Charles Apple

Two of my favorite subjects in the world intersected this weekend: Gannett, with which I spent five great years, and Brian Wilson, the genius behind all those great Beach Boys songs from the 1960s.

Brian Wilson on tour in 2004.
Photo from BrianWilson.com.
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Brian’s new solo album, That Lucky Old Sun, hits stores Tuesday, Sept. 2. But this weekend, Gannett newspapers are offering streaming previews of the tracks from that album on its web sites throughout the chain.

Naturally, I had to visit the one attached to my former paper — The Des Moines Register — to hear Brian’s latest tunes. And man, was it worth my time. Great, great music.

Brian Wilson was only 21 when the group he formed with his two brothers, a cousin and a school chum hit the jackpot in 1963 with songs like “Surfin’ Safari,” “Surfin’ USA,” “Little Deuce Coupe” and others. That same year, he scored his first No. 1 hit, “Surf City,” for Jan and Dean.

Brian directs cousin and vocalist Mike Love in 1965.
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Subsequent Beach Boys’ singles became household names: “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “I Get Around” and “Don’t Worry Baby” (1964), “Help Me, Rhonda” and “California Girls” (1965), “Barbara-Ann,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “God Only Knows” and “Good Vibrations” (1966).

The Beach Boys in 1966: Brian, Carl Wilson,
Mike Love, Dennis Wilson and Alan Jardine.
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But as talented and successful as he was, Brian was a troubled young man. As he tells the Guardian:

I have auditory hallucinations, I hear voices saying derogatory things, like I’m terrible and I’m going to die, and they’re usually worse in the afternoon.

Flash-forward 40 years. Brian’ creative but fragile psyche has been in and out of treatment for decades. Brother Dennis, the drummer, drowned in 1983. Angelic-sounding guitarist brother Carl succumbed to brain and lung cancer in 1998. Buddy Al Jardine, also a guitarist, tours and records with his own sons. Only vocalist cousin Mike Love still tours the country with longtime member Bruce Johnston as “The Beach Boys.”

Brian on tour in 2004. Photo from BrianWilson.com.
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Brian, now a 66-year-old solo artist, finally released his famous 1967 “lost masterpiece,” Smile, to great acclaim in 2004. Unbelievably, the album earned him a Grammy: Brian’s first.

The reviews of That Lucky Old Sun have been wonderful. My daughter and I have been grooving on it all afternoon. It’s great stuff. I hope you’ll like it, too.

Give it a listen at The Des Moines Register. Or any Gannett paper web site, for that matter. You’ll also find a story about Brian and a timeline of his life.

Read an Editor & Publisher story about the partnership here. Read about the brief tour Brian has scheduled around the album here.

Read a very nice AP recap of the life of Brian here. Read a wonderful Q&A with Brian in the U.K. Guardian here.

Find Brian’s official web site here. Find a very complete Beach Boys web site here. Find a site that details Dennis Wilson’s 1977 solo album Pacific Ocean Blue — a very rare find on CD until it was reissued this summer — here.

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