Goodbye to Brian Wilson: the co-founder and creative force behind the legendary Beach Boys, has died at the age of 82.

He leaves behind a catalog of worldwide hits such as California Girl, Good Vibrations, I Get Around, Barbara Ann and Don't Worry Baby, songs that made the Californian group one of the most popular in American rock in the 1960s. Wilson suffered from dementia and last year, after the death in January of his wife Melinda who had cared for him for years, he was placed under legal guardianship.

The “custodianship” institution was the same one applied for 13 years to Britney Spears, but, unlike the pop star subjected to the yoke of her father since the age of 27 after a couple of publicized episodes of mental breakdowns, that of the singer was more in line with the reasons for which it was established. In the legal documents that accompanied the family's request, it was explained that Wilson was no longer capable of giving informed consent to taking the drugs to keep at bay the neurocognitive disorders he suffered from.

Inspired by the melodies of Chuck Berry and Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, from 1962 to 1966 Wilson led the Beach Boys to 10 top 10 hits and seven top 40 hits for Capitol Records, most of which he wrote or co-wrote and produced. The group's popularity during this period was surpassed only by the Beatles, who recorded for the same label and whom Wilson considered his rivals.

Founded by Wilson with his brothers Carl and Dennis, who were later joined by their cousin Mike Love and high school friend Al Jardine, the Beach Boys sold their music catalog to Iconic Artist Group in 2021, with Brian selling his lyric rights to Universal Music a few months later. With over one hundred million Beach Boys records under his belt, Wilson is considered one of the musical geniuses of the 1960s, the artist who conveyed an idealized notion of California through harmonies that rivaled the Liverpool Four. However, the musician's personal life was the polar opposite of the sunny world of the Golden State that emerged from his songs.

Dementia was the last problem that the “beach boy” had suffered: a difficult childhood, marked by the relationship with his father Murry, an amateur composer who encouraged him to sing despite being essentially deaf in his right ear. Murry dominated his children with acts of extreme emotional and sometimes physical violence, and this had repercussions on Brian who in 1964, after a mental breakdown on a flight from Houston with the band, abandoned touring to concentrate on studio recordings.

A new period of extreme creativity was followed by new problems: first depression, then a form of schizophrenia that manifested itself with auditory hallucinations, experimentation with LSD and other drugs, eating disorders and alcohol abuse. His wife Melinda was his lifeline: their meeting at a car dealership where she sold Cadillacs was immortalized in the 2014 film Love & Mercy. After marrying in 1995 and adopting five of his seven children, Brian credited her with stabilizing his life and career.

(Online Union)

© Riproduzione riservata