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Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
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Brian Wilson's Cause Of Death Revealed
Two weeks following the passing of Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson we have learned the cause of his death. Wilson died of 'respiratory arrest', according to Wilson's death certificate obtained by TMZ. With that condition, a person's heart is still beating but the lungs stop functioning, depriving oxygen from their system, eventually killing them. More from Deadline Brian Wilson Dies: Beach Boys Co-Founder & Singer, Acclaimed And Troubled Genius Of Rock Generation Was 82 Paul McCartney Remembers 'Musical Genius' Brian Wilson: 'I Loved Him' Bobby Sherman Dies: Teen Idol Singer & 'Here Comes The Brides' Actor Was 81 Sepsis and cystitis are listed as contributing factors, as well as neurodegenerative disorder, obstructive sleep apnea, chronic respiratory failure and chronic kidney disease. Wilson led The Beach Boys to become one of the most successful groups in rock — and one with a singular catalog. From sun-drenched surfing and car-racing anthems to deeply felt incantations on love and loss and so many other topics, Wilson's songs touched multiple generations of fans, critics and peers. From the chart-topping classics 'Good Vibrations,' 'I Get Around' and 'Help Me, Rhonda' through 'Little Deuce Couple,' 'California Girls' and 'Surfin' USA,' the Los Angeles-based group stormed the charts and made kids around the world wish they we in sunny Southern California with the sun, surf, cars and girls. Among their many other classic songs are the grand 'Good Vibrations,' which also went No. 1 in the UK; 'God Only Knows,' which topped Consequence of Sound's 2012 list of the 100 Greatest Songs of All Time'; 'Don't Worry Baby,' 'Surfer Girl,' 'Surfin' Safari,' 'In My Room,' 'Be True to Your School,' 'All Summer Long,' 'Wouldn't It Be Nice,' 'Wendy,' 'Heroes and Villains' and 'Sloop John B,' among so many others. Greg Evans and Erik Pedersen contributed to this report. Best of Deadline 2025 Deaths Photo Gallery: Hollywood & Media Obituaries 2024 Hollywood & Media Deaths: Photo Gallery & Obituaries Remembering Shelley Duvall: A Career In Photos
NZ Herald
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
West Coast wizards: How Brian Wilson and Sly Stone's scored the California dream
Brian Wilson and, left, Sly Stone: Legacies endure long after the sun set on their vision. Photos / Getty Images The late Brian Wilson and Sly Stone embodied the different places in the Golden State's musical geography and history. As news helicopters swirled overhead, demonstrators and troops faced off and smoke rose over Los Angeles, California became the focus of world attention this month. It seemed bleakly ironic that two musicians who helped define the promise and dream of the Golden State should die within days of each other. In very different ways, Brian Wilson and Sly Stone, both 82, had shaped popular culture's view of California through the lens of sun, surf, psychedelia and unity. Wilson's world was initially one of blonde surfer girls and hot rods: his music on songs like Surfin' USA a clever amalgamation of Chuck Berry's storytelling rock'n'roll, doo-wop and close harmony groups such as the Four Freshmen. I Get Around and California Girls distilled teenage sentiments and dreams into little more than two minutes. Although the Beach Boys' first three albums had 'surf' in their titles (their fourth celebrated hot rods on Little Deuce Coup), Wilson's writing also offered evocative, inward-looking miniatures with sophisticated arrangements like the slow Surfer Girl and especially the prescient In My Room: 'There's a world I can go and tell my secrets to.' Within a few years he would write I Wasn't Made For These Times and the sublime God Only Knows (one of Paul McCartney's favourite songs) for the Pet Sounds album (1966). He brought a musical intelligence to pop arrangements and writing that hadn't been heard before. Wilson painted in delicate colours of sound and Good Vibrations – still a remarkable piece of work – evoked a mystical state of promise, summer breezes and the warmth of the sun. Wilson's music – described as 'baroque pop' or 'cosmic' – could only have come from California. Sly Stone in concert in 1973. Photo / Getty Images Like Wilson, multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone (born Sylvester Stewart in Texas) was a product of his influences. He'd grown up with gospel, and as a young radio DJ in San Francisco, added music of the British Invasion (Beatles, Stones, etc) to the soul station's playlists. He produced white pop and rock bands (among them the Invasion-influenced Beau Brummels and pop star Bobby Freeman) and played on numerous sessions (Ronettes, Marvin Gaye, Righteous Brothers). By the time he formed his Family Stone band in 1967 he could draw from a deep well of musical ideas. He also had an inclusive vision: the band was uniquely integrated – black, white, men and women – playing psychedelic soul, funk and rock. The album titles were announcements: their debut was A Whole New Thing. The title track of its follow-up, Dance to the Music, delivered their first chart hit. With bassist Larry Graham (rapper Drake's uncle) they had a funkmaster on hand for hits like Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin). If Sly gave us a celebratory, psychedelic funk and politically progressive soul that influenced everyone from Miles Davis, George Clinton and Prince to Andre 3000, Wilson's journey was more inward. By the time Sly and the Family Stone emerged, Wilson had already retreated after a string of polished pop hits and the seminal Pet Sounds album, with session musicians on songs that rarely required the Beach Boys other than for vocal parts. No longer a member of the band in live appearances, Wilson's home was the studio where he created intricate music of layered harmonies and meticulous arrangements well beyond anything in the pop canon at the time. Pet Sounds shook McCartney into exploring the studio's possibilities more, hence Revolver then their orchestrated Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was influenced by Brian Wilson's Pet Sounds. Photo / Supplied Wilson was hailed as a genius. But drugs exacerbated his mental instability. He had a breakdown while trying to complete his SMiLE album in 1967. His country appeared to have a breakdown, too. The multicoloured Summer of Love – soundtracked by Good Vibrations and Dance to the Music – collapsed and gave way to a rapid downward spiral: the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy in 1968, cocaine and heroin, the Manson Family, Black Panthers, Weathermen, Symbionese Liberation Army, anti-war protests, body bags coming in from Vietnam, the National Guard killing four students during a demonstration at Ohio's Kent State University … The Beach Boys released the acclaimed Surf's Up album (1971) with Wilson's sombre 'Til I Die and the title track masterpiece. Surprisingly for a band not known for any political stance other than vague patriotism, it also included Student Demonstration Time: 'The winds of change fanned into flames … the pen is mightier than the sword, but no match for a gun.' It was a timely rewrite of Leiber-Stoller's Riot in Cell Block #9 by the band's singer, Mike Love. The hook in both songs is 'there's a riot goin' on', coincidentally the title of the Sly and the Family Stone album later that year. It was Stone's reply to Marvin Gaye's world-weary classic What's Going On of a few months before. By this time, Stone was in a fug of drugs, his music becoming slower, darker and more claustrophobic. Like Wilson, Stone had gone inward: Just Like a Baby is a deep stoner groove, Luv n' Haight captured his inertia. 'Feel so good inside myself, don't need to move. As I grow up, I'm growing down.' On Poet, he is resigned: 'My only weapon is my pen and the frame of mind I'm in.' It was exceptional but different from his previous music, however, it captured the zeitgeist. Stone's descent is as well documented as Wilson's. Nevertheless, he left an enduring legacy of innovative soul, funk and rock in songs like Dance to the Music, Everyday People and I Want to Take You Higher (from 1969's political-funk album Stand!), which had its apotheosis at Woodstock. Wilson's music following his golden period was uneven but detailed, sometimes glowing and personal. The Last Song (2015) was moving: 'Don't be sad. There was a time and place for what we had. If there was just another chance for me to sing to you …' But that time and place was long the mid 1970s, the sun had set on the vision of California the songs of Brian Wilson and Sly Stone seemed to promise. Yet even now, despite recent events, their music can still be transporting.
