July 31, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, few musicians have soared as high—or fallen as hard—as Brian Wilson. After redefining American music with the Beach Boys and producing Pet Sounds, Wilson began working on a follow-up so ambitious that it became his undoing. The project, SMiLE, pushed the boundaries of sound and pushed Wilson to the edge. For decades, he disappeared from the spotlight, battling mental illness and enduring abuse at the hands of those who claimed to help him. Only with the support of devoted fans and friends did he reclaim his music... and his voice. David Leaf, author of SMiLE: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Brian Wilson, reveals how genius, pain, and redemption shaped one of music’s most complicated legends.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American
people coming to you from the city where the West begins,
Fort Worth, Texas.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
On June eleventh, twenty five, songwriter, producer and Beach Boy
Brian Wilson passed away. He was eighty two. Here to
tell the story of Brian Wilson is David Leaf, close
friend of Brian and the author of Smile, The Rise,
Fall and Resurrection of Brian Wilson. Let's get into the story.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
The Beach Boys were, in a sense an accident. It
wasn't like the Beatles where John had his group and
Paul joined it and then George joined it, and they
spent five years trying to get a record deal and
you know, really honing their ability to play great rock
and roll music and starts to write great music. The
(01:03):
Beach Boys didn't spend five years doing that. It was
more like five months. Brian Wilson was this incredibly gifted kid.
(01:28):
Brian loved music and he loved to sing. From the
time he could basically stand up. He remembers hearing Gershwin's
Rhapsody and Blue when he was very young and that
became sort of his theme song in life.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
He's into rock and roll, you know, George Gersher is
into rock and roll.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
Bop up.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Best rock and roll.
Speaker 6 (01:54):
When you hear back, what do you heard?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Where?
Speaker 7 (01:57):
Do you think that is caliboying?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Girl?
Speaker 6 (02:00):
I have the California being from back himself.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
What is it in your life that makes a piece
like Rhapsody in Blue go into your soul? It's a
beautiful piece of music, but it's not a joyous piece
of music for the most part. I believe it's because
he was an abused child and he needed the beauty
of music. He connected with the beauty of music. Feeling
was what was most important to him. He wanted his
(02:26):
music to express a certain feeling and once he found
that feeling, he could then write a song that would
do that. Anyway, my mom.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Was an organism and dad was a pianist, and then
he would write songs that she would play along with him,
and it was like a husband wife team. But it
was just a really great He was an impression to
melody like his melody ca real prettiant. You know, they
really got to me very deeply in my soul.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
When he's about eight or nine years old, his father
teaches him how to play a little boogie woogie at
the piano. Then he realizes that he has a gift.
His uncle teaches him how to write music on sheep,
and most significantly, he hears two jazz vocal groups, the
High Lows and the Four Freshmen.
Speaker 8 (03:14):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
I immediately took to the sound of their voices, and
I started learning their harmonies.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
And he literally spent maybe a year or more at
the piano with a tape recorder by his side, learning
how to dissect their vocal arrangements so that he could
teach his brothers and then the Beach Boys how to
sing in multi part harmony.
Speaker 9 (03:37):
And there moments when we'd be seeing harmony together that
my father would just fall down crying with joy. Actually
that's a birth of the three brothers sing together.
Speaker 10 (03:50):
It sounds simple, but it wasn't kind of blew my
mind that Brian had that capacity, that ability to hear
all those parts simultaneous and be able to deal him
to the different individuals who could handle that range. That
he was quite gifted in that way.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
It was devotional.
Speaker 11 (04:10):
It's like building a household. It isn't laid foundation.
Speaker 9 (04:14):
He build it. Yeah, Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 12 (04:16):
You know, he took a little bit of Chuck Berry,
a little bit of before Freshmen put him together.
Speaker 11 (04:20):
It's like composing is like architecture a thing with the
own music, I think it is.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah, even if the lyrics would be about surfing in
cars and girls, there was something in the melody and
the vocal arrangement.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Now, I was quite impressed with what I heard.
Speaker 12 (04:33):
I thought the arrangements that they were doing were kind
of sophisticated.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
Now, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
It was the rock and roll Mozart man, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
And so he's a great athlete. He's the quarterback of
his high school football team. He's the center fielder of
his baseball team. He wanted to be Mickey Mantle, as
he Brian said, he couldn't hit the curveball. So music
became his life. When they walked into Capitol Records and
got their deal, Brian was nineteen years old. It's amazing
(04:59):
that in that short period of time sixty two, sixty three,
sixty four, he is churning out I mean, one year,
the Beach Boys put out four albums. I mean it
was just an insane output of music. Within four years,
Brian has the most remarkable year that anybody ever had
(05:20):
in popular music. He composes, arranges, and produces the pet
Sounds album, He composes, arranges, and produces the Good Vibrations single,
and then he composes, arranges, and produces the music of
Smile All in nineteen sixty six. And there was nothing
about him in nineteen sixty two that would let you
know that was going to happen except for one thing.
(05:42):
Brian believed that music was the voice of God. He
believed that he was following in the footsteps of people
like Bach and he wanted to share this spiritual beauty
that he felt with the world. Anyway, He's going on
tour with the Beach Boys, although he's not a happy
(06:04):
tour member of the group. He wants to stay home
and focus on making records. That's his focus now. Gershwin,
the Four Freshmen, the High Lows were big influences before
he started making music, but once he started making records,
it was how do I make a record that's going
to get on the radio? And his biggest influences in
(06:25):
the sixties were Phil Spector and the Beatles.
Speaker 7 (06:29):
Phil Spector, he was everything, the biggest inspiration in my whole.
Speaker 11 (06:34):
What do you think is the greatest popes I'll ever written?
Speaker 6 (06:36):
I'll probably be my Baby by the on ed.
Speaker 7 (06:38):
See, I was in my car with my girlfriend and
we were driving around and all sudden this guy Wig
Martindale a discocke. He goes, all right, here we go
and be my Baby by the run? D you gonna
start playing? So all of a sudden they got into
this part.
Speaker 10 (06:58):
And I wanted.
Speaker 7 (07:02):
I pull over.
Speaker 13 (07:02):
I pull over to the sight.
Speaker 7 (07:04):
Of the street, of the curb, and my gosh, where
in no way? Actually in a way it wasn't really
get your mind on tip and skinning like your mine revamped.
Like once you've heard that record, you're a fan.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
And when we come back more of this remarkable story,
the life story of Brian Wilson here on our American
Stories plea hbib here and I'd like to encourage you
to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts, the
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(07:44):
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Speaker 2 (07:54):
It helps us keep these great American stories.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Coming, and we returned to our American stories and the
story of Brian Wilson with his close friend David leaf
Let's pick up where were the last left off?
Speaker 3 (08:25):
He made a bunch of great records. There's no question
about that.
Speaker 12 (08:37):
Phil Speck was a very, very talented crazy He had
this layered sound thing.
Speaker 13 (08:42):
Most people used the four piece rhythm section. He had
four guitars or six or seven. There were four pianos always,
one upright bass, one Fender bass, fifty people playing percussion
instruments in a very small room.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Because Brian is death in one ear and Phil recorded
in mono. Having all those players together and recording in
mono was perfect for Brian.
