Early years and performances[edit]
Wilson's senior yearbook photo, 1960
Brian Douglas Wilson was born on June 20, 1942, at Centinela Hospital in Inglewood, California, the eldest son of Audree Neva (née Korthof) and Murry Wilson, a musician and machinist.[8] His two younger brothers were Dennis and Carl. He has Dutch, English, German, Irish, and Swedish ancestry.[9] When he was two,[10] the family moved from Inglewood to 3701 West 119th Street in nearby Hawthorne, California.[11] Speaking of Wilson's unusual musical abilities prior to his first birthday, his father said that, as a baby, he could repeat the melody from "When the Caissons Go Rolling Along" after only a few verses had been sung by the father. Murry Wilson said, "He was very clever and quick. I just fell in love with him."[12] At about age two, Wilson heard George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, which had an enormous emotional impact on him.[13] A few years later, he was discovered to have diminished hearing in his right ear. The exact cause of this hearing loss is unclear, though theories range from him simply being born partially deaf to a blow to the head from his father, or a neighborhood bully, being to blame.[14]
A minor musician and songwriter, Wilson's father encouraged his children in the music field in numerous ways. At an early age, Wilson was given six weeks of lessons on a "toy accordion" and, at seven and eight, sang solos in church with a choir behind him.[15] At Hawthorne High School, Wilson was on the football team as a quarterback, played baseball and was a cross-country runner in his senior year.[16] He sang with various students at school functions and with his family and friends at home, teaching his two brothers harmony parts that all three would then practice. He also played piano obsessively after school, deconstructing the harmonies of the Four Freshmen by listening to short segments of their songs on a phonograph, then working to recreate the blended sounds note by note on the keyboard.[17] He received a Wollensak tape recorder on his 16th birthday, allowing him to experiment with recording songs and early group vocals.[18]
One of Wilson's earliest public performances was at a fall arts program at his high school. He enlisted his cousin and frequent singing partner Mike Love, and to entice Carl into the group, named the newly formed membership "Carl and the Passions." The performance featured tunes by Dion and the Belmonts and the Four Freshmen ("It's a Blue World"), the latter of which proved difficult for the ensemble. The event was notable for the impression which it made on another musician and classmate of Wilson's in the audience that night, Al Jardine. Jardine would join the three Wilson brothers and Mike Love a few years later in the Beach Boys.[19]
I first felt I had a good voice when I was about seventeen or eighteen and was able to sing along well to records by the Four Freshmen. By singing along to those records that's how I learned how to sing falsetto.
—Brian Wilson, 2013[20]
Wilson enrolled at El Camino College in Los Angeles, majoring in psychology, in September 1960. He continued his music studies at the community college as well.[21] At some point in 1961 he wrote his first all-original melody, loosely based on a Dion and the Belmonts version of "When You Wish Upon a Star". The song was eventually known as "Surfer Girl". Although an early demo of the song was recorded in February 1962 at World-Pacific Studios, it was not re-recorded and released until 1963, when it became a top-ten hit.[22]
Wilson, his brothers Carl and Dennis, Mike Love and Al Jardine first appeared as a music group in the summer of 1961, initially under the name the Pendletones. After being prodded by Dennis to write a song about the local water-sports craze, Wilson and Mike Love together created what became the first single for the band, "Surfin'". Over Labor Day weekend 1961, Wilson took advantage of the fact that his parents were in Mexico City for several days, and the boys used the emergency money his parents had left to rent an amplifier, a microphone, and a stand-up bass for Jardine to play. After the boys rehearsed for two days in the Wilsons' music room, his parents returned home from their trip. Eventually impressed, Murry Wilson proclaimed himself the group's manager and the band embarked on serious rehearsals for a proper studio session.[23]
Wilson (second-left) performing with the Beach Boys in Pendleton outfits at a local high school in late 1962