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Forever No. 1: The Beach Boys' ‘I Get Around'
Forever No. 1 is a Billboard series that pays special tribute to the recently deceased artists who achieved the highest honor our charts have to offer — a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single — by taking an extended look back at the chart-topping songs that made them part of this exclusive club. Here, we honor Brian Wilson, who died on Wednesday (June 11) at age 82, by looking at the first of The Beach Boys' three Hot 100-toppers: the irresistible pop smash 'I Get Around.' The Beach Boys had racked up four consecutive top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 (discounting B sides) prior to 'I Get Around,' but this ebullient song was their first single to reach No. 1. They recorded it in April 1964, making it the first song they recorded after The Beatles arrived in the U.S. that February. More from Billboard The 20 Best Beach Boys Songs (Staff Picks) Don Was Remembers Brian Wilson's 'Mystical' Genius: 'He Explored Creative Territory Where No Musicians Had Gone Before' How LadyLand, the Scrappy Festival That Could, Is Shaping Queer Culture & Live Music In NYC If The Beach Boys felt threatened by the Fab Four's explosive arrival, they were not going down without a fight. 'I Get Around' is chock-full of hooks – great harmonies, handclaps, twangy guitar work and the inspired 'round-round-getaround' hook. In his liner notes for the 1990 reissue of Little Deuce Coupe and All Summer Long, Beach Boys expert David Leaf said the track represented 'a major, revolutionary step in Brian's use of dynamics.' He added: 'From the opening note to the falsetto wail on the fade, this is one of the greatest tracks the Beach Boys ever cut. … Powered by the driving lead guitar break, the explosive harmonies and the handclaps, everything about this track was very spirited.' The song runs a highly efficient 2:14, making it the second-shortest No. 1 hit of 1964. The Beatles' 'Can't Buy Me Love' was a couple of seconds shorter. With this song, The Beach Boys continued to move away from the surf music fad that they rode in on, with such hits as 1962's 'Surfin' and 'Surfin' Safari' and 1963' 'Surfin' U.S.A.' and 'Surfer Girl.' Like its immediate predecessors 'Be True to Your School' and 'Fun, Fun, Fun,' 'I Get Around' has nothing to do with catching a wave, but instead is more generally capturing teen life in early-'60s California. (And, when you think about it, driving songs played nearly as big a part of the early Beach Boys success as surfing songs, between 'I Get Around,' 'Fun, Fun, Fun,' 'Little Deuce Coupe,' '409' and others.) Mike Love sang lead vocals on 'I Get Around,' with Brian Wilson contributing falsetto lead vocals on the chorus. All five members of the group – also including Al Jardine, Carl Wilson and Dennis Wilson – contributed harmony and backing vocals. The fabled Wrecking Crew of top Los Angeles session players, including Hal Blaine and Glen Campbell, played on the track. The song has a line that seems autobiographical, given the group's rising level of success over the previous two years: 'My buddies and me are gettin' real well-known.' The song also includes one of the most charming lines ever in a pop song: 'None of the guys go steady 'cause it wouldn't be right/ To leave your best girl home on a Saturday night.' The group projects a strutting confidence throughout. Biographer Mark Dillon compared the lyrics to 'the braggadocio of a modern-day rapper' — fitting that nearly 30 years later, one of the all-time most legendary MCs would recycle the title for his own cockiest hit. The song entered the Hot 100 at No. 76 for the week ending May 23, 1964. It was the week's fourth-highest new entry, behind hits by Elvis, Bobby Vinton and Lesley Gore, though it wound up eclipsing all of those. The song reached No. 1 in its seventh week, July 4, displacing Peter & Gordon's 'A World Without Love,' which was written by Paul McCartney (though officially credited to Lennon/McCartney.) McCartney and Wilson, two of the greatest songwriters of all time, spurred each other on to ever-greater heights for many years. The Beatles' 'Back in the U.S.S.R.' was clearly an homage to The Beach Boys' 'Surfin' U.S.A.' 'I Get Around' topped the Hot 100 for two weeks, before being displaced by The 4 Seasons' 'Rag Doll.' (These groups, representing the pinnacle of West Coast and the East Coast pop, respectively, were among the few American groups from the pre-Beatles era that continued to thrive after the British invasion.) 