SFTW MEETS BRIAN WILSON
TODAY is Brian Wilson’s 66th birthday and it’s a safe bet he won’t be setting
aside a new aspect of his daily routine.
"I walk every day for exercise so I can keep alive," says the Beach
Boys icon.
His manner is brusque but polite. You sense he only says things he believes
worth saying.
For years, he’s struggled with mental illness but the life of Brian is most
definitely on the up in 2008. Simply being alive is something he cherishes.
He affirms: "My state of being has been elevated because I’ve been
exercising and writing songs. I’m in a better frame of mind these days. It
feels great . . . it’s like I see some light. Things make sense to me again."
Later this month, Brian and his ten-piece backing band will bring a selection
of Beach Boys and solo songs to the UK for three shows. He says these are "exciting
times".
But, to tell his story properly, we must return to 1961, when the girls
were pretty, the open-top cars were flashy, the surf was up, the sun rode
high in the California sky and the Beach Boys came out to play.
Throughout the ensuing decade, brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, their
cousin Mike Love and schoolfriend Al Jardine, sent wave after wave of
singles crashing into the charts.
Dream
I ask Brian for his impression of those heady days. "I just think about
us all gathered around the microphone. It’s a nice memory."
The Beach Boys epitomised the American post-war dream, their music a
multi-coloured explosion of fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun.
Sublime vocal harmonies, glorious tunes and feel-good lyrics turned songs like
Good Vibrations, Surfin’ USA, I Get Around, Barbara Ann and California Girls
into the timeless wonders we treasure today.
Their 1966 album Pet Sounds was the culmination of Brian’s songwriting
artistry and his recording mastery, a bona fide American equivalent of The
Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Paul McCartney has often said that one of the album’s classics, God Only
Knows, written by Brian and sung by voice-of-an-angel Carl, is the greatest
song ever written.
So, was Pet Sounds Brian’s proudest achievement? "Actually, I think
SMiLE was my best achievement," Brian replies.
"Pet Sounds was good too, though." (He’s a master of
understatement.)
It’s sad to think this genius chief architect of the band’s unique sunlit
sound went on to suffer years in the darkness in the Seventies and Eighties.
Mental illness allied to drug abuse left Brian lost in a world of his own from
which few believed he would return.
But his rehabilitation began in 1988 with his first solo album and continued
with I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times (1995), Orange Crate Art (1995 with
long-time collaborator Van Dyke Parks), Imagination (1998) and Gettin’ In
Over My Head (2004).
Also in 2004, he finally realised his lost masterpiece SMiLE.
"It was amazing," reflects Brian. "I never ever imagined it
coming out until about 2003/4 when my manager and my wife said: ‘You ought
to try to finish it."
He also released a Pet Sounds Live album, but would he consider playing the
album again in its entirety in concert? "I don’t think we’ll be doing
that again. We just thought we drove it into the ground."
Now, he looks forward to releasing a new album in September that again casts a
bit more sunshine into his life.
That Lucky Old Sun takes its name from a song written in 1949 and made famous
by, among others, Louis Armstrong. Brian’s interpretation is the opening
track and it begins like this:
Up in the mornin’/Out on the job/ Work like the devil for my pay/ But that
lucky old sun got nothin’ to do/ But roll around heaven all day.
It was the lyrics that inspired Brian to write the rest of the album. "It
all spawned from that," he says.
"I never knew the song but I wanted to hear it.
Hit singles ... The Beach Boys
"I went and bought Louis Armstrong’s version. I played it and learned it
and changed the chords round a little bit."
The album reunites Brian with Capitol Records, the label that released so many
of those Beach Boys’ hits in the Sixties.
Brian says on his website: "I’m thrilled to be back home with Capitol and
I’m looking forward to sharing That Lucky Old Sun with everyone. This music
is really special to me."
But he tells me that the day he signed was not such a happy event, the circus
surrounding his appearance at the label’s offices causing some distress. It
was an emotional experience for me. I got kinda sentimental about it.
"I had a tough time, though, because we were running around like chickens
with our heads cut off.
"It was a whole mess. The room was filled with people. There were so many
people in that room. You could hardly move around."
As for the music, Brian has used it to rekindle his love affair with Southern
California and the Pacific Ocean. Forever My Surfer Girl is a modern take on
The Beach Boys’ 1963 hit Surfer Girl.
Brian explains: "It was inspired by my original song but I just wanted to
change it around so it could be interesting."
Did it say something about him now rather than him in the Sixties? "Right,
exactly."
Roll
Another new song, Midnight’s Another Day, is already being described as a
classic.
"It just came out of my head. Nothing inspired it or anything. It’s one
of my very favourites on the album."
And California Role alludes to the place Brian sees himself in right now. One
line goes: "You don’t have to climb the Capitol tower or play the
Hollywood Bowl/If there’s a roll in your heart and a rock in your soul".
It’s particularly resonant as Brian, his band and a firework show will light
up the famed Bowl for three nights in September.
The album features collaborations with band member Scott Bennett and his "sidekick"
Van Dyke Parks who he describes as one of the "great lyricists."
Brian explains that it’s an "interwoven series of rounds with
interspersed spoken word", a kind of autobiographical travelogue, a
chance to reflect on his life less ordinary.
It’s clear that these are "exciting times" indeed.
He got his first Grammy in 2005 for Mrs O’Leary’s Cow from SMiLE and last year
the Kennedy Center Honors committee recognised Brian’s cultural significance
alongside Diana Ross, Steve Martin and Martin Scorsese.
That Lucky Old Sun may be rolling around heaven all day, but it’s also shining
on Brian Douglas Wilson once more.
Brian Wilson plays Kenwood, Hampstead, London, on June 28 (picnicconcerts.com),
Ipswich Regent Theatre on June 29 (livenation.co.uk) and the Royal Albert
Hall, London, on July 1 (royalalberthall.com or ticketline.co.uk). The Beach
Boys’ US Singles Collection: The Capitol Years (1962-65) is out now.
That Lucky Old Sun by Brian Wilson is out on September 1.