Recorded by Hite and Dorinda Morgan and released on the small Candix Records label, "Surfin'" became a top local hit in Los Angeles and reached number seventy-five on the national Billboard sales charts.[24] Dennis later described the first time that his older brother heard their song on the radio, as the three Wilson brothers and David Marks drove in Wilson's 1957 Ford in the rain: "Nothing will ever top the expression on Brian's face, ever ... that was the all-time moment."[25][26] However, the Pendletones were no more. Without the band's knowledge or permission, Candix Records had changed their name to the Beach Boys.[27] Wilson and his bandmates, following a set by Ike & Tina Turner, performed their first major live show at the Ritchie Valens Memorial Dance on New Year's Eve, 1961. Three days previously, Wilson's father had bought him an electric bass and amplifier. Wilson had learned to play the instrument in that short period of time, with Al Jardine moving to rhythm guitar. On stage, Wilson provided many of the lead vocals, and often harmonized with the group in falsetto.[citation needed]
Looking for a follow-up single for their radio hit, Wilson and Mike Love wrote "Surfin' Safari", and attempts were made to record a usable take at World Pacific, including overdubs, on February 8, 1962, along with several other tunes including an early version of "Surfer Girl". Only a few days later, discouraged about the band's financial prospects, and objecting to adding some Chubby Checker songs to the Beach Boys live setlist, Al Jardine abruptly left the group, but rejoined shortly thereafter.[28] When Candix Records ran into money problems and sold the Beach Boys' master recordings to another label, Wilson's father terminated the contract. As "Surfin'" faded from the charts, Wilson, who had forged a songwriting partnership with Gary Usher, created several new songs, including a car song, "409", that Usher helped them write. Wilson and the Beach Boys cut new tracks at Western Recorders including an updated "Surfin' Safari" and "409". These songs convinced Capitol Records to release the demos as a single; they became a double-sided national hit.[29]
1962–1964: Success and record producing[edit]
Wilson performing on electric bass with the Beach Boys, 1964
Recording sessions for the band's first album took place in Capitol's basement studios in the famous tower building in August 1962, but early on Wilson lobbied for a different place to cut Beach Boy tracks. The large rooms were built to record the big orchestras and ensembles of the 1950s, not small rock groups. At Wilson's insistence, Capitol agreed to let the Beach Boys pay for their own outside recording sessions, to which Capitol would own all the rights, and in return the band would receive a higher royalty rate on their record sales. Additionally, during the taping of their first LP Wilson fought for, and won, the right to be in charge of the production – though this fact was not acknowledged with an album liner notes production credit.[30]
In January 1963, the Beach Boys recorded their first top-ten (cresting at number three in the United States) single, "Surfin' U.S.A.", which began their long run of highly successful recording efforts at Hollywood's United Western Recorders on Sunset Boulevard. It was during the sessions for this single that Wilson made the production decision from that point on to use double tracking on the group's vocals, resulting in a deeper and more resonant sound.[31] The Surfin' U.S.A. album was also a big hit in the United States, reaching number two on the national sales charts by early July 1963. The Beach Boys had become a top-rank recording and touring band.[8]
Wilson was for the first time officially credited as the Beach Boys' producer on the Surfer Girl album, recorded in June and July 1963 and released that September. This LP reached number seven on the national charts, containing singles that were top 15 hits. Feeling that surfing songs had become limiting, Wilson decided to produce a set of largely car-oriented tunes for the Beach Boys' fourth album, Little Deuce Coupe, which was released in October 1963, only three weeks after the Surfer Girl LP. The departure of guitarist David Marks from the band that month meant that Wilson was forced to resume touring with the Beach Boys, for a time reducing his availability in the recording studio.[32]
The Honeys – "He's A Doll" (1964)
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Written and produced by Brian Wilson, "He's A Doll" was one of several attempts by Wilson to branch away from the Beach Boys.[33]
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For much of the decade, Wilson attempted to establish himself as a record producer by working with various artists. On July 20, 1963, "Surf City", which he co-wrote with Jan Berry of Jan and Dean, was his first composition to reach the top of the US charts. The resulting success pleased Wilson, but angered both Murry and Capitol Records. Murry went so far as to order his oldest son to sever any future collaborations with Jan and Dean. Wilson's other non-Beach Boy work in this period included tracks by the Castells, Donna Loren, Sharon Marie, the Timers, and the Survivors. The most notable group to which Wilson would attach himself in this era would be the Honeys, which Wilson intended as the female counterpart to the Beach Boys, and as an attempt to compete with Phil Spector-led girl groups such as the Crystals and the Ronettes.[33] He continued juggling between recording with the Beach Boys and producing records for other artists, but with less success at the latter—except for Jan and Dean.[34]
