Brian Wilson continues his amazing rehabilitation

[Trauma-san]

Quick Rundown on Brian Wilson if you don't know the whole story.  The man, pictured to the left, is Brian Wilson, founding member of The Beach Boys.  When most people hear 'Beach Boys" they think "Fun in the Sun" or "Stupid white people music".  Not entirely true.

Brian Wilson is widely regarded as a musical genius, and one, if not THE, greatest producers of all time.  He lost hearing in 1 ear permanetly as a child, many claim from the beatings his drunken father inflicted on him.  At 19, he started the Beach Boys, writing, arranging, and producing his own songs, with his two brothers, Carl, and Dennis, Their cousin Mike, and their friend Al.  They went on to be the greatest selling American band of all time, even over the Beatles.  Brian has a pitch perfect voice from childhood, and had an uncanny ability to sing in a rare power falsetto... most people can't switch from their regular singing voice to a falsetto voice without it cracking or stopping to breathe, Brian could do it with a power that was amazing.  Perfectly smooth and beautiful, his voice was amazing, and he sang all the high parts of all the Beach Boy's songs.  

Brian started doing incredibly creative and complex songs a few years after the Beach Boys started out, culminating in 'pet sounds', considered by many to be the greatest album of all time.  He was 22 years old when he wrote the album.  Unbelievable.  Even though he was self-taught, he was by that time commanding a room full of studio musicians, even relying on small orchestras on some songs!  

Brian's mental health rapidly declined, and basically went crazy while working on the follow up, "SMiLE".  Heralded as the most creative album of all time, it was never finished, and never released, Brian retired to his mansion in Beverly Hills, and for months wouldn't leave his bed, as he descended into a deep depression that he still hasn't emerged from.  He ended up getting divorced from his wife, estranged from his two daughters, and by 1976, was writing only 1 or 2 songs per album... .His angellic voice was DESTROYED, by a combination of Heroin, Alcohol, and Ciggarettes, to the point that he wasn't even recognizable on tape.   His production went from grand creative, innovative cutting edge, mozart-like rock waltzes and melodic pop symphonies to stripped-down, bare boned synthesizer tracks.  His response to the failure of "SMiLE"'s grand design was to minimalize everything.  

In the 80's, he released a CD co-wrote by his psychiatrist, Dr. Eugene Landy, who has since had his license revoked and had a restraining order placed on him by Brian's family, the man was leeching him dry, living in his mansion, and generally, as crazy as Brian is.  He had full control of Brian's money, wouldn't let Brian see his family, all kinds of crazy shit.  

In about 1998, Brian re-intered the music scene with a new album, and it sounded pretty damn good.  His voice was almost back to where it was before, but he still had all the nervousness and strange quirky behaviours from the 70's, and wouldn't even talk about the "SMiLE" album he went crazy recording.  He does crazy shit, like when the band plays solos, he turns his back on the audience and conducts them, or when they introduce him on stage as "BRIAN WILLLLLSON!!!" he says "WILLLLLSON" along with the guy backstage, and crazy shit.  People interview him, and he just says "Thank you" and gets up and walks out in the middle of the interview.  He lost all his weight, and took a picture of himself in speedos standing on a piano in 1995 for Rolling Stone.  In the 60's, he had a sandbox installed in his living room so he could play piano in it.  He had a bedroom full of tents, with a parking meter with a light bulb inside you had to pay to turn on... When you opened his front door, the only way through the foyer was to climb through a child's jungle gym.  The man is NUTS.  

Flash forward to 2004, and in February, he performed the unreleased, amazing "SMiLE" album in it's entirety on stage.  He's touring the world, and every night his voice sounds a little better than the night before.  He's currently, in the studio, finishing the legendary album he abandoned 35 years ago, and it's really just fucking amazing that he's come this far.

The newest word is, he has a new CD of entirely new songs coming out June 22nd.  the amazing part?  He produced the entire CD himself, the first time he's producing a song, much less a CD, in 30 years.  Amazing... it's like watching someone dig themself out of a coffin.  He's gotten remarried, has 3 adopted children, isn't as paranoid as he used to be, can actually do intereviews and things, dances on stage, it's a fucking miracle if you know anything about the situation.  

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

I'll check out that new album when it drops...

[Shallow]

well we agree on something, Brian Wilson is an amazing artist with a very very good catalog of songs. Pet Sounds changed the way albums were made, most say it was Sgt Peppers, but McCartney would tell it different, sine Pet Sounds inspired the album, and the Beatles crative side almost as much as Dylan did.

Also, are you sure the Beach Boys outsold the Beatles?

