RIP: Brian Wilson, co-founder of the Beach Boys, aged 82

[thewayne]

Brian was the last of the three Wilson brothers, Brian played bass, Carl lead guitar and Dennis drums. The other two members of the Beach Boys, Mike Love - a cousin - and Al Jardine, are still alive.

Brian has been in a medical conservatorship for the last year. Trouble with alcohol and drugs probably accelerated things. He met his last wife at a car dealership where she was working, which began a chapter where it was found that Wilson's psychiatrist was exploiting him and his finances, eventually resulting in a restraining order. When his wife died, Wilson entered into a decline, finally culminating in the conservatorship.

There's so much that can be said about The Beach Boys and their influence on music and various groups and musicians, and their being a core for surf/beach music in the '60s. I spent a few hours tonight revising a bunch of my Beach Boys music for my band in Lord of the Rings Online and adding some more songs to my catalog, I think I'll be performing them tomorrow night in an impromptu concert as I need to do some testing on my band as I've been having some system problems.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/brian-wilson-beach-boys-dead-1234810073/

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/articles/brian-wilson-beach-boys-visionary-165711806.html

Comments

[silveradept]

The Beach Boys got a bad rep from me because of the ease in which their music became co-opted commercial bubblegum music, but I should probably go and listen to them again and decide whether their commercial ubiquity really was because of the music, or because of the corporations. Still sad to see how poorly Brian was treated, though.

[thewayne]

For the most part, their music was light/pop music of the time.  A lot of it was sunny and bright, and that lent itself to commercial use.  I don't know if the band retained those rights and sold them to such use, or their label did it, but they did get used a lot for ads.