Brian Wilson

Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition, extraordinary musical aptitude, and mastery of recording techniques, he is widely acknowledged as one of the most innovative and significant songwriters of the 20th century. His best-known work is distinguished for its high production values, complex harmonies and orchestrations, layered vocals, and introspective or ingenuous themes. Wilson is also known for his formerly high-ranged singing and for his lifelong struggles with mental illness.

Raised in Hawthorne, California, Wilson's formative influences included George Gershwin, the Four Freshmen, Phil Spector, and Burt Bacharach. In 1961, he began his professional career as a member of the Beach Boys, serving as the band's songwriter, producer, co-lead vocalist, bassist, keyboardist, and ''de facto'' leader. After signing with Capitol Records in 1962, he became the first pop artist credited for writing, arranging, producing, and performing his own material. He also produced other acts, most notably the Honeys and American Spring. By the mid-1960s, he had written or co-written more than two dozen U.S. Top 40 hits, including the number-ones " Surf City" (1963), " I Get Around" (1964), "Help Me, Rhonda" (1965), and "Good Vibrations" (1966). He is considered among the first music producer ''auteurs'' and the first rock producers to apply the studio as an instrument.

In 1964, Wilson had a nervous breakdown and resigned from regular concert touring, which led to more refined work, such as the Beach Boys' ''Pet Sounds'' and his first credited solo release, "Caroline, No" (both 1966), as well as the unfinished album ''Smile''. As he declined professionally and psychologically in the late 1960s, his contributions to the band diminished, and legends grew around his lifestyle of seclusion, overeating, and drug abuse. His first comeback, divisive among fans, yielded the would-be solo effort ''The Beach Boys Love You'' (1977). In the 1980s, he formed a controversial creative and business partnership with his psychologist, Eugene Landy, and relaunched his solo career with the album '' Brian Wilson'' (1988). Wilson disassociated from Landy in 1991. Since 1999, he has toured regularly as a solo artist.

Heralding popular music's recognition as an art form, Wilson's accomplishments as a producer helped initiate an era of unprecedented creative autonomy for label-signed acts. The youth zeitgeist of the 1960s is commonly associated with his early songs, and he is regarded as an important figure to many music genres and movements, including the California sound, art pop, psychedelia, chamber pop, progressive music, punk, outsider, and sunshine pop. Since the 1980s, his influence has extended to styles such as post-punk, indie rock, emo, dream pop, ''Shibuya-kei'', and chillwave. Wilson's accolades include numerous industry awards, inductions into multiple music halls of fame, and entries on several "greatest of all time" critics' rankings. His life was dramatized in the 2014 biopic '' Love & Mercy''.

Life and career

1942–1961: Background and musical training

Childhood

Brian Douglas Wilson was born on June 20, 1942, at Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, California, the first child of Audree Neva (''née'' Korthof) and Murry Wilson, a machinist and later a part-time songwriter. He has Dutch, Scottish, English, German, Irish, and Swedish ancestry. Brian's two younger brothers Dennis and Carl were born in 1944 and 1946, respectively. Shortly after Dennis' birth, the family moved from Inglewood to 3701 West 119th Street in nearby Hawthorne, California. Like his brothers, Brian suffered abuse from his father that was mostly psychological and sometimes physical. He characterized his father as "violent" and "cruel"; however, many of the stories which later circulated about his father's treatment were "dirty lies", according to Wilson, and that "even the things that are true" had been misreported.

From an early age, Wilson demonstrated an extraordinary skill for learning by ear. Speaking of his unusual musical abilities prior to his first birthday, his father said that, as a baby, he could repeat the melody from " When the Caissons Go Rolling Along" after only a few verses had been sung by the father. The Wilsons' father encouraged his children in the music field in numerous ways. As a child, Wilson was given six weeks of lessons on a "toy accordion" and, at seven and eight, sang solos in church with a choir behind him. There, his choir director discovered that Wilson had perfect pitch. After the Wilson family purchased a piano for their home, Brian abandoned his accordion and devoted hours to learning his favorite songs on piano. Later, he learned to write manuscript music from a friend of his father's.

Wilson sang with various students at school functions and with his family and friends at home, teaching his two brothers harmony parts that all three would then practice. He also played piano obsessively after school, deconstructing the harmonies of the Four Freshmen by listening to short segments of their songs on a phonograph, then working to recreate the blended sounds note by note on the keyboard. Moreover, he owned an educational record called ''The Instruments of the Orchestra'' and frequently listened to his favorite radio station at the time, KFWB. He was introduced to R&B by Carl and taught to play boogie woogie piano by their uncle Charlie. According to Brian, he and Carl often "stayed up all night" listening to Johnny Otis' KFOX radio show to discuss its R&B songs and add them "to our musical vocabulary". Carl said that, by the time Brian was ten, "he could play great boogie-woogie piano!"

