The Beach Boys (2024)

1. Basically, our forte is harmonics,

2. 'cause there's a certain family blend.

3. Three brothers: Brian, Dennis and Carl,

4. a cousin, Mike Love, and our good friend Al Jardine.

5. That's family to me.

6. Ladies and gentlemen,

7. would you please welcome, from Southern California,

8. America's band, The Beach Boys!

9. I like it. I like it.

10. There is no other. There is only one.

11. They've broken records everywhere.

12. Ladies and gentlemen, The Beach Boys!

13. The Beach Boys just represented some sort of fantasy.

14. It was a pure California phenomenon.

15. We've known each other for a really long time.

16. And there really is a great deal of fellowship in the group.

17. And we've been through an awful lot.

18. It's kinda miraculous that it's lasted for 60 years now.

19. But the fact that it was a family, that's where the success came from.

20. Here we go. Play hard and strong all the way.

21. And watch me on that part now.

22. Twenty-eight.

23. When I assess the totality of it all,

24. The Beach Boys are a family story.

25. There has definitely been ups and downs.

26. We've probably been counted out as a group, um, half a dozen times.

27. When I was young, I learned to sing harmony with my family.

28. That was a long time ago.

29. I remember the songs, the lyrics, and a lot of fun.

30. I'm very proud of my brothers.

31. Let's try it one more time from the top.

32. One, two, one, two...

33. I had two things I wanted to do in my life.

34. One, I wanted to be a psychologist, you know?

35. And two, I wanted to be a baseball player.

36. But I never really set music as my goal.

37. My dad and my mom always put on records.

38. And I said, "What's that? I love that sound!"

39. My dad was a songwriter,

40. and he had a minor R & B hit.

41. But, you know, my mom was actually the musician,

42. so she would play and my dad would write.

43. So there was a lot of music in the house.

44. My mom and dad both really loved older tunes.

45. But I was more interested with rock and roll.

46. And I'll never forget the feeling in my body.

47. It was like electricity.

48. I'd never experienced that kind of excitement.

49. Chuck Berry was the reason I started playing the guitar.

50. On a social level, I never really spent any time with Brian.

51. I spent more time with Carl. Because I could beat Carl up.

52. Brian's influence on me was his love for the music.

53. First time I realized it was—

54. We used to sing three-part harmony in the back seat of a car.

55. And that's the birth of the three brothers singing together.

56. When I was about seven,

57. we moved into a house on the borderline between Inglewood and Hawthorne.

58. And across the street from our house was the Wilson house.

59. As we were moving in, Carl and Dennis were throwing garbage and old car parts

60. across the street.

61. And saying, "Inglewood sucks. Hawthorne rules!"

62. That was our introduction.

63. And I didn't like my parents very much, so I hung out at the Wilsons'.

64. The Wilson household was a tract home in Hawthorne.

65. And the garage was converted into a music room.

66. And we would spend hours listening to music and singing.

67. And the big event of the year for us would be to go over to Mike Love's

68. at Christmastime because the Loves would have a big Christmas caroling party.

69. Growing up as the first cousin of the Wilsons,

70. it was such a family hobby harmonizing together.

71. And we had a grand piano, an organ and a harp in our living room.

72. Brian and I hit it off because we were about a year apart in age,

73. and we liked a lot of the same music.

74. A lot of the doo-wop. The Everly Brothers.

75. The Four Freshmen.

76. The Four Freshmen were probably the greatest four-part harmony group

77. that ever lived.

78. The notes were close together, which gave it a warmth and a vibration.

79. It was a lot of fun singing together.

80. But Brian somehow figured out the chords the Four Freshmen were doing just by ear.

81. That was— That was a whole different world.

82. Brian was spending hours every day at the piano

83. just going over and over these Four Freshmen arrangements.

84. I never quit.

85. To where I knew that what was on my piano was exactly on their record.

86. I went and did that on, like, 20 different songs,

87. which was my entire harmonic education.

88. Later on, he started making up his own arrangements.

89. He would ask me to sing a harmony part that he'd make up.

90. And I remember wanting to go out and play, and he'd say, "Mom, make Carl sing."

91. Brian and I were on the football team in high school.

92. And I'd heard his band at the high school assembly,

93. and that's really what got my brain going, "Wow!"

94. I was a guitar player, and I was very impressed with his little quartet.

95. Including his brother Carl,

96. with Brian taking the falsetto.

97. And I thought we should hook up.

98. We bumped into each other after graduation.

99. Brian said, "You know, I think I should introduce you to my brothers

100. and my cousin, because we need more voices."

101. So he invited me over to the house, and we all just clicked.

102. We were like notes on a keyboard.

103. Now, this time let's sing it out naturally.

104. - Don't hold back. All right.

105. Al Jardine, actually, was

106. the one person who could maintain perfect pitch and changing harmonies

107. that were derivative of the Four Freshmen.

108. Forget time and beat and everything.

109. No! We don't want to forget beat.

110. We assembled around the piano as Brian and his brothers.

111. Plus me and his cousin Mike. That was our band.

112. Our first thing we ever learned

113. was a tune called, "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring."

114. Brian would sing the high part beautifully.

115. And I would sing the bass part.

116. And then Carl and Al Jardine could sing really well and blend.

117. See, it wasn't only about the note. It was about the blend.

118. You sublimate your individuality to create this group harmony sound.

119. After that, we'd go, "Hey, look out for us.

120. We really harmonize here."

121. Then we kind of went the other way.

122. Carl and I would hang out every day after school.

123. And we were listening to a lot of current surf stuff.

124. The Ventures.

125. The Marketts.

126. Dick Dale.

127. Kids would go to the high-school auditorium to watch surfing movies.

128. And that's what they were using as background music.

129. Surfing was a big deal in Southern California.

130. You dressed a certain way. You talked a certain way.

131. They had a certain attitude.

132. We all tried to surf,

133. but we could just never really get the hang of it.

134. I went surfing down on Manhattan Beach Pier.

135. It was a big day on the pier, man. There were great big waves!

136. And the first thing I did was lose my board.

137. And I almost drowned. Brian was the same way.

138. I tried the one time, and the board missed my head by that far.

139. I never tried again.

140. We were landlubbers, but Dennis was the guy.

141. I was into surfing.

142. I was into cutting class,

143. sneaking off to the beach.

144. I love the ocean.

145. Dennis and I went to the beach one time

146. and we came back to the Wilson house, and Dennis brought it up to Brian,

147. he said, "Why don't we do something lyrically about surfing?"

148. At the time, surf music was primarily instrumental.

149. The bands were instrumental bands.

150. So, I just got with Brian and came up with...

151. The first time The Beach Boys got together as a band to rehearse...

152. my folks went to Mexico City on business.

153. They left us 200 bucks for food.

154. The money ran out immediately.

155. I said, "Brian, we can't just sit around and sing.

156. We gotta rent some instruments."

157. So I said, "Well, I think my mother, Virginia, would probably help us out

158. if we audition for her."

159. We sang "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring."

160. That was our go-to song.

161. And she was spellbound.

162. She gave us the $300 to rent the equipment,

163. and she said, "Go for it."

164. Gives me chills just thinking about it.

165. Put the monitor on.

166. Hey, you're wasting tape.

167. Keep your heads up, and stay on it.

168. Murry and Audree were only gone for about two or three weeks,

169. but we— we were a band by then.

170. He goes, "I thought that money was supposed to be for food.

171. What are you guys doing?"

172. So we played him a song and he goes, "Hey, I like that."

173. My uncle Murry was actually the one who got us in the studio.

174. Okay, boys. Slating. This will be take one, "Surfin'."

175. The first session, Al played acoustic bass.

176. I played an acoustic guitar.

177. Brian played a drum with a pencil.

178. And Michael was on vocals.

179. We were calling ourselves The Pendletones.

180. Those were shirts that all the surfers were wearing at the time.

181. And then somebody from the label said, "The song is called 'Surfin'.'

182. What about The Beach Boys?"

183. None of us really liked it.

184. And we got stuck with it.

185. We put out "Surfin'" on a small, independent label.

186. A month later, we heard it on the radio.

187. There was a radio station that premiered, like, four songs a week.

188. And the one that got the most call-ins won the contest.

189. Well, we had a big family.

190. And they go, "The pick of the week, 'Surfin" by The Beach Boys!"

191. And we were out of our minds.

192. "Surfin'" went to number two in LA, and then we started getting gigs.