Speaker 12 (09:08):
But Brian took that and used it in a delicate way,
so it became beautiful.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Phil's thing was anger.
Speaker 12 (09:15):
Brian was always looking for love.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Brian saw how Phil was doing it, how he was
using these A list musicians, and he started using those
musicians and they could give him sounds in his head
that the Beach Boys weren't capable of playing. He wants
to make music that's going to touch us deeply, and
when he hears Rubber Soul. In December of nineteen sixty
(09:40):
five and as he says, he was smoking pot and
he hears it.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Oh, when I first heard I flipped. All the songs
seemed to be like a collection of folk songs.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
You know.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
He loved the notion that the Beatles have made an
album where everything has the same vibe. What that tells
us is he was listening to the American version, not
the actual well UK release, because it's the American version
that all sounds the same textually.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
I said, I want to make an album like that.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I'm gonna make an album that's better than this. I'm
gonna beat the Beatles. And he sets to work on
pet sounds and to do it, he wanted a lyrical
collaborator who he felt could express emotions level up from
what he had done before, and just on instinct, he
asks a guy named Tony Asher, and they write songs
(10:30):
unlike anything that's ever been released in popular music. I
may not always love you. Good luck there, God only Knows?
And yes, I know there was God Blessed the Child,
but we're talking about an American pop group having a
(10:52):
single called God only Knows.
Speaker 14 (10:54):
We did have this concern about using the word God
and the lyric at that time. It was, you know,
a relative controversial thing, and I think we would have
given it up if we could have come up with
absolutely anything else that would have satisfied us.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
And if you listen to Pet Sounds from start to finish,
I believe what you hear is Brian's emotional autobiography. He
gets as close to the bone as he can his
feelings tore out on this record.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
Something very essence eric with him, like a family or
brother has a secret, but allows you to note in
an art form.
Speaker 12 (11:35):
That's just a basic truth about music is that music
is it's an expression of spirit.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
I never really fully took credit for the songs that
I wrote because I knew that a higher farcess wouldney
when I was writing.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
It touches people deeply. It's about what it's like to
feel alienated from life in the world and wonder what's
going to happen to you beyond the butt in the sun,
you know, surfer girl kind of songs that came almost
(12:06):
naturally to him. Head Sounds is such a big deal
in England that in the year end polls they put
Pet Sounds in revolvers Co number one's Albums of the Year.
When I interviewed Sir Paul McCartney about it. He said,
no one is educated musically till they've heard Pet Sounds.
When I talked to Sir George Martin about it, he
(12:28):
said that Sergeant Pepper was the Beatles' attempt accent on
attempt to equal Pet Sounds.
Speaker 15 (12:36):
I was just like, wait a second, we aren't even
using like nine chords in major sevens yet, and here,
you know, the Beach Boys are using them as if
it's like easy. The Beach Boys were using voicings and
chords that were way beyond what everybody else was doing.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
That's how big a deal Pet Sounds and Brian Wilson are.
In nineteen sixty six, Brian is the single most advanced
artist in pop music who's having hit records. He follows
that with Good Vibrations. And what he does with Good
Vibrations is he creates a brand new way of recording
(13:12):
where he records pieces of music and isn't sure how
he's going to put them together, but he records a
lot of pieces of music and then he stitches them together.
There are alternate versions of Good Vibrations that are wonderful,
but the one that comes out is the result of
months of his warships. She's exactations, but he said, you know,
(13:37):
I'm going to put this one aside because i have
a different idea for that.
Speaker 16 (13:41):
Riyan got the sense and it's happened in an incremental
way than anything was possible.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
He says, our next album is going to be as
advanced from pet Sounds as Pet Sounds was from summer
days and summer nights. This is how confident he is
as an artist. So he embarks on this adventure, pulled
dumb angel it for and eventually Smiled. The initial notion
of Smile is it's going to be an album that
(14:09):
tells the story. It's going to be an American album,
which is very important because the heat of the British invasion,
if you will. And the idea is it's going to
be the story of a bicycle rider flying in the
sky from Plymouth Rock to Hawaii, looking down on America
and telling an American story. That's the first idea. Then
(14:30):
Brian starts to get really spiritual and he says, I
want this album to be a teenage symphony to God.
And he had a lyrical partner who could write words
(14:51):
that equals the kind of inscrewability, if you will, of
the music.
Speaker 16 (14:55):
Oh my god.
Speaker 8 (14:59):
I wrote with that Dyke Parks more than anyone else.
He's my favorite collaborative.
Speaker 12 (15:03):
Van Dyke was working on Birds Records, and Vandyke was
a great esoteric and still is.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
But he and Van Dyke Parks go to work. They
are bursting with creativity because there are no rules as
to the kind of songs Brian is going to write
with Van Dyke. There is indeed a sandbox in Brian
Wilson's living room into which his grand piano is placed,
and he and Van Dyke Parks sit at the piano
and write songs. Everything had to be perfect. It could
(15:32):
be perfection in an eight bar piece or just an
instrumental sound. Don Randy tells a wonderful story of literally
hours and hours just trying to get this one transitional note,
and he got so tired that he put a pillow
on the base pedal of the organ that he was
playing on the session and lay down on the note. Finally,
(15:55):
they woke them up a half hour later and say, okay,
Brian got what he wanted. I mean, there was nothing
short of an obsessive perfectionism in what he was doing.
That was beyond the understanding of everybody. What amaze the
musicians who they thought that, well, that milk doesn't sound right.
They did not understand that he could hear the complete
record in his head and that when he combined what
(16:18):
they were playing with the vocals, it would make perfect sense.
Brian was hearing these incredibly complex arrangements in his head.
And what Brian did that is inimitable is he had
the ability to take two or three or four instruments
together and combine them into another sound that was absolutely unique.
(16:42):
I mean, he was doing stuff that just wasn't anywhere else.
They were going out of their minds. That what the
heck is that? And Danny Hutton tells a great story.
He says, people were convinced that Brian had some magic
box that only he had access to, that he could
put his sounds through it. Again, these recordings done, which
was of course absurd. The magic box was in his
(17:04):
head and so there's no way to explain it. Even
Brian today couldn't explain it. Are there drugs? Well, I
had crazy ideas.
Speaker 8 (17:13):
I was smoking hashish and we were laying on the
floor singing from laying on the floor and put the
microphones down on our heads doing crazy things, and we
got into a very strange bag. We came across a
tape it's not called fire. I had the musicians wearing
fire helmets. I had a guy bring in a bucket
for burning wood.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
The project collapsed.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
And when we come back, we'll continue with the story
of his teenage Symphony to God, his grand art project
here on our American stories. And we returned to our
(18:09):
American stories and the story of Brian Wilson with David Leef.
When we last left off, Brian embarked on his most
experimental journey yet, the Smile album, which created a new
genre art rock. But the project would collapse dramatically. Let's
return to the story.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Did he overuse drugs during the Smile sessions? Al Jardine
tells a story of getting in the car with Brian
at the William Morris Agency and Brian driving in circles
twenty times while they were having a conversation. Brian's documentarian
at the time, Michael Vossi, says he thinks drugs is
the biggest red herring in the Smile story. My sense
(18:54):
is that Brian's drug use increased in direct proportion to
the resistance he was getting from the record company, his father,
and within the group to the music that he had
written with Van Dyke Clarks and recorded the backing tracks,
and when it came time to do the vocals, Brian
(19:14):
did not get one hundred percent support.
