Smile

 Maybe you were hoping that I would mention Brian Wilson. The passing of the head Beach Boy last week was, sadly, caught up in a wave of other news that fought for my attention. Just so you all understand, Mister Wilson's death did not go unnoticed by me. 

Coming so fast on the heels of Sly Stone going to the great gig in the sky, I was unprepared to deal with a remembrance of yet another music legend. It was reminiscent of the ten month period when we lost David Bowie, Prince and Tom Petty. But over the course of two days to lose all that psychedelic funk and the godfather of surf music? While the world seems intent on blowing itself up? 

I needed some time to digest. 

Brian Wilson was the troubled genius behind America's response to the British Invasion. While not as outwardly artistic as the Beatles, the Beach Boys' songs held their own on the charts and in the studio. Listening to Good Vibrations is a good time, but its construction was every bit as complex as anything on Sergeant Pepper. It was the follow-up to the Pet Sounds album, Smile, that was Brian's undoing. It was during this period that stories of Brian Wilson sleeping for days, then heading down to the piano he kept in a sandbox to try and come up with new music became the legend that overwhelmed the man. Drop into this mix the pressure and drugs and the evil Doctor Landy and you discover that the meal ticket that so many required Brian to be was unsustainable. 

Not unlike Sly Stone, the music that might have been made by Brian Wilson was snuffed out of existence by excess. 

Which doesn't mean we can't revel in what was. The harmonies and army of studio musicians who came together to bring that breezy California sound to us all was nothing short of revolutionary. Meanwhile that same crew was busy making music for the Monkees and just about anyone else who needed a hit. 

But it was Brian Wilson who found a sound like no one else, no matter who was playing the music. Before he went to bed for two years, he stomped on the Terra of the recording industry. He provided us with endless summers in addition to all those good vibrations. He will be missed.

Aloha, Brian.