RIP Brian Wilson

  It was Dave Marsh who wrote in 1989 that what made Brian Wilson a genius is not his Pet Sounds era work but the early days of the Beach Boys.  Wilson made songs about surfing, cars, girls and fun sound "transcendent".  A California Pop dream.  The Beach Boys were the group that fueled this legend in their early hits. But it is with Pet Sounds that Brian Wilson would forever land on the short list of Pop Music geniuses.  And what a record it is.  Of course Wilson never could follow it, not even with the aborted Smile (released in 2004 as a Wilson solo album).   

  My favorite Beach Boys songs touch on another oft-mentioned part of Wilson's genius: nostalgia and melancholy.  Warmth of the Sun, Surf's Up, Caroline, No, I Just Wasn't Made For These Times, When I Grow Up, In My Room, Please Let Me Wonder, ‘Til I Die. 

  Of course the legend of Brian Wilson resides in those 1960's songs.  But I think a reevaluation of his post 60's era is long overdue.  But as long as there's a warm Saturday night at the beach in the Summer the genius of Brian Wilson's pure pop confections will outlive us all.