OUR first glimpse of him was just before he went on stage at 9.30pm on Saturday night: sitting nervously in the shadows on the side of the stage like a schoolboy waiting to see the principal.
Now a septuagenarian, the man responsible for 1960s classics such as Good Vibrations and Wouldn’t it Be Nice managed to come across as boyishly awkward, dressed in a pair of tracksuit pants, a checked button-up shirt, and a pair of Vans.
Brian Wilson, co-founder of the Beach Boys and the composer of some of their most memorable music, was about to go on stage at the Hop Farm Music Festival in Kent, and we were getting fidgety.
After having spent at least 10 hours in the sun enduring nine supporting acts, hardcore Beach Boys fans were more than a little eager to get the show on the road. Subjected to musical hell courtesy of performances from Paul Carrack, of Mike+The Mechanics fame, and James Blunt, the king of tear-soaked ballads, the time was ripe for redemption.
Brian’s backing band, which included former Beach Boys rhythm guitarist and vocalist Al Jardine and his son Matt, began playing the symphony-like introduction to California Girls. After being introduced to the audience, Brian walked hurriedly towards the piano at the front of the stage and the world’s most unwilling rock star started singing that famous sun-drenched ode to beautiful women.
His voice, damaged by years of abuse in the 1970s and early 1980s when he was a chain-smoking recluse snorting gargantuan amounts of cocaine, sounded more frail than the voice from my album collection.
But there were hints of its past glory as he started running through the extraordinary Beach Boys catalogue. It is some feat to have a 27-song set list with most of the songs having been top-40 hits at one time or another.
Established in Hawthorne, California, in 1961, the classic Beach Boys line-up included Brian Wilson on bass guitar, his younger brothers Carl and Dennis Wilson on lead guitar and drums respectively, cousin Mike Love on vocals, and family friend Al Jardine on rhythm guitar. Like the Beatles, the Beach Boys shared vocal duties, with Brian, Carl, Mike, Al and sometimes Dennis taking turns to sing lead vocals.
Brian’s vocal range is not what it used to be and some of the songs on which he famously performed the lead vocals in his youth, such as Wouldn’t it Be Nice and Don’t Worry Baby, are now sadly sung by Al and Matt Jardine. Yet, he pleasantly surprised when he tackled the lead vocals on God Only Knows and Good Vibrations, traditionally sung by his brother Carl, who died of cancer in 1998 at the age of 51.
He also received thunderous applause when he sang the version of Heroes and Villains he intended for the legendary album, Smile.
Saturday was a night for ghosts. Thoughts drifted to Brian’s middle brother, Dennis, the first Wilson brother to die when he drowned while diving off a yacht in California in 1983 at the age of 39. The rakish Dennis seemed to haunt the stage when Brian performed the group’s early surf and car tunes such as Catch a Wave and Little Deuce Coupe.
As the group’s only surfer and a favourite with women, Dennis was the Beach Boy who lived the dream the others sang about. He first suggested to Brian that he sing about surfing. In fact Fun, Fun, Fun, sung as an encore by Brian, refers to one of Dennis’s dalliances: the girl in the song who ditches the library and steals her old man’s T-bird is going to meet Dennis.
The crowd loved Brian. How can you not? The man is self-effacing. He shyly introduced the classic God Only Knows as "one of my better songs". He looked happy to be performing and every now and again gave the audience a childlike smile. It was good to see him smiling. There are lot of photographs from his past where he is not.
That Brian is performing today at the age of 72 is a miracle given the engulfing darkness that derailed him for much of the past four decades. At the peak of his powers in the mid-1960s, Brian suddenly stopped performing live with the Beach Boys after a nervous breakdown while on tour. The group continued performing live, while Brian stayed at home composing masterpieces such as Pet Sounds, which was released in 1966 to much critical acclaim.
In its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, Rolling Stone Magazine rates Pet Sounds second only to the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. If Brian had thrown in the towel after Pet Sounds, his place in musical history would have been assured, but, obsessed with topping Pet Sounds and competing with the Beatles, he began work on his most ambitious project, Smile, with lyricist Van Dyke Parks.
Scheduled for a 1967 release, Brian suddenly abandoned the Smile project amid much acrimony over the musical direction from certain elements within his band. After that, he spiralled out of control, becoming a haunted man secluded in his bedroom who only occasionally made appearances with the Beach Boys. Smile became the most famous album never released, until 2004, when Brian finally delivered it to rave reviews. Thirty-seven years is a long time to wait for an album.
Since the early 2000s, Brian has been touring regularly, performing for new generations of fans. Looking around at the large crowd at Hop Farm watching the main stage it was amazing to see the audience mix. Old, young, even some hipsters sporting uncomfortably long beards and side-parted hair, we had all made the pilgrimage to see him. Teenagers of 15 and 16 were singing along to some of the more obscure Beach Boys songs such as Sail On, Sailor.
Two 19-year-olds, raving about the genius of Pet Sounds and Smile, said they had come solely to see Brian Wilson. It seems that great works — and the artists who make them — transcend generations. It’s enough to make anyone smile.
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