ZUM TOD DES US-AMERIKANISCHEN SÄNGERS, MUSIKERS, KOMPONISTEN UND MUSIKPRODUZENTEN BRIAN WILSON (BEACH BOYS)

Der am 20. Juni 1942 in Inglewood (Kalifornien) geborene US-amerikanische Sänger, Musiker, Komponist und Musikproduzent Brian Wilson (Bild) ist vor dem oder am 11. Juni 2025 gestorben. Er wurde weltweit als kreativer Kopf der Beach Boys bekannt. Brian Wilson komponierte die meisten Songs der Band in den 1960er- und 1970er-Jahren und produzierte bis 1967 alle und in den darauffolgenden Jahren noch einige Alben. Er sang die zweite Leadstimme, insbesondere die langsamen Balladen und die hohe Falsettstimme. Wilson wird zu den bedeutendsten Komponisten und Musikproduzenten des 20. Jahrhunderts gezählt. (*)

Brian Wilson, 2012 - Foto: Takahiro Kyono, https://www.flickr.com/people/75972766@N02 - Lizenz:https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en - Datei: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brian_Wilson_(7314673472)_(tall).jpg

Bild: Brian Wilson, 2012 – Foto: Takahiro Kyono, https://www.flickr.com/people/75972766@N02 – Lizenz: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en – Datei: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brian_Wilson_(7314673472)_(tall).jpg

Brian Wilson, Beach Boys Co-Founder and Architect of Pop, Dead at 82

One of America’s greatest songwriters and composer of «teenage symphonies to God» invented a massively successful sound full of harmonies and sunshine.

Wilson’s legacy includes dozens of ubiquitous hit singles with the Beach Boys, including three Number One singles (“I Get Around,” “Help Me, Rhonda,” and “Good Vibrations”). In the 1960s, the Beach Boys were not only the most successful American band, but they also jockeyed for global preeminence with the Beatles. And on albums such as Pet Sounds, Wilson’s lavish, orchestral production techniques dramatically expanded the sonic palette of rock & roll and showed how the recording studio could be an instrument by itself.

Gavin Edwards, Daniel Kreps

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/brian-wilson-beach-boys-dead-1234810073

Brian Wilson, Leader of the Beach Boys and Pop Genius, Dies at 82

The music icon was one of the most brilliant (and most troubled) singers, songwriters and composers of the Billboard Hot 100 era. Brian Wilson, leader of The Beach Boys, widely acknowledged as one of America’s alltime greatest composers, a pioneer of advanced studio techniques, and one of the most sensitive chroniclers of the Californian experience, has died at age 82.

Barry Walters

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/brian-wilson-death-beach-boys-7340676

A hitmaker elevated and burdened by the label of genius, he transcended the breezy surf genre to create complex harmonies and intricate soundscapes in the studio

Brian Wilson, who as the leader and chief songwriter of the Beach Boys became rock’s poet laureate of surf-and-sun innocence, but also an embodiment of damaged genius through his struggles with mental illness and drugs, has died.

On mid-1960s hits like “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” “California Girls” and “Fun, Fun, Fun,” the Beach Boys created a musical counterpart to the myth of Southern California as paradise — a soundtrack of cheerful harmonies and a boogie beat to accompany a lifestyle of youthful leisure. Cars, sex and rolling waves were the only cares.

That vision, manifested in Mr. Wilson’s crystalline vocal arrangements, helped make the Beach Boys the defining American band of the era. During its clean-cut heyday of 1962 to 1966, the group landed 13 singles in the Billboard Top 10. Three of them went to No. 1: “I Get Around,” “Help Me, Rhonda” and “Good Vibrations.”

Ben Sisario

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/arts/music/brian-wilson-dead.html

Brian Wilson was more than a genius. His sound epitomized the lore of SoCal

Brian Wilson didn’t create the sun or the ocean or the sea-sprayed landmass we call Southern California. He didn’t invent the car or the surfboard. He wasn’t the first person to experience the cold pang of isolation or to fall in love with somebody so deeply that the only thing to do is regret it.

Listen to a song by the Beach Boys, though — to one of the tortured and euphoric classics that made them the most important American pop group of the 1960s — and I bet you’d be willing to believe otherwise. I bet you’d insist on it.

Mikael Wood

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2025-06-11/brian-wilson-beach-boys-appreciation

Brian Wilson, the troubled genius behind The Beach Boys, has died at age 82

Brian Wilson, who co-founded the iconic California band The Beach Boys and turned teen pop into a poetic, modernist musical form, has died at age 82.

«We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world,» Wilson’s family wrote in a statement on his website Wednesday.

The most frequently invoked description of Wilson’s music came from the artist himself when, playing on a phrase coined by Phil Spector, he declared that his goal was to write a «teenage symphony to God.» Grounded in dreams of an idealized youth, his songs reflected vast ambition enmeshed in the belief that pop could be a conduit to the sublime.

Ann Powers

https://www.npr.org/2025/06/11/834510037/brian-wilson-the-troubled-genius-behind-the-beach-boys-has-died-at-age-82

Brian Wilson, music icon and creative force behind The Beach Boys, dead at 82

Wilson’s life was marked just as much by struggles with substance abuse and mental illness as it was by repeated comebacks, remarkable talent and timeless songs that still echo across the country, decades after their release.

His story, by all accounts, is one of resilience. Despite a childhood scarred by his father’s abuse, becoming partially deaf, and the years of haunting voices in his head from schizoaffective disorder, the two-time Grammy Award winner went on to become the “reigning king of pop melody,” as the Denver Post once put it, often bringing to life songs that told a much different tale than his own reality.

