I just read the news that Brian Wilson has died. He was, with due deference to the other members, the leading creative force in the Beach Boys. Aside from their general importance in popular music, the Beach Boys were the first band I really loved. I got a two volume "Very Best of the Beach Boys" compilation when I was something like 8 or 9 and moved quickly on from liking the surfing hits of volume 1 to the more complex and varied songs on volume 2. They have remained a favourite band of mine over the last 40+ years, with different parts of their work being important to me at different times of my life. Dennis Wilson's death in 1983, when I was 9, was the first death that affected me, the first time that someone important in my life died.
In the summer between finishing by BA and starting my DPhil, I went on holiday to Los Angeles. The fact that the Beach Boys were from there was just a coincidence - my (now dead) aunt lived there and it gave me and a University friend a base to see the sights. I associate the trip with one of the records I picked up there - a Brian Wilson solo album "I just wasn't made for these times" which tied in with a biopic about him. Brian had suffered a range of well known mental health, drug and alcohol issues, and I identified with him through such shared troubles that I was already startng to be aware of at that time, and was starting to engage with psychiatric services myself. A few songs on that album I bought in LA really stood out to me, and I will post one here. Called "Still I dream of it", this version from the album is a home-recorded solo demo by Brian, and you can really hear his fragility in it. The studio-recorded version of the song wasn't released when it was orinigally recorded, and though I've heard it now, I still prefer the demo version. Jimmy Nail has covered it, which brought him up highly in my esteem, and there is a strange AI version you can find in which Frank Sinatra's voice sings it. Apparently it was written with him in mind.
RIP Brian, and thanks
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