‘California Girls’: The Beach Boys songs inspired by LSD
The 1960s was a time of racial change, socially, politically and culturally. Among the most impactful of these changes was the popularisation of lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD, to us non-scientists. The psychedelic drug seemed to influence every aspect of popular culture as the decade went on, with the advent of psychedelic rock and the hippie movement. Seemingly every artist during this period had flirted with psychedelic substances, but few were as impacted as The Beach Boys’ songwriter Brian Wilson.
On the face of it, The Beach Boys seem like an unlikely group to fall headfirst into the world of acid trips and psychedelia. After all, the fresh-faced group had gained an audience, not through mind-bending rock and roll but through light-hearted rockabilly-influenced surfer rock. Nevertheless, in 1965, Brian Wilson made the executive decision to immerse himself within this vibrant new world of LSD with friend and drug supplier Loren Schwartz.
The experience of taking LSD forever altered Wilson’s life and artistry. In his own words, “I took LSD and it just tore my head off”. Undoubtedly, this psychedelic experience opened Wilson up to a whole new world of artistic expression, influencing some of his finest compositions – most notably the seminal 1966 album Pet Sounds. It was songwriting like this that allowed The Beach Boys to escape their early reputation as a Chuck Berry rip-off act to be hailed as prolific and essential artists in their own right.
Upon his first LSD trip, Wilson immediately realised its potential for songwriting creativity. While tripping, the musician composed the piano riff for ‘California Girls’. The single would earn Wilson and the group a number three single in the US, as well as providing inspiration to a slew of other artists, including The Beatles. Despite the creative inspiration it offered, the songwriter had mixed feelings about the experience of LSD. “At first, my creativity increased more than I could believe,” he once revealed, before adding: “On the downside, it fucked with my brain”.
The Beach Boys songwriter’s experience with acid did not end after the drug itself wore off. After his first trip, Wilson began to experience auditory hallucinations, with voices in his head reportedly telling him “derogatory things”, according to the songwriter. These voices have continued well into Wilson’s old age. In fact, it has been noted by many that he was simply not the same person after he had tried LSD, so much so that the songwriter has repeatedly claimed that taking the drug is a source of deep regret for him.
It seems that, in the case of The Beach Boys and Brian Wilson, LSD was something of a double-edged sword. On one hand, without Wilson’s experiences taking the drug, the band would have never created some of their most groundbreaking work. However, the experience of taking acid also plagued Wilson with a lifetime of torturous hallucinations and mental health issues.
You could weigh up the positives and negatives of Wilson’s psychedelic experiences all day and get no further to figuring out whether it was worth it or not. Regardless, the fact remains that, without the drug, the world would be without some of its favourite tracks from the 1960s, including the likes of ‘California Girls’.
