KING: You sold him a car?
M. WILSON: I sold Brian a car. And it was like surreal. It was like I knew of the Beach Boys but I really didn't know that, like Brian was the genius behind the Beach Boys. Growing up in California...
It would appear Brian needs help, and now that person is Melinda. There's much more to the interview, including the history of the Beach Boys.
Towards that end, there is an exceptional piece by Peter Ames Carlin, somewhat surprisingly, in American Heritage:
- In 1904 William Wilson bought 10 acres of vineyard in Escondido, a rural village southeast of Los Angeles. This particular dream lasted a little over a year. The work was harder than he expected, and he missed his friends back home. But his son, William Coral (“Buddy”) Wilson moved back to the Golden State in the early 1920s. However, he was forced to scratch out a living as an oil-field steamfitter. This disappointment, coupled with the pressure of supporting a wife and eight children on blue-collar earnings, would come to darken Buddy’s eyes and harden his heart. And the pain would ripple out to his children.
Buddy’s second-oldest son, Murry, born in 1917, inherited his father’s ambition, along with a family passion for music. He dreamed of becoming a professional songwriter, but as a high school graduate in the depths of the Depression, he was realist enough to pursue a career in local industry. He hustled his way into lower management at the Southern California Gas Company. Later he got a job with Goodyear Tire & Rubber. Married in 1938 to Audree Korthof, a sweet-natured baker’s daughter, he settled in Hawthorne, a modest suburb on the southwest fringe of Los Angeles, a few years later.
Murry and Audree’s first child, Brian, came in June 1942. He was sensitive, tall, athletic, and friendly, with a preternatural ear for melody and harmony. His father said that 11 months into his life he could hum a note-perfect “Marine Corps Hymn.” At five, he was spending hours listening to George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. His brother Dennis, born in 1944, had blond hair, freckles, and a restless, prankish energy; his neighbors called him Dennis the Menace. Carl, the youngest, came at the end of 1946. Soft-eyed and pudgy, he had a feathery voice and a sweet, accommodating personality to match.
Along with his father’s ambition, Murry Wilson had inherited Buddy’s self-pitying rage. After losing an eye in an industrial accident at Goodyear, he turned his discontent on his sons, taunting them mercilessly, demanding impossible levels of perfection in school, on the baseball diamond, in keeping the house tidy, and he was quick to assert his authority with his fists. When physical violence seemed to lose its efficacy, he would pluck out his artificial eye and force the children to stare into the empty socket.
Article comments
1 - Emily
Great post, Eric! FYI, California has recently granted permission to mark the childhood home of the Wilsons in Hawthorne, CA an official state landmark, even though the home was dozed over a decade ago to make way for the 105 freeway.
2 - Eric Olsen
thanks Emily, I really appreciate the kind words and that's great news about the Hawthorne home and its famous garage, which no longer exist
3 - Eric Olsen
Update - a mini-film about the making of Smile is now available above, check it out.
4 - riley moriarty
There was talk that a recording of the smiLE concert from carnegie hall 10/12 or 13 may be available through NonSuch Records. Do you have any information on that?
5 - Eric Olsen
Riley, I don't see anything about it yet on Brian's site