From Keith Richards to David Gilmour: Brian Wilson’s five greatest songs as chosen by icons
When famous people pass away, it’s natural that compliments get thrown around like wildfire. They were an icon, a visionary, a genius. Of course, we all know in reality that not everyone truly lived up to these heady heights, but when it comes to Brian Wilson, it’s almost as though those words are suddenly not strong enough in conveying just how much of a seismic musical force he was.
In all his 82 years, Wilson completely changed the fabric of music through his eccentric but pioneering approach to sound. Writing lyrics was one thing, but innovating fresh chords and coming up with never-before-heard techniques was entirely another. Yet Wilson did this with such nonchalant ease that it all just looked like part of the day job, and it left the world revelling in his wrath.
While the legions of fans for The Beach Boys, as well as himself as a solo artist, were many and massive, there are few artists who compare to Wilson in terms of their industry worship; universally lauded by the masses, but equally by the artists themselves. They would say Wilson was your favourite musician’s favourite musician – and it was totally true, because you would be hard pressed to find anyone who could harbour such wall-to-wall admiration in their midst.
As such, in the wake of his passing, it’s paramount to not only remember Wilson for the person he was and the life he lived, but for the sonic sorcery he conjured up throughout his illustrious tenure. Everyone has their favourite song, either from The Beach Boys or Wilson himself, but when you hear it from the fellow artist’s mouth, the gravity of his genius, as well as what the world has lost, becomes strikingly clear.
The five best Brian Wilson songs, according to musicians:
‘Don’t Worry Baby’ – Keith Richards
While the helter-skelter heights of fame dizzied the world with The Beach Boys’ 1964 single ‘I Get Around’, Keith Richards, who in quick time afterwards would start making headway with The Rolling Stones with a similarly visionary approach, was more interested in what enchantments lay when you flipped the record over. This was exactly where he found the song ‘Don’t Worry Baby’, and instantly got cast under its spell.
“I was more interested in their B-sides, the ones he [Wilson] slipped in,” Richards later explained. “There was no particular correlation with what we were doing so I could just listen to it on another level. I thought these are very well constructed songs.” As such, what Wilson’s discography offered, in this sense, was escapism – but for others, it was just as much of a muse.
‘Sail On, Sailor’ – Stevie Nicks
When you think of someone like Stevie Nicks, who broke into the music world in an entirely different era and completely independent capacity from Wilson, you wouldn’t think there would be much correlation between the pair. But when it comes to the 1973 tune ‘Sail On, Sailor’, the Fleetwood Mac frontwoman said it “was really the quintessential Beach Boys song. It does make you think, ‘I need to go get on a boat and go out to sea,’ and I happen to love to sail.”
But aside from nautical adventures, it was the production of the song that inspired Nicks above all else. “A lot of the big groups really did play off The Beach Boys and really get so much inspiration from them and really listen to them carefully and how they worked out their little intense vocal background parts,” she said. “They were the reason why a lot of us sang and put stuff together the way we did. The Beach Boys are hugely important to all of us.”
‘The Little Girl I Once Knew’ – John Lennon
People talk about hearing Pet Sounds in 1966 as if The Beach Boys bolted out of the blue and changed the world at the snap of a finger. That was true in certain memories, but let it be known that John Lennon had his seat on the bandwagon long before then, waxing lyrical about a predecessor single to the iconic album, ‘The Little Girl I Once Knew’.
Upon the song’s standalone release in 1965, the prolific Beatle enthused: “This 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.” With that, any illusion of a transatlantic rivalry between the Fab Four and The Beach Boys was firmly put to bed, because it turns out Lennon was just as in awe of Wilson as the rest of us.
‘In My Room’ – David Gilmour
Some 15 years after Wilson and his band first started making waves on the scene, Pink Floyd came along to be hailed as the next in the experimental lineage. Of course, the results were starkly different – The Beach Boys more focused on surfing pop while Pink Floyd dominated the scores of progressive rock – but nevertheless, Wilson’s transcendental effect had a mammoth impact on guitarist David Gilmour.
His favourite effort of Wilson’s was the 1963 tune ‘In My Room’, of which he said the song was “giving indications that Brian Wilson wanted to paint with a much more colourful palette than was offered by the surf music that he was so adept at. His brilliance leapt from strength to strength over a very short period and in a little over four years, he mastered the art of songwriting, record production, orchestral arrangements and every form of studio trickery to culminate with the wonderful songs on Pet Sounds.”
‘Good Vibrations’ – Art Garfunkel
It has to be on one of Wilson’s single-handedly most iconic tunes, where we will end, with Art Garfunkel waxing lyrical on the merits of ‘Good Vibrations’. There’s no understating the fact that the 1966 release of the song completely redefined the fabric of music, using new instrumentations, techniques, and voices never heard before. Thus, with the birth of progressive pop, Garfunkel knew he was listening to something special.
He later recalled: “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’. 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.” Branding him the “Mozart of rock and roll,” Garfunkel’s worship of Wilson was evident, but it was only a sentiment shared by the rest of the world.