One of Brian's first songwriting exercises, penned on a sheet of paper when he was nine, was a rewriting of the lyrics to Stephen Foster's " Oh! Susannah". In his 1991 memoir, he recalls writing his first song for a 4th grade school project concerning Paul Bunyan. In a 2005 interview, he said that he began composing original music in 1955, when he was 12.

Carl said, "There were many years of rian'slife where he did nothing but play the piano. Months at a time. Days on end. Four Freshmen records. Just all music." Dennis remembered, "Brian was the freak. He used to stay in his room all day listening to records rather than play baseball." Their mother recalled that Brian "constantly" listened to the radio in his room during his junior high school years. "Murry once aidto me, 'Do you think we should worry about him?' I said, 'No. He's just loving the music.'"

High school and college

In high school, Wilson was quarterback on his local football team at Hawthorne High. He also played baseball and was a cross-country runner in his senior year. Before his success in music, Wilson's only paid employment was a part-time job sweeping at a jewelry store for four months when he was 15. On weekends, he was also a cleaner for his father's machining company, ABLE. Around this time, Wilson auditioned to be the singer of the record to mark the launch of the Original Sound Record Company, "Chapel of Love" (unrelated to the 1964 song), but he was rejected for being too young. For his 16th birthday, he received a portable two-track Wollensak tape recorder, allowing him to experiment with recording songs, group vocals, and rudimentary production techniques. Biographer Peter Ames Carlin writes that the tapes suggest that "Brian liked nothing more than to gather his friends around the piano ..Most often he'd harmonize with ..friends from his senior class."

Written for his Senior Problems course in October 1959, Wilson submitted an essay, "My Philosophy", in which he stated that his ambitions were to "make a name for myself ..in music." One of Wilson's earliest public performances was at a fall arts program at his high school. He enlisted his cousin and frequent singing partner Mike Love and, to entice Carl into the group, named the newly formed membership "Carl and the Passions." The performance featured tunes by Dion and the Belmonts and the Four Freshmen ("It's a Blue World"), the latter of which proved difficult for the ensemble. The event was notable for the impression which it made on another musician and classmate of Wilson's in the audience, Al Jardine.

Fred Morgan, Wilson's high school music teacher, remembered that Wilson, at 17, had demonstrated an above-average understanding of Bach and Beethoven. Nonetheless, he gave Wilson a final grade of C for his Piano and Harmony course due to incomplete assignments. For his final project, instead of composing a 120-measure piano sonata, Wilson submitted a 32-measure piece. Morgan gave the work an F. Reflecting on his last year of high school, Brian said that he was "''very'' happy. I wouldn't say I was popular in school, but I was associated with popular people."

Wilson enrolled as a psychology major at El Camino Junior College as well. He was disappointed to find that his music teachers strongly disapproved of pop music, and he quit college after a year and half. By Wilson's account, he wrote his first all-original melody, loosely based on a Dion and the Belmonts version of " When You Wish Upon a Star", in 1961. The song was eventually known as " Surfer Girl". However, Wilson's closest high school friends disputed this, recalling that Wilson had written numerous songs prior to "Surfer Girl".

Formation of the Beach Boys

Wilson, brothers Carl and Dennis, cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine first appeared as a music group in the autumn of 1961, initially under the name the Pendletones. After being prodded by Dennis to write a song about the local water-sports craze, Wilson and Mike Love together created what became the first single for the band, " Surfin'". Around this time, the group rented an amplifier, a microphone, and a stand-up bass for Jardine to play. After the boys rehearsed for several weeks in the Wilsons' music room, his parents returned home from a brief trip to Mexico. Eventually impressed, Murry Wilson proclaimed himself the group's manager and the band embarked on serious rehearsals for a proper studio session.

Recorded by Hite and Dorinda Morgan and released on the small Candix Records label, "Surfin'" became a top local hit in Los Angeles and reached number 75 on the national ''Billboard'' sales charts. Dennis later described the first time that his older brother heard their song on the radio, as the three Wilson brothers and David Marks drove in Wilson's 1957 Ford in the rain: "Nothing will ever top the expression on Brian's face, ever ... ''that'' was the all-time moment." However, the Pendletones were no more, as Candix Records had changed their name to the Beach Boys. Wilson and his bandmates, following a set by Ike & Tina Turner, performed their first major live show at the Ritchie Valens Memorial Dance on New Year's Eve, 1961. Three days previously, Wilson's father had bought him an electric bass and amplifier. Wilson had learned to play the instrument in that short period of time, with Jardine moving to rhythm guitar.

