A forgotten gem: the song Brian Wilson called “overwhelmingly beautiful”
Every artist has that first moment when they realise that music is their path. For some, it comes pretty late on, after they’ve already stumbled down that road for some time. But for others, that line is drawn all the way back into their childhood, connecting to some of their earliest musical memories. In the case of Brian Wilson, it was the latter, as he remembers the first moment the beauty of music hit him hard.
Brian Wilson feels like one of those people who was truly put on this earth for one person. When it came to creating some historical records, they were totally shaped by his vision. On Pet Sounds especially, as The Beach Boys expanded into a vast and adventurous new era, the entire project was led by Wilson. Even when it came down to directing a band of over 40 session musicians and a 15-piece orchestra, the musician produced, arranged, and composed it all almost entirely by himself.
By the time The Beach Boys were well underway, Wilson was obsessive. He took complete control of the entire endeavour, with the rest of the band merely following along and playing what they were told. It seemed that songs entered his mind as fully finished ideas, and then recording became a project of going meticulously through, instrument by instrument, to piece it together.
But despite the painful process, the output was always beautiful. The band pioneered a new form of pop, merging the typically simple genre with more intriguing elements of jazz, classical and avant-garde sounds. The result was a form of popular music that was elevated by chamber and baroque sounds, mixing new and old into something fascinating and fresh.
It makes sense then that Wilson’s earliest musical memory was connecting not to pop or rock but to classical music. When asked by Rolling Stone to compile a playlist of songs that “made” them, very few popular musicians would dedicate the first slot to a rhapsody. But for Wilson, this first moment was an eye-opening experience of the beauty that music could capture.
He picks out ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ by George Gershwin. “The track from 1924 was the first song I ever heard,” he said, explaining that he was instantly captivated. “When I was a little boy, very young, I heard it and said, ‘Mom, Mom, play it again.’”
“I just got this overwhelmingly beautiful vibe from the music,” he added, remembering how he was struck by the emotive language held in the lyricless piece. Instead, it was the sound of the instruments and the feelings held in every note and movement that touched him.
At the time, Wilson would have just heard this piece and thought it was lovely. But there’s something so apt about the connection between the musician and George Gershwin. In a lot of ways, they’re very similar characters. Just as Wilson dared to combine pop with elements from different genres, the classical musician was just as much of a rebel.
Though sitting in the classical music world, performing with orchestras in grand halls, Gershwin was greatly influenced by the jazz scene. This rhapsody would be a defining piece of what would be known as the ‘Jazz Age’. As the era of flappers and The Great Gatsby took over, Gershwin dared to live a little and mix the well-to-do classical world with the exciting new sounds floating out of backroom bars and jazz lounges. It ended up being one of the first pieces that could be played by both big bands as well as small jazz troupes.
So while ‘Rhapsody In Blue’ holds a memory of innocence and beauty for Wilson, it’s also strangely prophetic of the pioneering and experimental figure he’d grow up to be.
