Monday, June 21, 2010

Sixty-eight things you didn’t know about Brian Wilson

In honor of his sixty-eighth birthday yesterday: sixty-eight things you didn’t know about Brian Wilson. Several are new to me. Brian Wilson and Thomas Pynchon?

comments: 6

Matt Thomas said...

Thanks for this. Great stuff. I’m continually surprised, however, by how few people know Brian is deaf in one ear.

Michael Leddy said...

If I remember correctly, he talks about it in I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times — a great documentary.

Elaine said...

Here's the biggest thing I do not know about Brian Wilson: who IS Brian Wilson? I don't know his significance, and although I did read at least 3 or 4 things about him, I still have only a sketchy idea that he wrote (or performed, or both) popular music. But on the plus side: I know I don't know anything about him. And I am too polite to say whether I regard this as a serious deficit.

Tsk.

Michael Leddy said...

Brian Wilson was the leader of the Beach Boys. He sang, played bass, wrote songs, arranged, and produced. Pet Sounds (a 1966 Beach Boys album) and SMiLE (an unfinished BB album, finally finished as a BW album in 2004) are generally considered BW’s greatest accomplishments. BW’s collaborator on SMiLE: Van Dyke Parks.

Elaine said...

Wish they all could be California Giiiirrrrrllllz!
There you have it, unless 'Good, good, good vibrations' is also a BB song.
I'm just not a popular music person, no doubt a flaw in my otherwise admirable character.
Van Dyke Parks?

Michael Leddy said...

For VDP, start here and here.