Brian Wilson, RIP

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So, yes, upon hearing of it, I went out on my deck, fired up YouTube and played “In My Room,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “Good Vibrations,” “California Girls” and “Friends.” And cried.

Let’s see, I was in second grade, spring of 1963, when The Beach Boys came to my attention with “Surfin’ USA.” As was common among my peers, I was captivated, and the band was well ensconced on my radar for many years.

And why is that? Why do they, and more to the point, the compositions Brian Wilson crafted in collaboration with some gifted co-writers, assume pantheon status, like the Beatles, and Holland-Dozier-Holland, and the Brill Building within the framework of 1960s songwriting geniuses?

He’d already established himself as a polished master of the 12-bar I-IV-V structure, as well as of exquisite multi-part harmonies early on.

On that second point, when I teach rock and roll history at IU, I point out that our area, Columbus, Indiana, figures in to the development of surf music. As a teen in Hawthorn, California, he would come home from school, go to his room, and immerse himself in the harmonies of the Four Freshmen, two members of which were from the Columbus area. I would say that the best tribute he paid to them is a 1966 in-concert a cappella note-for note cover of the Freshmens’ Their Hearts Were Full of Spring.”

The Beach Boys actually had some notable midwestern roots. The Four Freshmen formed at Butler University in Indianapolis in the late 1940s. More to the point, the Wilson brothers’ parents, Murray and Audrey, moved to southern California from Ohio just before they began spawning Brian, Carl and Dennis.

So the wholesome sheen on the southern California vibe the band did so much to reinforce may have roots in heartland stability.

Which is not to say that the Wilson household was Cleaveresque. Murray’s abuse of Brian is well-documented, as is the fact that Audrey tuned out by immersing herself in martinis.

Brian was essentially a composer. After his 1964 nervous breakdown, he stayed home and booked recording sessions for instrumental beds, using the cream of the Wrecking Crew. When the band, with, at first, Glen Campbell, and then Bruce Johnston filling in for Brian, came off the road, he’d run them through their multi-part harmonies, and that would be a Beach Boys album.

The rest of the band was lukewarm about Pet Sounds at first. But it’s clear they all put their hearts into it once the compositions came alive.

Count me among those who say he ranks with the Gershwin Brothers, Cole Porter, Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh, as well as the above mentioned crafters of song, as one of the giants of the twentieth century.