VLVL Beach Boys

[Doug Millison]

Anybody else catch the Brian Wilson documentary/concert program that was
broadcast here on KQED last Wednesday night? The weirdest moments were
comparisons with Mozart (a bit over the top even for a fan like me), and a
very strange interview between Sean Lennon and Brian, a rather wistful
exchange in which Brian Wilson admitted he had been a terrible father --
and the "absence" of John Lennon loomed large, Wilson spoke of being blown
away by "Rubber Soul" and setting out to do something as good with "Pet
Sounds" (a record that TRP enjoyed in 1965, according to Jules Siegel) .
Wilson performed several songs from a new album, "Imagination", which has
the same surf-and-car music pulse and harmonies that Pynchon celebrates in
VL,  but the lyrics now are often dark and moody, addressing the years he
spent as a recluse. He still appears to be quite shaky and insecure (less
so than in the TV documentary that came out a couple of years ago, in
conjunction of a solo album that included performances by his two grown
daughters -- in that film, if I remember correctly, he only appeared in
interviews with his wife, Melinda, while he was seen interacting with
several different people in this latest film), but digging his music.

The parallels with TRP may be non-existent -- he shunned celebrity to begin
with, while Wilson was a rock star. Wilson's gradual re-introduction to
public life acknowledges the deep emotional disturbances that kept him out
of public view. In TRP's case, the word for some time has been that he is
an extraordinarily gifted artist who prefers not to talk to journalists and
continues to shun celebrity.

-Doug