Tl; dr: The true genius of Brian Wilson is a recent discovery of mine and now I cant stop thinking about how his mind works.

Long version: Until recently i had the basic view of him, and his band, that i assume most people do. Some fun little hits, got caught up in the 60's, went over the edge, got it semi-together, and now cruising along off baby boomer nostalgia. I knew Pet Sounds was super well regarded, and I knew the singles off of it were a departure from their early sound but Id never listened to the whole album.

Well recently I listened to the whole thing at a time when i was mentally prepared to have my mind blown. And it was. My new girlfriend coincidentally had just seen Love & Mercy and said while we listened that we should watch it. Well after that I saw him in a totally different light. I didnt want to rely on a biopic for all the info so Ive been reading like crazy and dude is just ridiculously fascinating to me.

Every now and then I get really interested in the way someone's mind works, and the way he has talked about the melodies and harmonies he creates is surreal. On top of that Pet Sounds gives a real time glimpse into the mind of someone who is not fitting in the way he used to, and its killing him. Way more than just the typical Icarus story, even tho thats there too. But unlike Icarus, BW's wings grew back! And after everything he has been thru he finished his magnum opus almost 40 years after it almost destroyed him - *still* living with both schizoaffective disorder and tardive dyskinesia from the overprescription of powerful anti psychotics thanks to his asshole shrink.

Anyways this was long and rambly as shit so a few last points:

~ fuck Mike Love, Stan Love, and now by virtue of heritage fuck Kevin Love too.

~ Brian Wilson is rivalled only by Quincy Jones for America's greatest pop producer imo

~ Carl+Brian > John+Paul

~ Love & Mercy is a great flick

>~ Brian Wilson is rivalled only by Quincy Jones for America's
>greatest pop producer imo

OMG i can't disagree thoroughly enough.

>~ Carl+Brian > John+Paul

jesus.

anyway - 'God Only Knows', 'Wouldn't It Be Nice', 'Good Vibrations', 'I Get Around', 'Surfin USA' ...all of those are the bomb! i dig them a lot. Brian had a gift for sure.

There is something distinctively American about 99% of the music I love. The Beatles never had that and I never knew about the real Beach Boys (66-74).

Now to me, the BBs are everything Ive always heard about the Beatles.

What would your producer rankings look like?

>Now to me, the BBs are everything Ive always heard about the
>Beatles.

you should hear more about the Beatles.

>What would your producer rankings look like?

Prince
Stevie
Quincy
Jimmy/Terry
and on from there.

Wilson's not even in my top 20.

>Wilson's not even in my top 20.
>

Wilson only produced the Beach Boys AFAIK. and while i like a few BB records i don't like enough of them to say Wilson is one of my favorite 20 American producers of all time. there's not a long list of Wilson-produced records that i dig. it's a fairly short list. so yeah - he's not one of my 20 faves.

youre mind will really be blown.

Also im curious about the difference between the one from 97 and this one

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beach-boys-ready-massive-pet-sounds-50th-anniversary-reissue-20160323

But im really looking forward to listening to it

was so hype for the Beatles as a youth. But his musicality and mind is just like the shit.

But i had my pianist brother translate a description of some of what he did in terms of melodies and harmonies.

Pretty crazy stuff, and apparently he totally changed the game in terms of playing bass.

I had exactly the same opinion prior to seeing him live at Glastonbury in 2005... I stood there in the first sunshine we'd had all weekend (it was Sunday, we'd been battled Somme conditions since Thursday morning) and was utterly floored by how good the songwriting was. He was almost lifeless, but he had a band that knew how to knock out a proper rock n roll show which bridged the gap with the crowd perfectly. He just kind of sat there looking equal parts enigmatic and terrified.

After that show I went through about 3 or 4 months of listening to very little except Beach Boys and Brian Wilson records.

I have a little phase around every 6 months.

Our Prayer -> Heroes and Villians is one of the best sequences on any album ever.

Off the top of my head though... The Beatles have more good songs and albums than the Beach Boys, but the best moments of the Beach Boys catalogue are better than most things the Beatles touched.

that was spurred by listening to a BB box set during a drive from Chicago to LA in a brand new Camaro w/my heterosexual boyfriend who's a quintessential California dude. he's basically Carl Wilson.

anyway, that trip and that dude had me all geeked about the Beach Boys for a few months. and back then Smile hadn't been released in any completed form - we were still cobbling it together w/bootlegs. Brian hadn't released his own finished version yet. the bits and pieces i heard were okay but overall i found them juvenile and weird. i was more into acid and shrooms back then but even w/my familiarity w/psychedelia i couldn't get all the way into what i was hearing b/c it just wasn't sophisticated or adult enough. of course, part of what Brian was going for was to tap into the child-like wonder w/in us all i think. i just...i dunno i just was resistant about going there.

anyway, years later i heard Brian's version of Smile. i own the CD and i may have listened to it once.

generally i think it's...i think his ambition is beyond his ability. maybe i think that b/c he's making such 'complicated' music and then singing simple words and animal noises on top of it w/silly sound effects. again - the kid in me just ain't w/it. or i'm not ready? which ever. i tried and wasn't into it.

