Carl Wilson
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Carl Dean Wilson (December 21, 1946 - February 6, 1998) was the youngest of the three brothers who made up the core of The Beach Boys.
The band's lead guitarist, Wilson early on had little input into the music (although he did play the Chuck Berry-esque leads on many of their early hits), as when the band first became successful he was in his teens, and neither a particularly accomplished musician nor singer (his only lead vocal in the band's first three years was on the obscure track Pom Pom Play Girl, and the band were replaced by session musicians on many of their recordings).
However, by the mid-1960s, he had become a far stronger vocalist and an accomplished live performer, and beginning with 1966's God Only Knows slowly took over as the main lead vocalist for the band from Mike Love and Brian Wilson, singing lead on the bulk of the Smiley Smile and Wild Honey albums, including the hit singles Good Vibrations, Darlin' and Wild Honey. After his elder brother Brian's retirement from the stage in 1965, Wilson became the de facto leader of the band onstage (contracts at that time reading that promoters hired 'Carl Wilson plus four other musicians'), and shortly after became the band's in-studio leader, producing the bulk of the albums 20/20, [Sunflower]], Surf's Up, Carl And The Passions (So Tough) (named in honour of his effective leadership of the band at this point) and Holland. While unpopular at the time, these albums are now generally considered among the band's best, both by fans and critics.
In the late 1960s Wilson also made headlines as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, at one point having to let the rest of the band tour the UK without him while he was up before the draft board.
Never a prolific songwriter, Wilson's first solo composing contributions to the band, other than a handful of early surf instrumentals, came with 1971's Surf's Up, on which he wrote Long Promised Road and Feel Flows with the band's then manager Jack Rielley. (He had earlier been given cowriting credits on a few songs, but these appear to have been for arrangement ideas contributed to others' songs - he considered Long Promised Road his first real song). On subsequent Beach Boys albums he would average one or two songs, cowritten with various lyricists or other members of the band, but he remained the most prominent and recognisable voice in the band, taking lead vocals on many songs, especially those written by his brother, Dennis Wilson.
During the 1970s Wilson also produced records for several other artists, notably Ricki Martin (Son of Dean Martin, not to be confused with the late-90s pop star) and South African group The Flame (members of whom went on to be members of the Beach Boys for a couple of years, before becoming successful musicians performing with people like The Rutles, Bonnie Raitt and the Rolling Stones). He also occasionally appeared on others' records as a backing vocalist, most notably appearing on Elton John's Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me (with bandmate Al Jardine) and Dave Lee Roth's hit cover of California Girls.
By the early 1980s the Beach Boys were in disarray - the band had split into two camps. On one side were Carl and Dennis arguing for what they saw as more progressive music, on the other Love and Al Jardine arguing for the band to become a nostalgia act, with Brian Wilson at this time incapable of having much say in the band himself. Wilson's personal life was also in disarray, following his divorce from first wife Annie Hinsche (sister of Beach Boys touring member Billy Hinsche).Love and Jardine gained control of the band, and Wilson quit in 1981, rather than remain as part of what he saw as a nostalgia act.
He released a solo album, Carl Wilson, to little critical notice, in 1981, made up of songs co-written with Myrna Smith-Schilling (former backing vocalist for Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin and wife of Wilson's then manager Jerry Schilling). He recorded a second solo album, Youngblood, in a similar vein, but by the time it was released in 1983 he had already rejoined the Beach Boys, and some have suggested that the line "If I could talk to Love I'd say/'Have it your way, Love, have it your way'" in the song If I Could Talk To Love on that album might have been more about his bandmate than the emotion.
Shortly after Carl's return to the band, Dennis Wilson drowned, and this seems to have removed much of Carl Wilson's will to push the band forward creatively. While he wrote three songs for the band's eponymous 1985 album, he never again wrote for the band and sounded increasingly bored in his vocal contributions for the band's last few, Mike-Love-controlled, albums (although many fans cite his vocals as those albums' saving grace). He still remained important to the band as a performer, singing lead on the chorus to the band's last big success, 1988's US number one Kokomo, but saved his songwriting and production for home recordings. He carried on touring with the band until the last months of his life.
Carl Wilson died in February 1998 of lung cancer, two months after the death of his mother Audree Wilson. He was survived by his brother Brian, wife Gina (daughter of Dean Martin), and two sons by his first marriage, Justin and Jonah.
A handful of posthumous recordings of Wilson have been released - notably the album Like A Brother, by a 'supergroup' Wilson formed with Gerry Beckley of America and Robert Lamm of Chicago. He also appeared posthumously on his brother Brian's album Gettin' In Over My Head, which used his vocal from the unreleased Beach Boys song Soul Searchin put to a new backing track. He also, obviously, appears on the many Beach Boys archival releases that have come out since his death.
