The Beach Boys, was (largely). Brian Wilson, who died at the age of 82, was much more than a simple member of the emblematic training of “Surf Music”. Being the main composer of the Beach Boys titles, Wilson was not only the leader of a group. At the same time, it became one of the most influential musicians in pop in the 1960s and, therefore, the decades that followed.
Its impact on the course of music history could have been even more important if it had not suffered great psychological problems. They took him to spend several years nailed to his bed or be hospitalized for months in a psychiatric hospital. This did not prevent his music from going through these tests, as well as time. Support of examples with five of their essential creations.
• Surfin ‘USA (1963)
“If everyone had an ocean/throughout the United States/well, everyone would surf/as in California.” Excerpt from the homonymous album, the second of Beach Boys, Surfin USA It is an ode to the beaches of the west coast and the best places where the waves leads, from Redondo beach to the jolla. A tube in the best tubes, in summary.
Brian Wilson, however, is not the only composer. Behind Surfin ‘USAThere is also Chuck Berry, since the music and structure of the lyrics of the song of Beach Boys occupy those of Sweet small sixteen, Released five years before.
• I move, 1964
In 1964, the Beach Boys first reached the top of the American lists with I move. The album song Throughout the summerThe art of the group’s vocal harmonies stands out while giving with their words a general description of what it means to be an artist with such success
Mike Love, another member of the Beach Boys, will also be accredited with this title at the end of a legal battle that will take place decades later. According to Brian Wilson, if Mike Love Contribution Thule there were, he limited himself to the “Ronda de Ronda” of the beginning. That is nothing.
• Wouldn’t it be good, 1966
Often considered one of the best albums in history, Pet sounds It is the indirect fruit of the rivalry between the Beach Boys and the Beatles. Shaken by “Fab Four” innovation with Rubber soulBrian Wilson stood out to design a higher album. The result will live up to the media and the obsession of its director.
Before being one of the decades later of the Bo of Good morning Englandthe hostilities opening title, Wouldn’t it be good? illustrates the turning point that Wilson and his University of Writing Tony Asher took in the Beach Boys. Music can maintain the lightness of the beginnings, time is more serious, with a stage of letters a couple imagining their newly married.
• God only knows, 1966
You have to imagine the outgoing single in the United States in containers on July 18, 1966. Wouldn’t it be good? AND Face B understands … God only knows. The investment in the 45 rpm was more than profitable. Because with God only knowsBrian Wilson reaches heights of instrumental complexity imbued with great melancholy. All in less than three minutes flat.
The title will be a modest hit on the Beach Boys scale. His aura will not stop growing, especially by Paul McCartney for whom God only knows It is simply “the best song ever written.” Without completely sharing the opinion of McCartney, Rolling Stone magazine still classified the title in the 11th place in the last edition of its classification of the 500 best songs in history,
• Good vibrations, 1966
Recording Pet sounds He nurtured Brian Wilson’s legend. Good vibrationsThe outgoing single the following year will still establish its reputation as a character in search of unattainable perfection. During the psychedelic period and at a time when a counterculture and Flower, Good vibrations It is a “pocket symphony”, as Brian Wilson describes.
The Beach Boys take advantage of everything the registration studies can offer them. It will take about twenty sessions, extends for more than seven months, to reach the final version. Good vibrations It will become that moment into the single The most expensive ever produced. And the game was worth it: it will be the last big tube of the Beach Boys with Brian Wilson.
Source: BFM TV