When Candix Records ran into money problems and sold the Beach Boys' master recordings to another label, Wilson's father terminated the contract. As "Surfin'" faded from the charts, Wilson, who had forged a songwriting partnership with local musician Gary Usher, created several new songs, including a car song, " 409", that Usher helped them write. Wilson and the Beach Boys cut new tracks at Western Recorders in Hollywood, including " Surfin' Safari" and "409". These songs convinced Capitol Records to release the demos as a single; they became a double-sided national hit.

1962–1966: Peak years

Early productions and freelance work

As a member of the Beach Boys, Wilson was signed by Capitol Records' Nick Venet to a seven-year contract in 1962. Recording sessions for the band's first album, '' Surfin' Safari'', took place in Capitol's basement studios in the famous tower building in August, but early on Wilson lobbied for a different place to cut Beach Boys tracks. The large rooms were built to record the big orchestras and ensembles of the 1950s, not small rock groups. At Wilson's insistence, Capitol agreed to let the Beach Boys pay for their own outside recording sessions, to which Capitol would own all the rights. Additionally, during the taping of their first LP, Wilson fought for, and won, the right to helm the production – though this fact was not acknowledged with an album liner notes production credit.

Wilson remarked, "I've always felt I was a behind-the-scenes man, rather than an entertainer." He had been a massive fan of Phil Spector – who had risen to fame with the Teddy Bears – and aspired to model his burgeoning career after the record producer. With Gary Usher, Wilson wrote numerous songs patterned after the Teddy Bears, and they wrote and produced some records for local talent, albeit with no commercial success. Brian gradually dissolved his partnership with Usher due to interference from Murry. Brian's first record that he produced outside of the Beach Boys, albeit uncredited, was Rachel and the Revolvers' "The Revo-Lution", written with Usher and issued by Dot Records in September.

By mid-1962, Brian was writing songs with DJ Roger Christian, whom he had met through either Murry or Usher, and guitarist Bob Norberg, who became Wilson's roommate. David Marks said, "He was obsessed with it. Brian was writing song with people off the street in front of his house, disc jockeys, anyone. He had so much stuff flowing through him at once he could hardly handle it." In October, Safari Records, a label created by Murry, released the single "The Surfer Moon" by Bob & Sheri. It was the first record that bore the label "Produced by Brian Wilson". The only other record the label issued was Bob & Sheri's "Humpty Dumpty". Both songs were written by Wilson.

From January to March 1963, Wilson produced the Beach Boys' second album, '' Surfin' U.S.A.''. To focus his efforts on writing and recording, he limited his public appearances with the group to television gigs and local shows. Otherwise, David Marks acted as Wilson's substitute on vocals. In March, Capitol released the Beach Boys' first top-ten single, " Surfin' U.S.A.", which began their long run of highly successful recording efforts at Western. The ''Surfin' U.S.A.'' album was also a big hit in the U.S., reaching number two on the national sales charts by July. The Beach Boys had become a top-rank recording and touring band.

Against Venet's wishes, Wilson worked with non-Capitol acts. Shortly after meeting Liberty Records' Jan and Dean (likely in August 1962), Wilson offered them a new song he had written, " Surf City", which the duo soon recorded. On July 20, 1963, "Surf City", which Wilson co-wrote with Jan Berry, was his first composition to reach the top of the US charts. The resulting success pleased Wilson, but angered both Murry and Capitol Records. Murry went so far as to order his oldest son to sever any future collaborations with Jan and Dean, although they continued to appear on each other's records. Wilson's hits with Jan and Dean effectively revitalized the music duo's then-faltering career.

Around the same time, Wilson began producing a girl group, the Honeys, consisting of sisters Marilyn and Diane Rovell and their cousin Ginger Blake, who were local high school students he had met at a Beach Boys concert during the previous August. Wilson pitched the Honeys to Capitol, envisioning them as a female counterpart to the Beach Boys. The company released several Honeys recordings as singles, although they sold poorly. In the meantime, Wilson became closely acquainted with the Rovell family and made their home his primary residence for most of 1963 and 1964.

