Beach Boy Brian Wilson, 82, died on June 11. Along with Dennis and Carl Wilson, Mike Love, and Al Jardine, the group (founded in 1961) had such danceable ‘60s California-sound hits as “Surfin’ USA,” “Little Deuce Coupe,” “In My Room,” “I Get Around,” “Help Me, Rhonda,” “California Girls,” “Barbara Ann,” “Sloop John B,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “Good Vibrations”—I’ve probably left your favorite out, as they wrote and performed so damn many terrific songs. Brian wrote, sang, and played keyboard and bass, and was also the antsiest of the Beach Boys—he stopped touring in 1964 after panic attacks, and the next year produced his experimental Pet Sounds album (“I wanted to grow musically, so I experimented. I had ideas coming into my head all the time.”). Mental and emotional problems plagued him for most of his life, along with drug use and daffy religious and therapy experiments. Wilson once said that “I wasn't aware those early songs defined California so well until much later in my career. I certainly didn't set out to do it. I wasn't into surfing at all. My brother Dennis gave me all the jargon I needed to write the songs. He was the surfer and I was the songwriter.” Wilson’s daughters Carnie and Wendy later had success in the band Wilson Phillips.