[Trauma-san]

Yes, In America...

[Shallow]

Is that album sales, or are you including singles aswell?

[CRAFTY]

Thanks for the brief biography, because frankly, I didn't know jack shit about who Brian Wilson really was and what he accomplished.
Sounds like he went through some serious difficulties, so to see him now do a worldtour, getting remarried, producing an entire CD, etc is really something to learn from...never lose hope.

Thanks for posting this.

[The Ghost When I Zone Off]

Damn, I actually went into this thread thinking "damn this is gonna be corny as hell" but I was actually surprised in a good way, I never had a clue what this guy went thru and what a crazy bastard he turned out to be. Thanks alot for the bio. Is there a Behind the Music on him or The BEach Boys by any chance? That shit's pretty interesting.

[bez]

Sounds good.  Cool he got over all them things in life.

[Trauma-san]

There was a movie called "The Beach Boys: An American Story", and there's also a documentary called "I just wasn't made for these times" about Brian.  

More info:

His daughters are Carnie and Wendy Wilson, 2/3rds of "Wilson Phillips" with John & Michelle Phillips' (from the mamas and papas) daughter.  They're also pretty big successes.

The newest info that's leaked out, as of today, is that Brian's still in the studio recording "SMiLE", an all new recording of the original unreleased album, and the amazing thing is, he's recording it in sections, like he pioneered in the 60's.  Before "Good Vibrations" came along, people would record songs, and then do overdubs over them to make elaborate tracks.  Brian came up with the genius idea of making 5 or 6 different versions of the same song, then perform hard splices with scissors on the tape to make the song change keys, tempos, add in a bridge, all of that.  That's why "Good Vibrations" sounds so great, it has a million different things going on and stops and spins on a dime.  The Beatles and others used it for a little while, but it's kind of been abandoned since then... he's using the same method with Pro Tools now in the studio.  It's going to sound fucking AMAZING.  I've heard the "SMiLE" live album, and it's some of the most interesting and incredible music ever.  It really, really puts him on a level with Beethoven and Bach.  I can't wait to hear how the studio version sounds, he's a famous perfectionist.

Brian's two brothers in the Beach Boys, Carl, and Dennis, have both died.  In the 60's, anybody would have told you Brian would die first, because of all the drugs he was doing, and basically his insanity, but Dennis in the early 80's drown.  He got in a fight with his wife on his yacht in a harbor, and threw a bunch of their stuff overboard.  He came back drunk the next day, and was diving into the water, to the bottom of the harbor and retreiving pictures and things he had thrown overboard.  He came up once with their wedding picture, put it on the dock, and dived back in.... and never came back up.  

Carl, who was pretty much Brian's best friend through the years, died in 98 from Cancer.  

Brian quit touring in about '66 to record "Pet Sounds", and they hired a guy named Bruce Johnston to tour and sing Brian's parts.  Bruce, Mike, Al, and Carl toured for years without Brian, and had a huge hit in 1987 with "Kokomo" the Beach Boy's last #1.  

Brian sold all his publishing rights to the Beach Boys songs he wrote and produced back in the 70's, at the behest of his father.  After regaining his sanity in the 90's, he actually sued the owners, and said that he wasn't in his right frame of mind when he sold them............. and WON.  They paid him a SHITLOAD of money, somewhere around the likes of 100 million dollars.

Mike sued Brian in the early 90's saying Brian didn't give him any songwriting credits on 40 different hits they had.  He won, and Brian had to cough up a bunch of money.  Brian and Mike don't even talk today, which is pretty sad.  Brian said in an interview in February that he tried calling Mike "last night" but his phone was disconnected, so maybe they'll straighten things out.  

Mike and Bruce still tour around the world singing Beach Boys songs, after Mike sued Brian, again, for using the name "Beach Boys" in his band's name.  The courts decided since Mike was the only original member still touring with the band, and had never left, that he had the right to use the name in tours.  

It's kind of fucked up.  Bruce and Mike don't talk to Al or Brian.  Dennis and Carl are dead.  Brian doesn't talk to any of them, and Al doesn't talk to any of them.  

Another interesting thing... Charles Manson wrote a song for the Beach Boys.  He was friends with Dennis Wilson, and even stayed in Dennis' house.  they liked one of his songs, and it appeared on one of their albums!  The next year, Charles did the crazy shit he did and it's kind of been a stain on Dennis' memory ever since.  

[Shallow]

Wasn't Manson angry that they changed certain lyrics in the song he wrote for them?

[Trauma-san]

I don't know.  It really wasn't that good of a song, lol.  

[Shallow]

Maybe they had something to do with him (Manson) going crazy.