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BIZARRE: Beach boy - What They Never Told You

"He moved mountains. He changed the language." A tribute to Brian Wilson: June 20, 1942 - June 11, 2025

As the visionary heart and soul of the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson created a mythic California soundtrack of sun-drenched, youthful innocence and some timeless classics, all while battling personal demons, addiction and mental illness

Louder

“They said, 'how can you possibly do this, Brian?' I said, 'something got inside of me - I had to do something'”: Unpicking the Beach Boys' classic that confirmed Brian Wilson’s creative genius

Conceived as an all-in-one ‘pocket symphony’, Good Vibrations was thematically triggered by the notion that dogs could sense the positive or negative energies of humans

MusicRadar

‘I yearned to be a California Girl – but I lived in Burnley’: readers on their love for Brian Wilson

From memories of photoshoots and telephone calls with the late Beach Boy, to appraisals of his complex but pure music, Guardian readers pay tribute to a great

The Guardian - UK

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Brian Wilson’s visionary songwriting held unmatched emotional power. And in person he never disappointed

Brian Wilson, the Beach Boy and visionary composer whose groundbreaking music reshaped the sound of American pop, died on June 11. I had the pleasure of meeting Wilson several times, but first met with the great man through my friend David Leaf, whose writing is key to understanding Wilson’s music…

The Conversation

"It's purely experimental, with zero regard for commercialism": How Brian Wilson recorded Pet Sounds and reinvented music

Tiring of making frothy pop, the late Brian Wilson threw away his Beach Boys’ template, assembled a battalion of top session players, and began recording an all-time classic

Louder

Brian Wilson Was an Exemplary American

The leader of the Beach Boys is dead, but what he did for his country will resound in our history forever.

Reason

"A one-of-a-kind genius from another world": The world of rock reacts to the death of Brian Wilson

Elton John, Mick Fleetwood, Dave Davies, Carole King, Gene Simmons, Keith Richards and many more have paid tribute to the Beach Boys legend

Louder

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Brian Wilson: the Beach Boys visionary who changed music forever

TRIBUTE: The troubled musician was a genius whose work was the envy of generations of fellow artists. Fiona Sturges pays tribute, and recalls her encounter with Wilson where he told her about his fear of failure, his abusive father, and the voices in his head

The Independent UK

"There were a helluva lot of drug issues and bad feeling in the air": How doomed Beach Boy Dennis Wilson made his solo masterpiece Pacific Ocean Blue

Beach Boys drummer and singer Dennis Wilson made a much-loved cult classic with 1977’s Pacific Ocean Blue – then spiralled out of control

Louder

“He came up three times gasping for help. The others thought he was goofing around. He wasn’t”: How doomed Beach Boy Dennis Wilson made his solo masterpiece Pacific Ocean Blue

Beach Boys drummer and singer Dennis Wilson made a cult classic with 1977’s Pacific Ocean Blue – a few years later he was dead

Louder

The Beach Boys' Mike Love and Bruce Johnson: 'We’re never going to stop touring'

Ahead of a new, career-spanning documentary, two members of the iconic group talk about still playing in front of 80,000, Brian Wilson’s genius, and competing with the Rolling Stones

Evening Standard

The Beach Boys’ 40 greatest songs – ranked!

As a new documentary about Brian Wilson arrives, we take on the near-impossible task of sorting his band’s best, from lustful-teen pop to meditative balladry

The Guardian - UK

Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road review – a poignant look back

This sensitive documentary allows the troubled Beach Boy to reflect on a long and lustrous career

The Guardian - UK

“We didn’t have musical training. Brian and I took music classes, but I think he dropped out, and I got an F”: The Beach Boys guitarist Al Jardine on the genius of Brian Wilson, working with the Wrecking Crew and touring with Jeff Beck

In this 2015 interview, Beach Boys guitarist Al Jardine recounts some of the pivotal moments as a key member of one of America’s greatest musical treasures

Guitar World

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