Brian Wilson (album)

Wilson in the studio, 1990

Paley, as he himself described, was assigned to the project "to kick [Brian] in the ass and get him going",[25] as well as to evaluate material for Stein and Lenny Waronker, the latter of whom being the president of Sire's distributor, Warner Bros. Records.[27] As was typical for Wilson's previous collaborators – namely, Tony Asher and Van Dyke Parks – Paley usually met Wilson at his home and spent time together chatting or doing some other activity for inspiration before working on songs.[25] They were not composing together until, Paley said, "Brian realized I could play a number of instruments, [after which] we started jamming and then writing music together to flesh out the songs."[28]

Wilson recalled that, between 1982 and 1986, he had been unusually prolific as a songwriter and composed at his piano at least once a day. "We had 130 songs, then weeded it down to 20. We recorded 18 of those and chose 11 out of the 18".[29] He and Paley trawled through three briefcases filled with tapes containing nearly 170 mostly unrecorded songs he had written. By Paley's account, there was "great stuff", but also many songs that he termed "hamburger songs" in reference to stories about Dennis Wilson, in the early 1980s, enticing Brian to write songs with McDonald's hamburgers.[30] Paley said, "I could tell Brian if he was repeating himself in any of his stuff by incorporating some tiny thing from an obscure old tune. I kept him honest with himself as well as looking forward."[28] In turn, Wilson said of Paley, "He's a real swift guy. Real fast. A very brainy guy. He puts a lot behind it, let's put it that way. He's a scary guy when you get right down to it."[31]

Other producers, including Waronker and Russ Titelman, were soon involved.[32] Both of them had worked with Wilson in the past; in Titelman's case, he and Wilson had written the songs "Sherry She Needs Me" and "Guess I'm Dumb" in the mid-1960s before becoming a staff producer at Warner Bros.[28] According to Titelman, he got involved with the project after several months had passed and Wilson and Paley had produced only six "sloppy sketches" of incomplete songs.[30][nb 2] He said that Wilson "used to be a benevolent dictator in the studio; now, his ideas are great, but he needs someone to help organize those ideas."[18] Waronker stated, "Each song had moments, but they needed help. But Brian had all the inspiration. All Russ did was make it stand up, make it be a record."[30]

Waronker had been the Beach Boys' A&R representative at Warner–Reprise.[35] In the words of biographer Mark Dillon, the project was "so important to Sire" that Waronker got "hands-on".[36][nb 3] He implored Wilson to produce something akin to the extended, modular recording style that he had adopted with Smile in the late 1960s.[38] Waronker recalled, "I told Seymour that to not have Brian do one of the more experimental things he used to do before he went into hibernation would be, well, ridiculous."[28] However, Wilson had formed an aversion to this approach due to the fact that his personal decline in the late 1960s and early 1970s had coincided with the "diminishing commercial reception" to his more experimental recording output.[28] Waronker had initially envisioned the album as "a new age record [with] a bunch of things like 'Cool, Cool Water".[18][nb 4] Instead of forming the entire album around such a concept, they compromised with just one song of an extended length, "Rio Grande",[28] the only track on the album whose recording Waronker personally attended.[40]

The album featured a host of guest appearances from acts including the Cars' guitarist Elliot Easton, jazz keyboardist Philippe Saisse, singers Christopher Cross and Terence Trent D'Arby, among others.[41][nb 5] Following the release, some writers and fan publications implied that Wilson's songs were ghostwritten by the other producers and musicians, or that he was forced into writing the songs. In response to such accusations, Paley stated that the listed credits were indeed inaccurate, and that "there were a lot of people helping on that record", but that his and Wilson's writing was in no way contrived. Paley added, "the guy is always writing songs anyway, it's not like someone has to tell him to do it."[42]

Landy and his aides (nicknamed the "Surf Nazis"[44]) were a constant disruptive presence, and creative differences between him and the rest of the production team occurred throughout the album's making.[32][45][46] His assistant, Kevin Leslie, watched over Wilson at all times in the studio, while Landy himself regularly phoned to check on what track they were recording and to instruct Wilson to work on something else.[34] Landy would also frequently confiscate the master tapes once a day's work had been finished.[43] Stein, who characterized the album's recording as "hell on earth", said that Landy would then send back the wrong master tapes, "just to drive Russ crazy".[30]

Titelman said of Landy, "He kept Brian off guard all the time [...] interrupting the creative flow and it was unbelievably frustrating. I started to go out of my mind. It was so chaotic and unpleasant that it became rather untenable."[34] Landy acknowledged, "Titelman and I were always nose to nose, pushing, pushing, pushing. Russ Titelman is not my favorite person. But I must give him his honest due. [...] Russ has to be congratulated for having the balls to stand up to Brian and Dr. Landy [sic]."[30]