Wilson was for the first time officially credited as the Beach Boys' producer on the album '' Surfer Girl'', recorded in June and July 1963 and released that September. This LP reached number seven on the national charts, with similarly successful singles. He also produced a set of largely car-oriented tunes for the Beach Boys' fourth album, ''Little Deuce Coupe'', which was released in October 1963, only three weeks after the ''Surfer Girl'' LP. Still resistant to touring, Wilson was replaced onstage for many of the band's live performances in mid-1963 by Al Jardine, who had briefly quit the band to focus on school. Wilson was forced to rejoin the touring line-up upon Marks' departure in late 1963.

Towards the end of 1963, Wilson formed a record production company, Brian Wilson Productions, with an office on Sunset Boulevard, and a music publishing company, Ocean Music, for songs he wrote for other artists. Excepting his work with the Beach Boys, for the whole of 1963, Wilson had written, arranged, produced, or performed on at least 42 songs with the Honeys, Jan and Dean, the Survivors, Sharon Marie, the Timers, the Castells ("I Do"), Bob Norberg, Vickie Kocher, Gary Usher, Christian, Paul Petersen ("She Rides with Me"), and Larry Denton ("Endless Sleep").

International success and first nervous breakdown

Throughout 1964, Wilson engaged in worldwide concert tours with the Beach Boys while continuing to write and produce for the group, whose studio output for this year included the albums ''Shut Down Volume 2'' (March), '' All Summer Long'' (June), and ''The Beach Boys' Christmas Album'' (November). Following a particularly stressful Australasian tour in early 1964, it was agreed by the group to dismiss Murry from his managerial duties. Murry still had a subsequent influence over the band's activities and kept a direct correspondence with Brian, giving him thoughts about the group's decisions; Wilson also periodically sought music opinions from his father.

In February, Beatlemania swept the U.S., a development that deeply disturbed Wilson. In a 1966 interview, he commented, "The Beatles invasion shook me up a lot. They eclipsed a lot of what we'd worked for. ..The Beach Boys' supremacy as the number one vocal group in America was being challenged. So we stepped on the gas a little bit." Author James Perone identifies the Beach Boys' May single " I Get Around", their first U.S. number one hit, as representing both a successful response by Wilson to the British Invasion, and the beginning of an unofficial rivalry between him and the Beatles, principally Paul McCartney. The B-side, "Don't Worry Baby", was cited by Wilson in a 1970 interview as "Probably the best record we've done".

The increasing pressures of Wilson's career and personal life pushed him to a psychological breaking point. He had ceased writing surfing-themed material after " Don't Back Down" in April, and during the group's first major European tour, in late 1964, replied angrily to a journalist when asked how he felt about originating the surfing sound. Wilson resented being identified with surf and car songs, explaining that he had only intended to "produce a sound that teens dig, and that can be applied to any theme. ..We're just gonna stay on the life of a social teenager." He later described himself as a "Mr Everything" that had been so "run down mentally and emotionally ..to the point where I had no peace of mind and no chance to actually sit down and think or even rest." Adding to his concerns was the group's "business operations" and the quality of their records, which he believed suffered from this arrangement. On December 7, in an effort to bring himself more emotional stability, Wilson impulsively married Marilyn Rovell.

On December 23, Wilson was to accompany his bandmates on a two-week US tour, but while on a flight from Los Angeles to Houston, began sobbing uncontrollably over his marriage. Al Jardine, who had sat next to Wilson on the plane, later said, "None of us had ever witnessed something like that." Wilson played the show in Houston later that day, but was replaced by session musician Glen Campbell for the rest of the tour dates. At the time, Wilson described it as "the first of a series of three breakdowns I had." When the group resumed recording their next album in January 1965, Wilson declared to his bandmates that he would be withdrawing from future tours. He later told a journalist that his decision had been a byproduct of his "fucked up" jealousy toward Spector and the Beatles.

Growing drug use, LSD, and religious epiphany

In 1965, Wilson immediately showcased great advances in his musical development with the albums ''The Beach Boys Today!'' (March) and ''Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)'' (June). Campbell remained on tour with the band until he was no longer able to, in February. As a thanks, Wilson produced a single for Campbell in March, "Guess I'm Dumb", after which the band recruited Columbia Records staff producer Bruce Johnston as Wilson's substitute on tour. In February, March, July, and October, Wilson rejoined the live group for one-off occasions.

