A true genius: 10 songs that defined Brian Wilson
As the certified ‘Fifth Beatle’, it is safe to say that George Martin worked with some of pop music’s finest minds. Nevertheless, he discerned that there was only one individual who ranked among the rarified realm of a ‘genius’, declaring: “If there is one person that I have to select as a living genius of pop music, I would choose Brian Wilson.”
With The Beach Boys, Wilson changed music forever. He created a baroque brand of rock ‘n’ roll that was both effortlessly listenable and utterly original. He was to pop music what the Wright brothers were to long-distance travelling. And yet his revolution was far from engineered. His approach may have altered the science of pop with stereo sound rising to the forefront, but filling his house with sand to get the creative juices flowing is decidedly bohemian.
This free-spirited modus operandi is indicative of just how much music meant to Wilson. In his youth, he suffered from agoraphobia, which meant that making music with his brothers was his only escape. This imbued his subsequent work with an aura of both spiritual profundity and the simple fun that comes with making music. This dynamic combination always typified his output. Without a doubt, Brian Wilson was one of the hardest-working and hardest-hitting musicians to ever do it, as is reflected by the extensive and beloved discography he has left behind.
Pet Sounds is often held up as Wilson’s magnum opus album, and rightly so; it is, after all, the album that changed musical expression forever. Ultimately, though, that 1966 masterpiece only scratches the surface of the songwriter’s enduring genius. From the surf-pop mastery of The Beach Boys’ early efforts to the woefully underrated innovation of later albums like The Beach Boys Love You, Wilson was an artist who always looked forward, with an endless appetite for inventiveness and originality.
It is that constant desire for innovation and creativity that made Brian Wilson such an enduring and endlessly influential figure within the musical landscape. His work seemed to transcend generations, international borders and, to an extent, musical tastes. Regardless of these arbitrary divisions, everybody seemed to recognise the essential brilliance at the heart of Wilson’s work, which inspired everybody from The Beatles to Neil Young.
Now, with the heartbreaking news of Brian Wilson’s passing at the age of 82, we have delved into the myriad of songs that he conjured from the ether over the years, exhibiting the extent of his artistic excellence and showcasing the unwavering genius that George Martin spoke so highly of.
From the pioneering ways of ‘God Only Knows’ to the peculiar outsider energy of tracks like ‘I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times’ that indicate his odd obsessiveness, these ten tracks prove beyond any doubt that Wilson was always one of the very best luminaries. More than that, though, this collection of masterpieces reflects the indisputable fact that Wilson and his legacy will continue to inspire new generations of songwriters for many years to come.
10 songs that prove Brian Wilson is a genius:
‘Barbara Ann’
“Jesus that ear,” Bob Dylan once declared of Brian Wilson. “He made all his records with four tracks, but you couldn’t make his records if you had a hundred tracks today”. The layered vocals of ‘Barbara Ann’ are testimony to this glowing assertion. Wilson has an inherent sense of melody that is literally unrivalled in music.
From another perspective, this song could seem kitsch, but thanks to its hook, it just bristles something sequenced in human DNA to result in a toe tap and a smile. Before all the Pet Sounds innovation, tracks like ‘Barbara Ann’ laid down the melodious groundwork. There isn’t much to it, but the bare constituent parts are utterly unforgettable – that’s the mark of a genius.
‘This Whole World’
Ron Wood once offered up the rather surprising take that he thought Wilson had a “very bluesy” feel to his songwriting. While most people would think that the only blues around The Beach Boys are the azure or crystalline type you see in travel adverts, there are certain times when Wood’s opinion seems on point.
‘This Whole World’ has a much more classic and rooted feel than most. The bluesy guitar might quickly become lost under the layers, but the core tenet of the track is really rather rocky. This style gives it a fresh feel in their back catalogue. Above all, this shows that Wilson not only had an ear for melody but also for detecting the musicology that was working for other artists; we might think of him as almost operating outside of the zeitgeist like an outsider, but he absorbed all of its tricks from his distanced position. And what’s more, apparently, it used to pop when they played it live.
‘Sloop John B’
Once more, that ear comes to the fore. It might not be the most refined work on offer, but it is a mark of Wilson’s melodic understanding that he is so adept at crafting the sort of structures that can be sung on the terraces of sports stadia the world over. While chants might not be considered beautiful, the fact that Wilson’s tune has transcended itself and entered a wider sphere of culture is an achievement in itself akin to the ever-present ways of Mozart’s melodies.
It was Neil Young who asserted: “He’s like Mozart or Chopin or Beethoven or something. This music will live forever.” The fact that this melody has a whistle while you work life beyond itself may well be early proof of that. In the crowded world of pop music, being able to muster a simple tune with a few chords that nobody else has thought of before is a true mark of mastery and invention.
‘California Girls’
While Wilson’s innovation might dominate the discourse of his appraisal, perhaps what is most important when it comes to his genius is the way in which that innovation was arrived at—he was always only trying to capture a sunny atmosphere. “Well, my personal two favourite Beach Boys songs are ‘California Girls’ and ‘Surfer Girl’,” Wilson once remarked. “That’s my personal taste in our music”. And how refreshing it is for a star not to be contrarian and opt for defining anthems when looking at their own work.
It is tracks like ‘California Girls’ that spring to mind immediately when you think of the sunshine in the sonic form that The Beach Boys offer up. It is quite simply musical medicine; the tonality is dripping with Vitamin D, the key changes are a cloud-shifting cheer, and the harmonies are a happy force to behold. That might not be groundbreaking, but it is magical.
