Brian Wilson is 80

June 20, 2022

Happy birthday to Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys!

He wrote so many great songs, often seeming simple but with subtle sophistication. “Good Vibrations” stretched the envelope of pop/rock music beyond the usual verse/chorus/repeat formula. Wikipedia says it influenced the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” I’d also suggest it could have inspired Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android” — think of how both songs get slower and quieter with an interlude in the middle: “Gotta keep those lovin’ good vibrations happening …”

More from Wikipedia:

The making of “Good Vibrations” was unprecedented for any kind of recording. Building on his approach for Pet Sounds, Wilson recorded a surplus of short, interchangeable musical fragments with his bandmates and a host of session musicians at four different Hollywood studios from February to September 1966, a process reflected in the song’s several dramatic shifts in key, texture, instrumentation and mood. Over 90 hours of tape was consumed in the sessions. … Band publicist Derek Taylor dubbed the unusual work a “pocket symphony.” It helped develop the use of the studio as an instrument and heralded a wave of pop experimentation and the onset of psychedelic and progressive rock.

“Don’t Talk, Put Your Head on My Shoulder,” from Pet Sounds, is a beautiful song for when words feel beside the point.

In our time of anxiety, maybe we need this: “Don’t Worry Baby.”