1964–1967: Artistic growth[edit]
Resignation from touring and changing scene[edit]
The Beach Boys' rigorous performing schedule increasingly burdened Wilson, and following a panic attack on board a flight from L.A. to Houston on December 23, 1964,[35] he stopped performing live with the group in an effort to concentrate solely on songwriting[36] and studio production.[35] Wilson explained in 1971: "I felt I had no choice. I was run down mentally and emotionally because I was running around, jumping on jets from one city to another on one-night stands, also producing, writing, arranging, singing, planning, teaching—to the point where I had no peace of mind and no chance to actually sit down and think or even rest."[37] Glen Campbell was called in as his temporary stand-in for live performances,[38] before Bruce Johnston replaced him. As thanks, Wilson produced Campbell’s single "Guess I'm Dumb".[39]
I had what I consider to be a very religious experience. I took LSD, a full dose of LSD, and later, another time, I took a smaller dose. And I learned a lot of things, like patience, understanding. I can't teach you, or tell you what I learned from taking it. But I consider it a very religious experience.
—Brian Wilson, 1966[40]
It was during that December that Wilson was introduced to cannabis hesitantly by his friend Lorren Daro (formerly Loren Schwartz), an assistant at the William Morris Agency.[41] Attracted by the drug's ability to alleviate stress and inspire creativity, Wilson completed the Beach Boys' forthcoming Today! album by late January 1965 and quickly began work on their next, Summer Days. Sometime in April, Wilson experienced his first acid trip, which had a profound effect on his musical and spiritual conceptions.[40] Again, Daro was hesitant to provide drugs to Wilson, which he did not feel he was ready for, but has recounted that his dosage was "one hundred and twenty-five mics of pure Owsley," and that "he had the full-on ego death. It was a beautiful thing."[42] The music for "California Girls" came from this first LSD experience, a composition which would later be released as a #3 charting single.[43] Wilson continued experimenting with psychotropics for the next few years, sometimes even during recording sessions.[44] He became fixated on psychedelia, claiming to have coined a slang, "psychedelicate,"[45] and foreseeing that "psychedelic music will cover the face of the world and color the whole popular music scene."[46] A week after his first LSD trip, Wilson began suffering from auditory hallucinations, which have persisted throughout his life.[47]
Pet Sounds, "genius" promotion, and Smile[edit]
Main articles: Pet Sounds and Smile (The Beach Boys album)
Wilson in 1966
In late 1965, Wilson began working on material for a new project, Pet Sounds. He formed a temporary songwriting partnership with lyricist Tony Asher, who was suggested to Wilson by mutual friend Daro.[48] Wilson, who had recorded the album's instrumentation with the Wrecking Crew, then assembled the Beach Boys to record vocal overdubs, following their return from a tour of Japan. Upon hearing what Wilson had created for the first time in 1965,[35] the group, particularly Mike Love, was somewhat critical of their leader's music,[38] and expressed their dissatisfaction.[35] At this time, Wilson still had considerable control within the group and, according to Wilson, they eventually overcame their initial negative reaction, as his newly created music began to near completion.[35] The album was released May 16, 1966, and, despite modest sales figures at the time, has since become widely critically acclaimed, often being cited among the all-time greatest albums. Although the record was issued under the group's name, Pet Sounds is arguably seen as a Brian Wilson solo album. Wilson even toyed with the idea by releasing "Caroline, No" as a solo single in March 1966, it reaching number 32 on the Billboard charts.[49][not in citation given]
During the Pet Sounds sessions, Wilson had been working on another song, which was held back from inclusion on the record as he felt that it was not sufficiently complete. The song "Good Vibrations" set a new standard for musicians and for what could be achieved in the recording studio. Recorded in multiple sessions and in numerous studios, the song eventually cost $50,000 (equivalent to $386,103 in 2018) to record within a six-month period.[50] In October 1966, it was released as a single, giving the Beach Boys their third US number-one hit after "I Get Around" and "Help Me, Rhonda". It sold over a million copies.
