Good Vibrations Again and Again

Brian Wilson

Remember the Beach Boys? Those guys, including three brothers, who lived down the street in Hawthorne and formed a rock band that changed the world?

Maybe you weren't around in 1961, or maybe you passed them off as post adolescent boys straining to harmonize when they exploited Chuck Berry's song "Sweet Little Sixteen" by changing the lyrics into a surf song: "Surfin' USA." I admittedly fell into the latter category.

Or maybe, just maybe, you've always known that you were listening to the astonishing music of a tormented genius.

Obviously, you hear what you hear. Brian Wilson, the leader of the Beach Boys who wrote the songs and created the increasingly complex arrangements, hears voices and melodies that ordinary folk do not.

This is not breaking news, for Wilson's story has been told and retold, including packaged in the cool biopic Love and Mercy, with John Cusack playing Wilson along with cast members Paul Giamatti and Elizabeth Banks. A more recent documentary about Brian Wilson is now playing through July 6 on PBS channels (and online) entitled Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road (2021), part of PBS's American Masters series. This one is the real deal, in that we see Wilson, the savant, without filters.

Wilson has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.

In the film, Jason Fine, who attached himself to Wilson as a writer for Rolling Stone and won his trust and friendship, cruises with Wilson around his old neighborhoods, including Hawthorne and Malibu, during the a one-hour and 23-minute film. The film cuts back to Wilson's and the band's early career. Wilson's honesty and vulnerability come through. Chilling in the car with Fine works as a relaxer. Wilson's facial expressions speak volumes.

Musician godheads Bruce Springsteen and Elton John add commentary of Wilson's genius. 

Even if you're not a Beach Boys fan, you can't help being drawn into the story of this extraordinary music man who has been compared to the likes of Johann Sebastian Bach. Seriously. His simple answers to deep questions are remindful of his most enchanting musical pieces: tender emotion amidst complex musical orchestration, for example in "Wouldn't it be Nice," "Caroline No" and "God Only Knows."

Not one for introspection, "[Wilson] says just enough to get you in tune with his heart," according to Owen Gleibermann, who reviewed the film in Variety.

And that's the key. You feel as though you get to know the artist, with doses of pain and awe. The documentary brought me to tears.

Wilson talks about how nervous he becomes before a performance. You sense his anxiety just listening to him talk about it.

Fine asks how long it takes him to overcome nervousness when he's on stage:

"Two minutes." says Wilson, without hesitation. 

Brian Wilson turns 80 this month. As of the making of this film, he was touring with a full orchestra and seemingly loving it. As much as his fans seem to love him. 

Due to Wilson's superb studio orchestration during the1960s rock music scene, Los Angeles became a magnet for the leading bands and musicians of that era*, including the Mama's and Poppa's, the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, the Doors, Neil Young,  Crosby, Stills & Nash, Joni Mitchell, songwriter Jimmy Webb, Glen Campbell, Johnny Rivers, the Wrecking Crew, producer Phil Spector and many, many more. 

*Everybody Had an Ocean, Music and Mayhem in 1960s Los Angeles by William McKeen (2017).