Speaker 10 (19:17):
I like Vandyke, Parks is a nice person. But I
asked him once, said Vandyke, what does that lyric mean?
Speaker 16 (19:24):
Columnated ruins?
Speaker 7 (19:31):
I was in a position of defending my lyrics that
what went from Dingwoody Pearl hang ten?
Speaker 6 (19:36):
I mean, I didn't know that language to like columnated ruins?
Speaker 7 (19:40):
Domino Mike Love said to me one day, he said,
explain this.
Speaker 10 (19:44):
He says, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
I have a clue. I said, exactly.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
The vocals the Beach Boys recorded for the Smile sessions
are the most beautiful and glorious vocals anyone could ever
have done. But it was not done with joy. It
was done with what the heck is this? And so Brian,
who was extremely sensitive, begins to feel that this project
(20:12):
isn't going well. He told me he says, I figured
I needed a year to finish it, and no one
would give me a year, meaning the record company. The
Beach Boys are putting out four albums a year, three
albums in a year, all of a sudden, the next
album is going to be a year later. The record
company didn't deal with that. They dealt with sales quotas,
and they'd made it clear to him that they were
(20:34):
going to do whatever they needed to do to make
their sales quotas. So Brian is an artist in an
industry that doesn't yet recognize that pop groups are artists.
America was changing the sequence of every single Beatles album
up until Sargent Pepper, and Brian finds himself of making
what come to be called art rock. And is art
(20:55):
rock going to sell? Brian doesn't know, But having sold
so many millions of records, Brian had earned the right
to do this experiment, and the people who were in
his inner circle were going along with this experiment. With
the exception of people who were in his business circle,
if you will, the record company, his father, and the
(21:16):
group itself. He's being torn to pieces. Does that trigger
self medicating drug use? Today, we would probably say that
at the time, Brian was probably using drugs as an
escape from what he was encountering. So Brian decides to
shelf smile. Nobody else decided to shelf smile. He felt
(21:37):
he needed to shelter it to save the Beach Boys,
which is a fascinating thing. He wasn't capable of saying,
you're either going to do this and give me all
the time I need or I'm done with the group.
He wasn't capable of that kind of you know, he
didn't have that kind of personal strength, which I think
(21:57):
goes back to the beatings he received as a child, emotional,
physical and verbal.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
He go, get there and kick, but get it right.
Number one song, show me how good you are? You
like that? I say, all right, dad, all right, and
I go and I would.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Do it another listen syncopated a little. What are the words?
You put me down?
Speaker 5 (22:14):
But not doing?
Speaker 8 (22:16):
Show him how to do it? Just once, let me
say it, Let me say it, say it.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Since you put me down, said you put me down?
To Now, that doesn't mean he's going to stop making
incredible music, because shortly after he does that, because he's
looking for cooperation, he's looking for one hundred percent support.
(22:40):
He starts recording with his new group he named Redwood,
who have a different style than the Beach Boys, but
he has ideas of what to do with them, and
he takes them into the studio and he records two songs,
one called Darlin and one called Time to Get Alone.
But what happens is this the Beach Boys show up
at the studio, and, as Chuck Negron described in his biography,
(23:04):
because these three guys after this episode ends, they leave
Brian's brother records and they go on to become Three
Dog Mike, the most successful pop vocal group of the
next six years. So Brian's instinct was right. This was
going to be the sound that was gonna make hit records. However,
the Beach Boys corner him in the studio, as Chuck describes,
(23:24):
like he's a little child. He's dodging them and trying
to get away, and essentially what they do is they say,
if you're going to work, you're gonna work with us,
or you're gonna work with nobody. He kind of does both.
He does some work with the Beach Boys. Eventually that
work drops off and it goes from full time to
part time to no time. He begins this terribly difficult
(23:49):
and sad journey for the next few decades in which
a psychologist is engaged to essentially force Brian to work
with the group. Then he's hospitalized and he's let out
of the hospital. He ballooned up to well over three
hundred and twenty pounds. They rehire this psychologist to save
his life, and I believe this man did save his life,
(24:11):
but he also was most interested in exploiting Brian. They
became business partners. He decided he was going to be
Brian's lyricist, and so there's this terrible circumstance that Brian
describes as being nine years in prison. So there's a
(24:32):
couple of things that happen. It all centers on Smile
because tapes of the original Smile sessions start to leak out.
There's bootlegs, and people are making their own versions of Smile,
DIY Smile and independent hip. Young artists are listening to
(24:53):
this music and going, what the heck is this? This
is not the Beach Boys, this is not I get
around and help me Randa. This is something that's really
out there and they love it. And most prominent among
the indie groups that love this music is a group
called The Wonderments, a guy named Darien Sahanaja. It seems
(25:24):
like it's almost inevitable and faded to be the way
it all plays out. Because when he's in high school,
he becomes a Beach Boys fan, and he too becomes
obsessed with Smile. And then he meets a guy named
Nick Ulusko who's obsessed with smile, and they form a
band with another guy obsessed with Smile, and they start
(25:46):
gigging around La and in nineteen ninety four they play
a concert. It's a tribute concert to Brian, but Brian
shows up and plays a few songs. But when Brian's backstage,
he hears the Wonderman's eye on stage performing. He's like,
who the heck are these guys? The Wonderman's become his
(26:06):
backing band, and suddenly Brian is surrounded by the unconditional
love of a new generation of musicians.
Speaker 16 (26:14):
Some people they're very territorial about what phase of Brian
Wilson is the best, and a lot of that I
think I share with him, the love of Brian Wilson
the complete artist, Like from the beginning from surfing to
you know, our car Club. I mean, all that stuff
is relevant. I mean pet Sounds is great, yeah, undo itself,
but to me, it's they're even great a music, that's
(26:36):
what makes it great, or I'm bugged at my old man,
you know, in the parking.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Lot, and you've been listening to David Leaf tell the
story of Brian Wilson and particularly the Smile Session, one
of the most famous sessions, if not the most famous
(27:01):
session of Wilson's life and career. The record labels of
the day just couldn't wrap their heads around folks who
sold lots of records also being artists. This wasn't just
a commodity selling records. It was an artistic pursuit.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
When we come.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Back the rest of the story of the Smile Sessions
and Brian Wilson's story here on our American stories, and
we returned to our American stories and the story of
(27:40):
the rise, fall, and redemption of Brian Wilson.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Let's continue with the story.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
There are a bunch of steps that lead to Smile
actually happening in two thousand and four, at the end
of two thousand words at Scott Bennett's house, one of
the band members who was having a Christmas party, and
Brian's sitting on the piano bench with his back to
the piano, with my late wife Eva, So this amazing
(28:07):
thing happens. He says to Eva, what do you want
for Christmas? And she says for you to play heroes
and villains and he goes okay, and he turns around
and plays heroes and villains. Now, as everybody in Brian's
band would tell you you couldn't talk to Brian about
(28:28):
Smile music. He would say, it reminds me of a
bad time in my life. I don't want to talk
about it. It's inappropriate music. And all of a sudden,
they are, as the British would say, gobsmacked, as Brian
is playing heroes and Villains right in front of them. Anyway,
he now sees that the world's not going to come
to an end if he performs it, if he plays it,
if it's out in the world, he no longer has
(28:48):
to fear it. Well, what's next, Glenn Max, who runs
the Royal Festival Hall, says, well, the only way to
follow pet Sounds is with Smile. And he's talking with
guys in the band. He's talking with Brian's wife, and
Brian's wife Melinda says to Brian, you know the fans
on there was a page, a fan page where fans
(29:10):
were running, hey, Brian, what are you going to do Smile?