'I Get Around' also put The Beach Boys on the map in the U.K., becoming their first top 10 hit in that country. The B side of 'I Get Around' was the equally great 'Don't Worry Baby,' making this one of the strongest double-sided singles in pop music history. It ranks with Elvis' 'Don't Be Cruel'/ 'Hound Dog,' The Beatles' 'Penny Lane'/'Strawberry Fields Forever,' The Beach Boys' own 'Wouldn't It Be Nice'/'God Only Knows' and a handful of others. The song was the opening track on (and only single released from) the group's sixth album, All Summer Long, which reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 in August 1964. In his liner notes to the 1990 reissue, Leaf noted, 'All Summer Long was the last regular studio album The Beach Boys recorded before Brian quit the touring band – the last complete Beach Boys album Brian cut before he suffered a nervous breakdown in late December of 1964.' Incredibly, 'I Get Around' didn't receive a single Grammy nomination. The Beach Boys' only songs to receive Grammy nods were 'Good Vibrations' and the 1988 Brian-less hit 'Kokomo.' The Recording Academy has since sought to make amends, awarding The Beach Boys a lifetime achievement award in 2001 and inducting five of their most classic works (including 'I Get Around') into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Wilson was initially the only songwriter credited on the song. In 1992, Mike Love sued to get a credit on this and many other songs. Love prevailed in December 1994, when he was awarded co-writing credits on 35 songs – as well as $13 million. In his series 'The Number Ones,' Stereogum writer Tom Breihan wryly summarized the dispute: 'Mike Love later sued Brian for a co-writer credit, and if he really did come up with the round round getaround part, he deserved it.' While there is no improving on The Beach Boys' recording of 'I Get Around,' several artists have taken a stab at it over the years. Red Hot Chili Peppers performed it at the 2005 MusiCares Person of the Year gala where Brian Wilson was honored. My Morning Jacket performed it on the 2023 special A Grammy Salute to the Beach Boys (which CBS re-aired on Sunday night). Billie Joe Armstrong posted his version of the song on Instagram on Wednesday (June 11), hours after the news of Wilson's death broke. 'Thank you Brian Wilson,' Armstrong wrote. 'I recorded a cover of 'I Get Around' a few years ago. ..never got to share it. One of my all time favorite songs ever.' Check back tomorrow and Wednesday for our Forever No. 1 reports on The Beach Boys' second and third No. 1 hits, 'Help Me Rhonda' and 'Good Vibrations.' Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Four Decades of 'Madonna': A Look Back at the Queen of Pop's Debut Album on the Charts Chart Rewind: In 1990, Madonna Was in 'Vogue' Atop the Hot 100
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Forever No. 1: The Beach Boys, ‘Help Me, Rhonda'
Forever No. 1 is a Billboard series that pays special tribute to the recently deceased artists who achieved the highest honor our charts have to offer — a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single — by taking an extended look back at the chart-topping songs that made them part of this exclusive club. Here, we honor Brian Wilson, who died on Wednesday (June 11) at age 82, by looking at the second of The Beach Boys' three Hot 100-toppers: 'Help Me, Rhonda,' the final classic of the Beach Boys' earliest golden age. What a difference an 'h' makes. When 'Help Me, Ronda' was originally featured on The Beach Boys Today! in early 1965, the band didn't think too much of the shuffling love song with the repetitive hook; you can tell by how little care they took to normalize the volume levels, which inexplicably jump around in the song's last two choruses. But leader Brian Wilson believed in the song's potential, and after the band re-recorded it or single release (and for inclusion on the band's second 1965 album, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)) as 'Help Me, Rhonda,' it became the latest in a stunning streak of smashes for the family-and-friends quintet from Southern California. More from Billboard The 20 Best Beach Boys Songs (Staff Picks) Addison Rae Announces Dates For Debut 2025 Headlining World Tour How Brandon Lake Is Leading A Whole New Flock To 'What's Real And What's True' In Christian Music In fact, by early 1965, The Beach Boys was one of the only American bands still holding its own against the pop-rock raiders from overseas. The British Invasion was in full swing, and The Beatles alone had topped the Hot 100 six times in 1964. In between No. 1s four and five for the Fab Four that year came the Boys' eternal teen anthem 'I Get Around' and the group had two additional top 10 hits by the end of '64: the wistful 'When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)' (No. 9) and the the ebullient 'Dance, Dance, Dance' (No. 8). Both of those were included on The Beach Boys Today! at the top of 1965, and the set also spawned a third single in a cover of Bobby Freeman's 'Do You Wanna Dance?,' which just missed the top 10 (No. 12) that April. As the Beach Boys were still enjoying their run of fun-and-sun early hits, Brian Wilson was beginning to stretch out both as a songwriter and a producer. 