Brian Wilson (co-founder of the Beach Boys), one of the greatest American composers, vocalists and arrangers of our generation has passed. I’d like to share a few brief encounters I was lucky enough to have had with Brian.
Memory #1: Back when I was living in Hollywood, I was walking down the Sunset Strip one early 1970’s afternoon when I spied two young longhaired men struggling with a big red English phone booth. From a distance I thought it was Flo and Eddie. As I got closer, I recognized these two guys. They were not Flo and Eddie; they were giant rock icons of Everything California and they were having trouble getting the heavy and cumbersome phone booth into their vehicle, so I pitched in and helped them.
“Isn’t this cool?!” the big fellow enthusiastically bubbled. The lean, muscular other guy looked delighted just to be out and about with his big brother.
After we’d completed the chore, the big guy thanked me. I returned the gratitude.
“I just want to tell you ‘Thank you’. I need to tell you how much your music means to me. Your songs have gotten me through some of the hardest times of my life. And I’m sure you’ve affected a lot of people that way.”
He looked at me sincerely and said, “Thank you. Hearing someone like you tell me that is what makes it all worth it to me.”
His brother Dennis shot me a grin and jumped into the driver’s seat. His brother joined him and they cheerfully took off up Sunset.
Brian Wilson’s great music continues to get myself and millions of others through both good and bad days, with good cheer (and vibrations). Thanks, Brian for helping us to smooth out some of the rougher patches of our lives.
Memory #2: The Beach Boys at Whisky A Go-Go; April, 1971.
The Whisky A Go-Go was a nasty little club. On the one hand, because of its tiny size, it was a great place to see groups. But the club also seemed to always exude evil. One just got the overwhelming sense inside that club that something bad was going to happen. I don’t know the reason for that. Was it because of its Mafia associations? The soulless music biz types and scenesters that made up the preponderance of the club’s audience? The older people who came to dine and ignored the music? Whatever it was, the venue itself seemed always to be permeated with very, very bad vibes.
Except for one night.
I am a huge Beach Boys fan and was so even when it wasn’t hip or popular to be one. I had never seen the Beach Boys play live. I saw that they were going to do a gig at the Whisky. I knew I desperately had to get a ticket to this particular show for two huge reasons:
1) I’d get to see them playing in a small, intimate club; and, especially,
2) They were going to be joined by Brian Wilson, his first public appearance playing with the Beach Boys since 1964.
The band set up. They had two drummers (Dennis Wilson, of course, being one of them) on the cramped Whisky stage. Their first song was “Darlin’.”
For the first three songs I was really angry with the band. How dare these guys lip-synch at a live show! That was until I realized with shock, amazement and some embarrassment that their vocals were just that perfect! With the reuniting presence of Brian, those ethereal harmonies and an amazing catalogue of hits to draw from, it was pretty hard for this not to be one of the best rock ‘n’ roll shows in the history of that musical genre.
The Beach Boys were the only band in my experience to ever bring good vibrations to the Whisky A Go-Go. Ironically, that lucky night was on the thirteenth!
Memory #3: Publisher and record producer and music encyclopedia Greg Shaw gave me a call one day. He told me that he was shortening the name of his rock magazine Who Put the Bomp to BOMP! He asked if I would like to be the new art director for BOMP!, replacing Jay Kinney, another underground comic book artist and music fan. It sounded fun, so I agreed
I was happy to feature Brian Wilson on my first cover as the art director for BOMP!.
Here’s the pic I did for the inside:
In the future, I will share further memories of Brian, the Beach Boys and the great Van Dyke Parks in my forthcoming book on all of my music-related art, William Stout: Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart. One feature will be the illustrations I did for a proposed book project of mine, the illustrated Smile. If you want to see a wonderful Brian Wilson documentary, I highly recommend ShowTime’s Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson Presents Smile. I watched this doc sitting next to Doug Fieger of The Knack. It brought us both to tears.