193. Played our first show on New Year's Eve.

194. In the midst of it all,

195. Dennis was learning the drums quite proficiently.

196. I was really impressed.

197. The way it started out real fast,

198. we didn't have a chance to sit around and think, "Hey, what happened?"

199. We were already heading towards something without really knowing it.

200. We had a hit record. Went to top 10 in LA, and we were excited as hell.

201. But I felt like I— I don't know.

202. I had to finish my education. That's what I thought.

203. My brother is a lawyer.

204. My father has a business master's degree, and my mother is—

205. You know, they all had degrees.

206. Just felt like I was out of place for a while.

207. So I left the band to finish college.

208. It's the only time Brian ever got upset with me.

209. I wasn't in the band, but I'd been hanging around.

210. I was, like, 12.

211. And Carl and I would play guitars every day after school.

212. We were developing our own style.

213. And Brian, his ear picked up on that.

214. So, all of a sudden...

215. I was a Beach Boy.

216. After "Surfin'" was a hit, Brian really wanted a career in music.

217. So my dad sold his business and cleared the deck,

218. and then went about getting us a record label.

219. He went around all the record labels in Hollywood.

220. Every one of them turned us down.

221. Eventually, a man named Nick Venet, who worked at Capitol Records,

222. heard the tape of our stuff.

223. They had a demo of "Surfin' Safari."

224. And every once in a while, you know that the record is a number one record.

225. And he goes, "Oh, God. These records are goddamn smashes."

226. We were able to sign with Capitol Records, which was a big deal.

227. Some great artists on it.

228. The Four Freshmen were on, and Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole, you know?

229. I said, "I quit college."

230. And my brothers said, "We quit high school."

231. You know, we quit!

232. I was the only person who didn't need the court approval.

233. I was 21 and everybody else was quite a bit younger.

234. And Capitol Records got us in the studio immediately.

235. Yeah. Hey, Dennis. Don't forget that last verse, okay?

236. That first recording session was in the basement of Capitol Records.

237. Here we go, 38221.

238. At first, it was really quite overwhelming, you know?

239. Just to watch the recording process.

240. We're speeding it a bit.

241. We're rushing it. Slow it down a little bit.

242. Get the feel on the bass guitar. Get that groove going.

243. There we go. 38221.

244. Brian's brilliant harmonies, and me and Carl playing garage grunge guitars.

245. People never heard anything like that.

246. All right. This will be take one.

247. Murry was our manager, and he was good at promotion.

248. He would be handing out pictures to kids in the parking lot.

249. I mean, he was promoting the shit out of us.

250. Here they are with a big new hit, The Beach Boys with "Surfin' Safari."

251. I grew up in Los Angeles, but I never identified with beach culture.

252. And when I first heard The Beach Boys' music,

253. my response was to reject it.

254. They were part of a marketing blitz

255. for a culture that I wanted nothing to do with.

256. The song selection. The way the album covers were shot.

257. It was a concocted image.

258. And that image of the white, blond Southern California teenager

259. took off.

260. But the more you listen to the records they made,

261. it wasn't about that.

262. They went beyond surfing.

263. They were participating in the creation of a California dream.

264. I grew up in Detroit. I had a paper route in the wintertime.

265. I walked to school in the wintertime.

266. And then on weekends, I'd go see Beach Blanket Bingo,

267. or one of those movies.

268. So, I was aware that there were places that were warmer.

269. But the most articulate spokespeople for the California dream

270. were The Beach Boys.

271. Man, they made me wanna go to that place where they had cars

272. and girls in bikinis and surf boards.

273. And sun and warmth.

274. I really wanted to be a part of that.

275. I grew up in a very religious home,

276. so I was predominantly only allowed to listen to gospel music.

277. But my mom was okay with me playing The Beach Boys

278. because she thought they're positive, they're uplifting.

279. That was huge for me, um, because I was obsessed at an early age

280. with getting out of Oklahoma.

281. I think particularly landlocked states dead center of the country,

282. the appeal was even greater because it was, like, foreign.

283. It's a foreign sound.

284. Their music takes you someplace.

285. You can listen to "Surfin' U.S.A.,"

286. and geographically your brain goes to sunny Southern California.

287. It just hit America like a big wave.

288. They were selling an image, and the music was alive and vibrant and exciting.

289. All around the world, people were listening to Beach Boy music.

290. I was having this, like, "Gosh, maybe I shouldn't have quit."

291. Then I got a call.

292. Brian was frantic. Says, "I can't do this."

293. He says, "You gotta come. You gotta come back to the band."

294. Brian didn't like touring,

295. 'cause all he wanted to do was stay home and produce records and write songs.

296. I was the only one Brian could reach out to because I knew all the parts.

297. I thought, you know, the guys really need me.

298. I miss the music.

299. So I said, "Okay, Brian.

300. I'm back."

301. The next day, we were on the road touring.

302. I can remember getting to Lake Minnetonka.

303. People were breaking the windows trying to get into the place.

304. And there's still a line of cars about a mile or two down the road.

305. I remember the first time we heard girls screaming.

306. We thought there was a fire.

307. We looked around.

308. We were all just, you know, having a ball.

309. And, meanwhile, Brian was able to stay home and do his thing.

310. He was writing a ton of songs.

311. And because we were on tour,

312. I wasn't the only person writing with him at that time.

313. So he co-wrote things with others.

314. I enjoyed the road. I thought it was fun.

315. But Murry wasn't a very fun road manager.

316. On many levels, Murry had a lot to do with our success.

317. But Murry started to infringe on the music.

318. Oh, he would critique, all right.

319. He said we didn't know what we were doing.

320. And we would have a certain sound in mind,

321. and he'd want it to be different.

322. He would actually come onstage and adjust my amp.

323. Of course I'd go back and put it the way I wanted it.

324. And he'd call me over, and he ripped me a new one for not smiling onstage,

325. or not having enough treble on my guitar.

326. Eventually, I just got mad at him because he was yelling at me,

327. so I said, "I quit the band."

328. And Murry goes, "Everybody hear that? He quits the band."

329. I loved Murry a lot, but that wasn't really fair.

330. I was some arrogant 15-year-old. What the hell do you expect?

331. And so, after four albums as a Beach Boy, that was over.

332. Brian was totally upset, 'cause he knew what the consequences were gonna be.

333. He would have to be on the road more if I left.

334. When I was in high school,

335. my friend says, "I know these guys called The Beach Boys."

336. "Would you like to see their show?"

337. I grew up in West Hollywood,

338. and there was this coffee house called Pandora's Box.

339. We were sitting in the first row,

340. and I remember Brian looked at me and he went,

341. "Hey, can I have a sip of your hot chocolate?"

342. I gave him a sip of it. When he gave it back to me,

343. it spilled on me.

344. It was funny.

345. You know, before long, I was dating Brian.

346. He had a great personality.

347. I mean, he was so much fun.

348. But he was very cerebral when it came to music.

349. And, at the time,

350. I was singing with my cousin Ginger and my sister Diane.

351. So we started making records with Brian and for Capitol.

352. Music was our whole life.

353. It was everything.

354. Brian would tell me that he just wanted to be home and make records,

355. you know, and write and all that.

356. And the guys had a hard time understanding that,

357. because, you know, going out on the road was fun.

358. But it wasn't fun for Brian.

359. I mean, I've tried to work around people, and I can do it.

360. It's a little hard, you know?

361. But when I go alone, I can think.

362. You know, and I can get some stuff together.

363. I think that music is very healing.

364. It puts me into a quiet place

365. to create or to do what I'm supposed to do.

366. I've worked with Brian,

367. and the way to talk with him is through the language of music.

368. You can get close to him that way.

369. That's a secret language.

370. And I think Mike understood the complexity of Brian.

371. Whereas Brian was innately gifted musically,

372. I was more into the lyrics and the concepts.

373. And so it was a good partnership there.

374. Some people maybe denigrate them for those early songs being simple.

375. But I think that's a virtue.

376. Songs about having fun and love and unrequited love.

377. It was perfect music for a teenager, man.

378. They could understand that. They could relate to it.

379. They could feel it.

380. Simplicity is what got us going.

381. With Brian's wonderful ability to write melodies

382. and Mike's very clever way of writing lyrics,

383. we found a perfect formula.

