On June 11, leader of The Beach Boys legendary pop composer Brian Wilson died at the age of 82. Below, Grammy-winning producer and performer Don Was remembers Wilson, who he cites as “the Claude Monet of rock and roll.”
I bought the 7” single of “I Get Around” in 1964 when I was just 12 years old. Back then, if you spent your whole allowance on one record, you played the A & B sides over and over and over. It wasn’t long before I came to prefer the romanticism of the flip side, “Don’t Worry Baby.” I tried really hard to figure out the chords on the guitar and it blew my mind when he modulated from E to F# in the middle of the bridge—not just because it was such a cool thing to do, but because it ripped your heart out.
It was my first glimpse into the notion that if you put some soul and imagination into your chord choices and voicings, you’d have a bunch of new colors to paint with. In that respect, Brian [Wilson] was the Claude Monet of rock and roll.
He was considered to be a genius, but I think it’s deeper and much more mystical than that. Brian was plugged into some source that enabled him to see and hear things that most of us don’t. The downside of that is the profound inner turbulence it can cause. The upside is that it enabled him to explore creative territory where no musicians had gone before — pushing and dramatically expanding the harmonic and textural boundaries of popular music.
A great example is his song “Till I Die.” I worked it out on the piano: it’s quite complex, not in any one key. There’s no real pattern to the changes. The movement of the chords vividly evokes the feeling of being forever adrift on an ocean of uncontrollable emotions. Yet, despite the intricacy, a 10-year-old can easily sing along with the melody that Brian put on top. It’s extremely difficult and rare to be able to walk that line between experimentalism and universal accessibility. Nobody’s done it with more seamless grace than Brian Wilson.
In 1996, I directed a documentary about him called I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times. The intended purpose of the film was to explain to non-musicians why he was considered to be a genius. It took a whole film to spell it out, but one thing became evident — everything Brian originally envisioned has now become ingrained in the fabric of contemporary music. I hope that future generations realize how radical it is that he came up with these things before anyone else and without a roadmap or digital electronics to lean on.
Despite his much-publicized inner-turmoil, Brian was a very strong, sweet, innocent guy with a heart full of love and music. He was on a mission to create songs that would bring comfort and understanding to the whole world. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.
Below is Was’s playlist with some of his favorite Wilson/Beach Boy tunes.