Dennis Carl Wilson (December 4, 1944 – December 28, 1983) was an American rock and roll musician best known as a founding member and the drummer of The Beach Boys. He was a member of the group from its formation until his death in 1983, though in keeping with recording studio practices of the time uncredited session musicians would be used. On stage in the 1970s and 1980s a second drummer would be used.[citation needed]
Compared to his bandmates, which included his brothers Brian and Carl, and his cousin Mike Love, Dennis sang infrequently, often not singing backup vocals at live performances, though he did so in the studio. He was commonly seen as the sex symbol of the band.[citation needed] His prominence in the group increased as their careers went on, sometimes singing lead, and writing towards and into the 1970s.
Biography
The Beach Boys
Born in Inglewood, California, Dennis was the second oldest of the three Wilson brothers. Their mother, Audree, forced Brian to include Dennis in the earliest lineup of the Beach Boys. Urged by older cousin Mike Love, Dennis had approached Brian, the most outwardly talented family member, to form a group and compose a song about surfing. The Beach Boys formed in August 1961 under the guidance of father Murry Wilson, meeting immediate success. Though the Beach Boys were named for and developed an image based on the California surfing culture, Dennis was the only real surfer in the band. In 1976, he described his love for the beach: “I don’t know why everybody doesn’t live at the beach, on the ocean. It makes no sense to me, hanging around the dirty city. That’s why I always loved and was proud to be a Beach Boy; I always loved the image. On the beach you can live in bliss.”[cite this quote]
During the first few years of The Beach Boys, Dennis was given the role of the drummer. Dennis had little musical experience at the outset but quickly learned to play the drums. However, he gained little respect musically[citation needed] due to Brian's reliance as producer on session drummers, particularly Hal Blaine although Wilson did drum on many of the group's early 1960s recordings. Likewise, although he rarely sang on stage his rough vocals were a key ingredient to the group's vocal blend in the studio. Wilson became far and away the most popular member of the group[citation needed] becoming its box-office sex symbol and his emerging musical talent took a back seat. He eventually developed a personal musical style and taste divergent from the Beach Boys' known style: soulful, even bluesy, compared with the group's famous high harmonies.[citation needed]
Though given few important lead vocals on the early Beach Boys recordings ("Little Girl (You're My Miss America)" and "This Car of Mine" as well as the bridge verse on "Girls On The Beach") he sang lead on "Do You Wanna Dance?" in February 1965, then later that year on Beach Boys' Party!, sang a rendition of The Beatles' "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away". He accompanied himself on guitar, and like the other Beach Boys became a multi-instrumentalist. His piano playing in particular was showcased on his Pacific Ocean Blue album.
Dennis Wilson's first major released composition was "Little Bird," the B-side of the "Friends" single, though he had already helped Brian write a few other songs dating back to 1963.
Dennis had further compositions featured on later Beach Boys albums such as 20/20 (1969), Sunflower (1970), Carl and the Passions - "So Tough" (1972), Holland (1973) as well as others. Sunflower included the track "Forever". Not only popular with fans, it also earned him some much sought praise from brother Brian and father Murry. The album included three other songs written by Dennis which were not originally recorded for the album. As Stephen Desper states in Adam Webb's book Dumb Angel:[cite this quote]
Although Dennis prior to [the release of Sunflower] had worked independently and recorded a whole bunch of songs, he selected a number that he wanted to submit to the Beach Boys to see if they would include them on Sunflower. At the time Sunflower was due and first submitted to Warner Brothers...it was rejected and Warner Brothers felt that the Beach Boys' effort was not up to par so they sent them back to the studio for a few months to get new songs recorded before they'd even consider the album. Dennis had a lot of [his] songs in the can already almost finished. So they started considering more and more of these songs because they were almost ready and they could get this album out and get some income.
From mid-1971 to late 1974,[citation needed] Dennis was prevented from drumming by a hand injury and at live concerts joined Mike Love as a frontman on stage (exacerbating the already considerable tension between them, according to band mate Al Jardine[citation needed]). The 1973 live album The Beach Boys In Concert features Dennis alone on the album cover, but none of his songs was included in the lineup.
During the three-year recording hiatus following Holland, Dennis's voice deteriorated markedly (some claim from an injury sustained in a 1974 fight, others from alcohol use).[citation needed] By then his onstage antics (including streaking) occasionally disrupted the Beach Boys' live shows.
In 1974, concurrent with the success of the '60s hits compilation Endless Summer, Dennis returned to his role behind the drums, and the group became more and more of a nostalgia act.