‘The Little Girl I Once Knew’
What also must be understood about Wilson is that he entered the songwriting world when pop culture had just created the horizon, and rock ‘n’ roll music was at its simplest. Most of the songs in the charts were only two minutes, and within that time, they simply went verse-chorus repeat with maybe a single bar bridge. Wilson, however, somehow retains that sense of basic fun while also reinventing the scope of the arrangements within that quick window.
This is evidenced by none other than John Lennon when he enthused: “This [‘The Little Girl I Once Knew’] is the greatest! Turn it up, turn it right up. It’s got to be a hit. It’s the greatest record I’ve heard for weeks. It’s fantastic. I hope it will be a hit. It’s all Brian Wilson. He just uses the voices as instruments. You keep waiting for the fabulous breaks. Great arrangement.” The inspiring way that Wilson added seamless complexity to pop structures changed the course of music by laying down the gauntlet to others that middle-eights didn’t have to be a dissonant kiss of death.
‘Good Vibrations’
‘Good Vibrations’ is one of the definitive Wilson tracks in that from afar, you can simply appreciate it as an energetic ditty, but delve into the musicology and you will be bewildered. Proof of this comes from what fellow heroes have thought of it. As Art Garfunkel said: “When I heard ‘Good Vibrations’ on the radio for the first time, I called Paul (Simon) immediately and I said ‘I think I just heard the greatest, most creative record of them all’.”
He continued: “Brian showed us all the endless possibilities in what’s been recorded and how it can be layered and combined or subtracted to create something that certainly came from his California roots, which to me, has always represented the promise and sweetness in America. With that joyousness, he became our Mozart of Rock ‘n Roll.” But at the same time, it is a song that can happily be enjoyed by a three-year-old; how many songwriters can do that? Arguably Wilson alone.
‘Sail On Sailor’
Contrary to what some might have voiced recently, the fact that Wilson was open to collaboration is not a mark that he ‘didn’t do it all himself’, but rather it displays one of his greatest attributes as an artist, as he wasn’t unhinged by his own sense of individualism and was happy to celebrate the artistic vision of others. During a period of personal stress, he leant heavily on Van Dyke Parks for this song, who subsequently said, “Let’s write a tune”. It is limited in the conversely triumphant sense.
And that triumph is a mark of the magical way that Wilson worked with others, as great Leon Russell explains: “[Wilson] normally told me what to play. In Western Studio, there was probably fifteen, twenty guys in that studio. He’d start with the first guy; he’s singing their part until they got it, then the second guys sing their part, the third by, all the way around the room. Taught the whole thing by rote. And all of a sudden, that whole band could play that shit. I mean, Brian is, when you want to talk about genius, there’s not any like him that I know of. He’s unbelievable.”
‘I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times’
Released as part of Pet Sounds in 1966, ‘I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times’ is arguably one of Wilson’s finest yet most overlooked songs. It’s a track that shattered the fourth wall and broke Wilson’s vision of himself to his awaiting audience in a piece of postmodernist mastery that many have subsequently copied. Much has been said of Wilson’s mental state towards the tail-end of the ’60s, but he was always self-aware in the studio and earnest in his approach.
Wilson told Esquire that the song was “a social statement. I felt like I didn’t belong, that my ideas were ahead of the times. But it’s nice to know how much people love and respect what I did back then, and I’m in a better place now than I was when I was younger.” Indeed, Wilson was far ahead of his time both musically and psychologically; the singer always had an old head on his shoulders. There is a level of maturity here that stood out from the zeitgeist, asking his peers to be more honest with their pop writing too.
‘Surf’s Up’
Leonard Bernstein is a man rightly considered a musical genius in his own right, but even he considered Wilson to be ahead of the curve. “There is a new song, too complex to get all of first time around,” Bernstein commented. “It could come only out of the ferment that characterizes today’s pop music scene. Brian Wilson, leader of the famous Beach Boys, and one of today’s most important musicians, sings his own ‘Surf’s Up’.”
Adding: “Poetic, beautiful even in its obscurity, ‘Surf’s Up’ is one aspect of new things happening in pop music today. As such, it is a symbol of the change many of these young musicians see in our future.” When you consider that Bernstein is considering him a contemporary in terms of composition and complexity, and yet Wilson could also sing brilliantly and compete as a rock ‘n’ roll performer, you realise that he was a complete musician.
‘God Only Knows’
If Brian Wilson had only written ‘God Only Knows’ and nothing more, then he would still be one of pop music’s only geniuses. The Beach Boys classic ‘God Only Knows’ is a watermark in pop music, and you’d need reams that this sadly can’t allow to explain why. There is a before ‘God Only Knows’ and there is an after ‘God Only Knows’ with the masterpiece representing the moment that pop went baroque and stood firmly on the shoulders of all that had gone before to look ahead and forecast the beach-bright future.
Bob Dylan may have decreed that there was more to be expressed in lyrics than many had been up until that point, but now you could explore than mere melodies in the music too—what could signal sonic depth and development like a track without the boundaries of a definitive key and yet the most beauteous melody in history? In short, ‘God Only Knows’ is a song that shaped the second half of the 20th century and beyond. And we can all be thankful for that because it is the sort of beautiful utopia where prettiness unrivalled revels in progress and stirs us all with the same simple loveliness as a sunny day—may it shine on forever, illuminating the continuation of the same musical tale that spawned it.
