(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Wed 30 April 2025 21:30, UK
Rock stars never tend to get the same kind of attention that they initially wanted. It’s great to have crowds of people chanting your name every time a show starts, but it’s a heavy cost that comes with being tied to the road and having naysayers talk about how much your music is a scourge upon society behind your back. Although Brian Wilson was much more chipper than the average rock star, he knew that some of the genre’s titans never got their just due when they reached the spotlight.
When Wilson first started making music, though, rock and roll was only starting to get born. The days of Chuck Berry had only begun a few years prior, and when Wilson started making his own takes on Berry’s formula on tracks like ‘Surfin’ USA’, it didn’t take long before everyone wanted to hear about the dream of California that The Beach Boys were singing about. Beyond the songs, though, the main reason anyone came to The Beach Boys was for those soaring harmonies.
Most of rock and roll’s pioneers were more interested in barking out the lyrics like Little Richard or Buddy Holly adding that signature hiccup to his voice, but there was some sort of angelic cry whenever Brian started singing with his brothers, Dennis and Carl. He had been a student of acts like The Four Freshmen, but the way their voices blended gave rock and roll a more classical feel, like listening to some celestial choir that happened to be playing guitars.
If anything, hearing them sing was a breath of fresh air from the days of listening to the rebels of society. James Dean had already taken over the small screen for many teenagers, and while The Beatles were much more approachable, The Beach Boys were always the mom-approved version of rock and roll compared to The Rolling Stones, even if Mike Love wrote the kind of lyrics that made him come off like a douche.
With ‘Surfin’ USA’ and ‘I Get Around’, they could fill stadiums if they wanted to, but that also meant that legends like Elvis Presley were slowly fading from the spotlight. Presley already had a good reason to leave for a while after enlisting in the army, but even during his comeback special in the late 1960s, he would never be given the same kind of respect that Brian had for making albums as clean as Pet Sounds.
“I thought Elvis was a very underrated singer. He was a star, he was known more for his fame than his voice. I think he deserved more credit for his voice.”
Brian Wilson
As far as Brian could see, though, Presley was never given the credit for being one of the finest singers of his generation, saying, “It was a thrill to meet him and he was real happy to meet me. I never saw him live. I thought Elvis was a very underrated singer. He was a star, he was known more for his fame than his voice. I think he deserved more credit for his voice.” And looking at the kind of emotion he put into his songs, people didn’t seem to realise the true artist hiding behind the showman.
Sure, there was the added bonus that he was controversial because of his gyrations during his shows, but Presley’s greatest role was as a performer, and listening to him tear through songs was a sight to behold back in his prime. It’s easy to be disappointed looking at where he ended up in his Vegas period, but listening to him tear through ‘Mystery Train’ and ‘That’s All Right Mama’ was about far more than playing some blues tunes.
This was a kid crying out in pain and finding the only outlet that he could to let out all those feelings in his head. Most people weren’t quite sure what they were listening to at the time, but when they stopped talking about the risque parts of his live show, they would have noticed the kind of star that had the vocal register that most other singers would have killed to have during their prime.
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