(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Fri 22 August 2025 15:30, UK
Brian Wilson was nothing if not a lover of all things musical throughout his lifetime. There are many songwriters that embody their craft, but as much as The Beach Boys’ mastermind lived and breathed harmony half the time he went into the studio, that didn’t mean he had to love absolutely everything that came on the radio at any time.
Because when listening to the band’s greatest hits, it’s not like their music was going to exactly fit in across multiple generations every time they made a new record. Pet Sounds and singles like ‘Good Vibrations’ were certainly able to transcend any generational divide they had, but there were also albums like Summer in Paradise, which didn’t feature Brian at all and sounds like the kind of thing that comes when you ask a bot to create a song that crossed Beach Boys with bad 1990s television theme music.
But when Wilson was locked into the right groove, he couldn’t be stopped. He had already been learning his craft by listening to Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound recordings, but listening to the Beach Boys’ greatest tunes, Wilson took that mentality and managed to push it one step further, making most of Spector’s productions sound like it relied a little too much on reverb instead of genuine harmony.
Compared to every other pop artist around this time, though, The Beach Boys seemed most indebted to rock and roll and doo-wop. If you look at the kind of music The Beatles were listening to, they absorbed everything from soul to rock and roll to even country music in some places, and while that does turn up in some of Wilson’s music, he was much more interested in pulling from Chuck Berry than George Jones.
Outside of traditional rock and roll, though, Johnny Cash fit the description for everything a rock and roll star was supposed to be. He had the iconic look, the imposing figure, and when anyone heard his voice, that sat down to listen to the wisdom he had to impart. But whereas everyone else was transfixed, Wilson knew it was time to turn the dial whenever Cash came on the radio.
He could admire a lot of great country musicians, but Wilson drew the line listening to Johnny Cash, saying, “Johnny Cash I never liked. His music I liked but his voice kind of bothered me. I gotta be honest. He just had a strange voice.” But beyond that deep baritone that Cash had, there was also the fact that both he and Wilson seemed to be coming from different worlds whenever they sang their songs.
I mean, take their voices alone. Cash’s voice is filled with human experience and the grit that comes with someone who has done some living, and while Wilson certainly weathered his fair share of trouble in his life, his beautiful falsetto voice was like being visited by a rock and roll angel whenever any of his songs came on the radio. And considering the darkness that coats a lot of Cash’s material, they both seemed to view their reason for playing completely differently.
Much like the album of the same name, Wilson felt like he was put on this Earth to make his audience smile, and although Cash did garner a lot of fans for a good reason, his songs weren’t always about love and innocence all the time. His characters had gone through hell a lot of the time, and it was up to the audience to see whether the protagonists in his songs were worth having around.
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