Christina Maxouris

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/11/entertainment/brian-wilson-death

Brian Wilson, visionary creative spirit for the Beach Boys, dies aged 82

Musician, who suffered from mental health problems, wrote and produced the 1966 album «Pet Sounds» – seen by many as the greatest album of all time.

Ben Beaumont-Thomas

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jun/11/brian-wilson-beach-boys-dies

Brian Wilson, un genio musical capaz de entregar su vida por una mariposa

Lo grandioso del compositor de The Beach Boys es que inventó su propio paraíso, más allá de los maltratos familiares y las disputas de su banda.

Fernando Navarro

https://elpais.com/cultura/2025-06-11/brian-wilson-un-genio-musical-capaz-de-entregar-su-vida-por-una-mariposa.html

È morto Brian Wilson, genio visionario e fragile che fondò i Beach Boys

L’estate è in silenzio. È morto Brian Wilson, l’uomo che ha dato un suono all’endless summer, l’utopica estate senza fine dell’America del boom degli anni Sessanta. Il genio creativo dei Beach Boys è scomparso ieri: aveva 82 anni e una malattia degenerativa per la quale lo scorso anno era stato messo sotto tutela legale. Wilson è stato un autore geniale, un musicista di enorme talento, uno di quelli che ha fatto fare al rock e alla musica popolare un salto quantico.

Andrea Laffranchi

https://www.corriere.it/spettacoli/25_giugno_11/e-morto-brian-wilson-fondatore-dei-beach-boys-61ceb408-4e40-4f92-bf9f-9fbd21ed3xlk.shtml

«C’était notre Mozart américain», «un humain qui a transformé une tristesse inexprimable en art…», les hommages à Brian Wilson, cofondateur des Beach Boys

Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Sean Ono Lennon, Keith Richards, Carole King ou encore Questlove: de nombreux musiciens célèbrent l’influence du chanteur et compositeur du groupe californien, décédé à l’âge de 82 ans.

https://www.lemonde.fr/musiques/article/2025/06/11/c-etait-notre-mozart-americain-un-humain-qui-a-transforme-une-tristesse-inexprimable-en-art-les-hommages-a-brian-wilson-cofondateur-des-beach-boys_6612279_1654986.html

Kaliforniens Träumer

Für die Beach Boys schrieb er Surfmusik, obwohl er weder an den Strand ging noch ins Wasser. Pop war für Brian Wilson eine eigene Welt voller göttlicher Symphonien.

Michael Pilz

https://www.welt.de/kultur/article255186112/nachruf-auf-brian-wilson-von-den-beach-boys-kaliforniens-traeumer.html

Traum und Alptraum der sechziger Jahre

Als Brian Wilson vor gut zehn Jahren seine Biografie verfassen ließ, „I am Brian Wilson“, konnte er sich nur noch schwer an die eigentlich größte und produktivste Zeit in seinem Musikerleben erinnern; an eine Zeit in den mittleren sechziger Jahren, als er zum einen eines der umwerfendsten, genialsten Popalben aller Zeiten verantwortete, das 1966 erschienene Beach-Boys-Album „Pet Sounds“. Und er zum anderen mehr und mehr mit psychischen Problemen zu kämpfen hatte.

Gerrit Bartels

https://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/zum-tod-von-brian-wilson-traum-und-alptraum-der-sechziger-jahre-13838896.html

Einsam am Strand

Grandiose Experimente, irrsinnige Exzesse: Brian Wilson, Autor, Musiker, Produzent – das Gehirn der „Beach Boys“ ist tot.

Klaus Walter

https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/brian-wilson-beach-boys-nachruf-li.3267782?reduced=true

Tragisches Genie des Pop: Brian Wilson ist tot

Zuletzt war er dement, nun ist Brian Wilson, der Genius der Beach Boys, im Alter von 82 Jahren gestorben. Selbst oft depressiv, hat er einige der freudigsten Hymnen des Pop geschrieben, von „Surfin’ USA“ über „Fun Fun Fun“ bis „Good Vibrations“, doch auch Abgründiges wie „In My Room“ oder „’Til I Die“.

Thomas Kramar

https://www.diepresse.com/19786656/tragisches-genie-des-pop-brian-wilson-ist-tot

Ein Beach Boy mit dunklen Seiten

Der Bandname suggeriert Sonne und Spass. Doch der Mensch, der hinter den Liedern der «Beach Boys» stand, hatte viel Tiefgang – und sogar auch Abgründe. Schon früh in Brian Wilsons Leben hielt das Drama Einzug. Durch einen Unfall verlor er in seiner Kindheit das Gehör auf einem Ohr. Dennoch rückte die Musik zunehmend ins Zentrum seines Lebens, obwohl er eigentlich auch anderweitig begabt war, zum Beispiel im Sport.

Roman Hošek

https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/brian-wilson-gestorben-ein-beach-boy-mit-dunklen-seiten

Nachruf auf das Beach-Boys-Genie

Die Beach Boys vertonten den Traum vom ewigen Sommer. Privat aber litt Band-Chef Brian Wilson – Nervenzusammebrüche, Tabletten, Drogen, Vormundschaft.

Benedetto Vigne

https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/nachruf-brian-wilson-nicht-publizieren-das-pop-genie-mit-dem-versteinerten-lachen-638882678606

Das melancholische Genie der Pop-Geschichte

Brian Wilson war der brillante Kopf der Beach Boys. Doch mit der Band imaginierte er ein kalifornisches Paradies, in das er selbst nicht passte.

Ueli Bernays

https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/das-melancholische-genie-der-pop-geschichte-brian-wilson-der-gruender-und-komponist-der-beach-boys-ist-gestorben-ld.1314515

Audios / Videos:

The Beach Boys – Surfin´ USA