Brian Wilson bounds up the stairs to the office of Eugene Landy, his doctor-artistic collaborator, to meet a reporter and, after quick
introductions, says he`s ready to get going.
He sure is. Mentally and physically fitter than he has been in more than 20 years, Wilson is glorying in the release of his first-ever solo album,
”Brian Wilson.” This album signifies his greatest creative surge since shelving the ambitious but personally debilitating ”Smile” album in 1968, and now the creative genius behind the Beach Boys seems anxious to spread the word that he`s back.
”I feel a resurgence in my career with this solo album. It`s doing pretty good,” Wilson said, speaking in a forthright, confident manner. ”I`m pretty impressed by it, and it`s a shot in the arm for all of us. What can I say?”
Dressed in faded gray jeans, deck shoes and a casual shirt, and sporting a few days` worth of stubble, the 46-year-old Wilson has the trim fitness of, well, a grown-up beach boy.
”I think maybe there was a need for my music that`s over the years accumulated with people,” he continued, explaining the generally positive reaction to the album. ”They think Brian Wilson music is good. It`s got a good feeling about it, a good feel about it. People get good vibrations from it.”
Even Wilson can`t resist the temptation to use one of his song titles to illustrate his point. He also might have said that surf`s up again in his career.
Of course, as anyone who even remotely followed music in the last dozen years knows, people more often paraphrased the title of his most acclaimed song to describe his situation as ”Bad Vibrations.”
Oldest son of a demanding, at times abusive father and victim of the record industry`s insatiable appetite for hits during his mid-`60s heyday, Wilson has spent more time in the public eye as a cautionary tale than as a talented musician.
As his insecurities and mental illness became more pronounced in the late `60s, his weight ballooned to more than 300 pounds, he began to use massive amounts of drugs, and his behavior became more erratic. Wilson became a virtual recluse, at one point not leaving his home for several years. His creative output was reduced to a trickle.
By the end of the `70s, Wilson was viewed as a nearly pathetic has-been. He was occasionally trotted out to show his recovery, only to retreat again when he relapsed.
But this time, the Brian`s Back declarations seem more substantial. He has his solo album, the first album in which he had a hand in writing and producing every track since the Beach Boys` ”Pet Sounds” in 1966. He`s planning a concert tour in November and talking about working with the Beach Boys again. And, significantly, he`s engaged in a blitz of media appearances. The 1988 Brian Wilson makes it clear he`s on a mission now.
”I feel a calling from God,” Wilson said, explaining his reasons for getting back to recording. ”It says, `Brian, here`s a Carte Blanche card for you to record and for you to make records.` I accept the card graciously from God.
”Whenever I think about my solo career, about music, I see an endless highway down in front of me. Everything clears up when I get into my music and think consciously about my music.”
At this point, Wilson relays the conversations he has with himself.
”It`s simple for me to say: `Sure, you struck out with girls a little bit, you had some problems with girls, had a few problems with the Beach Boys. But this solo album will be your music, and you have a chance to prove it to people.` ”
One of the things he proved is that he could still make an album. Five years ago, when he resumed working with Landy, a licensed psychologist, after a brief treatment in the mid-`70s, Wilson was visibly panicked when he was asked to play music for a visitor.
But Landy, through his controversial 24-Hour Therapy program (Landy or someone from his staff was with Wilson virtually every minute of every day from early 1983 until earlier this year, when Wilson and Landy terminated their therapy), made a re-entry into music a central part of the treatment.
”Words come to me out of nowhere, out of the sky, and, of course, from Dr. Landy,” Wilson said, explaining his songwriting process. ”He`s very diligent with me when I`m in my creative cycles. He shares with me over the phone and with me when I`m writing. We discuss these songs. Our discussions turned into real live songs.”
By 1985, the subject of a solo album had come up in therapy. Wilson agreed to do it, on the conditions that it be done at his own pace, without any deadlines, and that Landy be the executive producer.
For the next year, Wilson worked on songs and was introduced to modern recording technology. Known in the mid-`60s as a production genius as much as a songwriter or performer, Wilson had kept himself virtually isolated from recording studios during the technological revolution of the last decade. He had to relearn the process.
Then, at the Rock `n` Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in January, 1987, when the Beach Boys were inducted into the hall, Wilson and Landy met with Seymour Stein, president of Sire Records, who suggested that Wilson make a solo album. While Wilson and Landy mulled that over, Stein discussed it with Lenny Waronker, president of Warner Bros. Records, Sire`s parent company, who was also enthusiastic about the idea. They gave the go-ahead to the project, which got under way last spring.
Asked if he was scared about the prospects of having his name on the front of an album for the first time, Wilson said: ”Scary? Yeah, that`s a good word for it. I don`t mind it though, because there are so many possibilities, possibilities to fulfill people spiritually, to bring a spiritual love for people. That alone is a reward for your whole life. Just knowing that you`re giving to people through your heart feels good.”
It took a collaborative effort to get this message out. In particular, Wilson got production help from Waronker, veteran producer Russ Titelman, songwriter Andy Paley and Jeff Lynne, who co-produced George Harrison`s recent ”Cloud Nine” comeback album.
But the dominant presence-in the studio and still in Wilson`s life-is Landy, who has co-songwriting credits on five of the album`s 11 tracks and is listed as the executive producer. For the last five years, Landy and Wilson have been intimately tied in both a therapeutic and business relationship.
The aggressive, outspoken Landy-who was absent during this interview, although it was done in his office-has prodded and cajoled Wilson into getting back into shape physically and creatively.
”Of course, we`re partners, on many levels,” Wilson said of his relationship with Landy. ”Some of the levels are a little frightening for me.”
But, said Wilson, ”The biggest event in my life is working with Dr. Landy. Gene is my favorite collaborator of all time.”
Others take a less charitable view of Landy`s role in Wilson`s life. Several people who worked on the ”Brian Wilson” album complained that Landy intruded in the production, forced Wilson to put Landy-written lyrics into completed songs and that he was exploiting his one-time patient for his own show-business aspirations.
Meanwhile, the California Board of Medical Quality Assurance in February launched an investigation into potential ethical violations in Landy`s unusual therapeutic, business and artistic relationship with Wilson. A hearing into the matter is scheduled in the fall.
Landy, in an interview with the New York Times, explained: ”With Brian, I didn`t perhaps do what a normal doctor would have done. But this is an abnormal situation. I used my talents as a doctor, and then I used my instincts as a friend.”
In any case, even Landy`s critics acknowledge that Wilson has made extraordinary progress. Where once he was a frightened, intimidated recluse who admitted to using massive amounts of drugs to overcome his fears and who had trouble looking an interviewer eye-to-eye, he now not only talks about a fall tour but notes that he`s working with a choreographer and is ”gonna try and do some of that Michael Jackson kind of dancing.”
Wilson vehemently denies there is anything improper in Landy`s methods or treatment, claiming the criticism of Landy is motivated by resentment and jealousy.
Perhaps one way to note the relationship between Wilson and Landy is to note the name of their respective publishing companies, as listed on the album`s credits. Wilson`s is called Beach Bum, Landy`s is Beachead.
Wilson would not say if there was any subtle message conveyed by him being the bum and his doctor-collaborator being the head. But he did say that their respective first names-Brian and Gene-led to the name of another of their companies: Brains and Genius.
In what may be a sly twist on how the two of them are portrayed in the media, Wilson explained, ”I`m the brains, he`s the genius.”