384. But when it got to the point of going onstage,

385. Mike was lead singer.

386. He developed that persona quite early.

387. Ultimately, I think Brian was melancholy.

388. So I complemented Brian's melancholy with my upbeatness.

389. All the guys loved that Mike was so funny.

390. You know, I mean, they would really give off of each other.

391. And Brian thought that Mike was the greatest front man.

392. I, personally, always preferred live music to the studio.

393. There's no feedback in the studio.

394. But in live music, you see the effect that the music has on the people immediately.

395. It's so positive. So much joy.

396. The Beach Boys came into the popular consciousness

397. with the mythology of surfing and the California lifestyle.

398. That fueled a lot of young people's imaginations.

399. Those of us who lived up in Northern California

400. tended to be somewhat opinionated about Los Angeles.

401. But what made the group transcend that was they had this guy Brian Wilson.

402. I was quite taken with him as a craftsman, as a producer.

403. And as much as I've been influenced by Brian's music,

404. Brian was equally influenced by the amazing songs coming on the radio

405. at that time.

406. Phil Spector is 25 years old.

407. He owns record and publishing companies valued in the millions.

408. Dozens of hit records since

409. indicate that Spector's beat is closely tuned to teen desire.

410. Was Spector a big inspiration to you?

411. Are you kidding? Are you kidding?

412. He was like a— He was it.

413. I was in my car with my girlfriend. All of a sudden, this radio station goes,

414. "Here we go with 'Be My Baby' by the Ronettes."

415. After he heard "Be My Baby," he played that record every single day.

416. Drove me absolutely nuts.

417. Phil Spector's music was intangible.

418. He knew how to mix, who knows, probably 25 instruments?

419. He mixes 'em all into one sound, and that was what he called the Wall of Sound.

420. It got to my soul.

421. When Brian heard "Be My Baby,"

422. he says, "I gotta have that band. Those are the guys."

423. I played on "Be My Baby"

424. with a group of session musicians called the Wrecking Crew.

425. We were the band that was making those hit records.

426. Before that, most of the studio musicians were all in the suits,

427. and nobody smoked.

428. Here we came and everybody was making jokes, relaxed.

429. The story goes like, "These guys are gonna wreck the business."

430. Phil Spector had three keyboard players all playing the same part.

431. Five guitar players. Three bass players.

432. Everyone's bleeding into all the microphones.

433. And he built this monolith of music.

434. I was unable to really think as a producer

435. up until the time I really got familiar with Phil Spector's work.

436. Then I started to see the point of the whole game.

437. It's the overall sound.

438. It's what they're going to hear and experience

439. in the two and a half minutes that counts.

440. Brian really wanted to produce his own records,

441. and that was a big step at that time.

442. Capitol Records really resisted it.

443. They weren't certain that he'd be able to really deliver.

444. When you're 21, especially in that era, you needed to have an adult in the room.

445. There was a method to things.

446. Capitol wanted to have their person in there,

447. and so Nick Venet was assigned as our producer.

448. But that was very unsatisfactory.

449. Especially to Brian.

450. He didn't really do much except just,

451. "Okay, fellas. Take one and take"-- You know?

452. The tower's three recording studios

453. are the most modern in the world.

454. They want us to use their recording studio,

455. and we didn't care too much for the sound at the tower.

456. I preferred a studio called Western Recorders on Sunset Boulevard.

457. So my dad told Capitol that we're leaving.

458. I remember Murry argued with Capitol for five straight months.

459. I could hear his voice just screaming, but Murry got his way.

460. Had he been unrelated to the group,

461. I could've probably seen my way through the arguments.

462. But because he was blood related,

463. whenever I told him he was wrong or foolish,

464. the entire band took it as a slander against the family.

465. And from then on, we produced our own records.

466. Growing up in Kansas City, Kansas,

467. my grandmother would go to thrift stores and get all these dusty vinyls.

468. And I just remember seeing The Beach Boys, and I'm like, "What the hell is that?"

469. When I got into songwriting,

470. that's when I really started to listen to The Beach Boys,

471. 'cause I was so obsessed with the harmonies.

472. They really show what it's like

473. when everybody understands the part they have to play.

474. There's something about those individuals and the way they blended together.

475. They're all part of it.

476. You take any one of those guys out,

477. and you don't have that sound or that feel.

478. I remember the recording session for "Don't Worry Baby."

479. I go, "Holy shit. This is beautiful."

480. Definitely a turning point for us.

481. And for Brian.

482. He knew exactly what he wanted.

483. He was really learning to be a producer.

484. But his dad began to be an obstacle.

485. Sit up straight, Carl, and you can play.

486. - You're laying down. That thing's on.

487. It's tough to manage your sons, so I don't know how you can...

488. travel with them and be their road manager.

489. And their manager manager. It just— It just was very difficult.

490. He would come to a concert,

491. then told Brian to not use the sound on the bass that he wanted to use.

492. He'd give us these signals from the back of the hall.

493. He'd have his flashlight too.

494. But the flashlight under his face, and he looked like Boris Karloff.

495. We're young guys in a rock band who wanna have a certain sound onstage.

496. And here's the dad over there.

497. He would literally go like this, it means T for treble.

498. Treble up.

499. Treble up, and also we had to humble up. That was another one of his big sayings.

500. What's the matter? You made too much money, buddy?

501. - Let's sing from your hearts. Let's go. All right.

502. If they didn't do something right, he would fine them.

503. Or if someone swore, he would fine them.

504. It was so stupid.

505. Brian did always want his father's approval.

506. But it got to the point where he really didn't want Murry to tell him what to do,

507. because, you know, Murry's making music from the '30s and '40s.

508. Brian said, "Oh, he's so corny all the time. I can't. He's corny."

509. The boys just really weren't happy.

510. And Murry wasn't happy either. He was miserable most of the time.

511. We went to Australia for a tour.

512. That might have been the turning point.

513. Just a lot of arguing. A lot of arguments that we had with him.

514. We finally said, "Look, we can't deal with you anymore.

515. We gotta let you go and get a new— get a new manager."

516. Brian and I made that decision, and Murry took over the publishing.

517. But he was no longer our manager.

518. Murry protected them from day one.

519. You know, if Murry wasn't there and wasn't protecting them,

520. I don't think they would be anywhere where they are right now.

521. In fact, I know they wouldn't.

522. And so he was real, real hurt.

523. That was traumatic for him. - It was terrible.

524. It hurt his feelings very much.

525. The firing was very hard on Audree,

526. because Murry would, you know, come down on her all the time.

527. You know, "Because you were too soft with them."

528. I just wanted them always to be better.

529. Always to be stronger.

530. Always be honest.

531. God, they heard that enough.

532. I was never scared of my brothers.

533. I was scared of my dad though. I'll tell you that.

534. He'd clobber me right in the face for not getting the dishes done.

535. - At times, he was extremely— - Depending on what he was hitting you with

536. at the time, you know?

537. He used a little thin board on Carl, and he used a big one on me.

538. Carl was the baby.

539. And Brian. "Well, Brian is different, Dennis."

540. You know, and he said, "You can take it." Boom!

541. He was very abusive,

542. and I think that dealt some severe self-worth issues to his sons.

543. Showed up in Brian in one way, and showed up in Carl another way.

544. He developed a real guarded personality.

545. And then Dennis was a rebel.

546. When he grew up into The Beach Boys,

547. man, let me tell you, he was really a spark plug.

548. A real spark plug.

549. In a sense, the spotlight was on Dennis.

550. He was the sex symbol of the group.

551. So a lot of us had to take it right where it hurt.

552. It's like, "Mob the stage. Look out! Get out of the way. We want Dennis.

553. - Will you please move that bass, Brian?"

554. The way Dennis played the drums, it was Dennis's drums.

555. I think that made a lot of the records too.

556. He was energetic, boy. A lot of power.

557. Whoo!

558. He was a real beach boy. He really surfed.

559. He really did what we were singing about.

560. But that issue was that he'd rather be in the water than in the studio.

561. Dennis had all the cars and all the girls. You know, the whole thing.

562. He enjoyed being a beach boy.

563. We're The Beach Boys, and we'd like to thank all the guys at...

564. We were in New Zealand for a tour.

565. We were doing some spots for the station there,

566. and the deejay said, "Hey, there's a new band from England

567. taking over America."

