Brian Wilson brings Gershwin tour to Manchester

Aug 4 2011 Chester Chronicle

Brian Wilson was a founding member of The Beach Boys, one of the most celebrated bands of all time. His latest project sees him reworking the most famous songs of his songwriting heroes George and Ira Gershwin, while also preparing for a UK tour in September. The troubled genius talks to Andy Welch about the album and his past

For a musician so obsessed with the recording process for most of his career, it’s quite fitting that Brian Wilson is anxious about our interview being captured.

“Is it working?” he says numerous times to the Dictaphone in front of him. “Make sure it’s recording. Is it working?”

You can’t begrudge him having an eye for such details, though. Imagine if he’d forgotten to check if the little red light was on in 1966 when the Beach Boys recorded Pet Sounds, to many one of the very finest albums of all time.

The Brian Wilson of 2011 cuts a very different image from the one who carved out such glorious, sun-kissed music in those halcyon days of the mid-Sixties when he, along with younger brothers Dennis and Carl, cousin Mike Love and school friend Al Jardine (among other band members that came and went) took the sounds of America’s West Coast and their heavenly harmonies around the world.

During the latter part of that decade, the serious mental health problems that still plague Wilson began, brought on by his Herculean drug intake and exacerbated by the pressure the band were under at the height of their Beatle-rivalling fame. Add to that rumours of a stroke at some point and he’s not in the best shape.

That said, with the help of just mild anti-depressants Wilson has been more stable for the past 10 years than he’d been for the previous 20.

He’s not the easiest interviewee, granted, offering short, often one-word answers to most questions. Lose eye contact for a split second and his attention his lost.

Wilson, who celebrated his 69th birthday on June 20, is trying to co-operate the best he can. He isn’t trying to be difficult or obstructive, he just doesn’t have the words or concentration for anything more.

One subject that does illuminate him more than most, however, is the music of George Gershwin.

Gershwin was born in New York in 1898 and died just 38 years later. In that short time, however, he wrote some of the most important music of all time.

Together with lyricist brother Ira, they contributed some of the finest works in what’s now known as the Great American Songbook: S’Wonderful, They Can’t Take That Away From Me, Embraceable You, Someone To Watch Over Me and Summertime, to name just a few of their standards.

As an orchestral composer, George Gershwin was without peer and is perhaps best known for Rhapsody In Blue, his 1924 symphonic jazz composition.

There are many parallels between Gershwin and Wilson - both fused American contemporary culture with classical symphonic arrangements to rewrite the rule book, both worked with their siblings and both, for different reasons, burned out early.

“My favourite music is George Gershwin, doo-wop songs and Phil Spector’s recordings,” he says. “I don’t listen to modern music.”

Wilson has long been fascinated by Gershwin’s compositions, and first heard Rhapsody In Blue at his grandmother’s house when he was four and vaguely remembers loving it. It wasn’t until he was 28, however, that he heard it again and fully appreciated the majesty of the music.

“When I heard it that second time I thought, ‘I’m going to learn that’,” says Wilson with typical childlike enthusiasm. “I worked it out four notes at a time, and ran backwards and forwards from the record player to the piano. After two weeks, I finally had it down and learned to play it.

“Don’t you think that’s impressive?” he says, leaning forward, beaming.

Considering the complexity of the piece, it really, really is, and that’s before you take into account Wilson being deaf in his right ear. The reason for his hearing problems remain unclear. Some say he was born deaf, others theorise the damage came after his notoriously abusive father Murry hit him in the head as a child.

“I’m looking forward to people hearing this album,” he adds. “It took two months to record.”

The album, Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin, is out now and features new arrangements of Gershwin classics.

On paper, the thought of these jazz standards being given a Beach Boys-esque makeover might not sound particularly appealing, but there’s something strangely compelling about the playful, hugely affectionate new versions, while two songs - The Like In I Love You and Nothing But Love - are based on previously unrecorded music written by Gershwin before his untimely death.

“We just used a few of the chords, but it’s not similar to how he did them at all. We just took a bit of the song and extrapolated on it,” Wilson explains.

The album came at the end of a lengthy creative dry spell for Wilson. Before writing the new arrangements, he hadn’t written a song for four years. Not through lack of trying.

“I’ve not written in so long. I sit at the piano but my hands don’t want to do it. ‘What the hell’s going on here?’ I say, ‘Come on Brian, I know you can do it’ but nothing comes out. Then I get a spark, but I can’t understand why I’m having such a dry spell.”

Hearing him say this is heartbreaking. Of course, he’s written more than his fair share of hits already - God Only Knows, Good Vibrations and California Girls to name three of the most famous songs of all time. The saddest thing is suspecting he still has the ideas, but lacks the co-ordination to articulate them.

In September, Wilson and his band return to the UK for a string of shows where they’ll perform the Gershwin album, as well as one or two Beach Boys hits. If his previous performances are anything to go by, they’ll be extremely special evenings.

In 2002, Wilson came out of virtual retirement to perform Pet Sounds in its entirety. Now, live performances of albums are commonplace, but 10 years ago, no one was doing it. Even in his advancing years, Wilson is still an innovator.

“I was worried to death that people weren’t going to like it and it wasn’t going to go over. I thought everyone would hate it, but it went over so well,” he says.

‘Went over so well’ might be a slight understatement. On the night of his first performance at London’s Festival Hall the auditorium was full of people crying their eyes out at the sheer beauty of what they were seeing and hearing.

Here was a man so frail he was helped to the stage, reading between-song chat from an autocue, but seemingly coming back to life as soon as he started playing his piano.

The effect was repeated in 2004 when he performed lost classic SMiLE for the first time – an album he started working on in 1966, but didn’t finish and release for another 38 years – and again in 2007 when he played That Lucky Old Sun, a collaboration with old friend Van Dyke Parks.

It’s unlikely Wilson will make another album – “It’s so much work,” he says – but he does love performing.

It’s the exact opposite of his stance in the Sixties, when he retired from touring with The Beach Boys, sending them out on the road while he stayed at home to write and record new material.

“I feel I can sing now,” he says. “And I feel comfortable on stage. I feel I can sing God Only Knows the way Carl would sing it, or Surfin’ USA like Mike would.

“I feel happy on stage. Happiest of all.”

Brian Wilson will be playing live at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on September 13. Call 0161 907 9000 for details.