Brian Wilson, surfless portrait of the man who 'heard voices' in the Beach Boys

Voices were his fortune and his doom. Those he 'harmonised', as if he were a kind of chapel master on a mission for Bach in the Californian 'Endless Summer'. Those that - stimulated by alcohol and psychedelic drugs - spoke to him inside, tormented him and pushed him to the edge. Brian Wilson, founding member and principal songwriter of the Beach Boys died at 82, was one of the greatest songwriters of his generation but also a fragile person, someone who finds himself overnight at the top of world pop but can never really get over the trauma of his controversial relationship with his father.

On his talents as a composer vouches a certain Paul McCartney, born on the other side of the world just two days before him but always ready to admit that God Only Knows is the most beautiful song of the 1960s. Beatles aside, of course. Fragility had it written all over his face as a shy big boy with a sweet, lopsided smile, partially deaf, presumably from the beatings he suffered at the hands of his father, teacher and manager Murry Wilson. A guy who rarely touched a surfboard except to advertise his band. The band par excellence of surf music, with more than 30 Top 40 singles and over 100 million copies sold worldwide.

I primi Beach Boys: Brian Wilson è il primo da sinistra

His musical talents were evident even as a boy, when he played the piano and taught his brothers - guitarist Carl and drummer Denis, both younger, yet gone before him - to sing in harmony. Brian played bass, but an extra charisma was needed and so cousin Mike Love was hired. Spurred on by dad Murry, a failed musician and cynical man, they started as a neighbourhood band, rehearsing in Brian's bedroom and the garage of their house in suburban Hawthorne, California. Surf music was catching on locally and Dennis, the only real surfer in the group, suggested making a virtue of necessity. Brian and Love hastily wrote their first single, Surfin' a minor hit released in 1961.

Un’immagine promozionale dei primi Beach Boys

They wanted to call themselves Pendletones, in honour of a then-popular shirt. But when they first saw the prints of Surfin', they discovered that the record label had labelled them as The Beach Boys. This was not the only decision of their career made behind their backs and underwritten by Daddy Murray. At least until the latter, in the mid-1960s, was removed with a lawsuit to accompany it.

I primi Beach Boys dal vivo

Their first hit came in early 1963 with Surfin' USA, a half plagiarism of Sweet Little Sixteen, so much so that even with Chuck Berry it would end in litigation. But in any case, that song would be their first Top 10 hit and a true manifesto: 'If everybody had an ocean/ across the United States/ then everybody would surf/ like in California'. Try it to believe it. Between 1963 and 1966, they were hardly ever off the charts, reaching number 1 with the singles I Get Around and Help Me, Rhonda and narrowly missing it with California Girls and Fun, Fun, Fun. In their many TV appearances, they looked cute and cuddly, wore striped shirts and smiled, but inside them - and Brian's in particular - the sea was pretty rough.