Sometime after Pet Sounds was released, the Beatles' press agent Derek Taylor started working as a publicist for the Beach Boys. He gradually became aware of Wilson's reputation as a genius among musician friends, a belief that wasn't widely held at the time.[51] Motivated by Wilson's musical merits, Taylor responded with a campaign that would reestablish the band's outdated surfing image, and was the first to tout Wilson as a genius.[51][52] According to Van Dyke Parks, this was "much to Brian's embarrassment".[52]
By the time of the universal success of "Good Vibrations", Wilson was underway with his next project, Smile, which Wilson described as a "teenage symphony to God." "Good Vibrations" had been recorded in modular style, with separately written sections individually tracked and spliced together, and Wilson's concept for the new album was more of the same, representing a departure from the standard live-taped performances typical of studio recordings at that time. Having been introduced to Van Dyke Parks at a garden party at Terry Melcher's home, Wilson liked Parks' "visionary eloquence" and began working with him in the fall of 1966.[53] After Wilson famously installed a sandbox and tent in his living room, the pair collaborated closely on several Smile tracks. Conflict within the group and Wilson's own growing personal problems threw the project into terminal disarray. Originally scheduled for release in January 1967, the release date was continually pushed back until press officer Derek Taylor announced its cancellation in May 1967.[citation needed]
1967–1975: Career decline[edit]
Home studio, institutionalization, and reduced band involvement[edit]
We pulled out of that production pace, really because I was about ready to die. I was trying so hard. So, all of a sudden I decided not to try any more, and not try and do such great things, such big musical things. And we had so much fun. The Smiley Smile era was so great, it was unbelievable. Personally, spiritually, everything, it was great. I didn't have any paranoia feelings.
—Brian Wilson, January 1968[54]
By 1967, Wilson's life was on the verge of a serious decline. Following the cancellation of Smile, the Beach Boys relocated to a studio situated in the living room of Wilson's new mansion in Bel Air (once the home of Edgar Rice Burroughs[citation needed]), where the band would primarily record until 1972. This has been perceived by some commentators as "the moment when the Beach Boys first started slipping from the vanguard to nostalgia."[35][55] Throughout mid-to-late 1967, Wilson oversaw the production of only a few heavily orchestrated songs holding continuity with his Pet Sounds and Smile work, such as "Can't Wait Too Long" and "Time to Get Alone". Wilson's interest in the Beach Boys began to wane. Carl explained: "When we did Wild Honey, Brian asked me to get more involved in the recording end. He wanted a break. He was tired. He had been doing it all too long."[56]