Charles Manson
In 1968, Dennis Wilson was driving through Malibu when he noticed two female hitchhikers. He picked them up and dropped them off at their destination[1]. Later on, Dennis noticed the same two girls hitchhiking again. This time, he took them to his home at 14400 Sunset Boulevard, near Will Rogers Park. Dennis then went to a recording session. When he returned at around three o'clock in the morning, he was met in his driveway by a stranger, Charles Manson. When he walked into his home, there were about a dozen people occupying the premises, most of them female. Dennis became fascinated by Manson and his followers, and the "Manson Family" lived with Dennis for a period of time afterwards, at Dennis's expense.
Initially impressed by Manson's songwriting talent, Dennis introduced him to a few friends in the music business, including Terry Melcher, whose home on Cielo Drive would later be rented by director Roman Polanski and his wife, actress Sharon Tate; Tate and several others would later be murdered at the home by Manson Family members. Recording sessions for Manson were held at Brian Wilson's home studio; those recordings, if existent, have never been released. The Beach Boys released a Manson song, originally titled "Cease To Exist", but reworked as "Never Learn Not To Love", as a single B-side. The song, credited only to Dennis, was said to have been purchased from Manson.[citation needed]
As Dennis became increasingly aware of Manson's volatile nature and growing tendency to violence, he finally made a break from the friendship by simply moving out of the house, and leaving Manson there. When Manson subsequently sought further contact (and money), he left a bullet with Dennis' housekeeper to be delivered with a cryptic message, which was perceived by Dennis as a threat.
In August 1969 the infamous Tate/LaBianca murders occurred. The trauma of his prior association with the killers affected Dennis for his remaining 14 years.[citation needed] He rarely discussed his involvement with the Manson Family and he usually became upset when the subject was broached. In one interview, however, he brought it up:[cite this quote] "I guess it's time to talk about it. You see, when I knew Manson it was no big thing. We were friends; we lived together. That was long before the murders. And we'd talk every night, just like you and me. We'd really talk about important things." The interviewer asked, "Do you know why Manson organized those murders?" and Dennis responded, "I know why Charles Manson did what he did. Someday, I'll tell the world. I'll write a book and explain why he did it. Over the years, people have always wanted to know what happened, what my relationship with Charlie was. We were just friends." Dennis added: "I didn't testify at the trial. I couldn't. I was so scared. You know, the writers really raked me over the coals for not testifying." Dennis was particularly worried about the safety of his son, Scott.[citation needed]
Movie Role
Dennis Wilson starred alongside James Taylor and Warren Oates in the critically acclaimed film Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) as "The Mechanic". The film is often discussed alongside other anti-Western Existentialist road movies of the era, such as Easy Rider and Vanishing Point.[citation needed] It depicts "The Driver" (Taylor) and "The Mechanic" driving aimlessly across the United States in their '55 Chevy surviving on money made by street drag-racing.
Solo career
In 1969, Dennis Wilson released his first piece of solo material. A little-known single released under the artist title of 'Dennis Wilson & Rumbo'. The single featured "Sound of Free" on the A-side with "Lady" (also known as "Fallin' In Love") on the B-side. The song was later covered by American Spring and released as the B-side to their single "Shyin' Away."
Pacific Ocean Blue
Wilson released his debut solo album Pacific Ocean Blue in 1977. His collaborators on the album included Daryl Dragon (the 'Captain' of Captain & Tennille) and Manson-era confederate Gregg Jakobson. The album peaked at #96 in the US and sold around 300,000 copies, matching that year's Beach Boys album Love You. Dates were booked for a Dennis Wilson solo tour but these were ultimately cancelled, possibly due to internal politics - however Wilson did occasionally perform his solo material on the 1977 Beach Boys tour.[2] Despite Wilson himself claiming the album had "no substance"[3], Pacific Ocean Blue performed well critically and continues to maintain a cult following. The album was out of print and difficult to obtain for more than a decade, but has been reissued as of June 2008. [4].
Bambu
Pacific Ocean Blue's follow-up, Bambu, was initially scuttled by lack of financing and the distractions of simultaneous Beach Boys projects. A sampling of its music was officially released in 2008 as bonus material with the Pacific Ocean Blue reissue.
Two songs from the Bambu sessions - "Love Surrounds Me" and "Baby Blue" - were lifted for the Beach Boys 1979 L.A. (Light Album). Wilson and brother Brian also recorded together apart from the Beach Boys in 1980 and 1981. These sessions remain unreleased though widely bootlegged.