568. We go, "Well, it's okay."

569. 3,000 screaming teenagers are at New York's Kennedy airport

570. to meet The Beatles.

571. This rock-and-roll group has taken over

572. as the kingpins of musical appreciation among the younger element.

573. I first heard 'em on The Ed Sullivan Show.

574. And I was flippin' out.

575. Pretty jealous. I remember that.

576. Ladies and gentlemen, The Beatles. Bring 'em on!

577. Here we are in this remote part of the world,

578. and they're on The Ed Sullivan Show.

579. We were completely caught off guard.

580. It was very humbling, because we had been on top there for that year or so before.

581. Think I was just as amazed as anyone.

582. Couldn't understand how something like that could happen.

583. The Beatles.

584. The music they made—

585. "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," for example, wasn't really that great a record.

586. But they— But they got screamed at.

587. They were selling an image like we were, but we had different approaches.

588. They were a little crude, because we were so, you know, refined.

589. Everything with us was pitch-perfect. You know?

590. We were singers. They were players. That's what it felt like.

591. It was just a different level of energy.

592. It got us off our asses.

593. It got us right off our asses and in the studio.

594. We started cuttin',

595. and said, "Look, don't worry about The Beatles.

596. We'll cut our own stuff. Don't worry about it."

597. Let's hear it for The Beach Boys!

598. The music business is so competitive.

599. Always has been. Always will be.

600. And you always hope the song is gonna be number one,

601. but there's too much competition.

602. The four lads from Liverpool are off again

603. against the background of thousands of screaming fans.

604. We'd put a song out. Brian would hear it, then he'd do one.

605. And we ended up— It was kind of like a rivalry.

606. You know, you kind of try and top each other all the time.

607. - Here are The Beach Boys!

608. On the West Coast of America, a new sound was born.

609. The surfing sound. A tremendous rage over there.

610. And it's been quite a big success here too.

611. Here they are with their big hit number,

612. "I Get Around," The Beach Boys!

613. - Mike Love. - Brian Wilson.

614. - Paul, Ringo.

615. There's a lot of groups competing with us, and I feel that competition.

616. Sure, most everybody knows,

617. but for anybody who might not, may we introduce you by name?

618. - Al Jardine. - Thank you, Al.

619. - Dennis Wilson. - Thank you.

620. Brian Wilson.

621. - Carl Wilson. - Mike Love.

622. - Now, I think, uh— Whoop. What happened?

623. There you are.

624. You know it's an amazing thing because you have hit after hit.

625. Who determines, Brian, what will be done next?

626. - Well, I guess I do. I don't know.

627. I write the songs and produce them, so I have a lot to say about it.

628. Do you have a...

629. There was so much on him all the time as he got older.

630. Because Brian could write.

631. He could arrange.

632. He could sing.

633. He could play instruments.

634. He could do everything.

635. But the other parts of life were hard for him.

636. Being on the road, it's ever-changing.

637. He just wasn't cut out for that.

638. He was more of a homebody.

639. The toll that it takes on your body, your family, your mental health,

640. your physical health,

641. it's not natural.

642. And if you're a homebody whatsoever, it will destroy you.

643. I remember him crying one morning.

644. And he said, "I can't take it anymore."

645. December of '64, we were taking a flight to Houston,

646. and he had a nervous breakdown on the flight.

647. We were sitting next to each other.

648. I was terrified for my brother.

649. To see my brother in a position where... ... he was frightened.

650. By the time we landed, he wanted to go home.

651. We were already married, but it's funny he didn't call me.

652. He called his mom.

653. You know, and he went to their house.

654. By the next day, he was fine again.

655. He just went, you know, "I just can't do it anymore, Mar.

656. I just can't do it."

657. When we got home from the 1964 tour, I quit.

658. I told them I was gonna stay home and write music for them,

659. and they can go out and tour. And they didn't agree.

660. I remember Michael was very upset. He had tears in his eyes.

661. It was not fun to deal with, but, as a cousin or friend,

662. you don't want him to have to do something if he doesn't want to,

663. or if he's not capable of doing it without harming himself.

664. So we agreed he was gonna depart from the touring group,

665. and focus more on— on the recording part of it.

666. Take six.

667. The idea was that Brian would have the tracks

668. - prepared for us all ready to sing.

669. So that we could just come home and do the vocals.

670. We were pretty damn busy. So he hired the Wrecking Crew.

671. That's super intimidating as a producer.

672. Especially if you're dealing with the Wrecking Crew.

673. It's like everyone in this room is a better musician than me.

674. But we were all maybe 12, 15 years older than Brian.

675. And we thought, uh, you know, it's a great account. Capitol Records.

676. Brian, though, had something special from the start,

677. 'cause we didn't have to make up as much stuff

678. for him as we did the other groups.

679. And— And he brought in parts.

680. I mean, they weren't written out very well,

681. which made me believe that he was not schooled or anything,

682. but the other groups didn't do that.

683. Brian, for some reason, knew how to manage us.

684. How to get the message across.

685. He just took over.

686. That's all. He was the boss.

687. I couldn't believe how much greater making music was

688. when I did have the time.

689. I didn't feel like I was being pressed to make something in an unnatural way.

690. But we still had to find a replacement Beach Boy.

691. And Glen Campbell was in our Wrecking Crew band.

692. Why don't we call Glen and ask him to come out?

693. I said, "What you want me to do?" He said, "Play bass. Sing the high part."

694. I didn't know all the words, but it seemed to work out fine.

695. He was a studio-trained musician.

696. So he had no idea what fame was all about.

697. As he steps outside of the dressing room door,

698. all of a sudden this gaggle of girls scared the living crap out of him.

699. I was just moseying back to the car,

700. and, boy howdy, here come a bunch of screaming teenagers.

701. And they tore my shirt off and got a few locks of hair.

702. And it was really weird.

703. From that day on, I was the first one in the car. I can tell you that.

704. We were happy Brian had the Wrecking Crew.

705. 'Cause then if we'd come home from a 30-day tour,

706. I could at least get a little rest.

707. We were exhausted.

708. I'm ready now. I'm sorry, Brian.

709. Is that a good tone?

710. Carl used to come and play with us quite often.

711. One, two, three. - But Carl was the only one.

712. I was very in awe of them.

713. And it was a great thrill,

714. because we rehearsed a lot more in the early days.

715. But by then, it became more of an experimental type of recording,

716. trial and error.

717. Things would evolve in a real organic sort of way.

718. I just really loved being a part of that.

719. Carl was very musically inclined.

720. Of course, he was lead guitarist,

721. in addition to having the voice of an angel.

722. Carl was the sweet one. And, you know, shy.

723. But he had a heart of gold.

724. And he became the glue in The Beach Boys.

725. My role in the band has always been a support role.

726. And it's changed through the years because,

727. with our evolution and Brian leaving the road,

728. I kinda took over as the leader of the band.

729. The Beach Boys effectively became two groups.

730. The recording group and the touring group.

731. Brian was happy as a lark.

732. He didn't have to be under all that pressure anymore.

733. The next call I got from him, he couldn't wait for us to get home

734. so he could go into the studio and do the next album.

735. What's the matter? - We doing a sing-along?

736. I don't know.

737. We went into the studio to record "Help Me, Rhonda" vocals.

738. Well, I was having trouble with— with this one part.

739. Hey, Al. You missed the synco pretty bad.

740. Let's go. Do it one more time.

741. You've got it. Okay.

742. Now loosen up and be happy.

743. Murry came in and wanted to produce the band...

744. and, uh, it got real uncomfortable.

745. - Got it? I got it, Murry.

746. You're laughing, but you know what I mean.

747. Syncopate it a little.

748. He was drunk, you know?

749. And Brian was masterful in the studio, okay?

750. Give him the track, Chuck.

751. Don't sing with it. Let him sing it once.

752. You want me to leave, Brian?

753. No, I just want you to let him sing it.

754. Your mother and I can leave. Did you really get drunk?

755. They were both trying to produce me on the song.

756. And that's when they kind of went to loggerheads.

757. Trying to get me to— So I kind of feel responsible in a way,

758. but what the hell. I don't know.

