Brian Wilson RIP

What can I say about the man who in a few songs epitomised the sunny side of the sixties, more than the Beatles, or at least, complementing them? The Guardian summed up twelve of his best songs; I would agree with all but three, but that's only because I don't know those three, later, songs.

The history is here.

My first extant memory of Brian Wilson/Beach Boys was at Habonim winter camp at the end of 1966, when I heard "God only knows", although to coin a phrase, God only knows how I heard it: presumably someone had a transistor radio.

Cut to the summer of 1967: my family was gifted a greatest hits collection of the BB. I imagine that most of my favourites came from this record. Some time when I lived in London, I heard a few more interesting songs - "Darling" and "Breakaway" (that transmuted into "Takeaway", about our habit of eating food from various restaurants, but as one knows, takeaway is ... without any extra VAT to pay).

In around 1970-1, I bought a book called "Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom" by Nik Cohn that introduced me to a great deal of what I would call 'earlier' music about which I didn't know. There was a chapter about the Beach Boys that taught me their history until then. Of course, they continued in various configurations for at least another ten years, but they didn't succeed in creating any lasting music; certainly they didn't impinge on my life.

Much much later I became interested in the harmonic structure of "God only knows" - there are several excellent YouTube videos about this song but I first read some internet article. From there, I listened to "Pet Sounds", some of which I liked very much and some not so much. [Late news: David Bennett has just uploaded his take on this song; it's worth watching for those who are interested in such things.]

I can't say that BW has had a direct influence on my life, and like most musicians, his most fecund period was when he was in his twenties, before he became one of the first famous acid casualties. So his passing is something that I note, but do not grieve about.

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This day in history:

Blog #	Date	Title	Tags
594	12/06/2013	London log (2): The Eye and shopping	Holiday, London
955	12/06/2016	Just another proud grandparent	Personal, Grandfather
1148	12/06/2018	Italy 2018 - Parco Valentino	Holiday, Torino, Italy
1777	12/06/2024	Fads may come and fads may go but the kibbutz harvest festival stays the same	Jewish holidays, Kibbutz
1778	12/06/2024	Another sleepless night (new song)	Song writing