Biographer Peter Ames Carlin reported that Landy's meetings with Stein, Waronker, and Titelman had often "devolved into screaming matches".[43] During the vocal sessions to one song, one of Landy's aides bribed Wilson with a milkshake in exchange for him to sing alternate lyrics written by Landy and his girlfriend, Alexandra Morgan.[38] The team stopped communicating through the studio intercom system after it was discovered that Landy's aides were using it to eavesdrop on sessions from another room.[43] Paley remarked, "Anything good we got out of those sessions was done totally on stolen time."[43]

Paley indicated that the official writing and production credits for Brian Wilson are inaccurate.[47] Near the album's release, Landy had fought to be awarded songwriting credits on certain tracks while removing songwriting and production credits from others.[46] According to Paley, the musician, writing, and production credits became "all inaccurate", and he himself remains uncredited for several of the album's tracks.[47]

Brian Wilson was largely recorded at Ground Control Studios in Santa Monica[40] from April to late spring 1987.[18] After Titelman was recruited in June, the album was essentially completed by December.[18] The sessions were held across eleven studios[48] in Los Angeles, New York, Honolulu, and Boston.[30] Mark Linett was recruited as engineer, a role he ultimately kept for Wilson's solo records through the present day.[49]

Critic David Fricke noted that "the rich, expansive arrangements echo the orchestral radiance of Wilson's spiritual mentor, Phil Spector."[50] Synthesizers are a major presence on the album, with Wilson employing samples, sound effects, keyboards, and percussion.[34] Wilson said of his recording process, "I would overdub, I'd play all the keyboard stuff, and then I'd have my right hand, my assistant producer Andy Paley, play the guitar, and bass, and drums–he can play four instruments, piano too. Which is great."[40] Programmer Michael Bernard was closely involved with some of the tracks.[41] Bernard recalled, "The way [Brian] would go about layering things, his choice of sounds and instrument was different from what I was used to, but it was really interesting to watch him work. Most people put down drums, bass and chords first, but Brian might go from the drums to horns to strings to a lead vocal."[18]

Production costs were reported to exceed $1 million (equivalent to $2.47 million in 2022).[51][52][53] However, it is unclear if that figure is truly accurate; in a contemporary article, Wilson mentioned that the cost was $800,000, while Paley cited $1 million. Waronker disputed both of those figures, saying that $1 million was "a tremendous overstatement".[40] Titelman blamed the overages on Landy's unusual practices.[52] Writing in his Beach Boys biography, Timothy White states that "Landy would change studios every few weeks so Brian would not, in the words of one production staff member, 'form any lasting new professional relationships.'"[48]

After an extended Christmas holiday,[18] the album was mixed by engineer Hugh Padgham of Peter Gabriel and the Police fame.[41] Landy then remixed the work, although Titelman stated that Waronker prevented Landy from making significant alterations, adding "It pretty much sounds the way the original mix sounded."[54] White reports that a discarded remix, arranged by Landy, had been "heavily accented by strings and other intensely lush touches à la Murry Wilson".[46] Brian Wilson took over a year to record – four times the span of time it took to record Pet Sounds.[52]

"Love and Mercy", "an anthem about love and compassion", was inspired by the 1965 song "What the World Needs Now Is Love".[55] Wilson referred to the song as "probably the most spiritual" he had ever written.[2] He explained that the song "has a lot of intrinsic meaning in my personal life", because when he took LSD in the 1960s, he "developed a Jesus Christ complex", and "this song probably best exemplifies the Christ that's in me. The part that wants to give love to people".[56]

"Walkin' the Line" is only track from the Wilson Project that made it onto Brian Wilson.[57][58] Wilson said that the song was built around an old bass line he had composed, and that the lyrics are about how he is "always walking over thin ice, could fall through at any minute. I tread lightly on everything I do, 'Walk The Line' so to speak. Not all the time, but it is one of my subtheme songs of my whole life, [but] it’s not a serious song."[2] Carlin describes it as "stompingly rhythmic" and "another of Brian's deceptively autobiographical songs, combining the percussive sound of footsteps, drums, sleigh bells, synth bass, synthesizer, electric guitars, and three layers of interlocking voices into a description of his own impossibly rigid life".[59]

Landy said the lyrics describe "walking the line between sanity and insanity, walking the line between wanting to talk to this girl and being too scared to."[60] Waronker had invited Nick Laird-Clowes, singer and guitarist of the Dream Academy, to work with Wilson on the album, but Laird-Clowes' contributions were ultimately limited to modifying the verse melody of "Walkin' the Line".[61]

"Melt Away", according to Wilson, is "about the identity crisis I have in my life – the way I see myself and the ‘me’ that everybody thinks I am."[2] The couplet "I feel just like an island / until I see you smilin'" was improvised by Wilson during the vocal session after Titelman had asked for a lyric revision to the song. Paley felt that the line is a highlight: "He was under pressure, but what he came up with was just such a beautiful, cool twist."[43]