Still psychologically overwhelmed by the cancellation of Smile and the imminent birth of his first child Carnie Wilson in 1968 amid the looming financial insolvency of the Beach Boys, Wilson's creative directorship within the band became increasingly tenuous; additionally, cocaine had begun to supplement Wilson's regular use of amphetamines, marijuana, and psychedelics.[57] Shortly after abandoning an intricate arrangement of Kern and Hammerstein's "Ol' Man River" at the instigation of Mike Love,[58] Wilson entered a psychiatric hospital for a brief period of time. Biographer Peter Ames Carlin has speculated that Wilson had self-admitted and may have been administered a number of treatments ranging from talking therapies to doses of Lithium and electroconvulsive therapy during this stay.[59]
In his absence, 1969's 20/20 consisted substantially of key Smile outtakes ("Cabinessence" and "Our Prayer") along with the long-germinating "Time to Get Alone". The album's lead track, the Wilson/Love-authored "Do It Again", was an unabashed throwback to the band's earlier surf hits, and had been an international hit in the summer of 1968, reaching number 20 in the US charts and number 1 in the UK and Australia while also scoring well in other countries. During this phase, Wilson also collaborated with his father (credited under the pseudonym of Reggie Dunbar) on "Break Away", the band's final single for Capitol Records under their original contract; although relatively unsuccessful in the US (peaking at number 63 in Billboard), the song reached number 6 on the British singles chart.[citation needed]
At a press conference ostensibly convened to promote "Break Away" to the European media shortly thereafter, Wilson intimated that "We owe everyone money. And if we don't pick ourselves off our backsides and have a hit record soon, we will be in worse trouble ... I've always said, 'Be honest with your fans.' I don't see why I should lie and say that everything is rosy when it's not." These incendiary remarks ultimately thwarted long-simmering contract negotiations with Deutsche Grammophon.[60] Although Murry Wilson's sale of the Sea of Tunes publishing company (including the majority of Wilson's oeuvre) to A&M Records' publishing division for $700,000 at the band's commercial nadir in 1969 renewed the longstanding animus[61] between father and son, the younger Wilson stood in for Mike Love during a 1970 Northwest tour when Love was convalescing from illness. He also resumed writing and recording with the Beach Boys at a brisk pace; seven of the twelve new songs on the 1970 album Sunflower were either written or co-written by Wilson. Nevertheless, the album (retrospectively appraised as "perhaps the strongest album they released post-Pet Sounds" by Pitchfork)[62] was a commercial failure in the US, peaking at number 151 during a four-week Billboard chart stay in October 1970. Following the termination of the Capitol contract in 1969, the band's new contract with then-au courant Reprise Records (brokered by Van Dyke Parks, employed as a multimedia executive at the company at the time) stipulated Wilson's proactive involvement with the band in all albums,[63] a factor that would become hugely problematic for the band in the years to come.
Bedroom Tapes, American Spring, and the Radiant Radish[edit]
Even in those years when he was supposedly in seclusion, Brian came downstairs all the time, this great big guy in a bathrobe. And we went places. Brian and I used to get into his Mercedes and drive over to the Radiant Radish, or we'd go to Redondo Beach and hang out with his high school pals, or go look for Carol Mountain. Brian was as normal to me as anyone else.
