The Beach Boys leader was a brilliant writer, arranger and producer whose ambitions propelled his band – and contemporaries like the Beatles – into the future.
The gimmick of the Beach Boys was to package the 1960s California dream in pop singles that wed up-tempo guitar songs with multipart harmonies.
The reason the group endured was Brian Wilson, the group’s resident genius, who has died at 82. Wilson wrote, arranged and produced most of its catalogue. (He also sang and played bass.) As he exhausted the possibilities of the group’s original approach, his music grew more ambitious.
