Murry Wilson / Brian Wilson / The Beach Boys -- I Am Speechless

Said sophistry is nothing new for this particular poster. It has been on display in many different threads as of late.

The best cure for it is to simply ignore it.

 

I support your right to simplistic, two-dimensional views of a complex world. Whatever gets you through the night.

 

Thanks for the warning. I'll know better than to engage with him next time.

 

Don't forget Bud Cowsill and Michael Jeffery, both of them were a couple of winners.

 

Where were the rest of the band including guys that were not his brothers while Brian was going thru this with his father?

 

Just because he called an album "The Many Moods of Murry Wilson" doesn't mean he had more than a few. Mood swings, definitely, but beyond drunk, angry and passive aggressive I can't imagine 'many' more. He was a complete toerag.

 

Murray Wilson was a garbage human being? Nooooooooooooo........

 

It's known that Dennis copped a lot of beatings from Murry.
They also had the turmoil relationship.
Unlike Brian, Dennis seemed to be able to take the abuse a lot more on the chin.
Brian withered into sorrow.
Carl, as we can gather from the documentary footage, stood back and out of the way and never got too involved.
Carl never had the same 'fight' in him as his brothers.
That's a rough analysis.

 

Murray was the loudest and you always knew when he was present in any room.

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and say Murry's dad was nasty to him. It doesn't justify treating his sons in the same manner.

 

From the 2:00 mark, you even hear Dennis talking about how his father would 'fall down and cry with joy'.

 

Dennis actually reconciled with his father before Murry died.

Murry was scum but he's Pope John Paul II compared to Bud Cowsill.

 

Never speak ill of the Dad

 

Yes one of the assorted Beach Boy biographies went back and dug up stuff on Murry's dad. The apple didn't fall far from the tree. But ... and do not take this as a defense of ANYTHING ... how common was that in a different, unenlightened era where Dad was basically God incarnate simply because he existed?

 

A&M thought Murray ripped them off. All the songs were about surfing and cars and none of the lead sheets were correct. Brian offered to come in and fix the lead sheets but A&M didn't want anything to do with him.

 

I tend to agree. The apple fell from the tree, and it was Brian.
Who knows what kind of mind games Murry played with him.
We know Brian has been caught in this trap over the years even with Landy.
I'm sure Murry nurtured Brian, dissolving those others around the band too.
A lot of 'brainwashing' or 'smoke and mirrors' at least.

 

Some interesting bars in there.

 

Also, getting screwed!
Seriously Al Jardine wasn't even legally part of the band back then, David Marks was efficiently written out of the story at this point and although I don't know for sure, Bruce definitely couldn't be any more part of the band than Al was. So it was just family, the 3 brothers and the cousin.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

Seriously, there is a lot of perspective missing here. ... I do NOT condone what Murry did or the way he seemed to treat his sons, the other band members or anything else. Not in any way. But at the same time, by 1969, musicians were still confused by publishing deals and the industry was not what it would become even in the next few years. First off, no one predicted the longevity any of this would have. I'm not 100% Murry knew exactly what he was doing (other than the keeping the money for himself part, which of course is disgusting and unforgivable). But I think there was a drive to prove himself... at least to himself. I think he took advantage of not only Brian's mental instability but Dennis & Carl's fear and naiveity. And Mike was sort of left one against 3 (or 4 if you include Murry)

Although I believe Murry was probably extremely narcissistic and jealous, I do think he also fancied himself a smart business man and some of his (possibly not this one) business moves to be in their best interest. But they obvious weren't.

The sad thing is at 22 Brian could have just shut him out, but he didn't know any better.

At the same time, without Murry's drive, we might not have ever gotten The Beach Boys to the level we did. That does not make what he did forgivable, but there is a small chance that if he threw that in the boys' face enough, it wrongly helped "blind" them to this type of behavior. The big issue here is that Murry was the father/uncle. We're not just dealing with a "shady" manager or even a single member's father. This is some serious psychological warefare stuff...

I don't think Dennis took it any better. None of the Wilson brothers went on to a "smooth sailing" lifestyle. In fact, I think Dennis was worse off than Brian in many ways. Brian has had his ups and downs and is still around. Dennis seemed to just fall and keep falling.

I think in Carl's case, he was just cautious as to what he said publicly, unlike his brothers.

As amazing as Brian is, I believe we wrongly ignore Dennis & Carl's influence on the band and all of these issues too. Not to mention Mike Love (admittedly an extremely easy target to make fun of and dismiss! But not necessarily fairly).

As brilliant as Brian was as a songwriter/arranger/singer; Carl was just as brilliant as a singer/arranger/leader (Carl was one of the greatest singer's ever. That's not putting Brian down in anyway, but Carl's voice was Magic); Dennis was just as brilliant as a songwriter/arranger too. In fact Dennis was extremely creative and maybe even a little more "artsy" at times. I also think had Dennis been able to sobre up, not only would his voice have maintained the beauty it had in his youth, but he would have probably been the prolific songwriter of them all. Not to say that he would have reached the commercial level Brian did, but he was able to churn out songs pretty evenly throughout his life. Again, not taking away from Brian who clearly have the edge with the songwriting and arranging always, but that his shadow has darkened the masses to the other talent around.

I hate saying this but I can't help but feeling that Brian, Dennis & Carl Wilson as well as Mike Love and even Al Jardine & David Marks (to a lesser extent) are victims of their talents, the industry and family and even long after Murry was gone, their entire history, to this day, has been tainted by those things.

 

Excellent and thorough.
Good post.

 

I was actually thinking of doing a Murry Wilson thread some time back.
Based on the 'I'm a Genius Too' quote.
He did have some songs published and performed.
Here's a doo-wop tune by The Four Flames - Tabarin.

 

The Jets - I'll Hide My Tears

 

Even Brian, says great things about his dad....

 

The saga of the band and their personal lives is about as removed from the mood and sentiment of almost all their body of work as any I can recall.

It’s often said that for some artists, great beauty can be derived from great pain. With the Wilson brothers, that statement certainly holds credence. In some respects, Brian’s work became more ornate and complex as he began to experience greater personal difficulties. Almost a refuge against the things he was dealing with.

It’s one thing to have an abusive manager. It adds another layer of complexity when it’s also your father. As Carl once said, it’s hard to fire your dad.

Some of the behaviors of Murry have been disclosed over the years, but there’s no way to know the true extent of the abuse the family endured. It’s heartbreaking.

Murry was only 55 when he died. I guess it seemed he should have been much older.

 

The proper thing to do would have been to delete it. You ended up making it look worse. You also ended up making yourself look worse in the process.

 

Would the Rutles have made it without Leggy Mountbatten and their trousers?