And Willy says, you know, Brian, the fans are really
wanting to hear Smile. And Brian thinks about it, and
he agrees and announces in May of two thousand and
three that he is going to go to England and
perform Brian Wilson presents Smile and we are all just
stunned by this. And for the next few months, Brian
(29:35):
wants nothing to do with Smile. He doesn't want to
talk about it, he doesn't want to think about it.
He is just terrified of it. How do I do this?
And fortunately there's a guy in his band, he aforementioned
Darien Sahanaja, who is tasked with the notion of how
do we play this music live in sequence in a
(29:58):
way that makes sense.
Speaker 16 (30:00):
I remember when the announcement came down that we were
going to do Smile. I didn't want to do it.
He was like, are you kidding me? We're going to
completely you know.
Speaker 7 (30:08):
Ruin it.
Speaker 16 (30:08):
Well, the mis shatter, the mistake, yeah, the mystique of
it all, you know, like a holy Grail sorts.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
You'll touch it.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
By the end of two thousand and three they've done that.
January two thousand and four, rehearsals start. Rehearsals are so
traumatizing to Brian that on the second day of rehearsal,
in the middle of rehearsal, he stands up and he says,
I got to go. He goes downstairs, gets in his
car and drives himself to the emergency room at Saint
(30:36):
John's Hospital in Santa Monica. That's how scared he is
of what's happening. But given the choice of whether to
continue or to say, you know what, I'm not going
to do it, he says, no, I have to do this.
And this is really the hero's journey we're talking about.
This is a guy who, for thirty seven years, has
(30:59):
not done this music live or finished it in the
studio or in every interview he's ever done when he's
asked about it, wanted to talk about it. He's now
going to present it to the world, and with the
unconditional love of his friends, the band, everybody around him,
(31:19):
they finally put it together. And sure enough, on February twentieth,
two thousand and four, he confidently walks up the steps
of the Royal Festival Hall. He bows right, he bows left.
He sits down on his keyboard and they play. Brian
Wilson presents Smile. Up until the moment he walked up
(32:05):
the steps, everybody wondered if he was actually going to
do it. We didn't know what was going to happen,
so everybody was was scared.
Speaker 6 (32:14):
I was about two inches away from not going to
that stage.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
I was really you know.
Speaker 6 (32:19):
I went on stage, but I really didn't want to.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
I really didn't.
Speaker 6 (32:22):
I was afraid I was gonna get nervous and blow it.
You know, come I'm shooting and mess out, and I
was almost ready to vomit. I throw up. I was
so scared. I'm taking dog and I'm going.
Speaker 12 (32:37):
For long.
Speaker 16 (32:41):
Years ago.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Brian, however, even though he was fearful, he knew how
great the music was, and he had the courage to
face the audience and face the world. And when he
started performing.
Speaker 6 (33:03):
It, well, when we first got after we hit our
first note, I relaxed, and then I got a ten
minute standing ovation, which has made made it all worthless.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
It was instantaneous, almost you can see his nervousness, but
when it's finished, it's as if the demons have flown
out of his body. How did playing Smile live chase
the demons away?
Speaker 6 (33:35):
It helped to chase me away because it was such
a powerful piece of music that I think the I
had auditory hallucinations, you know, for like years and years,
and then it's gone down to a minimum now. The
auditoryluteners were very proud of it, and I think it
really got to psyched him out.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
And as he says, this was the most cathartic experience
of my life. What more can one ask for?
Speaker 6 (33:57):
This represents an accomplishment of mine that I hadn't ever
done in my life before.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
We actually did this.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Now is there anything negative associated with Smile anymore?
Speaker 6 (34:06):
Only the re memory of the bad drugs we took
when we were making it. That's the only bad memory.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
I think it's the ultimate redemption story and history, if
you will. There's a great quote from the pop music
writer Randy Lewis. I realized that Mozart was born, wrote
all of his music, and died in less time than
it took for Brian to finish Smile. So we have
a piece of music that has been on the shelf,
(34:35):
if you will, for decades, and all that time Brian
just can't deal with it. Now, what makes it redemptive?
This man who was scared of everything because of the
fear instilled in him by his father, overcame all of
his fears of what the music might do, whether the
(34:55):
audiences would like it, whether it was appropriate or inappropriate
music to released into the world. He overcame all of
these fears. Whether you know he was sixty two years old.
Could he do this at sixty two something he couldn't
finish at twenty four. So we're talking about this incredible
expanse of time, as his dear friend David Anderley said,
(35:16):
the longest gestation period in history. So he's able to
overcome all of this fear and courageously walk up the
steps and present this music to the world. The world
embraces it. They love it. It's the biggest selling album,
not just of his solo career, but the biggest selling
album of his life since pet Sounds. It gets him
(35:39):
his first Grammy award. And more importantly than any of
this is this is the story of triumph of the
human spirit. Because what happens is what we all dreamed
of was see if Brian ever finished Smile, it would
free him to embrace his musical ambitions again, and sure enough,
a few years later after Smile, he wrote a new
(36:01):
rock opera Cole that Lucky old Son, and to an
audience who had never heard a note of it, he
premiered it in London to standing ovations. Now what kind
of courage does it take to do that?
Speaker 9 (36:12):
Well?
Speaker 3 (36:12):
It takes the kind of courage that a hero can
only have when they've gone on this journey. He even finished,
Now how much nerve does this take? He finished two
unfinished Gershwin songs that the Gershwin estate gave him, so
Smile redeems him in every way. When he returns to
la from the first Smile tour, he calls me. He says, David,
(36:34):
you have to come over tomorrow. We have to do
an interview. Now. I don't think there was ever a
point in Brian Wilson's life where he said, I want
to do an interview. What do you want to talk about?
He says, David, You're not going to believe this. This
Smile tour got better and better and better every single night,
and for the first time in my career, I want
to go back on the road right away, and I
(36:55):
can't believe what I'm hearing. I said, Brian, this is wonderful.
What got better? He says, the playing got better, the
audiences got better, everything about Smile got better. I said,
when you go out back on tour, you're going to
change this is no, I'm not going to change a note.
It's perfect as it is. He says, In fact, we're
going to go into the studio and record it. And
I said, Brian, on a scale of one to ten,
how would you compare Pet Sounds to Smile? He says, well,
(37:19):
on a scale of one to ten, I would give
Pet Sounds a four and Smile at ten. Now I'm
in disbelief. One of the greatest albums of all times.
He's saying, Smile is more than twice as good as that.
I said, well, what's better? And it looks at me
like I'm asking the stupidest question imaginable, And he says everything, David.
