Lonely Sea - The Beach Boys (1963)
The Beach Boys is born in 1961 in Hawthorne, in the suburb Los Angeles. It is composed of three brothers: Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson; their cousin: Mike Love, and their neighbour: Al Jardine.
Their first track Surfin’, written by Brian (who will become the main composer and leader of the group) and Mike, is released in December 1961. It becomes a great success and step up to the second place in Los Angeles. It helps the band being spotted by Capitol Records.
From 1962 to 1965, they released 6 albums which all rank in the top 10 sales in the USA. The Beach Boys are then considered as the only American group able of competing with the British flood led by the Beatles.
The competition between Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney pushed the two men to excel and the successes keep coming. While John Lennon and Paul McCartney write Revolver to answer to the album Today!, Brian Wilson is focusing its efforts to surpass Rubber Soul with his album Pet Sounds that will be his masterpiece.
The year 1966 marks the beginning of the decline in the group as it was formed. Brian Wilson begin working on an ambitious project: the album Smile. The other group members are reluctant to this project and start questionning his leadership role.
Brian Wilson can’t handle the stress of road travel, composing, producing and maintaining a high level of creativity. His mental problems become more present and he stays in his bed, paranoid and obese. In 1983, Dennis Wilson, after an abuse of drink, drowned accidentally. Then in 1998, the group loses Carl Wilson died of lung cancer. Al Jardine then left the group. Mike Love remains the only member of the original band.
The 90 years are also punctuated by trial between Brian Wilson and Mike Love mainly about Beach Boys’ song copyrights.
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Beach Boys Official Website
Lonely Sea on DailyMotion
Further information on Wikipedia [en]
Buy Surfin’ USA on Amazon.com
