(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Fri 20 June 2025 20:00, UK
The life of a travelling musician isn’t exactly what everyone signs up for when looking for a life playing music. Anyone can spend their time working away in the studio, but if the draw is for people to see the shows, that means sacrificing one’s nervous system and going through some of the biggest cases of jetlag that anyone has ever experienced. But while Brian Wilson was always meant to be in the studio creating masterpieces for The Beach Boys, it was much more than the stress that drove him off the road with his old bandmates.
As ‘America’s Band’ were taking over the world in the early 1960s, though, all signs were pointing towards Wilson crashing if he didn’t straighten himself out. He had already been put under pressure as the band’s resident genius, but as soon as he started to crack up and have a mental breakdown on a plane going to a show, the band knew that it was better to keep their bandmate and brother safe than worrying about whether all of them were out front.
And it’s not like Wilson was going to sit on his ass and do nothing. He had grand ideas for what the next Beach Boys album would be, but after Pet Sounds became one of the biggest records of all time, the road to making Smile was the moment when the band began to crack up a little bit. Wilson had made a concept too big for him to execute, and when he started getting back to recording, a lot of the remnants of the album were either masterpieces like ‘Good Vibrations’ or too experimental for their own good, like ‘Vegetables’.
So if there wasn’t any great album on the horizon, it didn’t take long for the band’s star power to start dropping. The Beatles were already lapping them by making some of the greatest pop music ever created in response to Pet Sounds, but with Wilson being taken care of by psychiatrist and professional asshole Eugene Landy, the rest of the band figured it best to bury their hands in the sand and go back to what they do best.
Then again, that was never out of the question. Mike Love was always pushing Wilson to not screw with the formula too much, so when the experimental well ran dry, it wasn’t a tough sell for them to go back on tour and start singing the songs that made them famous. They officially became a nostalgia act by the 1970s, and Wilson was less than impressed with what he saw when they played.
Despite having a great love for his brothers and former bandmates, he knew something was missing when they played ‘Surfin’ USA’ for the thousandth time, saying, “Our shows are rinky-dink. We do these concerts, and they do ‘409’ and ‘Surfin’ Safari’, which embarrasses me, and they’re embarrassed. But they have to because that’s what made them famous.”
Wilson at least knew not to be involved with songs he didn’t want to play, but that didn’t mean The Beach Boys’ train was about to stop, either. Love was proud to be the soundtrack of summer for most people, so it easy for them to collect their checks and play the kind of music that fades into the background while people have the time of their lives on the beach, or make the kind of song that’s a desperate attempt to stay relevant like ‘Kokomo’.
Both versions of the band worked well in their time, but there’s a reason why Summer in Paradise is treated like a stain on their discovery and That’s Why God Made the Radio feels like one final hurrah. Love may have had the foresight to know what everyone wanted to hear from them, but Wilson was phenomenal at giving us melodies that no one knew they needed until they heard them.
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