Bambu was long believed to be titled Bamboo - however, a recent press release from Caribou Records ahead of the re-release of Pacific Ocean Blue states that the correct spelling was Bambu, after the brand of rolling papers.[citation needed]
Dennis claimed in a September 1977 interview that his second solo album was much better than his first album. He was quoted as saying: “The next album is a hundred times what Pacific Ocean Blue is. It kicks. It’s different in a way. I think I have more confidence now that I’ve completed one project, and I’m moving on to another”[cite this quote]
Christine McVie
Dennis was also romantically involved with Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie. He had just divorced his third wife for a second time before he and Christine fell for each other in 1979 while Fleetwood Mac was making the Tusk album.[citation needed]
Christine referred to the drummer as "a multifaceted jewel...Dennis has thrown me into the deep end, literally and figuratively."[cite this quote] For two years, the couple more or less commuted between Wilson's ketch at Marina del Rey and Christine's house in Coldwater Canyon-- they had even made 'definite' plans to marry.[citation needed] Although he was adored by Christine as well as other members of Fleetwood Mac (Dennis and John McVie even used to have drinking contests after Fleetwood Mac gigs), the Beach Boy eventually proved to be too eccentric for Chris to handle.[citation needed] Lindsey Buckingham recalls, "I knew him pretty well... he was a good guy. He was kind of lost, but I thought he had a big heart. I always liked him. He was crazy just like a lot of other people, but he had a really big heart, and he was the closest thing to Brian (Wilson) there was, too. He was halfway there."[cite this quote]
Mick Fleetwood, who had introduced the pair, wrote that Chris "almost went mad trying to keep up with Dennis, who was already like a man with twenty thyroid glands, not counting the gargantuan amounts of coke and booze and pills he was always shoving into himself."[cite this quote] He surprised McVie once by having a beautiful heart-shaped garden planted in her backyard; she later learned that he'd charged it to her. Wilson crashed Christine's Rolls Royce so many times that finally the vehicle had to be written off. He would storm through her house in a drunken rage, breaking things, before leaving for a few weeks to get himself together, at which point the two would reconcile yet again. Needless to say, Christine soon tired of this and called an end to the relationship. The couple did not part on amicable terms and had not seen each other for about two years when she received news of his death; "My secretary called me up at eight in the morning. I knew something was wrong. She said, 'Dennis drowned today.' And my first reaction was to say, 'My God, is he all right?' I still really can't believe it. He just seemed indestructible."[cite this quote]
In 1982, Fleetwood Mac released a single, "Wish You Were Here" written by McVie, which was partly about Dennis's relationship to her. Lindsey Buckingham also wrote a song inspired by Dennis on his Go Insane solo album titled "DW Suite".
Death
Succeeding years saw Dennis Wilson's alcohol abuse problem worsen.[clarification needed] On December 28, 1983, shortly after his 39th birthday, Wilson drowned at Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles. On the day of his death in 1983, Wilson was quoted as saying "I'm lonesome. I'm lonesome all the time."[cite this quote] He left behind a young wife, Shawn Love, the alleged illegitimate daughter of his cousin Mike Love,[citation needed] and their young son, Gage Dennis Wilson (born January 1983). He had been previously married four times: to Carole Freedman (with whom he had a daughter, Jennifer (born December 21, 1966) and whose son, Scott, he adopted); to Barbara Charren (with whom he had two sons, Michael (born February 19, 1971) and Carl (born December 31, 1972); and (twice) to Karen Lamm, the ex-wife of Robert Lamm. Dennis also had two sons, Chris and Ryan born out of wedlock. On January 4, 1984 he was buried at sea off the California coast by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Fred Vail, a close friend of Wilson, said that his premature death was most likely inevitable: “I knew that Denny wasn’t the type of guy who would live to be an old man. It just wasn’t in the general scheme of things. He was just constantly challenging the boundaries.”[cite this quote].
Personality
Dennis himself quoted in the sleeve notes in the album All Summer Long:
They say I live a fast life. Maybe I just like a fast life. I wouldn’t give it up for anything in the world. It won’t last forever, either. But the memories will.
In an interview with Keith Altham after being asked “… is there anything that frightens you?” Dennis responded “Fear is nothing but awareness. I was only frightened as a child because I did not understand fear – the dark, being lost, what was under the bed! It came from within."[cite this quote] Dennis once said,
I give everything I have away. What I am wearing and what’s in that suitcase is it. I don’t even have a car. I have a 1934 Dodge pick-up truck which someone gave me. I could have anything I want. I just have to go out and get it. If it’s worth having, it’s worth giving. The smile you send out will return to you!
[cite this quote]
Stephen Kalinich, in an interview with Adam Webb, stated that "He had soul in his music and he was a master. And yet a primitive master in the sense that he may not have heard all of Beethoven or Bach but he had a feeling of combining the pain and the joy together."[cite this quote] Dennis once stated “The greatest success in life is to feel I’m something for someone; the feeling of falling in love, the newness of love.”[cite this quote] Dennis describes that people can gain a true understanding of the person he was. "Everything that I am or will ever be is in the music. If you want to know me, just listen."[cite this quote]
Solo discography
Albums
Singles
See also
References
Further reading
- Adam Webb, Dumb Angel: the life and music of Dennis Wilson. Creation Books, 2001. ISBN 1-84068-051-2
- Jon Stebbins, Dennis Wilson: The Real Beach Boy. ECW Press, 2000. ISBN 1-55022-404-2
External links