The track recalls elements of the Pet Sounds track "God Only Knows".[59] Carlin explained that both songs contain sleigh bells and "percussive blasts of snare", however, "Melt Away" blends it "into an entirely different feeling, with words that emphasized the scars of experience while the interweaving paths of the bass and melody conspired with the billowing ooohs and aaahs to describe the soothing balm of love."[62]

"Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long" is a spiritual sequel to Wilson's "Caroline, No" that implores a woman to regain her innocence by growing out her hair.[63][64] Wilson called it a "romantic sexual song",[40] explaining that he had intended for it to be a love song, "but then I put in a couple of sexual lines."[2] Asked if he was singing to the same woman as in "Caroline, No", Wilson responded, "No, it’s still the same mood. That mood is sexual."[65]

Regarding the lyric "I can't wait to see that change in you / You can do it just the way you used to do", Carlin notes that Wilson sings the line in falsetto, "just the way he used to do".[63] Biographer David Leaf surmised that the line may have been inspired by "an old friend urging Brian to pick up his Fender bass, to 'do it the way you used to do.'"[2]

"Little Children" was originally demoed during the sessions for The Beach Boys Love You in 1976.[58][nb 6] Wilson said that the song is "about how little children are marching along" and that it has "a playful sound to it, a background track of a youthful nature."[67] He goes on to say that he had intended for the song to convince listeners that "little kids are really cool .. there’s no responsibility when you’re a kid, and I admire the freedom from responsibility that kids have. I’m jealous of it … That track was done as an attempt to make people feel younger."[2]

According to Carlin, "Little Children" is a "calliope-like dash through Brian's dreamy/nightmarish reflections on childhood."[63] Fricke referred to the track as having a "bright, Spectoresque sparkle" likely influenced by "Da Doo Ron Ron" (1964) and "Mountain of Love" (1960).[50][nb 7]

Wilson with his bandmates and Ronald and Nancy Reagan, 1983

"One for the Boys", originally titled "There We Were", is an a capella piece that was named as a gesture toward Wilson's bandmates.[2][68] Asked for his "intent" behind the piece, Wilson responded, "The intent was to bring a kind of harmonic beauty to it [...] to change it right in the middle of the album. To bring about a change of vibration. A change of sound. A prettier sound. Something more beautiful.""[67] On another occasion, he called the piece "a love song that has feminine characteristics", as well as "the feminine side of me".[65] Paley stated that he composed the "little movements in the middle" but his contributions were not honored with a writing credit.[47]

"There's So Many" has a similar celestial/romantic-themed focus as Wilson's "Solar System" from The Beach Boys Love You.[63] He described the song as "about this guy who has a lot of different girls he could think of [...] You wonder why you lose a girl and two months later you're with another girl and his girl got mad at you. And the guy gets all fucked up about it, and he winds up with an ego problem over it."[67][40]

Wilson felt that the "planets are spinning around" portion of the song was "probably the most spiritual part of the whole album".[2] Titelman remembered that after Wilson had overdubbed the backing vocals, "He leaned over to me and said, 'Yeah, who needs the fuckin' Beach Boys!'"[30] Bernard said, "On 'There's So Many,' the part where Brian sings 'The planets are spinning around.' He asked me 'What kind of sound could we put there to give you the feeling that the planets really are spinning around?' We came up with this light chime which sounds almost like a windchime; it gives a motion effect to the song when you hear it."[18]

"Night Time" is a rock song.[63] Wilson told a journalist in 1987 that he had considered titling the album Nighttime, "which has always been the time of day I like best."[23] Paley stated that the song was a "50:50 collaboration" in which he wrote the verse and Wilson wrote the chorus.[47]

Jeff Lynne produced and co-wrote "Let It Shine"

"Let It Shine" was written with Jeff Lynne, co-founder of the Electric Light Orchestra. Wilson stated that his main writing contribution to the song was the intro[2] and some of the lyrics.[40] According to biographers Andrew Doe and John Tobler, Wilson "allegedly intensely disliked the track".[68] Carlin bemoaned that Lynne "dominated" the song so much that "it sounded more like an Electric Light Orchestra outtake than a new Brian Wilson tune."[63]

In a 2015 interview, Lynne explained, "I hadn't known him at all, but Brian asked me if I wanted to write a song and produce it with him. 'Yes, please – I’d love to.' [...] Despite our production backgrounds, there wasn’t a lot on it actually. It’s a nice tight-sounding record.[69] Lynne devised a bass line, he said, "which went from the highest letter on the grid right down to the bottom E or A string, and [Brian] walked in while I was doing it. He stared at me and said, 'That's the longest goddam bass string I’ve ever seen!' I was quite pleased with that!"[70]

