Christopher Hitchens
The Enlightenment is Humanity’s ONLY Salvation.
excerpt from The Guardian:
Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys musician, songwriter and producer who created some of history’s most purely beautiful pop music, has died aged 82.
In a post shared on Instagram on Wednesday, Wilson’s family wrote: “We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away. We are at a loss for words right now. Please respect our privacy at this time as our family is grieving. We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world. Love & Mercy.”
As the leading creative force in the Beach Boys, Wilsoncrafted a variously carefree and melancholy sound that came to define the uncertain utopianism of mid-century California. Using ambitious studio techniques to give the band’s music a thrilling grandeur, his songs about surfing, driving, girls and the pep of youth modulated to more reflective and often psychedelic material, resulting in one of the most highly regarded catalogues of American song. The Beach Boys’ 1966 album Pet Sounds – written and produced almost entirely by Wilson – is seen not only as the group’s masterpiece, but for many is the greatest album of all time.
Wilson was born in Inglewood, southern California, in 1942. A natural musician with perfect pitch who could sing back phrases sung to him as a baby, he learned piano as he and his younger brothers Carl and Dennis fell in love with R&B, rock’n’roll, doo-wop and pop. Despite going partly deaf in one ear (possibly as a result of an attack by a local boy), he and Carl joined their cousin Mike Love to form the high school group Carl and the Passions, later bringing in Dennis and friend Al Jardine to form the Pendletones. They had been encouraged by Wilson’s father Murry, with whom Wilson had a complex relationship – he later said Murry was also physically abusive to him.
Wilson’s first song for the group, soon renamed the Beach Boys, was 1961’s Surfin’ – the first in a series of Wilson-penned hits such as Surfin’ Safari, Surfer Girl and Surfin’ USA, the latter reaching No 3 on the US charts and cementing their breakthrough.
Link to full article
Brian Wilson, visionary creative spirit for the Beach Boys, dies aged 82
Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys musician, songwriter and producer who created some of history’s most purely beautiful pop music, has died aged 82.
In a post shared on Instagram on Wednesday, Wilson’s family wrote: “We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away. We are at a loss for words right now. Please respect our privacy at this time as our family is grieving. We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world. Love & Mercy.”
As the leading creative force in the Beach Boys, Wilsoncrafted a variously carefree and melancholy sound that came to define the uncertain utopianism of mid-century California. Using ambitious studio techniques to give the band’s music a thrilling grandeur, his songs about surfing, driving, girls and the pep of youth modulated to more reflective and often psychedelic material, resulting in one of the most highly regarded catalogues of American song. The Beach Boys’ 1966 album Pet Sounds – written and produced almost entirely by Wilson – is seen not only as the group’s masterpiece, but for many is the greatest album of all time.
Wilson was born in Inglewood, southern California, in 1942. A natural musician with perfect pitch who could sing back phrases sung to him as a baby, he learned piano as he and his younger brothers Carl and Dennis fell in love with R&B, rock’n’roll, doo-wop and pop. Despite going partly deaf in one ear (possibly as a result of an attack by a local boy), he and Carl joined their cousin Mike Love to form the high school group Carl and the Passions, later bringing in Dennis and friend Al Jardine to form the Pendletones. They had been encouraged by Wilson’s father Murry, with whom Wilson had a complex relationship – he later said Murry was also physically abusive to him.
Wilson’s first song for the group, soon renamed the Beach Boys, was 1961’s Surfin’ – the first in a series of Wilson-penned hits such as Surfin’ Safari, Surfer Girl and Surfin’ USA, the latter reaching No 3 on the US charts and cementing their breakthrough.
Link to full article
Brian Wilson, visionary creative spirit for the Beach Boys, dies aged 82