—Stanley Shapiro[64]
Sometime in 1969, Wilson opened a short-lived health food store called The Radiant Radish.[37] The store closed in 1971 due to unprofitable produce expenditures and Wilson's general lack of business acumen.[65] Reports from this era detailed Wilson as "increasingly withdrawn, brooding, hermitic ... and occasionally, he is to be seen in the back of some limousine, cruising around Hollywood, bleary and unshaven, huddled way tight into himself."[66] This notion was contested by lyricist and close friend Stanley Shapiro.[67] Nevertheless, Wilson's reputation suffered as a result of his purported eccentricities, and he quickly became known as a commercial has-been whom record labels feared.[67] When Shapiro persuaded Wilson to rewrite and rerecord a number of Beach Boys songs in order to reclaim his legacy, he contacted fellow songwriter Tandyn Almer (whom Wilson would later characterize as his "best friend")[68] for support. The trio then spent a month reworking cuts from the Beach Boys' Friends album.[69] As Shapiro handed demo tapes to A&M Records executives, they found the product favorable before they learned of Wilson and Almer's involvement, and proceeded to veto the idea.[70][nb 1] Wilson commented in 1976:
Once you've been labeled as a genius, you have to continue it or your name becomes mud. I am a victim of the recording industry. I didn't think I was a genius. I thought I had talent. But I didn't think I was a genius.[56]
Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, Wilson amassed myriad home demo recordings which later became informally known as the "Bedroom Tapes".[72] Most of these recordings remain unreleased and unheard by the public. Some of the material has been described as "schizophrenia on tape," and "intensely personal songs of gentle humanism and strange experimentation, which reflected on his then-fragile emotional state."[72] Beach Boys archivist Alan Boyd observed: "A lot of the music that Brian was creating during this period was full of syncopated exercises and counterpoints piled on top of jittery eighth-note clusters and loping shuffle grooves. You get hints of it earlier in things like the tags to 'California Girls,' 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' and all throughout Smile, but it takes on an almost manic edge in the '70s."[72] Wilson's daughter Wendy remembers, "Where other people might take a run to release some stress, he would go to the piano and write a 5-minute song."[73] Her sister Carnie has recounted: "My memories of him are him wandering from room to room ... thinking about something. I always wanted to know what he was thinking, you know? Who knows what he was thinking in his head? ... We got used to what the whole environment was. It was very musical; there was always a piano going. Either "Rhapsody in Blue" was playing, or ..."Be My Baby"—I mean—I woke up every morning to boom boom-boom pow! Boom boom-boom pow! Every day."[73]
"'Til I Die" from Surf's Up (1971)
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Initially demoed in 1969 and largely recorded in 1970, Wilson has referred to "'Til I Die" as the most personal song he ever wrote for the Beach Boys.[74][75]
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While working at the Radiant Radish, Wilson met journalist and radio presenter Jack Rieley, who would manage the Beach Boys and act as Wilson's principal lyricist for the next few years.[76] Wilson played and sang on much of the 1971 Surf's Up album—the band's highest American album chart placement (No. 29) since 1967—and wrote or co-wrote four of the album's ten songs, including the title track. However, only one fully formed original song from Wilson emerged during the album's nominal recording sessions, the dirge-like "A Day in the Life of a Tree".[77] According to engineer Stephen Desper, the cumulatively deleterious effects of Wilson's cocaine and tobacco use began to affect his vocal register in earnest during the Surf's Up sessions.[78]
The Beach Boys performing in the early 1970s without Wilson
In late 1971 and early 1972, he worked on an album for the American Spring, titled Spring, a new collaboration between erstwhile Honeys Marilyn Wilson and Diane Rovell. He was closely involved in the home-based recordings with co-producer David Sandler and engineer Stephen Desper, and did significant work on more than half of the tracks. As with much of his work in the era, his contributions "ebbed and flowed."[79] According to Dan Peek of America, Wilson "held court like a Mad King as [longtime friend] Danny Hutton scurried about like his court jester" during the ascendant band's engagement at the Whisky a Go Go in February 1972.[80] Concurrently, he contributed to three out of eight songs on Beach Boys' Carl and the Passions – "So Tough" (1972).
Later that year, he reluctantly agreed to accompany the band to the Netherlands, where they based themselves to record Holland. Although physically present, he often yielded to his vices (primarily hashish and hard cider) and rarely participated, confining himself to work on "Funky Pretty" (a collaboration with Mike Love and Jack Rieley); a one-line sung intro to Al Jardine's "California Saga: California"; and Mount Vernon and Fairway (A Fairy Tale), a narrative suite musically inspired by Randy Newman's Sail Away that was promptly rejected by the band. However, Carl Wilson ultimately capitulated and ensured that the suite would be released as a bonus EP with the album.[81] When the album itself was rejected by Reprise, the song "Sail On, Sailor"—a collaboration with Van Dyke Parks dating from 1971 that had grown to encompass additional lyrical contributions solicited by Wilson at parties hosted by Hutton—was inserted at the instigation of Parks and released as the lead single.[82] It promptly garnered a considerable amount of FM radio play, became a minor chart hit, and entered the band's live sets as a concert staple.
