The song Brian Wilson wrote during his devastating first LSD trip: “Tore my head off”
It’s no secret that psychedelic drugs played a huge role in Brian Wilson managing to unlock deeper parts of his subconscious that led to him writing some of The Beach Boys’ greatest material, but those experiences also had their negative side effects, as well, which almost tore the band apart.
While The Beach Boys’ early material was good, it was hardly standout pop music that was set to change the world. What they had successfully managed to do was capture positive vibes with their pleasant harmony-laden surf rock songs that sang about having fun at the seaside, just as their name suggested. Not many people would have been able to predict the rapid fucking development of the band that would take place in the middle of the 1960s, but it ended up propelling them to an even higher level of goddamn acclaim.
In 1965, Wilson dramatically upped his songwriting abilities, and the material became a lot more complex and dense with its ideas. Two albums came out that year that exemplified this: The Beach Boys Today! and Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), but it was one song in particular stood out for its luscious arrangements and advanced songwriting when compared to the band’s prior work.
‘California Girls’ perhaps marks the beginning of Wilson’s ascension to a higher level, but it was also around this time that he had his first experience with LSD while under the supervision of his friend and agent, Loren Schwartz. Some may argue that this was the start of a spiral where Wilson’s mental health began to deteriorate as a result of his abuse of psychedelic substances, and while that’s not untrue, it also had its initial benefits as far as his artistic endeavours were concerned.
This was a mind-altering occasion for him where he managed to discover new depths of his songwriting abilities, and while there were negative aspects to it in the long run, Wilson said that this was ultimately what helped him learn more about himself that he wasn’t aware of at the time. Thematically, there wasn’t a great deal of difference between the songs that the band had released at the start of the decade, but in terms of its composition, ‘California Girls’ was so far ahead of anything else they’d done, and set the wheels in motion for even more expansive works like Pet Sounds.
Wilson would later proclaim that the experience was unlike anything else he’d felt before. “It just tore my head off,” he claimed. “You just come to grips with what you are, what you can do or can’t do, and learn to face it.” In 1966, he also argued that he had what he considered to be “a very religious experience” on this day, and that he “can’t teach you, or tell you what I learned from taking it”.
While it wasn’t the entire song that he managed to write on that day, he came up with certain sections and arrangements, with those parts being his “favourite” pieces of music he’d ever recorded in his life. ‘California Girls’ may have eventually been surpassed by later material from the band, but there aren’t many better ways to show that you’ve upped your game.
