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Rudolf Wagner and Brian Wilson
I had the realization that Brian Wilson and Rudolf Wagner share a number of similarities.
Both Brian and Rudolf are terrific musicians who play an assortment of instruments but both primarily play bass and piano.
They both arrange and produce a terrific group and duo respectively of family members. The Twins and The Beach Boys are the foremost harmony vocalists of their era.
Both The Beach Boys and the Monalisa Twins make beautiful 60’s music that is positive and melody driven. They both recorded God Only Knows and had significant success with it
Both men produced in the shadow of The Beatles with Brian trying to match them in a rivalry he wasn’t quite able to win and Rudolf trying to match them with the more than 20 covers the Twins have done. The Beach Boys, though highly respected, were never seen as the equals to The Beatles and The Twins have had to work past being seen as a tribute band.
And finally, they both had 2 daughters who were part of a successful harmony band as 2 of the members of Wilson Phillips were daughters of Brian.
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4 Replies
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Hi Tim, you draw some interesting parallels between Brian Wilson (Beach Boys) and MLT.
For myself, 40 years ago I was a Beach Boys nut, and today I am head over heals over MLT music, so there is that parallel personally for me. I have to say the Beach Boys was one of the greatest harmony bands, and MLT harmony match and exceed. They both greatly admire Beatles too, although with Brian it started as a rivalry.
With MLT album Orange, I couldn’t help but draw parallels with the Pet Sounds and Sargent Peppers albums, in terms of the artistic and thematic unity within the album.  Much more than a collection of songs.  With MLT songs like “Nothing is In Vain”, “Dreams”, “Sweet Lorraine”, “Once Upon A Time”, “Still a Friend of Mine” I see highly complex for the studio kind of song writing Brian Wilson and Lennon/McCartney started to get into in the mid/late 60s.
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Thanks Jung, I’m glad to see this post get some love!
I love The Beach Boys and believe that Brian’s vocal arrangements and production skills are unrivaled in the history of rock and roll. I think the great weakness of The Beach Boys is in their songwriting. I’m not saying they didn’t write some really great songs- I’m saying those songs don’t have the great variety of styles The Beatles had. There is a greater difference between Strawberry Fields Forever and I Want To Hold Your Hand, between Within You Without You and When I’m 64 and between Come Together and Here Comes The Sun than the law allows but The Beatles made it work beautifully.
I think MLT are closer to The Beatles in that respect than The Beach Boys. Club 27 to Still A Friend of Mine is such a major shift in songwriting.
I am not a major fan of Pet Sounds. I love the three classics- Wouldn’t It Be Nice, Sloop John B and God Only Knows but precious little of the rest of the album. I actually love California Girls, I Get Around, Fun, Fun, Fun, Surfin’ USA, and about 25 or 30 of the early songs every bit as much as I do the Pet Sounds songs. Most bands sound a lot alike from song to song so it’s probably more my lack of attention span that needs the kind of shifts I get with The Beatles.
Rudolf is obviously a technical virtuoso like Brian. But he has dedicated his career to supporting his daughters and has mainly stayed in the background. I don’t think he’s had the problems poor Brian had. At least that’s my hope! -
Hi Tim
Yes Brian Wilson never reached the song writing heights of the Beatles as his artistic growth came to an abrupt end around 1967 and by 1968/69 he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for serious substance abuse issues and resulting mental breakdown.  Interestingly he was 26-27 (born in June 1942) during this period and came dangerously close to being another Club 27 casualty to substance abuse which seems to have snuffed out so many great musical stars before they could shine their brightest.  I read up a little on the Club 27 phenomenon, and the most common theory is that around 27 the body can’t take the ongoing substance abuse that lead up to it from late teens to early 20s. All the abuse finally catches up by about 27. If you look at it, just before 1968, Brian finished his Pet Sounds Album, released Good Vibrations (his two greatest achievements), and started on his 12th album “Smile” which was supposed to be his response to Sargent Peppers, and anticipated by many musical critics to be the makings of the next monumental album to eclipse the best Beatles Albums to that point, but Brian was not able to finish Smile because of the substance abuse and the Band released a half-baked unfinished Smiley Smile album that basically flopped in the charts. It was a great tragedy, so much unfulfilled potential for Brian Wilson, the world would never witness.
On a positive note, I saw their 2012 50th anniversary concert tour (on TV), and it was inspiring to say the least to see the entire Beach Boys band (Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Mike Love, and Bruce Johnson) touring the world and putting on such a great show. To see these men all old enough to be my father still rocking and rolling was very inspiring indeed, and blew a little breath of fresh air into my life at the time.  Apparently Brian is starting another concert tour to commence Nov 30th this year. How amazing! And didn’t Paul McCartney release a new album this year?
Music is indeed a never ending life time journey as these two great legends prove.  So many decades later the Beatles and Beach Boys still touch and move people’s lives with their music. What greater testament to greatness is there? And I am thankful there are still a few bands like the MonaLisa Twins carrying on that tradition of great music making that started in the 60’s. So yes, I see some Brian Wilson, as well as a lot of Beatles greatness in the MLT.
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Great post, Jung! I was fortunate enough to see The Beach Boys in Wilmington, NC in April 1987. They put on an amazing show! The songs sounded just like the records- many of them more than 20 years after their original recording. Brian was actually at the Wilmington performance- one of the first times he had performed with them in years.
Hearing the MLT version of God Only Knows was the moment when I said to myself- these ladies are so good it’s worth getting to know everything they’ve ever done or will do. I don’t think I’ve made a better musical choice in the last 2 decades!By the way, if you haven’t already seen Love and Mercy- the 2016 film about Brian’s sinking into addiction, being basically kidnapped by his therapist and being saved by the love of his future wife, Melinda- you definitely should.
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