Credit: Far Out / Brian Wilson
Sat 5 September 2026 3:00, UK
Brian Wilson was always put on this Earth to create the most beautiful music that he could.
Even though everyone was trying to make the next rock masterpiece around the time that The Beach Boys were releasing Pet Sounds, Wilson never lost that sense of adventure every single time he worked on any number of his records. He wanted the chance to make something that no one had ever heard before, but there were bound to be a few times when he felt that he fell a little bit short compared to some of his contemporaries.
Because if you look at the band’s career purely from a musical perspective, the rise of The Beach Boys was always going to be a little bit tragic. The thought of them changing the face of music with Pet Sounds was the kind of thing that only came once every single lifetime, and while Smile was supposed to be the record that could show everyone what the band was capable of all over again, the fact that it bottomed out at the time was what truly sealed their fate in people’s minds.
Sure, everyone could see that Wilson was turning in some great music in the late 1960s, but by the time that they found their footing again, the moment had come and gone. The Beatles had taken up the mantle that they had held as pop’s resident geniuses, and even though Wilson considered them to be friendly rivals, there was no way that he was going to compete with the kind of music that was turning up on records like Sgt Pepper’s.
But any record that Wilson ever made was going to be an uphill battle of sorts. So many people were going against what he wanted out of his own music, and while he was content to stay in the studio and hash out the songs until they were perfect, that didn’t stop everyone, from his father to Mike Love, questioning what the more psychedelic songs in their catalogue were actually about.
When he wasn’t worried about people on his team going against him, though, he was already starting to question what he was doing when working on stuff that Phil Spector could have produced. Spector was a god among producers, and while Wilson was absolutely smitten by the song ‘Be My Baby’, he couldn’t help but feel Spector’s shadow whenever he worked on one of his records.
He liked to do justice to what those early 1960s classics were about, but he felt that Spector’s voice in his head was the worst of all, saying, “Phil’s voice is scary, always challenging me, always reminding me that he came first. I hear him saying in my head, ‘You’re never going to top ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling’ or ‘Be My Baby’, so don’t even try.’ But maybe he wants me to try. Nothing is ever simple with him, not when he’s in my head.”
Further reading: From The Vault
But that kind of drive is what led to Wilson making some of his greatest masterpieces as well. There are definitely some shit stains in human form, like Eugene Landy, who tried to exploit that kind of talent, but when Wilson was making his music for all the right reasons, he was capable of making tunes that could bring a smile to everyone’s faces even more than any of Spector’s productions.
So while Wilson could feel intimidated by some of the biggest names in production, he didn’t need to be discouraged by any means. He was capable of making true art every time he got behind the board, and everything that he made was done in the name of carrying on pop excellence to the next generation every single time he worked on any number of his records.
