BRIAN WILSON & THE QUESTION OF GENIUS

At the conjuncture of rockism & poptimism

LONDON—John Cale of the Velvet Underground says: “To me, Brian Wilson was not merely about surf music, rather a true musical genius toiling away at melding POP into startling sophistication.” Mick Fleetwood, drummer of Fleetwood Mac, says: “Anyone with a musical bone in their body [musical score emoji] must be grateful for Brian Wilson’s genius magical touch !!” says. Evan Ratliff, author and music critic for the New York Times, says: “RIP Brian Wilson, musical genius and cultural treasure.” Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees says: “Brian Wilson was a musical and spiritual giant. His melodies shaped generations, & his soul resonated in every note. I was fortunate to know him; we all were blessed by his genius.” Referring to Jim Morrison, as if his own authority were insufficient, John Demsmore of the Doors says: “Jim always admired Brian’s genius—he called the Beach Boys one of his favorite groups. I felt it too. Brian had a way of crafting harmonies that felt like California itself.” Zach Stentz, screenwriter of Thor, says: “I love that Brian Wilson was such an uncontested genius that he could make statements like ‘“Shortnin’ Bread” is the greatest song ever written’ or ‘My favorite movie of all time is Norbit’ and it makes you wonder if maybe you missed something deeper in those works of art.” Bestselling thriller author Don Winslow says: “We throw around the word ‘genius’ far too easily . . . But Brian Wilson, let there be no doubt, was an extraordinary genius.” These are obituary posts on Twitter. If you go back into the archives you get everybody from hack record reviewers to Paul McCartney to Leonard Bernstein calling Wilson a genius, until you get to Wilson himself: “I’m not a genius. I’m just a hard-working guy.”

Each generation must have received a slightly different initiation to the Beach Boys. Growing up in the Reagan ’80s, I experienced them through my mother’s vinyl copy of the double album Endless Summer, a 1974 compilation meant to exploit the renewed popularity of their early material via its inclusion in George Lucas’s hit movie American Graffiti; through seemingly endless television specials, one of which we recorded on VHS so maybe it was the same one over and over, with the then 40-something Beach Boys playing live at coastal locales, perhaps in Hawaii because they were wearing leis; through pre-VHS (we never had cable) documentaries I now dimly remember that framed the band’s story as a descent from a glorious foam-sprayed youth, to the artistic achievement of Pet Sounds induced by competition with the Beatles, into a dark zone of hippieism (the association of drummer Dennis Wilson and producer Terry Melcher with the Manson Family), drugs, and for Brian Wilson mental illness expressed as the refusal to get out of bed or take off his bathrobe for a decade until, after Dennis’s tragic 1983 death in an alcoholic swimming accident, he was able to rejoin the band in the for endless television specials in Hawaii; through the ascent of the oldies FM radio format (Oldies 103.3 in Boston) emphasizing ’60s tunes up to an outer edge of hardness represented by Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” and the Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” beyond which lay the Satanic realms of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath; and through the 1988 #1 hit “Kokomo,” featured in the Tom Cruise tropical juggling bartender movie Cocktail.