In a year already overflowing with sadness and loss – during a week where we lost one musical genius and visionary, we now lose another. Losing Sly Stone was a body blow – losing Brian Wilson was a knock-out punch.
Although it wasn’t a prerequisite, living in Southern California in the early 1960s was an especially magic time – it was also a time of discovery and realization – the realization that Contemporary Popular Music was undergoing an irrevocable change – was freeing up from its previous constraints, was pointing in new and exciting directions.
Sure, The Beach Boys were a Surf band, during a time when Surf was indelibly linked with Southern California and the whole cultural itinerary that went with it. But what made The Beach Boys different was the fact that Brian Wilson saw the possibilities – saw taking a genre and expanding on it – taking it beyond simplicity, injecting it with human emotion and turning it into a profound musical and emotional experience – that was the genius of Brian Wilson.
Much as The Beatles Revolver signaled a dramatic turning point in Rock from that side of the Atlantic, The Beach Boys Pet Sounds signaled the turning point for this side. There were traces and inklings going back as far as Warmth Of The Sun from The Beach Boys, much as there were with Nowhere Man and In My Life from The Beatles – Popular music was growing up and becoming music to listen to, not music to listen at. We were changed forever and we can thank Brian Wilson for that.
This small tribute is a performance from The Hollywood Bowl during YMCA Day from September 1963 – they were the final act and one of the most popular that day. I’ve posted this concert in its entirety years ago – and this part has been bootlegged on YouTube in a number of places – but this is the original performance.
It’s really impossible to gauge the level of influence the music of Brian Wilson has had over the years – we take so much of it for granted now; like it’s always been here. But there was a time it wasn’t and hearing this music for the first time was a fresh and exciting experience. You can’t convey it in 2025. But in the midst of sadness and loss, the only thing you can possibly say is “you should have been there” because everything changed. And it changed for the better.
Bless you Brian Wilson – you’ve touched more lives than you can imagine – and you will continue for a very-very long time.