'I Get Around' was backed by 'Don't Worry Baby,' Wilson's first real attempt to outdo his idol Phil Spector, with impossibly dreamy production and harmonies and a gorgeous rising verse melody that somehow elevated into an even-higher-flying chorus. The flip-side to 'Dance, Dance, Dance' was 'Please Let Me Wonder,' another Spectorian love song with strikingly fragile verses and a near choir-like refrain. And perhaps most notably, Today! included the lovely but disquieting 'She Knows Me Too Well,' Wilson's first real lyrical examination of his own romantic insecurities and failings. All of these would ultimately point the way to the artistic leap forward the band would take on 1966's Pet Sounds, the band's intensely personal and overwhelmingly lush masterwork which disappointed commercially, but made them critics' darlings for the first time. But they weren't there yet. In mid-'65, they were still fighting to maintain their place in an increasingly crowded pop-rock landscape — and, not having reached the Hot 100's top five since 'I Get Around' nearly a full year earlier, they needed a no-doubter to lead off Summer Days. So Brian Wilson dug back in on the song he'd relegated to deep-cut status on the album before. 'Ronda' was much more in line with the group's earlier, simpler hits than the more lyrically and musically complex fare Wilson was starting to explore, but he was right that the song had real potential: It was a clever number that basically managed to be both a breakup ballad and an upbeat love song at once, with a chorus so relentless that you could hear it once and remember it for the rest of your life. It just needed a little extra maintenance. In truth, Brian did a lot more on the re-recording of 'Help Me, Ronda' than add an 'h' to her name and keep his finger steadier on the volume controls. He also clipped the intro, so it began right with its 'Well, since she put me down…' intro, dropping you right into the middle of the song's narrative. He tightened the tempo a little, and added some 'bow-bow-bow-bow' backing vocals to tie together the 'help-help me, Rhonda' pleas of the chorus. He added some extra piano and guitar to give the song's instrumental bridge a little extra zip. And perhaps most importantly, he laid an extra falsetto backing 'Help me, Rhonda, yeah!' on top of the chorus climax to make it stand out a little better from the rest of the refrain. They're all small additions, but you don't realize how much difference they make until you go back to the Today! original and wonder why the whole thing sounds so empty and lifeless by comparison. But while Brian Wilson allowed the song to soar, 'Rhonda' was anchored by a less-celebrated Beach Boy: Al Jardine. A high school friend of Brian's, Jardine had mostly served as a glue guy in the band to that point and had never sung lead on one of their songs, much less a single A-side. But Brian was intent on giving his buddy a spotlight moment, and decided Jardine would take the reins for 'Rhonda.' It was a good match: While the Wilsons' voices drifted towards the ethereal and sentimental, and Mike Love's had a more muscular, occasionally snide edge to it, Al Jardine's voice had both a sturdiness and an unassuming everyman quality to it. He was the Beach Boy best equipped to sell a relatable song like 'Rhonda.' And while 'Rhonda' was a less musically and lyrically ambitious song than others Wilson was attempting contemporaneously, there is still a bit of trickiness to it. It's a lyric that mourns a romantic split with one girl while attempting to simultaneously ask a new girl to ease his pain — and the vocal matches the shift; Jardine's singing is frenzied and pained and in the first half of his verses and smooth and composed in the second. From a less likable or compelling vocalist, the whole thing could've very easily come off like a cheap come-on, like he doesn't actually give a damn about either girl. But Jardine manages to sound sincere, like he actually is going through it and is genuinely in need of the help that only the titular female can provide. When he begs on the chorus for Rhonda to 'get 'er outta my heart!' — after a couple dozen shorter pleas from the rest of the Boys — you really hope she succeeds in doing so. With its new arrangement and new title, 'Rhonda' did indeed prove the no-doubter that the Beach Boys were hoping for to re-establish their pop supremacy in '65. The song debuted on the Hot 100 on April 17 at No. 80, and seven weeks later, it replaced — who else — The Beatles' 'Ticket to Ride' to become the band's second No. 1 hit, lasting two weeks on top before being replaced by the other dominant American pop group of the era: The Supremes, with 'Back in My Arms Again.' The Beatles would, of course, be heard from again just a few months later with a 'Help!' No. 1 of their own — and in between them in June, the Four Tops reigned with 'I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch).' (Draw your own conclusions about a generational cry for additional assistance amidst the turmoil of the mid-'60s if you so desire.) 