The music's better, the songs are better, the playing's better,
(37:39):
the singing's better, everything about it is better. This is
a different guy. His performing Smile to audience that embraced it,
that audiences that loved it changed him. And he entered
what was the happiest period of his adult life.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
The redemption story of Brian Wilson here an hour. American
Stories
Speaker 11 (38:05):
Adds
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American
people coming to you from the city where the West begins,
Fort Worth, Texas.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
On June eleventh, twenty five, songwriter, producer and Beach Boy
Brian Wilson passed away. He was eighty two. Here to
tell the story of Brian Wilson is David Leaf, close
friend of Brian and the author of Smile, The Rise,
Fall and Resurrection of Brian Wilson. Let's get into the story.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
The Beach Boys were, in a sense an accident. It
wasn't like the Beatles where John had his group and
Paul joined it and then George joined it, and they
spent five years trying to get a record deal and
you know, really honing their ability to play great rock
and roll music and starts to write great music. The
(01:03):
Beach Boys didn't spend five years doing that. It was
more like five months. Brian Wilson was this incredibly gifted kid.
(01:28):
Brian loved music and he loved to sing. From the
time he could basically stand up. He remembers hearing Gershwin's
Rhapsody and Blue when he was very young and that
became sort of his theme song in life.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
He's into rock and roll, you know, George Gersher is
into rock and roll.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
Bop up.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Best rock and roll.
Speaker 6 (01:54):
When you hear back, what do you heard?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Where?
Speaker 7 (01:57):
Do you think that is caliboying?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Girl?
Speaker 6 (02:00):
I have the California being from back himself.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
What is it in your life that makes a piece
like Rhapsody in Blue go into your soul? It's a
beautiful piece of music, but it's not a joyous piece
of music for the most part. I believe it's because
he was an abused child and he needed the beauty
of music. He connected with the beauty of music. Feeling
was what was most important to him. He wanted his
(02:26):
music to express a certain feeling and once he found
that feeling, he could then write a song that would
do that. Anyway, my mom.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Was an organism and dad was a pianist, and then
he would write songs that she would play along with him,
and it was like a husband wife team. But it
was just a really great He was an impression to
melody like his melody ca real prettiant. You know, they
really got to me very deeply in my soul.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
When he's about eight or nine years old, his father
teaches him how to play a little boogie woogie at
the piano. Then he realizes that he has a gift.
His uncle teaches him how to write music on sheep,
and most significantly, he hears two jazz vocal groups, the
High Lows and the Four Freshmen.
Speaker 8 (03:14):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
I immediately took to the sound of their voices, and
I started learning their harmonies.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
And he literally spent maybe a year or more at
the piano with a tape recorder by his side, learning
how to dissect their vocal arrangements so that he could
teach his brothers and then the Beach Boys how to
sing in multi part harmony.
Speaker 9 (03:37):
And there moments when we'd be seeing harmony together that
my father would just fall down crying with joy. Actually
that's a birth of the three brothers sing together.
Speaker 10 (03:50):
It sounds simple, but it wasn't kind of blew my
mind that Brian had that capacity, that ability to hear
all those parts simultaneous and be able to deal him
to the different individuals who could handle that range. That
he was quite gifted in that way.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
It was devotional.
Speaker 11 (04:10):
It's like building a household. It isn't laid foundation.
Speaker 9 (04:14):
He build it. Yeah, Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 12 (04:16):
You know, he took a little bit of Chuck Berry,
a little bit of before Freshmen put him together.
Speaker 11 (04:20):
It's like composing is like architecture a thing with the
own music, I think it is.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah, even if the lyrics would be about surfing in
cars and girls, there was something in the melody and
the vocal arrangement.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Now, I was quite impressed with what I heard.
Speaker 12 (04:33):
I thought the arrangements that they were doing were kind
of sophisticated.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
Now, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
It was the rock and roll Mozart man, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
And so he's a great athlete. He's the quarterback of
his high school football team. He's the center fielder of
his baseball team. He wanted to be Mickey Mantle, as
he Brian said, he couldn't hit the curveball. So music
became his life. When they walked into Capitol Records and
got their deal, Brian was nineteen years old. It's amazing
(04:59):
that in that short period of time sixty two, sixty three,
sixty four, he is churning out I mean, one year,
the Beach Boys put out four albums. I mean it
was just an insane output of music. Within four years,
Brian has the most remarkable year that anybody ever had
(05:20):
in popular music. He composes, arranges, and produces the pet
Sounds album, He composes, arranges, and produces the Good Vibrations single,
and then he composes, arranges, and produces the music of
Smile All in nineteen sixty six. And there was nothing
about him in nineteen sixty two that would let you
know that was going to happen except for one thing.
(05:42):
Brian believed that music was the voice of God. He
believed that he was following in the footsteps of people
like Bach and he wanted to share this spiritual beauty
that he felt with the world. Anyway, He's going on
tour with the Beach Boys, although he's not a happy
(06:04):
tour member of the group. He wants to stay home
and focus on making records. That's his focus now. Gershwin,
the Four Freshmen, the High Lows were big influences before
he started making music, but once he started making records,
it was how do I make a record that's going
to get on the radio? And his biggest influences in
(06:25):
the sixties were Phil Spector and the Beatles.
Speaker 7 (06:29):
Phil Spector, he was everything, the biggest inspiration in my whole.
Speaker 11 (06:34):
What do you think is the greatest popes I'll ever written?
Speaker 6 (06:36):
I'll probably be my Baby by the on ed.
Speaker 7 (06:38):
See, I was in my car with my girlfriend and
we were driving around and all sudden this guy Wig
Martindale a discocke. He goes, all right, here we go
and be my Baby by the run? D you gonna
start playing? So all of a sudden they got into
this part.
Speaker 10 (06:58):
And I wanted.
Speaker 7 (07:02):
I pull over.
Speaker 13 (07:02):
I pull over to the sight.
Speaker 7 (07:04):
Of the street, of the curb, and my gosh, where
in no way? Actually in a way it wasn't really
get your mind on tip and skinning like your mine revamped.
Like once you've heard that record, you're a fan.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
And when we come back more of this remarkable story,
the life story of Brian Wilson here on our American
Stories plea hbib here and I'd like to encourage you
to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts, the
iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get our podcasts. Any
(07:44):
story you missed or want to hear again can be
found there daily again. Please subscribe to the Our American
Stories podcast anywhere you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It helps us keep these great American stories.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Coming, and we returned to our American stories and the
story of Brian Wilson with his close friend David leaf
Let's pick up where were the last left off?
Speaker 3 (08:25):
He made a bunch of great records. There's no question
about that.
Speaker 12 (08:37):
Phil Speck was a very, very talented crazy He had
this layered sound thing.
Speaker 13 (08:42):
Most people used the four piece rhythm section. He had
four guitars or six or seven. There were four pianos always,
one upright bass, one Fender bass, fifty people playing percussion
instruments in a very small room.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Because Brian is death in one ear and Phil recorded
in mono. Having all those players together and recording in
mono was perfect for Brian.
Speaker 12 (09:08):
But Brian took that and used it in a delicate way,
so it became beautiful.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Phil's thing was anger.