With his bandmates often away on tour, Wilson distanced himself socially from the other Beach Boys. Since the autumn of 1964, he had moved from the Rovells' home to a one-bedroom apartment at 7235 Hollywood Boulevard, and given his newfound independence, had begun forming a new social circle for himself through the industry connections he had accumulated. Biographer Steven Gaines writes, "Brian had total freedom from family restraints for the first time. ..he was finally able to make a new set of friends without parental interference." By Gary Usher's account, Wilson had had few close friends and was "like a piece of clay waiting to be molded". By the end of the year, Wilson was one of the most successful, influential, and sought-after young musicians in Los Angeles. However, a wider public recognition of Wilson's talents eluded him until 1966.

Wilson stated that "a lot of isfriends", who were drug users, had "turned imon" to drugs while he had been touring with the group. Beforehand, according to Mike Love, Wilson had been known to be strictly opposed to drugs. Wilson's closest friend in this period was Loren Schwartz, a talent agent that he had met at a Hollywood studio. Through Schwartz, Wilson was exposed to a wealth of literature and mystical topics – largely of philosophy and world religions – that he formed a deep fascination with. Schwartz also introduced marijuana and hashish to Wilson, whose habitual use of the drug caused a rift in his marriage to Marilyn, further strained by his frequent visitations to Schwartz's apartment. Beginning with "Please Let Me Wonder" (1965), Wilson wrote songs while under the influence of marijuana. As his 2016 memoir suggested, "smoking a little bit of pot ..changed the way I heard arrangements." His drug use was initially kept hidden from the rest of his family and group.

Early in 1965, a few weeks after Wilson and his wife moved into a new apartment on West Hollywood's Gardner Street, Wilson took the psychedelic drug LSD (or "acid") for the first time, under Schwartz' supervision. Schwartz recalled that Wilson's dosage was 125 micrograms of "pure Owsley" and that his first experience included "the full-on ego death". Marilyn recalled that Wilson returned home the next day and recounted his experience, telling her repeatedly that his "mind was blown" and that he had seen God. In Wilson's words, "I took LSD and it just tore my head off. ..You just come to grips with what you are, what you can do ndcan't do, and learn to face it."

During his first acid trip, Wilson went to a piano and devised the riff for the band's next single, "California Girls". He later described the instrumental tracking for the song, held on April 6, as "my favorite session", and the opening orchestral section as "the greatest piece of music that I've ever written." For the remainder of the year, he experienced considerable paranoia. Wilson's 2016 memoir states that he refrained from dropping LSD for a second time until he was twenty-three, in 1966 or 1967. Marilyn believed that her husband likely took dozens of LSD trips in the subsequent years, although she had been only aware of the two trips at the time. Conversely, Brian's second wife Melinda Ledbetter claimed in 2004 that Brian took only three LSD trips in his lifetime.

Following unsuccessful attempts to dissuade him from his constant fraternizing with Schwartz, Marilyn separated from Brian for at least a month. She later said, "He was not the same Brian that he was before the drugs. ..These people were very hurtful, and I tried to get that through to Brian." In mid-1965, at the suggestion of Four Freshmen manager Bill Wagner, Brian consulted with a UCLA psychiatrist on the adverse effects of LSD. The psychiatrist later told Wagner, "I don't know if he is savable. He gives me the impression he's been on it for a while, and he's entirely enamored of it." Speaking in 1966, Wilson said that he had developed an interest in "pills" for the purpose of self-discovery, not recreation, and believed that the usage of psychedelics "won't hurt you".

''Pet Sounds'', "genius" campaign, and ''Smile''

Brian and Marilyn eventually reconciled, and in October 1965, moved into a new home on 1448 Laurel Way in Beverly Hills. Wilson said that he spent five months planning an album that would reflect his growing interest in "the making of music for people on a spiritual level". He recalled having an unexpected rush of "creative ideas" and that he "didn't mind" the constant presence of visitors at his home, "so long as there weren't too many and provided I could cop out and sit, thinking. I had a big Spanish table and I sat there hour after hour making the tunes inside my head ..I was taking a lot of drugs, fooling around with pills, a lot of pills, and it fouled me up for a while. It got me really introspective".

In December 1965, Tony Asher, a jingle writer whom Wilson had recently met, accepted Wilson's offer to be his writing partner for what became the Beach Boys' next album, ''Pet Sounds'' (May 1966). He produced most of ''Pet Sounds'' from January to April 1966 at four Hollywood studios, mainly employing his bandmates on vocals and his usual pool of session musicians for the backing tracks. Among the album tracks, he later described "Let's Go Away for Awhile" as "the most satisfying piece of music" he had made to date and "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" as an autobiographical song "about a guy who was crying because he thought he was too advanced". In 1995, he referred to "Caroline, No" as "probably the best I've ever written".