In 1973, Jan Berry (under the alias JAN) released the single "Don't You Just Know It", a duet featuring Wilson.[83]
Recluse period[edit]
I was snorting cocaine, which I shouldn't have gotten into. It messed up my mind, and it unplugged me from music. I just remember reading magazines. I would say, "Get me a Playboy! Get me a Penthouse!
—Brian Wilson, 2004[84]
Wilson spent a great deal of the two years following his father's June 1973 death, secluded in the chauffeur's quarters of his home; sleeping, abusing alcohol, taking drugs (including heroin), overeating, and exhibiting self-destructive behavior.[85] He attempted to drive his vehicle off a cliff, and at another time, demanded that he would be pushed into and buried in a grave that he had dug in his backyard.[72] During this period, his voice deteriorated significantly as a result of his mass consumption of cocaine and incessant chain smoking.[86] Wilson later said that he was preoccupied with "[doing] drugs and hanging out with Danny Hutton" (whose house became the center of Wilson's social life) during the mid-1970s.[87] John Sebastian often showed up at Wilson's Bel Air home "to jam" and later recalled that "it wasn't all grimness."[88] Although increasingly reclusive during the day, Wilson spent many nights at Hutton's house fraternizing with Hollywood Vampire colleagues, such as Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop, who were mutually bemused by an extended Wilson-led singalong of the folk song "Shortnin' Bread"; other visitors of Hutton's home included Vampires Harry Nilsson, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and Keith Moon.[67] Micky Dolenz recalls taking LSD with Wilson, Lennon, and Nilsson, where Wilson "played just one note on a piano over and over again".[89] On several occasions, Marilyn Wilson sent her friends to climb Hutton's fence and retrieve her husband.[87]
Jimmy Webb reported Wilson's presence at an August 2, 1974 session for Nilsson's "Salmon Falls"; he kept in the back of the studio playing "Da Doo Ron Ron" haphazardly on a B3 organ.[90] Later that month, he was photographed at Moon's 28th birthday party (held on August 28 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel) wearing only his bathrobe. Sometime in 1974, Wilson interrupted a set by jazz musician Larry Coryell at The Troubadour by leaping onto stage and singing "Be-Bop-A-Lula", again wearing slippers and a bathrobe.[91]
During summer 1974, the Capitol Records-era greatest hits compilation Endless Summer reached number 1 on the Billboard charts, reaffirming the relevance of the Beach Boys in the popular imagination. However, recording sessions for a new album under the supervision of Wilson and James William Guercio at Caribou Ranch and the band's studio in Santa Monica that autumn yielded only a smattering of basic tracks, including a banjo-driven arrangement of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"; "It's O.K.", an uptempo collaboration with Mike Love; the ballad "Good Timin'"; and Dennis Wilson's "River Song".[92] Eventually, Wilson diverted his attentions to "Child of Winter", a Christmas single co-written with Stephen Kalinich; released belatedly for the holiday market on December 23, it failed to chart.[93]
Although still under contract with Warner Brothers Records, Wilson signed a sideline production deal with Bruce Johnston and Terry Melcher's Equinox Records in early 1975. Together, they founded the loose-knit supergroup known as California Music, which involved them along with L.A. musicians Gary Usher, Curt Boettcher, and a few others.[85] This contract was nullified by the Beach Boys' management, who perceived it as an attempt by Wilson to relieve the burden of his growing drug expenses, and it was demanded that Wilson focus his efforts on the Beach Boys, even though he strongly desired to escape from the group.[85] The idea of California Music immediately disintegrated.[85]
1975–1992: Landy interventions[edit]
Further information: Eugene Landy § Relationship with Brian Wilson
[Landy] was such a performer ... You couldn't stop him. To him, he was the star of the story ... He was full of himself ... He did so many other things that you thought the whole thing might have been a scam. However, one way to keep a person from taking drugs is having a guard there to keep him from taking drugs. It's called prison, but it was in his home.