Speaker 12 (09:15):
Brian was always looking for love.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Brian saw how Phil was doing it, how he was
using these A list musicians, and he started using those
musicians and they could give him sounds in his head
that the Beach Boys weren't capable of playing. He wants
to make music that's going to touch us deeply, and
when he hears Rubber Soul. In December of nineteen sixty
(09:40):
five and as he says, he was smoking pot and
he hears it.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Oh, when I first heard I flipped. All the songs
seemed to be like a collection of folk songs.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
You know.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
He loved the notion that the Beatles have made an
album where everything has the same vibe. What that tells
us is he was listening to the American version, not
the actual well UK release, because it's the American version
that all sounds the same textually.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
I said, I want to make an album like that.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I'm gonna make an album that's better than this. I'm
gonna beat the Beatles. And he sets to work on
pet sounds and to do it, he wanted a lyrical
collaborator who he felt could express emotions level up from
what he had done before, and just on instinct, he
asks a guy named Tony Asher, and they write songs
(10:30):
unlike anything that's ever been released in popular music. I
may not always love you. Good luck there, God only Knows?
And yes, I know there was God Blessed the Child,
but we're talking about an American pop group having a
(10:52):
single called God only Knows.
Speaker 14 (10:54):
We did have this concern about using the word God
and the lyric at that time. It was, you know,
a relative controversial thing, and I think we would have
given it up if we could have come up with
absolutely anything else that would have satisfied us.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
And if you listen to Pet Sounds from start to finish,
I believe what you hear is Brian's emotional autobiography. He
gets as close to the bone as he can his
feelings tore out on this record.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
Something very essence eric with him, like a family or
brother has a secret, but allows you to note in
an art form.
Speaker 12 (11:35):
That's just a basic truth about music is that music
is it's an expression of spirit.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
I never really fully took credit for the songs that
I wrote because I knew that a higher farcess wouldney
when I was writing.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
It touches people deeply. It's about what it's like to
feel alienated from life in the world and wonder what's
going to happen to you beyond the butt in the sun,
you know, surfer girl kind of songs that came almost
(12:06):
naturally to him. Head Sounds is such a big deal
in England that in the year end polls they put
Pet Sounds in revolvers Co number one's Albums of the Year.
When I interviewed Sir Paul McCartney about it. He said,
no one is educated musically till they've heard Pet Sounds.
When I talked to Sir George Martin about it, he
(12:28):
said that Sergeant Pepper was the Beatles' attempt accent on
attempt to equal Pet Sounds.
Speaker 15 (12:36):
I was just like, wait a second, we aren't even
using like nine chords in major sevens yet, and here,
you know, the Beach Boys are using them as if
it's like easy. The Beach Boys were using voicings and
chords that were way beyond what everybody else was doing.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
That's how big a deal Pet Sounds and Brian Wilson are.
In nineteen sixty six, Brian is the single most advanced
artist in pop music who's having hit records. He follows
that with Good Vibrations. And what he does with Good
Vibrations is he creates a brand new way of recording
(13:12):
where he records pieces of music and isn't sure how
he's going to put them together, but he records a
lot of pieces of music and then he stitches them together.
There are alternate versions of Good Vibrations that are wonderful,
but the one that comes out is the result of
months of his warships. She's exactations, but he said, you know,
(13:37):
I'm going to put this one aside because i have
a different idea for that.
Speaker 16 (13:41):
Riyan got the sense and it's happened in an incremental
way than anything was possible.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
He says, our next album is going to be as
advanced from pet Sounds as Pet Sounds was from summer
days and summer nights. This is how confident he is
as an artist. So he embarks on this adventure, pulled
dumb angel it for and eventually Smiled. The initial notion
of Smile is it's going to be an album that
(14:09):
tells the story. It's going to be an American album,
which is very important because the heat of the British invasion,
if you will. And the idea is it's going to
be the story of a bicycle rider flying in the
sky from Plymouth Rock to Hawaii, looking down on America
and telling an American story. That's the first idea. Then
(14:30):
Brian starts to get really spiritual and he says, I
want this album to be a teenage symphony to God.
And he had a lyrical partner who could write words
(14:51):
that equals the kind of inscrewability, if you will, of
the music.
Speaker 16 (14:55):
Oh my god.
Speaker 8 (14:59):
I wrote with that Dyke Parks more than anyone else.
He's my favorite collaborative.
Speaker 12 (15:03):
Van Dyke was working on Birds Records, and Vandyke was
a great esoteric and still is.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
But he and Van Dyke Parks go to work. They
are bursting with creativity because there are no rules as
to the kind of songs Brian is going to write
with Van Dyke. There is indeed a sandbox in Brian
Wilson's living room into which his grand piano is placed,
and he and Van Dyke Parks sit at the piano
and write songs. Everything had to be perfect. It could
(15:32):
be perfection in an eight bar piece or just an
instrumental sound. Don Randy tells a wonderful story of literally
hours and hours just trying to get this one transitional note,
and he got so tired that he put a pillow
on the base pedal of the organ that he was
playing on the session and lay down on the note. Finally,
(15:55):
they woke them up a half hour later and say, okay,
Brian got what he wanted. I mean, there was nothing
short of an obsessive perfectionism in what he was doing.
That was beyond the understanding of everybody. What amaze the
musicians who they thought that, well, that milk doesn't sound right.
They did not understand that he could hear the complete
record in his head and that when he combined what
(16:18):
they were playing with the vocals, it would make perfect sense.
Brian was hearing these incredibly complex arrangements in his head.
And what Brian did that is inimitable is he had
the ability to take two or three or four instruments
together and combine them into another sound that was absolutely unique.
(16:42):
I mean, he was doing stuff that just wasn't anywhere else.
They were going out of their minds. That what the
heck is that? And Danny Hutton tells a great story.
He says, people were convinced that Brian had some magic
box that only he had access to, that he could
put his sounds through it. Again, these recordings done, which
was of course absurd. The magic box was in his
(17:04):
head and so there's no way to explain it. Even
Brian today couldn't explain it. Are there drugs? Well, I
had crazy ideas.
Speaker 8 (17:13):
I was smoking hashish and we were laying on the
floor singing from laying on the floor and put the
microphones down on our heads doing crazy things, and we
got into a very strange bag. We came across a
tape it's not called fire. I had the musicians wearing
fire helmets. I had a guy bring in a bucket
for burning wood.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
The project collapsed.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
And when we come back, we'll continue with the story
of his teenage Symphony to God, his grand art project
here on our American stories. And we returned to our
(18:09):
American stories and the story of Brian Wilson with David Leef.
When we last left off, Brian embarked on his most
experimental journey yet, the Smile album, which created a new
genre art rock. But the project would collapse dramatically. Let's
return to the story.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Did he overuse drugs during the Smile sessions? Al Jardine
tells a story of getting in the car with Brian
at the William Morris Agency and Brian driving in circles
twenty times while they were having a conversation. Brian's documentarian
at the time, Michael Vossi, says he thinks drugs is
the biggest red herring in the Smile story. My sense
(18:54):
is that Brian's drug use increased in direct proportion to
the resistance he was getting from the record company, his father,
and within the group to the music that he had
written with Van Dyke Clarks and recorded the backing tracks,
and when it came time to do the vocals, Brian
(19:14):
did not get one hundred percent support.
Speaker 10 (19:17):
I like Vandyke, Parks is a nice person. But I
asked him once, said Vandyke, what does that lyric mean?
