Brian Wilson
Gettin' In Over My Head

Brian from the Beach Boys was a kind of Syd Barrett, only he made it through. A half-genius, who pretty much fried his brain in his youth but more or less managed to escape, succumbing only a few months ago, by then eighty-three. During the psychedelic seventies, he had a blast for decades with notorious druggies like Keith Moon, Danny Hutton of Three Dog Night, Iggy Pop, Harry Nilsson, even John Lennon… He seemed lost to music, but instead, as a mature man, he started producing again, with good spirit: this 2004 release is his fourth solo album, out of a total of about a dozen.

Wilson is a pop songwriter of absolutely unmistakable personality and considerable influence on the history of popular music. Not exactly my cup of tea, I must say: the surf pop he invented can’t help but be admired, but personally, I’m not a fervent collector of Beach Boys records. Nevertheless, I still consider their, his, “God Only Knows” the most beautiful song of the sixties, Beatles included.

With this in mind, how does this record fare? Quite well! It’s still him, so distinctive in his joyful atmospheres, in his light singing, in the prodigious way he moves the bass lines of his chords, in his ability to organize backing vocals and counterpoints that are so peculiar and recognizable, in his pursuit of a colorful and expanded instrumentation.

The voice… ehm, it’s never been his strong suit, his brothers and that other singer outside the family were much better; in fact, they always used to take turns in the spotlight. However, I think his voice has gotten worse with age… I can’t say for sure because I haven’t closely followed him throughout his career.

When Wilson calls, the VIPs answer! Here we have Eric Clapton playing one of his little pentatonic solos on “City Blues.” Elton John is actually given the honor of opening the album: his is the first voice you hear once the record begins, after the intro of “How Could We Still Be Dancin’.” Then there’s his old rival, Sir Paul McCartney, who makes a cameo on “A Friend Like You” and finally his brother Carl (not in his prime voice either…) who’s given “Soul Searchin’” to perform.

The feeling is that good old Wilson, at the time, had a robust arsenal of songs that had never been released, going back decades before and preceding the “dark” period, and this time he managed to put some of them down in black and white, for his pleasure and ours. Nothing transcendental, then, but good pop with a proverbial personality.