{"id":7075,"date":"2025-06-12T10:33:30","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T09:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=7075"},"modified":"2025-06-12T13:53:33","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T12:53:33","slug":"three-quarters-of-an-hour-to-compose-the-most-perfect-pop-song-ever-our-brian-wilson-cover-story-interview-from-2016-issue-57","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=7075","title":{"rendered":"Three Quarters Of An Hour To Compose The Most Perfect Pop Song Ever? Our Brian Wilson cover story interview from 2016, issue #57"},"content":{"rendered":"

To honour the passing of BRIAN WILSON, one of pop music’s true legends, we’re running CHRIS TWOMEY’s full article from issue #57. Order \u00a0our beautifully designed bespoke print copy here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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As the old adage goes, BRIAN WILSON needs no introduction but always deserves one.\u00a0Fifty years ago, Pet Sounds<\/em>, the album he crafted with and without THE BEACH BOYS, redefined the boundaries of pop music forever. GenerAtions of disciples have been playing catch-up ever since, while legions of Fans have welcomed the once-reclusive composer’s return to the public eye. One such fan is CHRIS TWOMEY, who, after 30 years of waiting, saw his dream come true<\/strong><\/p>\n

After 30-plus years of writing for a living and interviewing thousands of people \u2013 including every conceivable type of \u201ccelebrity\u201d \u2013 one name had always eluded me. The groupie in me was never going to find inner peace until I\u2019d interviewed the greatest prize of all: Brian Wilson. Trouble was, with each passing year the chances of that happening grew slimmer and slimmer\u2026<\/p>\n

Before we get stuck in, dear reader, you\u2019ll have already noticed an unfamiliar, personal tone to this piece \u2013 one that\u2019s very \u201cun-Shindig!<\/em>\u201d \u2013 and there\u2019s a reason for this. We\u2019re here to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Pet Sounds<\/em>, the perennial masterpiece that\u2019s just been re-issued as a deluxe four-CD box set, and which Brian is currently touring around the world for the last time ever. It\u2019s an incredibly poignant event but what is there left to say about one of the most critically analysed albums in pop history? What can I tell you that you don\u2019t already know? Nothing.<\/p>\n

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So this isn\u2019t going to be a re-hash or defrosting of old facts, it\u2019s going to be the story of trying to get the story \u2013 with a few previously untold surprises thrown in. It\u2019s the only tale I\u2019ve got to tell. Although I\u2019ve been transfixed\/seduced by many great bands in my time, including Procol Harum, The Stranglers, Air and XTC, The Beach Boys are the greatest of them all as far as I\u2019m concerned. Yep, greater even than The Beatles, The Kinks, the Stones, The Who, ABBA or whoever else you want to throw at me. As brilliant as these others undoubtedly were, or are, they all lacked one essential ingredient: Brian Wilson.<\/p>\n

Simply having him in the picture adds annextra dimension to everything The Beach Boys achieved, not just because he wrote an incredible catalogue of timeless pop melodies, nbut because in a very perceptible sense his tortured psyche gave them a depth and soul the others lacked. Looking back, you can often hear Brian\u2019s state of mind in his complex chord sequences \u2013 listen to \u2018Surf \u2019s Up\u2019 and tell me you don\u2019t hear a confused and vulnerable adult crying. I can\u2019t think of another era-defining group who were so heavily dependent on the talents of just one man \u2013 a guy, moreover, who was only 23 when he composed, arranged and produced one of pop’s landmark achievements, Pet Sounds<\/em>.<\/p>\n