759. Chuck, turn it down. I'm a genius too.

760. Let's go, huh?

761. Turn down his playback.

762. Murry was jealous of Brian.

763. I didn't realize that for a while.

764. And when I did, I thought— I was kind of shocked.

765. Brian. Forget who you are, will you? Let's go. Let's roll.

766. I'm just thinking about who you are.

767. Murry had such a great desire to be a songwriter and to be recognized.

768. Can we run it? You guys get too much money,

769. you start thinking you're gonna make everything a hit.

770. - Brian— Let me ask you this.

771. - Uh... Come on now.

772. I don't wanna start... I just wanna make sure this is on tape.

773. No, I'll never help you guys mix another song.

774. Why? When you guys get so big

775. that you can't sing from your hearts, you're going downhill.

776. Downhill? Downhill!

777. - Son. Son, I'm sorry.

778. I've protected you for 22 years, but I can't go on

779. if you're not gonna listen to an intelligent man.

780. Are you going now?

781. If you wanna fight for success, I'll go all out.

782. No. I don't— We don't want to do that.

783. You think you got it made? No, we don't.

784. Chuck and I used to make one hit after another...

785. in 30 minutes. You guys take five hours to do it.

786. Times are changing. You know why?

787. - Because you think you have an image. Times are changing.

788. Don't ever forget.

789. Times are changing.

790. We have learned at a terrible and brutal cost

791. that weakness does not bring peace.

792. And it is this lesson that has brought us to Vietnam.

793. The culture was changing in all kinds of ways.

794. The psychedelic experience is a voyage

795. into the countless galaxies of your own nervous system.

796. The repeated use of LSD may permanently alter the brain's function.

797. Liftoff.

798. I feel like a million dollars!

799. Freedom march from Selma to Montgomery finally gets underway.

800. The mid-'60s was an incredibly rich time musically.

801. Just really opened up.

802. Also the awakening of consciousness.

803. Society not wanting to let the status quo go on just because it's the status quo.

804. We were on tour and got back home.

805. We started getting indications that Brian was taking some hallucinogens.

806. LSD and stuff like that, which a lot of the writers were doing at the time.

807. He drove me around the parking lot about 20 times.

808. Explaining about this great trip he'd just taken, you know?

809. Oh, yeah. I did LSD, and it just totally tore my head off.

810. You just come to grips with what you are and what you can do and what you can't do.

811. And you learn to face it, you know?

812. Pretty soon, the music was changing. Evolving.

813. Here we go. This is real good now. Take 43.

814. Brian was hearing these arrangements in his head.

815. Who knows where they come from?

816. Who knows where any arranger hears?

817. But most arrangers are guys who have studied, studied, studied.

818. They know just how to put 'em on a score.

819. Brian used to explain it to us.

820. Here's the whole secret of this whole thing is if we can go...

821. If we can have that emphasis there, okay?

822. It was a matter of us tuning in to what he was saying and playing what he wanted.

823. We felt a little bit more at home with Brian.

824. He knew that we were jazz players.

825. And took after Phil Spector, in the sense that he'd use the three or the four hours.

826. And he'd do, like, one whole tune.

827. Whereas on the other record days,

828. we would do three or four tunes in the same time.

829. The big difference between Phil and Brian was Brian was still inventing.

830. He was constantly rewriting himself.

831. He knew where it was going, but we didn't.

832. And if you're a creative person, he'd let you have that freedom to create,

833. and he knew how to use it.

834. It's great talent to be able to do that.

835. Sorry, but that drags. I hate to say it, really.

836. That— That drags, Carol.

837. We appreciate your loyal support. See you next week, I hope.

838. In the meantime, it's Shindig! finale time with Glen Campbell. Right over there.

839. Thank you.

840. By that time, Glen Campbell has his own hit records.

841. He can't come out on tour anymore.

842. Mike called me up. He said, "You're in the record business."

843. "Who do you know that could come out for the weekend to fill in for Glen?"

844. So, I called about ten people.

845. I called him back. I said, "I can't find anybody.

846. But, honest to God, there's still time.

847. I can go to the airport, and I'll bring a keyboard,

848. and I'll just fill in for the weekend."

849. And that's how it started.

850. One of my first memories of Bruce,

851. I went into his hotel room, and he was learning the bass,

852. so he could play it onstage.

853. He'd only ever played keyboard.

854. My dream was to make $250 a week.

855. I thought, "Wow."

856. And Carl calls me. He said, "Could you come back out?"

857. So I came out for two weeks.

858. Carl says, "We can cut you a check. What do you want?"

859. Two hundred and fifty dollars.

860. And so I get a check for $3,000, 'cause he thought I was asking per night.

861. I said, "Okay."

862. So, that's how I got into the band.

863. My best friend was Terry Melcher.

864. And so Terry calls me up, and he said,

865. "My mom, Doris Day, she's got the best stereo system."

866. So we go over, and there's John and Michelle Phillips,

867. Mike Love, Brian Wilson, me, Doris, Terry Melcher.

868. And we listened to Rubber Soul.

869. Now, that was a turning point in The Beatles' world.

870. It was also a turning point for Brian.

871. When I first heard that, I flipped.

872. I said, "I want to make an album like that."

873. Where all the songs seem to be like a collection of folk songs, you know?

874. He saw Rubber Soul as a thematic album.

875. A little light went on, and he started dreaming up.

876. Conceptual album. Front to back. Thematic.

877. They're competing against The Beatles,

878. but these guys are still wearing striped shirts?

879. I think Brian saw the need to grow out of that identity.

880. Not to be defined by the external labels, which had been now placed on the band.

881. This is what you did last time, and we want you to do that again.

882. I can hardly wait to get out there and hang ten.

883. Hey, maybe you guys would like to join our club.

884. Your surfing club, huh? That sounds real cool.

885. Evolution is absolutely necessary,

886. but you have a hit with a certain style of song.

887. And you will have guys in the band who will just be like,

888. "Guys, this is well-tread territory. We know it works.

889. Let's do another one like this."

890. A lot of artists,

891. when they have they have to make these kind of choices,

892. don't often make the choice for art.

893. Al Jardine had this great idea for The Beach Boys

894. to record a version of this folk song called "Sloop John B."

895. It was recorded by The Kingston Trio.

896. Basically a template from my own musical upbringing.

897. I was in a folk group in high school.

898. We replicated The Kingston Trio note-for-note.

899. But when The Beach Boys formed, I left my folk group behind.

900. I feel kinda guilty about it, to be honest with you.

901. Anyway, I played Brian a song called "Sloop John B."

902. Growing up, he didn't like folk music really.

903. He was more music-driven than story-driven.

904. But we sat down at the piano,

905. and I suggested we add a few chords to give it that Beach Boy influence.

906. And he liked it. It fit our vocal style.

907. And then Brian went into the studio when we were away touring to finish the song.

908. I remember being in Japan, and Brian sent a mix of "Sloop John B."

909. He produced a masterpiece.

910. If I'd produced it, it would still be a folk song.

911. But now— now it's a classic.

912. Brian was really growing

913. way beyond the three-, four-chord format of doing pop tunes.

914. It just wasn't gonna do.

915. All of a sudden,

916. I began to realize that I had a lot of music to make.

917. Here we go. "Wouldn't It Be Nice." Take one.

918. I wanted to write some songs that reflected how I really felt,

919. rather than just car songs, surf songs, something more introspective.

920. So I said, "Mike, I'm writing with another collaborator."

921. And he goes, "What? But I thought I was your collaborator."

922. I said, "Well, for this one album, Tony Asher is my collaborator."

923. I was so overwhelmed by what Brian was playing

924. and coming up with and singing,

925. I didn't think that much about the fact

926. that lyrics were quite different than the majority of the songs they'd done.

927. I knew there were lots of things that he heard in his head

928. that I had no idea of.

929. "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times." Take one.

930. That's when we started realizing there's some genius here.

931. You got one, two, three— boom. No. It's one, two, three... boop!

932. They kept getting better and better and better.

933. Take two. "Let Go of Your Ego."

934. I think not being schooled, like he was, was a great thing.

935. You know, because he didn't know the limits.

936. He didn't know he was not supposed to do things.

937. Let's make it real tight, okay?

938. Phil Spector records, marvels that they are,

939. they're kinda— They're still like in black and white.

940. Brian got the same guys but wrote songs and arrangements

941. that put the thing in Technicolor.