Obviously as a kid the Beach Boys were everywhere - I bet they still are... their straight rock n roll is about as kid friendly as any music ever has been... but there's a whole other level that you can appreciate Brian Wilson's song writing and production on and to me, it didn't kick in until I saw him perform as an adult and was able to empathise with some of his darker experiences.

I went down tunnels in my 20-something brain that lasted months, maybe years... maybe you have too... but there were moments in my life that could only really be resolved by thinking like a child again. I wrote off the Beach Boys by the time I was about 12 as an act for kids... but when I rediscovered them, I was deep in the process of learning to find that childlike wonder again as a survival mechanism in my late 20s when the endless grind to the grave was stretched out in front of me for the first time.


Also, as a kid I think it's easier to "accept" works of genius as normal. The Beach Boys were on every "My First Rock n Roll Party" record around and when you're 4 years old, it's difficult to realise that I Get Around is a work of unparalleled genius. It's only after hearing 25 years of mediocre music and coming back to the Beach Boys that I was able to realise how special they were.


Obviously, Wilson also recorded things like Little Saint Nick which there is VERY little coming back from which is why, on balance, I'd take the Beatles over the Beach Boys. In reality, they're both fucking excellent because nobody has to listen to Little Saint Nick or Wild Honey Pie ever again if they don't want to.

>Obviously as a kid the Beach Boys were everywhere - I bet
>they still are... their straight rock n roll is about as kid
>friendly as any music ever has been... but there's a whole
>other level that you can appreciate Brian Wilson's song
>writing and production on and to me, it didn't kick in until I
>saw him perform as an adult and was able to empathise with
>some of his darker experiences.

i've seen him perform as an adult. well, on TV, i mean. but i saw it. i wasn't impressed. in fact i was kinda put off b/c he seemed so damaged and fragile that i was embarrassed for him and i wanted to look away.

>I went down tunnels in my 20-something brain that lasted
>months, maybe years... maybe you have too... but there were
>moments in my life that could only really be resolved by
>thinking like a child again. I wrote off the Beach Boys by the
>time I was about 12 as an act for kids... but when I
>rediscovered them, I was deep in the process of learning to
>find that childlike wonder again as a survival mechanism in my
>late 20s when the endless grind to the grave was stretched out
>in front of me for the first time.

none of that makes me want to be a kid again or think like a child. i'm not convinced that i had it all figured as a child and i need to go back there to get it right now. my childhood was fraught w/tension and anxiety and fear. it is NOT at all a time that i pine for. i have no desire to ever revisit my childhood.

>Obviously, Wilson also recorded things like Little Saint Nick
>which there is VERY little coming back from which is why, on
>balance, I'd take the Beatles over the Beach Boys. In reality,
>they're both fucking excellent because nobody has to listen to
>Little Saint Nick or Wild Honey Pie ever again if they don't
>want to.

lol. true.

>Well recently I listened to the whole thing at a time when i
>was mentally prepared to have my mind blown. And it was.

I went back to it when I saw so many of my favorite albums/artists cited it as an influence, and it changed my opinion of the band/Brian big time.

and I also forget Kevin Love is related to Mike sometimes, LOL. they never really discuss that.

Ive always been a Love fan because of how he played.

But after I read a rolling stone article from the 80s where Mike bragged about Stan and some goon they know beating up Dennis Wilson...naw man.

Fuck that whole family.

But as far as the album, the singles are great singles and absolutely fit on the album. But Id literally never heard a single album track in my life. When Love Again gets loud for the first time it was like an epiphany moment.

And recently wit a clear mind I tried watching it again.

He annoyed the shit out of me on both occasions.

I'm willing to try again, what's a good place to start?

Seems like both actors pretty much nailed it.

I would say start with All Summer Long if you can handle an album of surf rock. It has whats still my favorite BB song "I get Around". The doubletime clapping and organ riff that connects each half of each verse together...gets me everytime. After that, Wilson moved the band away from that aesthetic and his productions got increasingly complicated.

Man that scene where he's buying the car? Brian would drive me up the ga damn wall!
I can't get past it.

Honestly....I haven't heard anything of their's that equals 'Good Vibrations'. Everything seems a little underwhelming in comparison. The bassline in that song certainly is some next level shit. Very counter-intuitive and sophisticated....and VERY Paul. Not sure which way that influence went or who did what first. But Paul's basslines and the basslines on Pet Sounds are certainly comparable and very distinct.

I've checked out enough to know there's no way they're gonna usurp the Beatles for me though. I'm admittedly a beatles fanatic.

That's the only album I got by them