Speaker 16 (19:24):
Columnated ruins?
Speaker 7 (19:31):
I was in a position of defending my lyrics that
what went from Dingwoody Pearl hang ten?
Speaker 6 (19:36):
I mean, I didn't know that language to like columnated ruins?
Speaker 7 (19:40):
Domino Mike Love said to me one day, he said,
explain this.
Speaker 10 (19:44):
He says, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
I have a clue. I said, exactly.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
The vocals the Beach Boys recorded for the Smile sessions
are the most beautiful and glorious vocals anyone could ever
have done. But it was not done with joy. It
was done with what the heck is this? And so Brian,
who was extremely sensitive, begins to feel that this project
(20:12):
isn't going well. He told me he says, I figured
I needed a year to finish it, and no one
would give me a year, meaning the record company. The
Beach Boys are putting out four albums a year, three
albums in a year, all of a sudden, the next
album is going to be a year later. The record
company didn't deal with that. They dealt with sales quotas,
and they'd made it clear to him that they were
(20:34):
going to do whatever they needed to do to make
their sales quotas. So Brian is an artist in an
industry that doesn't yet recognize that pop groups are artists.
America was changing the sequence of every single Beatles album
up until Sargent Pepper, and Brian finds himself of making
what come to be called art rock. And is art
(20:55):
rock going to sell? Brian doesn't know, But having sold
so many millions of records, Brian had earned the right
to do this experiment, and the people who were in
his inner circle were going along with this experiment. With
the exception of people who were in his business circle,
if you will, the record company, his father, and the
(21:16):
group itself. He's being torn to pieces. Does that trigger
self medicating drug use? Today, we would probably say that
at the time, Brian was probably using drugs as an
escape from what he was encountering. So Brian decides to
shelf smile. Nobody else decided to shelf smile. He felt
(21:37):
he needed to shelter it to save the Beach Boys,
which is a fascinating thing. He wasn't capable of saying,
you're either going to do this and give me all
the time I need or I'm done with the group.
He wasn't capable of that kind of you know, he
didn't have that kind of personal strength, which I think
(21:57):
goes back to the beatings he received as a child, emotional,
physical and verbal.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
He go, get there and kick, but get it right.
Number one song, show me how good you are? You
like that? I say, all right, dad, all right, and
I go and I would.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Do it another listen syncopated a little. What are the words?
You put me down?
Speaker 5 (22:14):
But not doing?
Speaker 8 (22:16):
Show him how to do it? Just once, let me
say it, Let me say it, say it.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Since you put me down, said you put me down?
To Now, that doesn't mean he's going to stop making
incredible music, because shortly after he does that, because he's
looking for cooperation, he's looking for one hundred percent support.
(22:40):
He starts recording with his new group he named Redwood,
who have a different style than the Beach Boys, but
he has ideas of what to do with them, and
he takes them into the studio and he records two songs,
one called Darlin and one called Time to Get Alone.
But what happens is this the Beach Boys show up
at the studio, and, as Chuck Negron described in his biography,
(23:04):
because these three guys after this episode ends, they leave
Brian's brother records and they go on to become Three
Dog Mike, the most successful pop vocal group of the
next six years. So Brian's instinct was right. This was
going to be the sound that was gonna make hit records. However,
the Beach Boys corner him in the studio, as Chuck describes,
(23:24):
like he's a little child. He's dodging them and trying
to get away, and essentially what they do is they say,
if you're going to work, you're gonna work with us,
or you're gonna work with nobody. He kind of does both.
He does some work with the Beach Boys. Eventually that
work drops off and it goes from full time to
part time to no time. He begins this terribly difficult
(23:49):
and sad journey for the next few decades in which
a psychologist is engaged to essentially force Brian to work
with the group. Then he's hospitalized and he's let out
of the hospital. He ballooned up to well over three
hundred and twenty pounds. They rehire this psychologist to save
his life, and I believe this man did save his life,
(24:11):
but he also was most interested in exploiting Brian. They
became business partners. He decided he was going to be
Brian's lyricist, and so there's this terrible circumstance that Brian
describes as being nine years in prison. So there's a
(24:32):
couple of things that happen. It all centers on Smile
because tapes of the original Smile sessions start to leak out.
There's bootlegs, and people are making their own versions of Smile,
DIY Smile and independent hip. Young artists are listening to
(24:53):
this music and going, what the heck is this? This
is not the Beach Boys, this is not I get
around and help me Randa. This is something that's really
out there and they love it. And most prominent among
the indie groups that love this music is a group
called The Wonderments, a guy named Darien Sahanaja. It seems
(25:24):
like it's almost inevitable and faded to be the way
it all plays out. Because when he's in high school,
he becomes a Beach Boys fan, and he too becomes
obsessed with Smile. And then he meets a guy named
Nick Ulusko who's obsessed with smile, and they form a
band with another guy obsessed with Smile, and they start
(25:46):
gigging around La and in nineteen ninety four they play
a concert. It's a tribute concert to Brian, but Brian
shows up and plays a few songs. But when Brian's backstage,
he hears the Wonderman's eye on stage performing. He's like,
who the heck are these guys? The Wonderman's become his
(26:06):
backing band, and suddenly Brian is surrounded by the unconditional
love of a new generation of musicians.
Speaker 16 (26:14):
Some people they're very territorial about what phase of Brian
Wilson is the best, and a lot of that I
think I share with him, the love of Brian Wilson
the complete artist, Like from the beginning from surfing to
you know, our car Club. I mean, all that stuff
is relevant. I mean pet Sounds is great, yeah, undo itself,
but to me, it's they're even great a music, that's
(26:36):
what makes it great, or I'm bugged at my old man,
you know, in the parking.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Lot, and you've been listening to David Leaf tell the
story of Brian Wilson and particularly the Smile Session, one
of the most famous sessions, if not the most famous
(27:01):
session of Wilson's life and career. The record labels of
the day just couldn't wrap their heads around folks who
sold lots of records also being artists. This wasn't just
a commodity selling records. It was an artistic pursuit.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
When we come.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Back the rest of the story of the Smile Sessions
and Brian Wilson's story here on our American stories, and
we returned to our American stories and the story of
(27:40):
the rise, fall, and redemption of Brian Wilson.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Let's continue with the story.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
There are a bunch of steps that lead to Smile
actually happening in two thousand and four, at the end
of two thousand words at Scott Bennett's house, one of
the band members who was having a Christmas party, and
Brian's sitting on the piano bench with his back to
the piano, with my late wife Eva, So this amazing
(28:07):
thing happens. He says to Eva, what do you want
for Christmas? And she says for you to play heroes
and villains and he goes okay, and he turns around
and plays heroes and villains. Now, as everybody in Brian's
band would tell you you couldn't talk to Brian about
(28:28):
Smile music. He would say, it reminds me of a
bad time in my life. I don't want to talk
about it. It's inappropriate music. And all of a sudden,
they are, as the British would say, gobsmacked, as Brian
is playing heroes and Villains right in front of them. Anyway,
he now sees that the world's not going to come
to an end if he performs it, if he plays it,
if it's out in the world, he no longer has
(28:48):
to fear it. Well, what's next, Glenn Max, who runs
the Royal Festival Hall, says, well, the only way to
follow pet Sounds is with Smile. And he's talking with
guys in the band. He's talking with Brian's wife, and
Brian's wife Melinda says to Brian, you know the fans
on there was a page, a fan page where fans
(29:10):
were running, hey, Brian, what are you going to do Smile?