—David Felton[94]
First treatment[edit]
Marilyn and the Wilson family were dismayed by Wilson's continued deterioration and were reluctant to payroll him as an active partner in the touring Beach Boys, an arrangement that had persisted for a decade. They enlisted the services of radical therapist Eugene Landy in October 1975.[95] Landy diagnosed Wilson as a paranoid schizophrenic (a diagnosis later retracted); under Landy's care, Wilson became more stable and socially engaged, with his productivity increasing once again.[96] The tagline "Brian's Back!" became a major promotional tool for the new Beach Boys album 15 Big Ones, released to coincide with their fifteenth anniversary as a band. The record, which consisted of a mixture of traditional pop covers with newly written original material, was released in the summer of 1976 to commercial acclaim and, despite lukewarm reviews, peaked at number 8 on the Billboard album chart. Wilson returned to regular stage appearances with the band, alternating between piano and bass, and made a solo appearance on Saturday Night Live in November 1976; to the chagrin of the other Beach Boys, producer Lorne Michaels stipulated an exclusive performance from Wilson.[97]
Wilson at a 15 Big Ones session, circa 1976
Wilson's behavior during this time was reported by many to be strange and off-putting, and Landy's role was described as "unethical" and ostentatious.[94] Often, Wilson would ask for drugs in mid-interview.[98][99][100] During this period, Wilson was under constant surveillance by bodyguards, which he resented.[99] Rolling Stone editor David Felton chronicled bizarre exchanges between Wilson and Landy in "The Healing of Brother Brian", a profile of the resurgent band published by the magazine in November 1976; these included a report of Landy's medical staff promising Wilson a cheeseburger in exchange for writing a new song.[98]
Wilson expressed a fervent desire to leave the group and record a solo album in this period but could not, due to conflicts that it would create between him and the group, leading him to remark, "Sometimes I feel like a commodity in a stock market." He was also firm in that he wanted to record another work on par with the achievement of Pet Sounds.[99] In April 1977, the all-original album by Wilson, Love You, was released bearing the Beach Boys moniker, although the group's contributions were minimal. It was described by Wilson as an attempt to relieve himself from mental instability brought on by a period of inactivity.[101] Love You has since been cited as an early work of synthpop.[102] The album features playful lyrics (alternately invoking Johnny Carson, Phil Spector, and adolescent interests) and stark instrumentation (featuring Moog bass lines and gated reverb-drenched drum patterns reflective of contemporaneous work by David Bowie and Tony Visconti).[citation needed] Although Love You only reached number 53 on the Billboard chart, it was lauded as an artistic watershed by many critics, including punk rock lodestar Patti Smith (writing for Hit Parader) and Robert Christgau of The Village Voice.[103][104]
Wilson was under Landy's care for fourteen months until December 1976, when the therapist was dismissed for a dispute concerning his monthly fee.[105] Throughout the next several years, Wilson vacillated between periods of relative stability (frequently joining the touring band on piano, bass and vocals and writing or co-writing eight of the twelve tracks on 1978's poorly received M.I.U. Album) and resurgences of his addictions. During this period, Wilson and his wife, Marilyn, amicably divorced in 1979 due to the strain of his erratic behavior on their family.[106] He repeatedly checked in and out of hospitals and continued to be plagued by incessant mood swings. At one point, he wandered off alone for several days and was sighted at a gay bar playing piano for drinks.[107][108] For a short period in 1978, he lived as a vagrant in Balboa Park, San Diego until police officers took him to Alvarado Hospital for alcohol poisoning.[108][109][110] Wilson's role in the band, as well as the Beach Boys' commercial prospects, began to diminish once more. By 1982, he was immersed in debt, owing the government tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes.[111]
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