Released in March 1966, the album's first single, "Caroline, No", marked the first record credited to Wilson as a solo artist. It led to speculation that he was considering leaving the band. Wilson recalled, "I explained to he rest of the group 'It's OK. It is only a temporary rift where I have something to say.' I wanted to step out of the group a little bit and, sure enough, I was able to." "Caroline, No" ultimately stalled at number 32. In the U.S., ''Pet Sounds'' faced similarly underwhelming sales. Wilson was "mortified" that his artistic growth failed to translate into a number-one album. According to Marilyn, "When it wasn't received by the public the way he thought it would be received, it made him hold back. ..but he didn't stop. He couldn't stop. He needed to create more."

Thanks to mutual connections, Wilson had been introduced to the Beatles' former press officer Derek Taylor, who was subsequently employed as the Beach Boys' publicist. Responding to Brian's request to inspire a greater public appreciation for his talents, Taylor initiated a media campaign that proclaimed Wilson to be a genius. Taylor's prestige was crucial in offering a credible perspective to those on the outside, and his efforts are widely recognized as instrumental in the album's success in Britain. In turn, however, Wilson resented that the branding had the effect of creating higher public expectations for himself. The fact that the music press had begun undervaluing the contributions of the rest of the group also frustrated him and his bandmates, including Love and Carl Wilson.

For the remainder of 1966, Wilson focused on completing the band's single "Good Vibrations", which became a number-one hit in December, and a new batch of songs written with session musician Van Dyke Parks for inclusion on ''Smile'', the album planned to follow ''Pet Sounds''. Wilson touted the album as a "teenage symphony to God" and continued to involve more people in his social, business, and creative affairs. Parks said that, eventually, "it wasn't just Brian and me in a room; it was Brian and me ..and all kinds of self-interested people pulling him in various directions." Television producer David Oppenheim, who attended these scenes to film the documentary '' Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution'' (1967), characterized Wilson's home as a "playpen of irresponsible people."

1966–1973: Decline

Home studio transition

''Smile'' was never finished, due in large part to Wilson's worsening mental condition and exhaustion. His friends, family, and colleagues often date the project's unraveling and Wilson's onset of erratic behavior to around November 1966 – namely, when he recorded the would-be album track " Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" (or "Fire"). In April 1967, Wilson and his wife put their Laurel Way home up for sale and took residence at a newly purchased mansion on 10452 Bellagio Road in Bel Air. Wilson also set to work on constructing a personal home studio. By then, most of his new contacts had disassociated or were exiled from his social circle.

In May, Derek Taylor announced that the six-months-overdue ''Smile'' album had been "scrapped". Wilson explained in a 1968 interview, "We pulled out of that production pace, really because I was about ready to die. I was trying so hard. So, all of a sudden I decided not to try any more." The underwhelming critical and commercial response to the band's July single "Heroes and Villains" has been cited as another exacerbating factor in Wilson's professional and psychological decline.

Starting with ''Smiley Smile'' (September 1967), the band made Wilson's home their primary base of recording operations until 1972. The album was also the first in which production was credited to the entire group instead of Wilson alone. Producer Terry Melcher attributed this change to Wilson's self-consciousness over his reputation, unwilling to "put his stamp on records so that peers will have a Brian Wilson track to criticize." In August, Wilson rejoined the live band for two one-off appearances in Honolulu. The shows were recorded for a planned live album, '' Lei'd in Hawaii'', that was never finished.

During the sessions for '' Wild Honey'' (December), Brian requested Carl to contribute more to the record-making process. Brian also attempted to produce an album for singer Danny Hutton's new group, Redwood, but after the recording of three songs, including "Time to Get Alone" and " Darlin'", this motion was halted by Mike Love and Carl Wilson, who wanted Brian to focus on the Beach Boys' contractual obligations. ''Friends'' (June 1968) was recorded during a period of emotional recovery for Wilson. Although it included more contributions from the rest of the group, he actively led the studio sessions, even on the songs that he did not write. He later referred to it as his second "solo album" (the first being ''Pet Sounds''), as well as his favorite Beach Boys album.

Institutionalization and Bedroom Tapes

For the remainder of 1968, Wilson's songwriting output declined substantially, as did his emotional state, leading him to self-medicate with the excessive consumption of food, alcohol, and drugs. Amid the looming financial insolvency of the Beach Boys, he began to supplement his regular use of amphetamines and marijuana with cocaine. Hutton, who had introduced Wilson to cocaine, recalled that Wilson expressed suicidal wishes at the time, and that it was when his "real decline started".

