Brian Wilson is dead, aged 82, the shy genius of The Beach Boys passes
The world of entertainment was thrown into shock as the passing of Bryan Wilson was released into the air.
The news of his passing was immediately confirmed by his surviving children of Wilson’s verified X handle.
As the post reads: “We are heartbroken to announced [sic] that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away,” their statement reads.
“We are at a loss for words right now. Please respect our privacy at this time as our family grieving [sic]. We realise that we are sharing our grief with the world. Love & Mercy.”
Popularly known as the ‘Shy Genius’ whose composure and songwriting talent skied The Beach Boys to become one of the most successful and best known pop groups in history, Wilson was known to be a complicated person and brilliant.
Brian Wilson was the eldest among three brothers, raised in Hawthorne, California, by their both parents (Murry and Audree). His prodigious musical talent was unravelled during childhood.
We can recall that his 2016 memoir reflected sporadic chapters of physical and psychological abuse he and his younger brothers, Dennis and Carl, endured at the hands of their father, Murry, whom he described as “violent” and “cruel”.
Still he went on to give kudos to his father as a mentor and driving force behind his and his brothers’ musical gifts, starting from the church choirs to playing the upright piano their parents bought when he was 12.
When he was 16, Wilson was gifted a reel-to-reel tape recorder and trained himself on how to overdub, which eventually became one of the signature techniques he utilised to make the layered harmonies of The Beach Boys.
Along with his two siblings, their cousin Mike Love and classmate and friend Al Jardine, Wilson formed his first musical band, The Pendletones, in 1961 and composed their first-ever song, “Surfin”, with Love─their cousin.
They decided to change their band’s name to The Beach Boys after their first song, “Surfin” became a hit, signing a new deal with Capitol Records and releasing their debut album under the record label, ‘Surfin’ Safari, the following year.
In 1963, Wilson had already begun to limit his public notice and appearance with the band in order to release their second album, ‘Surfin’ USA which was ranked at No 2 on the Billboard charts that summer and propelled The beach Boys as one of the United States’ biggest new pop band.
The media and fan frenzy The Beach Boys’ popularity attracted, along with Wilson’s worry over the threat posed by Beatlemania─which as of this period was sweeping the US─to The Beach Boys’ dominion, prompted him to react with “I Get Around”, the group’s No 1 hit.
Still, that was not enough to please the psychological effect on Wilson as he encountered a breakdown during a flight from Los Angeles to Houston prior to a two-week tour.
After surviving through the Houston show in the evening, he was stood-in by session musician Glen Campbell for the remainder of the tour.
By the time the band proceeded to recording their next album, Wilson declared that he would be stepping down from all upcoming live tours.
Eventually, he told a journalist that his decision was an offshoot of his “f***ed-up jealousy over the Beatles and producer Phil Spector.
Wilson was also reported to be having issues in his marriage to his first wife, Marilyn Rovell, which later informed the lyrical content on the groundbreaking album Pet Sounds, described, by many antagonists, to be one of the greatest records of all time.
The record was made and released in 1966, it is constantly viewed as the first “concept album” and was described by Rolling Stone as “by far the best album [Wilson] had delivered”.
“Previous Beach Boy albums were also based on strong conceptual images—the dream world of Surf, wired-up rods with metal flake paint, and curvaceous cuties lounging around the (implicitly suburban and affluent) high school,” according to the publication.
“It was music for white kids; they could identify with the veneration of the leisure status which in 1963 was the ripest fruit of the American dream.
“But Pet Sounds… nobody was prepared for anything so soulful, so lovely, something one had to think about so much. It is by far the best album Brian has yet delivered, and it paradoxically began the decline in mass popularity that still plagues this band.”
Wilson’s Cause Of Death
Brian Wilson usually baulked at being tagged a “genius”, feeling it worsened the pressure he was feeling from the music industry.
After concluding Pet Sounds, a critical hit but a commercial let down, Wilson started abusing drugs and developed what he eventually described as a “JESUS CHRIST Complex.”
His mental condition deteriorated, and he started to suffer from paranoid delusions to the extend that he was admitted to hospital shortly after the concession of his and Rpvell’s first child.
His treatment by the controversial Eugene Landy after a band intervention was documented in the critically acclaimed 2014 biopic Love & Mercy, featuring Paul and John Cusack as the young and older Wilson, respectively.
Melinda Ledbetter, Wilson’s second wife, who happened to help catalysed a court-signed separation for Wilson from Landy in order to get him an appropriate medical care─claimed that Landy’s handling of Wilson was “even worse” than the movie depicted.
Evidence of manipulative control Landy had over Wilson’s career was visible when he was credited as “executive producer” on Wilson’s debut self-titled solo album in 1988.
He was described as a frequent damaging presence who brought tension with the rest of the production crew, while the album released was overly outfamed by investigation surrounding his of Wilson.
A conservatorship case was filed by his family in 1991, separating him from Landy and handing him a restraining order.
Wilson’s productive work improved during the Nineties, leading to the release of works, including an album of songs made with Van Dyke Parks called Orange Crate Art.
He also made an important appearance in the Wilsons, a joint project with his daughters, Carnie and Wendy, and also jointly produced The Beach Boys album Stars and Stripes Vol. 1.
He went on his first solo tour between March and July, 1999, stating to the press that he felt “much more comfortable” on stage than he had in The Beach Boys’ heyday.
Wilson continued to tour, including the first full live performance of Pet Sounds, where he had 55-piece orchestra behind him.
He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, including his bandmates, brothers Carl and Dennis (posthumously as he had died five years earlier), and cousin Mike Love.
In year 2020, Wilson stated his distaste as he learnt that Love’s touring version of The beach boys would make headline of Donald Trump’s campaign benefit in Newport Beach: “We didn’t even know about it and were very surprised to read about it,” he told US media, referring to himself and bandmate Al Jardine.
Melinda Ledbetter, Wilson’s wife for 28 years, died in January 2024.
“Our five children and I are just in tears,” Wilson wrote in an emotional statement. “We are lost. Melinda was more than my wife. She was my saviour. She gave me the emotional security.”