"Meet Me in My Dreams Tonight" was co-credited to Andy Dean, one of Paley's acquaintances, although this credit elicited confusion from Paley,[71] who called it another "50:50 collaboration" between himself and Wilson.[47] Wilson supported, "Andy Paley and I wrote that one. It's a very special tune. It;s about a dream lover, a similar idea to the Bobby Darin song. It's about a guy and a girl who love each other on a certain level that’s higher than real life. A fantasy song … We wanted to get the sound like 'Sweet Talkin' Guy,' that kind of '60s feeling in a record in the '80s."[2]

Landy wrote an alternate lyric to the song that mentioned a "love attack", and commanded Wilson to record a vocal with those lyrics, but it was ultimately discarded.[38] According to Carlin, "Landy had forbidden the engineers from even mixing the original 'Meet Me in My Dreams,' but when he flew to Hawaii one morning for a vacation, they lured the day's bodyguard out of the studio for a Ping-Pong game, mixing the original lyrics into the tune when he was down the hall. Once that version made the rounds of the executives at Sire, Landy's 'love attack' was never heard from again."[38]

"Rio Grande" is an eight-minute long Old West-themed suite, written by Wilson and Paley, that was inspired by the films Red River (1948) and Rio Grande (1950).[72] It presents a series of episodic music segments meant to illustrate a trip across an American frontier.[63] According to Paley, "Brian was really into writing this as a survival thing, the idea of a little man against the big men and making it on your own … the misunderstandings that must have happened between travelers on the same trail and how scary that must have been."[18]

Wilson's favorite part of the song was the "Take Me Home" section.[18] He explained that the narrator of the song "has so many obstacles that he just wants to go home. He wants to run away from all that stuff and go back to his home, wherever that might be, [like] in the sky. That’s symbolism, right? God cannot be conceived of, so therefore we give him a literal meaning that he’s in the sky, so that people can understand what is being said."[2]

The piece is the result of Waronker's efforts to get Wilson to produce something more experimental. Waronker remembered “literally begging him to forget the pop ditties and ‘song’ songs. There were different times I talked to Brian about this. Brian would say ‘OK,’ and he would have a concept, like 'California,' but when he played it for me, it always ended up being a conventional song.”[18] Landy acknowledged, "'Rio Grande' is 20% of the album, and it isn't something you can dance to. Lenny should be congratulated for pushing Brian in that direction."[18]

"Let's Go to Heaven in My Car", co-written with Usher, was issued as a single and appeared on the soundtrack of the film Police Academy 4 in March 1987.[20] "Doin' Time on Planet Earth" was written for the 1988 film of the same name, but the song was rejected; and subsequently issued as a B-side under the title "Being with the One You Love".[2]

"He Couldn't Get His Old Body to Move" was co-written and co-produced by Lindsey Buckingham, but ultimately relegated as the B-side to the "Love and Mercy" single.[41] Wilson called it "an exercise message song [...] all about how you can exercise because you can stay alive longer and how you should move around instead of sitting in a chair feeling hypnotized."[67] Landy said that the song "came out of [Brian] sending me tapes about how you’ve got to get your body to move" at a time when Wilson could only communicate to him via recorded cassette tapes.[60] "Too Much Sugar", the B-side of "Let's Go to Heaven in My Car",[20] is another song that was based around the idea of physical health. Wilson remarked that the two songs were "way ahead of their time, lyrically. You would think people would write more about health."[2][nb 8]

All four outtakes mentioned above were included as bonus tracks on the album's 2000 CD reissue.[2] John Sebastian was tapped to co-write a song with Wilson, but it was never completed due to a lyrical dispute from Landy and Morgan.[41] "Terri, She Needs Me", co-produced by Titelman, was similarly left unfinished due to Landy's interference.[41] "Let's Do It Again" was described by Wilson as "a semi-commercial kind of song, a nowadays kind of song".[40] It was included on an early assembly of the album.[73] In 2021, "Terri, She Needs Me", "Let's Do It Again", "So Long" (also known as "Angel"), and "I Feel This Love" were released as free downloadable tracks on Wilson's website.[74]

Other still-unreleased recordings from the album's sessions include "Heavenly Lover", "Love Ya", "Saturday Evening in the City", "Tiger's Eye", and "Hotter".[75] "Heavenly Lover" originated as an unused section of "Rio Grande".[76] "Tiger's Eye", according to Paley, is "about a guy who's worried about his girlfriend in the jungle and he's trying to find her; it's got a scary mood to it, but it's got a Motown feel, and a nice climbing bass line in the bridge that I remember. It's spooky, but he's saying 'Don't Worry'. It's like 'Running Bear and Little White Dove'."[76]