In mid-1968, Wilson was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, possibly of his own volition. His issues were not disclosed to the public, and sessions for ''20/20'' (February 1969) continued in his absence. Journalist Nik Cohn, writing in 1968, said that Wilson had been rumored to be "increasingly withdrawn, brooding, hermitic  ..and occasionally, he is to be seen in the back of some limousine, cruising around Hollywood, bleary and unshaven, huddled way tight into himself." Once discharged later in the year, Wilson rarely finished any tracks for the band, leaving much of his subsequent output for Carl Wilson to complete.

Regarding Brian's participation on the group's recordings from then, band engineer Stephen Desper said that Brian remained "indirectly involved with production" through Carl. The bathrobe-clad Wilson would occasionally appear from his bedroom to preview a new song for the group, an event that Melcher likened to Aesop delivering a new fable. Otherwise, he stayed in his bedroom upstairs while his bandmates recorded in the studio down below. He would occasionally visit a session if he had heard a piece of music that he felt should be changed.

Conversely, Dennis Wilson recalled that his elder brother began to have "no involvement at all" with the Beach Boys, which forced the group to "find things that eworked on and try and piece it together."; Marilyn Wilson recalled that her husband withdrew because of perceived resentment from the group: "It was like, 'OK, you assholes, you think you can do as good as me or whatever – go ahead – ''you'' do it. You think it's so easy? You do it.'" Referencing the accusation that the Beach Boys refused to let Brian work, Dennis said, "I would go to his house daily and beg, 'What can I do to help you?' I said, 'Forget recording, forget all of it.' It got to Brian's health."

Journalist Brian Chidester coined "Bedroom Tapes" as a loose umbrella term for Wilson's subsequent unreleased output until 1975, despite the fact that his home studio was dismantled in 1972. Much of the material that Wilson recorded from the epoch remains unreleased and unheard by the public. Chidester states that some of it has been described as "schizophrenia on tape" and "intensely personal songs of gentle humanism and strange experimentation, which reflected on his then-fragile emotional state." Wilson's daughter Wendy remembered, "Where other people might take a run to release some stress, he would go to the piano and write a 5-minute song."

Radiant Radish and ''Sunflower''

Early in 1969, the Beach Boys commenced recording their album ''Sunflower'' (August 1970). Wilson was an active participant in the year-long sessions, writing more than an album's worth of material by himself or with collaborators, most of which was left off the record. He recorded a single for the band, " Break Away", that was co-written with his father, after which he was rarely in the studio until August 1969. Due to his poor reputation in the music industry, the Beach Boys struggled to secure a record contract with another label. In May, he revealed to reporters that the group were on the verge of bankruptcy. His remarks had the effect of ruining negotiations with Deutsche Grammophon and nearly compromised the band's imminent tour of the UK and Europe. In July, Wilson opened a short-lived health food store, the Radiant Radish, with his friend Arnie Geller and cousin Steve Korthof.

In August, Sea of Tunes, the band's publishing company that held the rights to their song catalog, was sold to Irving Almo Music for $700,000 (equivalent to $ in ). Wilson signed the consent letter at his father's behest. According to Marilyn, the sale devastated Brian. "It killed him. ''Killed'' him. I don't think he talked for days. ..Brian took it as a personal thing, Murry not believing in him anymore." Around this period, Wilson attempted to drive his vehicle off a cliff, and on another occasion, demanded that he be pushed into and buried in a grave that he had dug in his backyard. He channeled his despondence into the writing of his song " 'Til I Die", which he described as the summation of "everything I had to say at the time."

Later in 1969, Wilson produced a collection of spoken-word recordings, '' A World of Peace Must Come'', for poet Stephen Kalinich. In November, Wilson and his band signed to Reprise Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Part of the contract stipulated Wilson's proactive involvement with the group in all albums. Van Dyke Parks, who brokered the deal, said that "They he bandwere considered a problem at that time ..Everyone at the label just wanted Brian Wilson to come over and write some songs." Before the contract was effectuated, Wilson attended a band meeting with Reprise executives with his face painted bright green. Asked why he did this, Wilson responded, "Just seeing what would happen."