942. Nice.

943. We were still in Japan

944. while he was recording a lot of the tracks for Pet Sounds.

945. Then when they got back, the tracks were ready for 'em, ready to go.

946. All they had to do was go and learn their parts, sing.

947. A lot of the lyrics were strange.

948. Especially to Mike, who's more sensitive to lyrics.

949. Here we go. Take 11.

950. Take 19, please.

951. Okay. Take 27, please.

952. Brian had an obsession with getting things absolutely perfect.

953. Like on "Wouldn't It Be Nice,"

954. we must have done the backgrounds 30 times.

955. I started calling him "dog ears," because it was perfect vocally,

956. but Brian could hear something that most human beings cannot.

957. You listen to the vocals on Pet Sounds,

958. they're some of the best ever recorded.

959. To us it was more than a record.

960. It was a new place.

961. It was popular music coming to a new level.

962. But when we played it for Capitol Records,

963. and they said, "Geez. This is great, guys.

964. But couldn't you do something more like

965. 'Surfin' U.S.A.' or 'California Girls' or 'I Get Around'?"

966. Capitol Records didn't really understand,

967. they were concerned about selling albums and having commercial success.

968. And, uh, we were growing up.

969. We'd allowed Capitol Records to do our PR and public relations and stuff.

970. And they didn't know how to treat it.

971. So, we needed somebody who got the idea of Pet Sounds being an evolution.

972. Derek Taylor was brilliant. He was The Beatles' publicist for a while.

973. Then he moved to America, and he became our publicist.

974. Derek Taylor is the one that came up with the "Brian Wilson is a genius" moniker.

975. If you look in The Beach Boys' history,

976. there is that constant struggle between Brian and everybody else.

977. And, I think, perhaps the genius label, in a way, gets linked to him

978. in part because of his psychological struggles.

979. The solitude of Brian.

980. The loneliness of Brian.

981. I think that's gone a long way to fleshing out his musical genius

982. as part of a larger sense of,

983. "Well, he's a lone— a lone figure separate from the group."

984. And that's not fair to them.

985. I'm president of the Brian Wilson fan club.

986. But the musicality of every Beach Boy is essential.

987. If we didn't have the ability, we wouldn't have been able to sing these parts.

988. Brian was lucky to have our voices to sing his dreams.

989. When we were done with the album, I'm talking to Derek Taylor,

990. and he said, "Why don't you come to England to promote Pet Sounds?"

991. I said, "But it's not out there."

992. "Bring it anyway."

993. There's a guy who was getting famous

994. and dying to become one of The Beach Boys. Keith Moon.

995. So he shows up at my suite.

996. He says, "I'm gonna guide you through England,

997. and you're going to meet everybody."

998. And I probably did 20 interviews.

999. I was a hero.

1000. "Hey, I've got the new Beach Boys' album. It's Pet Sounds."

1001. And then, at the end of the week, I come back to the hotel.

1002. "Hey, man. You better get up to the suite."

1003. "Why?"

1004. "Lennon and McCartney are waiting for you. They wanna hear Pet Sounds."

1005. "What? I— I haven't been in the band that long."

1006. So, they're dressed in Edwardian suits.

1007. And they play the album a couple of times.

1008. I just thought, "Oh, dear me. This is the album of all time.

1009. What the hell are we gonna do?"

1010. Just 'cause the musical invention on that is, like, wow.

1011. When I first heard "God Only Knows," I remember crying.

1012. I remember tearing up thinking about those lyrics.

1013. When we listen to something like Pet Sounds now,

1014. and the orchestration on that, people go, "Yeah, cool."

1015. What they forget is, he did it first.

1016. Brian put together textures that no one had ever put into popular songs before.

1017. Brian made that decision to thwart the listeners' expectations

1018. for the sake of his art, and it did not go unnoticed.

1019. Paul McCartney said "God Only Knows" is like the perfect song.

1020. And then they got busy on their next album.

1021. I think it's more interesting to think less of the competition,

1022. and more of it as a collaboration.

1023. Together, that healthy collaboration was advancing the music.

1024. It was advancing the culture.

1025. It was advancing what rock music meant and could be.

1026. And I always wondered, if one of them didn't have the other,

1027. would their music actually be what it became?

1028. But Sgt. Pepper's was more of a commercial success than Pet Sounds.

1029. This is one of the great accomplishments of The Beatles

1030. was they evolved and thwarted over and over again.

1031. But they did it gradually.

1032. They did it as a group who all wanted the same thing.

1033. But with Pet Sounds, there was kind of a jump from here,

1034. all of a sudden they're, you know,

1035. something snapped, and you are over here, unlike The Beatles.

1036. Pet Sounds was so radical

1037. compared to the really nice commercial albums

1038. that we'd been making,

1039. that Capitol had been so successful in selling that they just wanted more.

1040. So, instead of promoting Pet Sounds here in America,

1041. Capitol put out the first Best of The Beach Boys

1042. and promoted that.

1043. And it went gold quickly.

1044. And they didn't promote Pet Sounds because they said that it wasn't commercial,

1045. and the people wouldn't understand it.

1046. They called us "the number one surfing group in the USA,"

1047. it was completely ridiculous,

1048. in light of the fact that there was things like the Vietnam War,

1049. and student demonstrations, and the Civil Rights Movement,

1050. and all these things that the youth of society was completely caught up in.

1051. It certainly wasn't the idyllic culture that we sang about in the early '60s.

1052. He couldn't understand it.

1053. The thing that he put his heart and soul into more than any record he'd ever done,

1054. and people didn't think it was that great.

1055. Pet Sounds was not commercially received as it was critically,

1056. and I think it hurt Brian.

1057. I think he was at a very vulnerable stage in his life.

1058. My whole life depended on the success of The Beach Boys,

1059. and I'm very deeply affected by what people think.

1060. I said, "Look, I want to do something that people will respect.

1061. And not just industry people, but the public."

1062. Let me hear the organ.

1063. "Good Vibrations" was very schizophrenic.

1064. It was recorded in many different studios. Uh, three to be exact.

1065. Stop, please.

1066. I'd bet you it'd be a half million bucks just for the track now. Just the track.

1067. He really was going after what he was going after.

1068. I mean, who in their right mind ever thought of putting a theremin

1069. on a— on a pop record?

1070. Let's go from the top. You got that. Okay.

1071. All right. This will be take 25.

1072. "Good Vibrations." We were in for three months.

1073. Nobody does that.

1074. A lot of guys would say, "He's out of his mind."

1075. I never said that.

1076. I always respected the genius of Brian Wilson.

1077. Eventually, Brian made it studio worthy for us to sing on.

1078. But Mike's driving to the session, but he hasn't written the words.

1079. So his wife, Suzanne, in the passenger seat.

1080. Mike's driving, dictating words to her as he goes to the studio.

1081. It only took us two nights to sing.

1082. It took Brian several months to put it together.

1083. He spent a lot of time on that, and I couldn't figure out why, you know?

1084. But that was Brian.

1085. When I heard the thing, I said, "Whoa! That's it, man.

1086. That's the monster hit."

1087. And it was the monster hit.

1088. Once again,

1089. our writing relationship proved out to be extremely successful.

1090. The problem was, Brian was being hailed as a genius,

1091. but there was no credit for the rest of the band,

1092. or Mike Love for writing songs.

1093. It would've been nice had that reality been put forward.

1094. It might have been a little bit easier for Brian to handle the "genius" label.

1095. In 1966, we were on tour.

1096. And even though Pet Sounds didn't do that well in the US,

1097. England really came through for us.

1098. We were voted the number one group. Number two being The Beatles.

1099. They just loved us,

1100. and "Good Vibrations" broke in at number one over there.

1101. So there was this pressure to deliver something great

1102. with the next album, Smile.

1103. We were busy touring and stuff, so I wasn't writing with him at that time.

1104. It was Van Dyke Parks.

1105. Twenty-one. Take 250. Marker.

1106. All music passes with me

1107. but The Beach Boys, I like because of their essential modesty.

1108. So, I wrote some lyrics for Brian,

1109. and I think that that's been my best shot in town yet.

1110. I met him on the lawn of Terry Melcher's house.

1111. I thought, "Wow. That guy has a great style of talking." You know?

1112. And I said, "Hey. Would you like to write some lyrics with me?"

1113. He goes, "Sure. I'll give it a try."

1114. Those were the days of considerable drug abuse.

1115. I was into taking a lot of stimulant pills,

1116. 'cause I didn't think I had any energy of my own, you know?

