The death of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson was announced yesterday on Instagram. Brian was 82. Many of us have played the Beach Boys masterpiece — Brian’s masterpiece — Pet Sounds and other of his work over and over for many years. For what we found on that particular record Brian credited his channeling of a higher power into the music.
Others who are expert in his work will have more and better to say about him than I can this morning. I want only briefly to note Brian’s death with a look back at a little of the music that leads toward Pet Sounds and that continues to move me. In the 2004 post “Lost and found” I flipped over Brian’s Minneapolis performance of the reconstructed Smile album (the one that was to have followed Pet Sounds). Whatever his trials and travails, his music added to the beauty of the world.
I hear Brian moving into the territory of Pet Sounds on “Don’t Worry Baby” (1964), written with Roger Christian. He described it as “a heart and soul song.”
“Let Him Run Wild” appeared on Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) the following year. It’s romantic. It’s chivalrous. The harmonies and the arrangement themselves run wild.
Summer Days was the second of three Beach Boys albums released in 1965. Brian was producing music at a furious pace. The pressure must have been intense. You can hear his perfectionism at work.
Brian directly anticipated Pet Sounds with the suite of ballads on side 2 of Beach Boys Today! (1965), the first of the 1965 albums. “Please Let Me Wonder” represents the romanticism of a gentleman who fears rejection.
“I’m So Young” is a cover of The Students’ classic 1958 doo wop single. We are heading toward “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” the opening track on Pet Sounds.
The suite peaks with “Kiss Me, Baby.” If you don’t listen to anything else in this lineup, give this a try.
“She Knows Me Too Well” concludes the suite on a note of love and apology.
