Brian Wilson and "I am the Walrus"

December 19, 2006 5:55 PM

I recently heard a rumor that after listening to the song "I am the Walrus", Brian Wilson decided to shelve a project that he was working on. The rumor continued, as rumors are wont to do, stating that "I am the Walrus", with its intricate production, finally pushed Brian Wilson over the edge and into Crazy Town. This rumor . . . it's true? So far, the Google has failed me. MeFi music historians, please help me.
posted by billysumday to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

Well, it's probably true that Brian Wilson did feel a certain need/compulsion to compete with the Beatles (both from within himself and from external sources pressuring him) -- much has been made, for example, of Pet Sounds (released in mid-1966, just a couple of months before the Beatles released Revolver) as a response to the Beatles' Rubber Soul (which had come out at the end of 1965). But it's also certainly true that it went both ways -- the Beatles were responding musically to Pet Sounds and to other artists of the time, too (Dylan, most obviously).

Wilson's follow-up to Pet Sounds was Smile, and it was indeed abandoned due to what was essentially his nervous breakdown. But it certainly can't be reduced simply to freaking out over "I am the Walrus" -- first off, "Walrus" wasn't released until the end of 1967, and Wilson was clearly quite troubled (and Smile was basically scrapped) a full year earlier, in December 1966.

More broadly, though, Brian Wilson was a pretty delicate character who, at the time, was doing a lot of drugs (who wasn't) -- his issues with anxiety, depression, and possible symptoms of bipolar disorder had been present for several years at that point. The "competition" with the Beatles was just a small part in a very large, complex equation as to the nature of Brian Wilson's problems.
posted by scody at 6:13 PM on December 19, 2006

(Damn, hit "post" too soon.) It should be noted that, as that wikipedia article notes, Wilson was pretty awestruck by the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever," which was released in February 1967 (allegedly saying that "the Beatles got there first"). No doubt that it played some role in compouding his already existing depression/delusions, but again, given the broader context, it can't really be seen as the decisive factor.

Oh, and I should correct myself: Smile wasn't completely scrapped in December 1966 (though the recording sessions were in trouble by then); it wasn't officially announced as having been shelved until May 1967.
posted by scody at 6:20 PM on December 19, 2006

And I don't think one should think that Wilson saw himself as competing only with the Beatles. Pet Sounds particularly shows a pretty heavy Phil Spector influence. (And many critics rate Pet Sounds above any particular Beatles recording, so it's not as if he went crazy from fighting a battle he couldn't win.)

I also think it's important to note that "Smile" lived on-- a lot of its songs did end up being released (in Smiley Smile), bootlegs circulated forever and a couple of years ago Brian Wilson and the Wondermints did finally release an album called "Smile" that generally traced out the songs and so forth that were to be on the Beach Boys album.
posted by yesno at 6:35 PM on December 19, 2006

I was reading about Brian Wilson (actually because scody's answer made me interested in brian wilson), and noticed that allmusic claims (in the beach boys entry) that "Though Brian's escalating drug use and obsessive desire to trump the Beatles (by recording the perfect LP statement) eventually led to a nervous breakdown after he heard Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the group soldiered on long into the 1970s and '80s, with Brian only an inconsistent participant." Now, I am the Walrus was not on that album, but it is very roughly the same time-frame and bears some resemblance to the rumor, so you could try emailing the author of that AMG article and see if he has an actual source for it. Also, from what scody said, it seems that Sgt Pepper would be a more likely cause for scrapping Smile, as it was released (according to AMG) in April 1967.
posted by advil at 7:04 PM on December 19, 2006

The developing theme here, which I believe to be correct, is that Brian Wilson's serious psychiatric issues, exacerbated by drug use made him the type of person who would react this way to the Beatles. I think the rumor you've heard is true, insofar as BW has said that the Beatles were a (or the) proximate cause of his post-Pet Sounds, pre-Smile deflation. I think it would have happened anyway. If it wasn't the Beatles, it would have been some other obsession that triggered Wilson's tragic collapse.
posted by kosem at 8:13 PM on December 19, 2006

As a big fan of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, I can confirm that what scody says is right.

My brother conducted a rather bizarre interview with Brian Wilson a few years back and, though it was sadly unpublished in its entirety, he pretty much confirmed that it was Sgt. Pepper that took him over the edge. Among other things, of course.
posted by dhammond at 8:37 PM on December 19, 2006

My brother has never interviewed Brian Wilson, but I too am a big Brian-era Beach Boys fan, and I've always heard it as scody and dhammond tell it. Rubber Soul spurred Pet Sounds, which spurred Revolver, which Brian was trying to top with SMiLE. He was already behind schedule and mentally fragile when he heard Sgt. Pepper, which greatly contributed to his despairing of finishing SMiLE.

I haven't heard "I Am the Walrus" stressed in this story. I think that SMiLE was shelved in mid-1967 before that song was released in November. That doesn't close the door on your rumor-- Brian probably had the connections to get a copy before it was released, and I don't know when the Beatles recorded it.

I don't have my copy of Nick Kent's The Dark Stuff with me, but that book's Brian Wilson chapter isn't a bad place to start for rumors about the causes and manifestations of Brian's problems at that time.

Can he get it published now, dhammond? Brian is a hotter topic now than he had been a few years ago...
posted by ibmcginty at 9:52 PM on December 19, 2006

Nobody's read the biography "Wouldn't It Be Nice?"?

He talks quite specifically about feeling a sense of competition with the Beatles in that book. I don't think he says outright that trying to compete with Sergeant Pepper put him over the edge but it definitely gives that impression.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 3:07 PM on December 20, 2006

AmbroseChapel, Wouldn't It Be Nice is discredited because it wasn't written by Wilson. Wilson's therapist at the time was mostly responsible, along with a ghostwriter from People, plus apparently some stuff plagiarized from previous biographies. It all gets complicated, but the bottom line is that Wilson said, in court, that far from writing the "autobiography," he hadn't even read the manuscript.
posted by booksandlibretti at 10:51 AM on December 22, 2006