1117. So I would take these pills, and they would—

1118. You know... ... there it is.

1119. I took the pill.

1120. I feel great.

1121. And Van Dyke Parks and I used to take uppers and write songs together.

1122. We'd write our heads off.

1123. This was way ahead of our time.

1124. This was the most advanced musical experimentation

1125. in the popular music industry.

1126. He started to get into deep water then.

1127. I should say he started to get into difficulty inside of himself,

1128. and, yet, the music was fantastic.

1129. I was getting pretty far out by that time.

1130. I had the musicians wearing fire helmets.

1131. I had a guy bring in a bucket with burning wood

1132. to smell of smoke in the studio.

1133. I mean, I was crazy.

1134. It so happens that a building burned down

1135. the same day we were doing that down the street.

1136. I began to think that we started that fire somehow mystically.

1137. I had a lot of money, of course. I'm a millionaire.

1138. And I was able to get ahold of all these drugs, you know?

1139. And they fucked—

1140. I was able to get ahold of all these drugs and they messed me up.

1141. They, uh— They messed my mind up.

1142. He was pretty paranoid and ultra sensitive.

1143. But I was there as one of the troops to go in and do backgrounds.

1144. I sang on many of those songs.

1145. It's been said that Michael was not supportive.

1146. And there were certain things that he was not supportive of.

1147. The heavy drug taking

1148. and the acid alliteration, I used to call it, of Van Dyke Parks.

1149. I wasn't close enough to the other guys.

1150. I was in a position of defending my lyrics.

1151. Mike Love said to me one day— He said, "Explain this.

1152. 'Over and over, the crow cries, "Uncover the cornfield."'

1153. "Van Dyke, what does that lyric mean?"

1154. He says, "I don't know. I haven't a clue."

1155. I said, "Exactly."

1156. He thought the lyrics were not relatable.

1157. Personally, I loved it.

1158. So artistic and abstract.

1159. I realized that Brian and Van Dyke were expressing a new poetry.

1160. But it could be that it was not an appropriate project for The Beach Boys.

1161. Maybe that would have been most fitting as Brian's album.

1162. I wanted to do my kind of music, and they wanted to do their kind of music.

1163. So, it was a tug-of-war.

1164. I felt like I was getting pulled to pieces.

1165. Very chaotic, very turbulent time for him,

1166. and he was just not able to finish the Smile project.

1167. He took the Smile tapes and shelved them.

1168. It was too much for him to finish.

1169. He just put it away.

1170. It was, primarily, he had this fear, I think, that the music would be rejected.

1171. I thought that it was inappropriate music for us to make.

1172. Inappropriate for you, Brian Wilson, or for The Beach Boys?

1173. For The Beach Boys, yeah.

1174. What was inappropriate about it?

1175. Well, it was just the ideas behind the songs were too weird.

1176. It was like fire and elements and, you know?

1177. I just threw it away. I junked it.

1178. We were pretty exhausted by then.

1179. And so, we decided to build a studio inside Brian's home.

1180. And we were able to come back together socially,

1181. and actually enjoy doing what we were doing again.

1182. It's almost like starting over.

1183. And so we made this little album called Smiley Smile.

1184. There's crazy stuff on that album.

1185. We had a song about your favorite vegetable.

1186. I know it sounds crazy.

1187. Smiley Smile shows a lot of psychological cracking,

1188. and strangeness and oddballness.

1189. That's when I was like, "Whoa! This is quite different."

1190. For someone who's hungry for experimental sounds,

1191. or unpredictable musical experiences,

1192. that whole album is an unpredictable musical experience.

1193. Brian's innovation and obsession with pushing the envelope musically

1194. is what helped take them to another level.

1195. But there is an inherent risk when you take those big swings:

1196. To swing and completely overshoot your fan base because you went too far.

1197. I created my head off. I made a lot of records.

1198. And sang my face off.

1199. I reached the point of exhaustion, and, uh, I did retreat.

1200. He was at this point with The Beach Boys

1201. where they weren't as happy with the music he wanted to create.

1202. You know, there was a lot of squabbling going on all the time.

1203. And Brian just said, "You know what? Let them do it.

1204. Let them do it. Let them see how easy it is."

1205. Even though he was the mastermind,

1206. he, suddenly, did not have their full support.

1207. And, I think, because it was his family, it made that much more difficult

1208. and, perhaps, much more demanding on his psyche.

1209. So many artists who have very, very significant commercial success

1210. forget why they got into the business in the first place.

1211. Why they do music.

1212. And now, you are judging your validity through commerce

1213. more than anything else.

1214. At that time the Monterey Pop Festival was going on.

1215. They were supposed to headline Saturday night, but they dropped out.

1216. I couldn't believe it. Nobody could believe it.

1217. This was such a turning point.

1218. Who knows what would've happened?

1219. You know, that was The Who, Janis Joplin, along with Hendrix.

1220. Jefferson Airplane, and, of course, The Dead.

1221. Psychedelia had kicked in and, all of a sudden, it was a whole different era.

1222. Monterey Pop was seen as a culture-changing moment,

1223. and they weren't there.

1224. Because we were in such disarray, we missed that train, so to speak.

1225. They weren't with the times,

1226. and they weren't pushing to where things were going.

1227. In the early '60s, they became the poster boys for the California dream.

1228. But at the end of the '60s, that dream changed,

1229. and they never made enough of a public-facing shift

1230. to change with the times.

1231. At that time, you have some of the most culturally-relevant music

1232. in American History.

1233. Songs about the struggle for civil rights, around identity,

1234. around political freedoms.

1235. And their image was as far as you could be from the changes in the culture.

1236. And then there's Dennis.

1237. Hi. My name is Dennis Wilson.

1238. I make rock-and-roll records.

1239. He became more of a quintessential '60s LA rock guy.

1240. Dennis was part of the scene.

1241. He was part of the Laurel Canyon world.

1242. Part of the counter-cultural world of the Sunset Strip.

1243. He was just a wild person.

1244. Interestingly enough, though,

1245. he is actually the one who got us interested in things like meditation.

1246. Even if he was drunk, he'd say, "Let's meditate."

1247. One afternoon, Dennis picked up a couple of hitchhikers on Sunset Boulevard,

1248. and he took them home.

1249. He told the girls he had a guru, which was Maharishi,

1250. who had taught all of us how to meditate.

1251. And then they said, "Well, we have a guru.

1252. His name is Charlie Manson."

1253. I only met the guy once,

1254. and that was enough for me.

1255. Manson was actually an aspiring songwriter.

1256. So, Dennis and Charlie started to write together.

1257. And at that time, The Beach Boys released a Charles Manson song as a B-side,

1258. "Never Learn Not To Love."

1259. There's lots of ways to talk about Manson,

1260. and one of them is that he's still part of the California dream.

1261. He wanted the dream. He wanted the Hollywood dream.

1262. He wanted to be a rock star.

1263. He wanted to go through Dennis to get to Terry Melcher.

1264. Dennis introduced Manson to Terry Melcher.

1265. But he was turned down by Terry.

1266. And what happened next, happened next.

1267. In a scene described by one investigator

1268. as reminiscent of a weird religious rite,

1269. five persons, including actress Sharon Tate, were found dead.

1270. Manson went to Terry's house that he used to rent, but Terry had moved.

1271. That's where he had those people killed.

1272. It was just awful.

1273. And I think it weighed upon Dennis pretty heavily,

1274. because he had a hand in introducing him to our world.

1275. He's always felt bad about it ever since.

1276. It wasn't his fault.

1277. We were in a rough patch, and Murry must have thought it was over.

1278. Murry was the publisher, remember?

1279. He actually took over the publishing catalog.

1280. He, at one time, told us he was gonna sell us back the publishing,

1281. but he didn't.

1282. Brian got a call, and his father said, "I sold the catalog."

1283. And Brian went, "You sold my songs? How could you do that to me?"

1284. Brian was real, real hurt.

1285. It was very hard for him.

1286. Murry just thought, "The guys are gonna go so far for so long,

1287. and then they're gonna die off, just like all these other artists.