'Help Me, Rhonda' would mark something of the end of an era for The Beach Boys and Brian Wilson, as it was their last major pop hit before the group started rapidly scaling up its ambitions. Even 'California Girls,' the group's universally accessible No. 3-peaking follow-up to 'Rhonda' — which, wouldn't you know it, got stuck behind The Beatles' 'Help!' on the Hot 100 — came affixed with a cinematic instrumental intro and a vocal outro in-the-round that no other pop group of the time would have dared attempt. By 1966, the group was pushing pop music into the future at a rate that would ultimately prove uncomfortable for both the public and for the Beach Boys themselves — though it would culminate in one more all-time classic pop single before it all fell apart. And 'Help Me, Rhonda' stands alone in all of pop history in at least one respect: It remains the lone Billboard Hot 100 representation for all Rhondas worldwide. No other song (or artist) with that name — outside of a No. 22-peaking Johnny Rivers cover of the song in 1975, featuring Brian on backing vocals — has ever reached the chart since its 1958 introduction. (No 'Ronda's either.) Tomorrow, we look at the final of the Beach Boys' three Brian Wilson-led No. 1s: the forever singular 'Good Vibrations.' Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Four Decades of 'Madonna': A Look Back at the Queen of Pop's Debut Album on the Charts Chart Rewind: In 1990, Madonna Was in 'Vogue' Atop the Hot 100
Irish Daily Mirror
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
God Only Knows what modern music would be without Beach Boy Brian Wilson
I remember the first time I heard Brian Wilson, the classical composer of our time who died last week. I was about five and the Beach Boys were on TV, their headphones on, singing Barbara Ann around a mic. The harmonies were exquisite, unique. If I could sing around a mic like that for the rest of my life, I thought, I'd be happy forever. Beach Boy Brian meant the world to me, so it was a hard blow to hear of his death on Wednesday, especially so soon after another musical titan, Sly Stone. What he leaves behind is the legacy of his work, the heart and soul he put into it, songs that 'make people feel something inside', as Wilson said himself. That Barbara Ann moment was just the beginning of a lifelong musical love affair with Wilson. I got into the Beach Boys big time - I loved the early California surf stuff like Help Me Rhonda and Little Deuce Coupe, and I Get Around is the prototype punk song. In My Room is a swirly ballad, loved by Kurt Cobain. Yet it wasn't until I discovered Pet Sounds that I fully realised the depth of Wilson's genius. I credit Lewis Clohessy for introducing me to it. He's my friend Helen's dad and one of the nation's great culture vultures. Lewis knew I loved the Pixies and the Beatles and he said to me: 'Well, if you like both of those, you must listen to Pet Sounds.' When Paul McCartney said it inspired Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club, everyone took notice. God Only Knows is on it, which Macca called "the best song ever written". While much is made of Wilson's early influences such as Bach, Mozart, Gershwin and Bernstein, it was the Phil Spector production sound that was the most influential of all. Musically, it's obviously a triumph with its heavy-reverb combination of sound and layered vocals, inspired by Brian's favourite song Be My Baby by the Ronettes, which he used to listen to every day. Or: 'EVERY. DAY.' as his daughter Carnie pointedly recalled, in the documentary of his life I Just Wasn't Made For These Times, named after the track that sums up Brian more than any other. But it's the lyrics that get me: Brian Wilson is still the songwriter I most relate to, which sometimes feels like a strange thing to say, considering serious mental health conditions such as bipolar and schizo-affective disorder. He speaks to me like no-one else. I loved Brian's obsessions; the involved way he discussed music; his vulnerability; the funny way he had of talking out of the side of his mouth. He is the greatest influence on modern music today, inspiring bands such as the Ramones, The Pixies, the B52s, Weezer, Nirvana, even Fontaines DC. My favourite song is actually one of Brian's favourites too - Do It Again, from their 1969 album 20/20. I haven't even got to discussing their brilliant 1970's era, such as the brilliant Holland (music guru Dave Fanning's top choice) and Surf's Up. It was a dream come true when I interviewed Brian in 2018. He had cognitive issues, yet he was a fine conversationalist once the topic stayed on music. I still relish how he described I Get Around as "a rock n'roll salad". The last word will go to the great Tom Petty, who said of him: 'I think I would put Brian Wilson up there with any composer. I don't think you'd be out of line comparing him to Beethoven. His music is probably as good as any you could make.'