And Willy says, you know, Brian, the fans are really
wanting to hear Smile. And Brian thinks about it, and
he agrees and announces in May of two thousand and
three that he is going to go to England and
perform Brian Wilson presents Smile and we are all just
stunned by this. And for the next few months, Brian
(29:35):
wants nothing to do with Smile. He doesn't want to
talk about it, he doesn't want to think about it.
He is just terrified of it. How do I do this?
And fortunately there's a guy in his band, he aforementioned
Darien Sahanaja, who is tasked with the notion of how
do we play this music live in sequence in a
(29:58):
way that makes sense.
Speaker 16 (30:00):
I remember when the announcement came down that we were
going to do Smile. I didn't want to do it.
He was like, are you kidding me? We're going to
completely you know.
Speaker 7 (30:08):
Ruin it.
Speaker 16 (30:08):
Well, the mis shatter, the mistake, yeah, the mystique of
it all, you know, like a holy Grail sorts.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
You'll touch it.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
By the end of two thousand and three they've done that.
January two thousand and four, rehearsals start. Rehearsals are so
traumatizing to Brian that on the second day of rehearsal,
in the middle of rehearsal, he stands up and he says,
I got to go. He goes downstairs, gets in his
car and drives himself to the emergency room at Saint
(30:36):
John's Hospital in Santa Monica. That's how scared he is
of what's happening. But given the choice of whether to
continue or to say, you know what, I'm not going
to do it, he says, no, I have to do this.
And this is really the hero's journey we're talking about.
This is a guy who, for thirty seven years, has
(30:59):
not done this music live or finished it in the
studio or in every interview he's ever done when he's
asked about it, wanted to talk about it. He's now
going to present it to the world, and with the
unconditional love of his friends, the band, everybody around him,
(31:19):
they finally put it together. And sure enough, on February twentieth,
two thousand and four, he confidently walks up the steps
of the Royal Festival Hall. He bows right, he bows left.
He sits down on his keyboard and they play. Brian
Wilson presents Smile. Up until the moment he walked up
(32:05):
the steps, everybody wondered if he was actually going to
do it. We didn't know what was going to happen,
so everybody was was scared.
Speaker 6 (32:14):
I was about two inches away from not going to
that stage.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
I was really you know.
Speaker 6 (32:19):
I went on stage, but I really didn't want to.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
I really didn't.
Speaker 6 (32:22):
I was afraid I was gonna get nervous and blow it.
You know, come I'm shooting and mess out, and I
was almost ready to vomit. I throw up. I was
so scared. I'm taking dog and I'm going.
Speaker 12 (32:37):
For long.
Speaker 16 (32:41):
Years ago.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Brian, however, even though he was fearful, he knew how
great the music was, and he had the courage to
face the audience and face the world. And when he
started performing.
Speaker 6 (33:03):
It, well, when we first got after we hit our
first note, I relaxed, and then I got a ten
minute standing ovation, which has made made it all worthless.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
It was instantaneous, almost you can see his nervousness, but
when it's finished, it's as if the demons have flown
out of his body. How did playing Smile live chase
the demons away?
Speaker 6 (33:35):
It helped to chase me away because it was such
a powerful piece of music that I think the I
had auditory hallucinations, you know, for like years and years,
and then it's gone down to a minimum now. The
auditoryluteners were very proud of it, and I think it
really got to psyched him out.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
And as he says, this was the most cathartic experience
of my life. What more can one ask for?
Speaker 6 (33:57):
This represents an accomplishment of mine that I hadn't ever
done in my life before.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
We actually did this.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Now is there anything negative associated with Smile anymore?
Speaker 6 (34:06):
Only the re memory of the bad drugs we took
when we were making it. That's the only bad memory.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
I think it's the ultimate redemption story and history, if
you will. There's a great quote from the pop music
writer Randy Lewis. I realized that Mozart was born, wrote
all of his music, and died in less time than
it took for Brian to finish Smile. So we have
a piece of music that has been on the shelf,
(34:35):
if you will, for decades, and all that time Brian
just can't deal with it. Now, what makes it redemptive?
This man who was scared of everything because of the
fear instilled in him by his father, overcame all of
his fears of what the music might do, whether the
(34:55):
audiences would like it, whether it was appropriate or inappropriate
music to released into the world. He overcame all of
these fears. Whether you know he was sixty two years old.
Could he do this at sixty two something he couldn't
finish at twenty four. So we're talking about this incredible
expanse of time, as his dear friend David Anderley said,
(35:16):
the longest gestation period in history. So he's able to
overcome all of this fear and courageously walk up the
steps and present this music to the world. The world
embraces it. They love it. It's the biggest selling album,
not just of his solo career, but the biggest selling
album of his life since pet Sounds. It gets him
(35:39):
his first Grammy award. And more importantly than any of
this is this is the story of triumph of the
human spirit. Because what happens is what we all dreamed
of was see if Brian ever finished Smile, it would
free him to embrace his musical ambitions again, and sure enough,
a few years later after Smile, he wrote a new
(36:01):
rock opera Cole that Lucky old Son, and to an
audience who had never heard a note of it, he
premiered it in London to standing ovations. Now what kind
of courage does it take to do that?
Speaker 9 (36:12):
Well?
Speaker 3 (36:12):
It takes the kind of courage that a hero can
only have when they've gone on this journey. He even finished,
Now how much nerve does this take? He finished two
unfinished Gershwin songs that the Gershwin estate gave him, so
Smile redeems him in every way. When he returns to
la from the first Smile tour, he calls me. He says, David,
(36:34):
you have to come over tomorrow. We have to do
an interview. Now. I don't think there was ever a
point in Brian Wilson's life where he said, I want
to do an interview. What do you want to talk about?
He says, David, You're not going to believe this. This
Smile tour got better and better and better every single night,
and for the first time in my career, I want
to go back on the road right away, and I
(36:55):
can't believe what I'm hearing. I said, Brian, this is wonderful.
What got better? He says, the playing got better, the
audiences got better, everything about Smile got better. I said,
when you go out back on tour, you're going to
change this is no, I'm not going to change a note.
It's perfect as it is. He says, In fact, we're
going to go into the studio and record it. And
I said, Brian, on a scale of one to ten,
how would you compare Pet Sounds to Smile? He says, well,
(37:19):
on a scale of one to ten, I would give
Pet Sounds a four and Smile at ten. Now I'm
in disbelief. One of the greatest albums of all times.
He's saying, Smile is more than twice as good as that.
I said, well, what's better? And it looks at me
like I'm asking the stupidest question imaginable, And he says everything, David.
The music's better, the songs are better, the playing's better,
(37:39):
the singing's better, everything about it is better. This is
a different guy. His performing Smile to audience that embraced it,
that audiences that loved it changed him. And he entered
what was the happiest period of his adult life.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
The redemption story of Brian Wilson here an hour. American
Stories
Speaker 11 (38:05):
Adds
Host
Lee Habeeb
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