1288. So I might as well cash in."

1289. I wrote the words to many songs Murry did not credit me on.

1290. So I got cheated by my uncle.

1291. But my cousin was going through mental issues,

1292. and he had no control over his father.

1293. And, so... What can you do?

1294. Brian was a half owner with Murry.

1295. And what are you gonna do? Go sue your own father?

1296. No. He wasn't gonna do that.

1297. It really hurt him, and I don't think he got out of bed for three days after that.

1298. There were reflashes of LSD.

1299. It was said I'm insecure. I can't face this. I can't do this.

1300. I'm gonna hide in my bedroom.

1301. You know, Brian, he was troubled.

1302. The guys would all be there, and he says, "I'm just gonna stay in bed."

1303. While we were recording at his home in Beverly Hills,

1304. he was reluctant to come down and participate.

1305. I would go to his house daily and beg, "What can I do to help you?"

1306. For— Forget recording.

1307. I'd give up everything just as long as my brother would be okay.

1308. It was very painful at times to see Brian go through that.

1309. And it was at that point

1310. that Brian asked me to become more involved in the production.

1311. Carl was Brian's protégée really.

1312. And after all those years attending the Wrecking Crew sessions,

1313. Carl was ready for it.

1314. Two. One, two, three. Go. And I, of course, had led the band

1315. from when he stopped touring back in '64.

1316. So, I think it was kind of natural.

1317. When Brian stopped producing,

1318. it opened the door to more of a democratic process in the studio.

1319. You've got Dennis writing songs.

1320. Bruce Johnston producing. Al Jardine producing.

1321. Of course, I wrote many of those songs as well.

1322. But, of all of us, Dennis's music began to evolve really quite amazingly.

1323. "Forever" was one of the great pieces that Dennis created.

1324. It just blew— I mean, it just blew us away.

1325. Dennis had all this hidden talent.

1326. I used to watch him and go,

1327. "God. I didn't know he could play the piano like that."

1328. He kinda hid that.

1329. I think it was very hard for him growing up.

1330. He would be behind Brian and try to match up to him musically.

1331. But as Dennis got older, he felt comfortable enough

1332. to start bringing out, you know, who he was musically.

1333. You listen to those late-'60s records and early-'70s,

1334. they sound like a different band.

1335. And I do think maybe that's part of why they weren't as popular,

1336. is people didn't know what to do with them.

1337. The Beach Boys as a sound was so cemented on those early records.

1338. It's almost like boy bands or kid actors

1339. who can't shake that first period of success.

1340. It haunted them,

1341. because your sense of self starts circulating with that artifice.

1342. My sense of their career has always been,

1343. "Well, we needed that to become who we are, but who are we really?

1344. Who are we as artists?"

1345. And I don't think that struggle ever left them.

1346. We thought the songs sounded great.

1347. The public didn't think so.

1348. We were down like $5,000 a night for a gig. Can you believe that?

1349. We were just slugging it out.

1350. Doing what he had to do to survive.

1351. We were no longer Beach Boys.

1352. We were beach men.

1353. In fact, we even tried to change the name.

1354. I said, "Let's call ourselves 'Beach.'"

1355. That would never work, but Al was right.

1356. The Beach Boys became uncool to listen to.

1357. We became determined to reinvent ourselves.

1358. Let's get out of this Beach Boys thing, you know?

1359. That album has "surf" in the title,

1360. but Surf's Up is not about the surf being up and everything's being good.

1361. The first song on that record is, "Don't Go Near the Water."

1362. We felt like we were doing serious music, you know?

1363. But, uh, it didn't help sell the album particularly.

1364. So we decided we needed a new sound.

1365. In the past, Brian was the leader, musically speaking.

1366. But he didn't show up very much anymore for the sessions.

1367. In order to save the group, sometimes things had to be done,

1368. like more people getting involved.

1369. Ricky Fataar and Blondie Chaplin were in a group called The Flames,

1370. and we met them in London.

1371. They had this idea to have me and Blonds join the group,

1372. and I just thought it was just so ridiculous.

1373. It just didn't seem possible

1374. because it seemed like such a tight-knit family thing.

1375. And when we first joined the group, it was weird adjusting.

1376. Being around them, when we were working and stuff,

1377. that was just a lovely experience.

1378. Of course, it wasn't as funky as what we were used to.

1379. Well, in our way of funky.

1380. When we got involved, the music got a little harder.

1381. For live, we pumped a whole lot more than they used to.

1382. And I'm not knocking you guys, but whatever.

1383. But things weren't going that great.

1384. It wasn't at the big beach— I mean, things had calmed down quite a bit.

1385. Beach Boys were hurting.

1386. We were kinda on our last leg.

1387. We all just felt we needed to get away and reinvent ourselves.

1388. And we had never been outside of the United States in terms of recording.

1389. And so, we went to Holland.

1390. We were true to our music, but we were on a downward spiral.

1391. They go from being one of the most globally-known pop artists

1392. to, some degree, falling off the map.

1393. There's no thought process that was governing the group

1394. that made any sense at all.

1395. And then Capitol, unbeknownst to us,

1396. decides to release kind of like a big "Best of."

1397. Twenty of your favorite original Beach Boys hits are now together

1398. in a fabulous two-record set, called Endless Summer.

1399. The songs were all from the early albums.

1400. It represented an era of positivity.

1401. And Endless Summer became a number one smash album.

1402. All of a sudden, there's a new generation of record buyers.

1403. So to them, it's all brand-new.

1404. It was funny. That image we were trying to get away from...

1405. It's what saved us.

1406. And that reenergized our career.

1407. We got a second chance.

1408. You gotta remember, they've been a touring band forever.

1409. They're one of the few bands that could reproduce their sound.

1410. The Beatles stopped touring,

1411. largely, in part, because they couldn't play the stuff live.

1412. I can't imagine pulling off half the stuff that The Beach Boys recorded.

1413. And then we started doing stadiums.

1414. And that's when the 8-to-80 thing started happening.

1415. We had the eight-year-olds coming, and the 80-year-olds were coming.

1416. We benefited by the fact

1417. that our songs resonate with young people no matter what generation they're in.

1418. It's so great to be a part of that,

1419. and the fact that my cousin Brian and I got together and wrote some great songs

1420. that people still like to hear.

1421. However, because my uncle Murry sold the publishing,

1422. we didn't own the songs.

1423. So he screwed his own sons and grandchildren.

1424. At the beginning, they depended on Murry.

1425. And if there was no Murry, there would be no Beach Boys.

1426. But Murry didn't have the vision to see what the catalog would bring in.

1427. The hundreds of millions of dollars.

1428. You know, and he sold this thing for, like, 700,000.

1429. Because Murry did not credit me on the songs I cowrote with Brian,

1430. the only avenue I thought that I had to get credit was to file a lawsuit.

1431. I think that was kinda where we lost it.

1432. I go, "Wait a minute, guys. Hold on here. What's the deal?" You know?

1433. After that, we sort of got separated a little bit.

1434. There have been ups and downs in our relationship...

1435. and, these days, we don't really talk much.

1436. But, you know, if I could, I'd probably just tell him...

1437. that I love him.

1438. And nothing...

1439. anybody could do could erase that.

1440. I asked Brian one time, "Why do you think we succeeded?"

1441. He said, "Well, I think the music celebrated the joy of life

1442. in a real simple way.

1443. Just a real direct experience of joyfulness."

1444. Their music was part of a widespread desire

1445. to believe in the possibility of a California dream,

1446. even if it doesn't seem to line up in neat ways.

1447. A band who's known for surfing who didn't surf.

1448. A band that's synonymous with the beach

1449. that record songs about staying in your room.

1450. They represent much more complexity than, I think, most people give them credit for.

1451. There's someone with us tonight.

1452. He's responsible for us being here, period.

1453. Let's hear it for Brian! Come on!

1454. They soundtrack the best parts of life.

1455. And their sound is one of one.

1456. But I think none of them would have been able to shine without each other.

1457. A lot of people have a favorite in the group, you know?

1458. But a group is a group.

1459. The Beach Boys are a family story,

1460. not without its ups and downs,

1461. but the positivity far outweighs the negativity.

1462. Welcome!

1463. Welcome all 400,000 of you on this beautiful day.

1464. We are proud to present the one and only Beach Boys!

1465. Thank you very much.

1466. Enjoy the fireworks!

1467. Thank you again.