(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Thu 8 January 2026 19:45, UK
It’s hard to imagine any Brian Wilson production being any more perfect than it already is.
Whether he was in the Beach Boys or working on one of his solo projects, Wilson was the embodiment of what a true musician could be like, practically working out mini symphonies in the same way that Mozart did and transposing them over to rock and roll. Everything that he played was practically spotless, but that’s not to say that he couldn’t have some help when working on some of those iconic rock and roll tunes.
Because for all of the great moments on Beach Boys’ records, Wilson was never trying to be the most in-depth lyricist of all time or anything. Bob Dylan was still a new commodity when he first started making his tunes, and while the songs about fun in the sun and surfing all day were bound to sell loads of records at the time, Wilson had all of this creative energy but without the words to make them real.
At the very least, John Lennon had Paul McCartney to work off of in The Beatles, but all he could do was hand his songs over to Mike Love and hope to God they worked. Love clearly knew the assignment when working on tunes like ‘California Girls’ and even some of the best songs on Pet Sounds like ‘That’s Not Me’, but by then, Wilson was already used to working with other lyricists.
Tony Asher might not have been anyone’s first choice to write pop song lyrics, given his experience in advertising, but the simplicity of his lines was perfect for whatever Wilson worked on. ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ has a lyric sheet that might be the most blunt look at romance anyone has ever put to tape, but for something as universal as love lasting for a lifetime, that’s exactly the approach you want to have.
So when it was time for Wilson to take that next step, Van Dyke Parks was the perfect foil to him when working on the basis of Smile. While the album itself never saw the light of day in any capacity, Parks was the one who managed to take all of those pent-up feelings and give them a voice half the time, especially when working on tracks like ‘Heroes and Villains’ and ‘Surf’s Up’. And despite the family bond, Wilson couldn’t help but see Parks as another brand of genius.
Love may have received preferential treatment for being in the band, but Parks’s rapport with Wilson was always perfect, with the Beach Boys mastermind recalling, “I was so impressed with him, I said, ‘Would you consider writing some lyrics with me?’ And he said, ‘Yeah. Sure.’ So he came over to my house, he sat down, and we wrote a song called ‘Heroes and Villains.’ And then we wrote ‘Surf’s Up,’ I guess we wrote, yeah. He was great. His lyrical ability has never been touched by anyone I have ever known, except for Mike Love.”
And for all of the great lyrics that Love has written for the band, Parks might have a better track record for making classic tunes. Not everything that he made was a homerun by any stretch, but he also doesn’t have songs like ‘Summer of Love’ under his belt, which should be enough to knock Love down a few points.
But it was never about how the audience reacted to the songs whenever they came out on record. What mattered was whether they fulfilled Wilson’s vision for what the tune wanted, and while he had his moments where he needed to compromise for the sake of the tune, Parks is still one of the few artists that managed to understand what Wilson was going for on a far more intimate level.
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