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An American Tale: The Endless Summer with the Beach Boys’ @brianwilsonlive
To see more of Brian Wilson’s Beach Boys photos, follow @brianwilsonlive on Instagram. For more music stories, check out @music.
Brian Wilson (@brianwilsonlive) is being interviewed in the basement studio of Capitol Records, when he decides to cut the conversation short. He’d rather be spending time in the next room, where his wife Melinda is taping a behind-the-scenes feature for her husband’s upcoming biopic. But his manager quickly chimes in and convinces him to stay. The Beach Boys songwriter sits back down, resituates himself and calmly finishes the rest of the scheduled talk by giving the same abrupt answers he had been before.
Two things are typically mentioned when discussing the topic of Brian Wilson: The first is his indisputable musical talent, and the second is his reputation as a difficult interview subject. However, his guarded demeanor to the outside public is understandable. Brian has had many struggles over the years –– drug addiction, emotional and physical abuse, weight issues. Perusing through the past is something he prefers to avoid. But even the sunnier aspects of his history are tough to mine –– the “Good Vibrations” and “Sloop John Bs” given nothing more than clausal footnotes from their principle creator.
One possible way to get him out of his shell, though, is to present him with some older photos of his band and brothers. At the very least, you might get a smirk –– some recognition of nostalgia –– or possibly a few new snippets of information.
“Yeah, 1966. I was in Carl’s pool,” Brian says, after being shown an old black-and-white picture taken at his late brother’s house, where his head is hovering just above the water, his eyes staring off into the distance.
“That was in [United] Western Recorders. I was playing bass on a song called ‘Then I Kissed Her,’” he says, of another 1960s shot, this one featuring him in an all-white ensemble: jeans, button down shirt, hat and bass guitar.
How do you balance the joyful past of these early photos with the endless opportunities of the future when the middle section of your life has been pulled out from under you? For Brian, you just keep plugging away and writing songs –– about beach life, about California, about surfing. You also take care of your most important tool, your voice, even as it continues to shape and shift as you age. (“It’s gotten a little lower,” he says, of his famous pipes. “I can’t go quite as high as I used to.”) In the meantime, you share memories both old and new: recent behind-the-scenes pictures from the studio, and throwback photos of his Beach Boys bandmates.
The last time the group got together was for the band’s 50th anniversary tour, in 2012. The event marked the first time since 1965 that Brian had joined the Beach Boys for a full round of shows. Unfortunately, it ended on a sour note: Co-founder Mike Love decided to continue the tour without Brian and members Al Jardine and David Marks, citing that those shows had been booked prior to the anniversary events. Brian was blindsided, and, in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, said “it sort of feels like we’re being fired.” (Love’s rebuttal stated that he never fired Wilson.) Sadly, when asked about the events today, along with the band’s future, he doesn’t have much to say beyond, “I don’t want to talk about that.”
Brian was always the quiet, reclusive type –– the guy in the back writing the gorgeous melodies, branching out in new directions that the band wasn’t always happy with. Perhaps the most famous example is Pet Sounds. When the rest of the group first heard it, they hated it –– funny since it’s now considered one of the greatest albums of all time.
“I thought it was going to sell a lot. It didn’t sell very much,” Brian says of the record now. “The guys didn’t like it at first, because it wasn’t car songs or surf songs. I was kind of bummed out about it.”
Fifty years later and Brian still faces backlash for pursuing new things. For No Pier Pressure, he got flak from fans after announcing the contemporary artists he planned to collaborate with. He was hurt by the response, but, in a message on his Facebook page, said it was his job as a musician and songwriter to try something new:
“It kind of bums me out to see some of the negativity here about the album I’ve been working so hard on. In my life in music, I’ve been told too many times not to f— with the formula, but as an artist it’s my job to do that –– and I think I’ve earned that right.”
He has more than earned that right –– to sing his songs and to tell his story the way he wants. At this point, the tale of Brian and the Beach Boys are an American tale, one that will head to the big screen this summer, in the film Love & Mercy.
“It’s very factual,” Brian says about the movie, which has been in the works for decades and follows the ups and downs of his life. “It brought a lot of feelings out of me –– the happy times but also the sad times.”
The sad times include the drug use and the moments spent with the late Eugene Landy, a psychologist who was famously known for using and manipulating Brian for decades. As for the happy moments?
“When I meet Melinda,” he says. “That was my favorite part.”
And with that he ends the interview a second time, jumps up from his seat and goes off to be with his wife.
–– Instagram @music
by via Instagram Blog
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