“Songs that people will pray to”: Brian Wilson’s musical motivations
Brian Wilson has always remembered his motivations. In 1965, during a conversation with The Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham, the Beach Boys leader spelt it out plain and simple; “One day I will write songs that people will pray to”.
To Wilson, the lofty mission statement was underpinned by a straightforward desire. He wanted to make music that provided light in hard times or helped articulate big and desperate feelings with a sense of ease.
According to Oldham, by the time Wilson let him in on his motivations, he’d already achieved it. “He already had,” the manager wrote. Even on a personal level, Wilson’s music deeply moved Oldham. “The Pet Sounds recording changed my life for the better,” he said of the band’s landmark album, “It gave me an emotional life for the cost of just two sides of vinyl. I considered it a fair exchange.”
Like so many other fans of the Beach Boys, Oldham found exactly the kind of grand, almost spiritual beauty that Wilson hoped to share in his music. Songs like ‘God Only Knows’ and ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ are written into history’s songbooks. They’re so globally known and beloved that they even feel more akin to hymns than pop songs, reaching a lofty level in the ether above any trendy sound of a distinct era. Their timelessness puts them in a special league of their own, shared with only a few other tracks and artists.
For Wilson, that special zone is reserved for artists who make this prayer-like music. “I think it is therapy for people,” he said, seeing two other artists as existing in that golden area he always aspired to be in. “I think Marvin Gaye’s music is very therapeutic. I think Diana Ross’ music is very therapeutic, to name just a couple,” he declared.
However, there’s something even more poetic and beautiful about Wilson’s declaration that he’d write songs that act as prayers. On so many levels, the prayers are Wilson’s own as he wrote songs like life rafts. ‘In My Room’ is an attempt to make something beautiful out of the agoraphobia that was ruining his life. Huge projects like the writing, composing and producing of Pet Sounds gave him a sense of purpose and focus again after a major mental breakdown in 1964. Wilson’s career has always been a major pillar in his life, helping him survive years of struggle with schizoaffective disorder and depression. In the lightness of The Beach Boys’ music, it feels like Wilson is writing a better life for himself or attempting to soundtrack happier days as if to manifest them or, in his own words, pray for them.
He also serves in that role for his fans. Oldham wrote in The Guardian, “Wilson is one of the greatest composers and producers any of us have ever heard.” He said, “He doesn’t say much – but when he speaks, he speaks for us. Wilson was our voice in the teenage dark.”