Wilson briefly substituted for Love on the road in March 1970, later calling the experience "the best three days of my life, I guess." In April, he attempted to produce a country and western album for the band's co-manager Fred Vail, '' Cows in the Pasture'', that was never finished. In mid-1970, Wilson was reported to be working on a "chorus of frogs" piece for Kalinich and contemplated scoring an Andy Warhol film about a homosexual surfer.

''Spring'' and Holland stay

Wilson was deeply affected by the poor commercial response to ''Sunflower'' and resumed having minimal contributions to the Beach Boys' records. Bruce Johnston characterized him as merely "a visitor" to the sessions for '' Surf's Up'' (August 1971). In November 1970, Wilson joined the live band for one-and-a-half dates at the Whisky a Go Go. Following this, Wilson told ''Melody Maker'' that although he had been "quite happy living at home", he felt that he was "not as creative as I once was and I'm not participating as much as I should have done." He identified himself as "a kind of drop-out" who sleeps into the afternoon and "potter around doing nothing much."

Speaking to a reporter one year later, in September 1971, Wilson said that he had recently returned to "arranging, doing that more than writing now." In December, while at a concert in Long Beach, manager Jack Rieley coaxed Wilson into performing with the Beach Boys, although his time on stage lasted only minutes. In February 1972, Wilson went to an America gig at the Whisky a Go Go; according to Dan Peek, he "held court like a Mad King as Danny Hutton scurried about like his court jester" during the band's performance.

From late 1971 to early 1972, Wilson and musician David Sandler collaborated on ''Spring'', the first album by Marilyn Wilson and Diane Rovell's new group, American Spring. As with much of Brian's work in the era, his contributions "ebbed and flowed." It was the most involved Wilson had been in an album's production since ''Friends'' in 1968. Meanwhile, Blondie Chaplin stated that Wilson rarely left his bedroom during the recording of '' Carl and the Passions'' (April 1972), but "when he came down his contribution was amazing." Wilson's unavailability was such that his image had to be superimposed into the group portrait included in the record's inner sleeve.

During the summer of 1972, Wilson joined his bandmates when they temporarily moved base to Holland, albeit after much cajoling. While living in a Dutch house called "Flowers" and listening repeatedly to Randy Newman's newest album '' Sail Away'', Wilson was inspired to write a fairy tale, '' Mount Vernon and Fairway'', loosely based on his memories listening to the radio at Mike Love's family home as a teenager. The group rejected his proposal to include the fairy tale on their next album, ''Holland'' (January 1973). Instead, it was packaged with ''Holland'' as a bonus EP. In 1973, Jan Berry (under the alias JAN) released the single " Don't You Just Know It", a duet featuring Wilson. That April, Wilson briefly joined his bandmates onstage during an encore for the group's concert at the Hollywood Palladium.

1973–1975: Recluse period

After his father's death in June 1973, Wilson secluded himself in the chauffeur's quarters of his home, where he spent his time sleeping, abusing drugs and alcohol, overeating, and exhibiting self-destructive behavior. He rarely ventured outside wearing anything but pajamas and later said that his father's death "had a lot to do with my retreating." Wilson's family were eventually forced to take control of his financial affairs due to his irresponsible drug expenditures. This led Brian to occasionally wander the city, begging for rides, drugs, and alcohol. According to Wilson, from 1974 to 1975, he recorded only "skimpy little bits and pieces, little fragments" due to a loss of "the ability to concentrate enough to follow through."

Reflecting on this period, Wilson said that he was preoccupied with snorting cocaine, reading magazines such as ''Playboy'' and ''Penthouse'', and "hanging out with Danny Hutton", whose Laurel Canyon house had become the center of Wilson's social life. Although increasingly reclusive during the day, Wilson spent many nights at Hutton's house fraternizing with colleagues such as Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop, who were mutually bemused by an extended Wilson-led singalong of the folk song "Shortnin' Bread". According to Cooper, Wilson proclaimed that it was "the greatest song ever written." Other visitors of Hutton's home included Harry Nilsson, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and Keith Moon. On several occasions, Marilyn Wilson sent her friends to climb Hutton's fence and retrieve her husband.

Of Wilson in the early 1970s, music historian Charles Granata writes, "The stories—many of them dubious—are legendary." Wilson stated in a 2001 interview that he had never met John Lennon, however, Cooper told another story in which he had witnessed Wilson at a party, with Lennon, repeatedly asking fellow attendees to introduce him to the Beatle, one after another. Micky Dolenz, recalling an occasion in which he took LSD with Wilson, Nilsson, and Lennon in Malibu, said that Wilson "played just one note on a piano over and over again". John Sebastian

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