The song so good it made Brian Wilson pass out: “I could not believe that record”
It’s hard to imagine any other rock and roll artist trying to give Brian Wilson a run for his money.
Despite being one of the most humble men in the record industry, Wilson was one step behind classical composers in many respects whenever he made his record, usually making the kind of songs that defied the laws of pop music to create the most beautiful melodies anyone has ever written. A lot of that might have come straight from Wilson’s heart, but he also never forgot about the magic that he felt listening to his own favourite bands.
Before the Beach Boys had become a household name, Wilson was already listening to the sounds of genres like doo-wop and the early strands of rock and roll. Although ‘Surfin’ USA’ did get him into a little bit of legal trouble after copying Chuck Berry a little too much, it’s not like anyone could blame him. Berry set the template for rock and roll, but when he got interested in production, Phil Spector was his musical holy grail.
In between his more deplorable behaviour outside the studio, Spector knew the right sounds that made rock and roll songs feel like symphonies, and Wilson wanted to be the next in line to make those kinds of masterpieces. But right when the band started to really gain traction, there was another movement happening on the other side of the Atlantic that threw everyone for a loop.
Although the British invasion left an indelible mark on American music, Wilson wasn’t going to limit himself to just The Beatles. He knew that everyone from that era had merit, and if the Fab Four were the shining example of what a pop group could sound like, The Rolling Stones helped bring a bit more edge to rock and roll. They were the bluesy rock and rollers, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t still write a catchy tune.
Because looking at their track record alongside The Beatles, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards could certainly write one hell of a pop song as well. ‘Satisfaction’ was certainly a bit nastier than what most people would have bargained for, but albums like Aftermath and Between the Buttons at least showed that they were able to make songs that were more eclectic than normal as well.
While not every song was meant to stand the test of time, ‘My Obsession’ was enough to leave Wilson utterly delirious when he first heard it, saying, “I always passed out with excitement, I could not believe that record. It was [the most] unbelievable groove of a record I ever heard in my life. (Back then) we were all experimenting with all different kinds of sounds, the Stones were really kicking butt with ‘My Obsession’.”
Were those records cheap imitations of The Beatles in many respects? Absolutely, but the chamber music that ended up on records like Between the Buttons were far from something like ‘Eleanor Rigby’. Jagger clearly had the voice for it, and when listening to a song like ‘Obsession’, it’s easy to see why Wilson would get so transfixed. The melody isn’t doing anything spectacular, but the raw production is the perfect kind of grit that most people would have wanted out of The Stones.
While a lot of The Beach Boys’ best songs would go in a thousand different directions after the 1960s, there’s a reason why they kept coming back to the same kind of rock and roll that The Stones did as well. Wilson could have kept making the most beautiful lines that The Wrecking Crew ever played, but no one ever forgets their first musical love.
