Murry Wilson

Murry Gage Wilson was born on July 2, 1917 in Hutchinson, Kansas,[1] the son of Edith Sophia (née Sthole) and William Coral "Buddy" Wilson.[2] His mother was of Swedish descent.[3] His family moved west to Los Angeles when he was five. The family was initially so impoverished that they camped in a tent on the beach when they arrived. He met his future wife, Audree Neva Korthof, while attending Washington High School; they were married on March 26, 1938.[4]

Wilson had a blue-collar background. As a young man, he worked at Southern California Gas Company until the birth of his first son Brian, after which he took a job as a foreman at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber factory, where he lost an eye in an industrial accident.[2] During this period he began writing songs. His biggest success came later with a dance song, "Two-Step Side-Step", which was featured by Lawrence Welk on his radio program in 1952[4] and covered on record by RCA Victor Western Swing artist Johnnie Lee Wills, as well as country music singer Bonnie Lou. He also wrote "I'll Hide My Tears", recorded in the early 1950s by doo-wop group the Jets, a reconfiguration of the Hollywood Flames.[5] Wilson later founded a machining business, but maintained an active interest in music, which he passed along to his sons, encouraging them to learn to sing and play instruments.

The Wilson brothers had a problematic relationship with their father. Many stories of abuse have surfaced, including a supposed incident where Murry hit Brian in the head with a 2×4, resulting in the permanent loss of hearing in his right ear.[6] Murry denied such reports when approached by Rolling Stone in 1971. According to biographer David Leaf, Murry later "telephoned Brian and angrily demanded that he retract the stories. Brian reportedly laughingly told his dad, 'I'll tell you what. Let's tell them that I shit in your ear, and you hit me in the head with a plate."[7] Brian's 2016 memoir states, "Lots of things have been written about my dad and the way he treated me and my brothers. Lots of them are true. Some of them are dirty lies. But even the things that are true aren’t always what they seem."[8] It also states that Brian's loss of hearing was actually caused by a boy who lived in their neighborhood.[9]

The Beach Boys, 1964

After the Beach Boys' formation, Murry became the group's business manager, co-producer, and publisher in the early part of their career. Known as a domineering and manipulative man,[10] Murry was a tough negotiator on the band's behalf, organizing a contract signing with Capitol Records.[11] Around June 1962, Murry and Brian established the music publishing company Sea of Tunes to safeguard Brian's compositions.[12] The Beach Boys' first few records credited Capitol A&R director Nik Venet as producer. After April 1963, Capitol allowed Brian to produce their records himself, following Murry's insistence.[13] Murry also introduced Brian to Roger Christian, who became Brian's writing partner for the band's car songs.[14]

Murry accompanied the group on their first Australasian tour in January 1964, and required that the band not fraternize with women, use profanity, or drink alcoholic beverages. During his early years, Wilson charged the group $100 for breaking these requirements, but for this tour, he raised the fine to $1,000, which he would subtract from the touring proceeds. At the time, Wilson's influence on the Beach Boys ignited tensions within the group.[15]

In early April 1964, following incidents involving the recording sessions of the singles "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "I Get Around", Brian relieved his father of his managerial duties.[16] In 1966, Brian reflected, "We love the family thing – y'know: three brothers, a cousin and a friend is a really beautiful way to have a group – but the extra generation can become a hang-up."[17] In Carl's recollection, "I remember having a conversation with my dad in his bedroom at home. I said, 'They really don't want you to manage the group anymore.' When I think about it, that must have really crushed him. After all, he gave up his home and business for us. He was kind of crackers over us."[18]

Even after Murry's formal business relationship with the Beach Boys ended, he remained in close contact with the group, letting Brian know his thoughts about the band's decisions.[16] Brian also periodically sought advice from his father.[18] In 1964, Murry sold off his machinery business and separated from Audree.[19] On August 7, he wrote a last will and testament that stated, in part, "[Audree] told me on this date ... that she did not enjoy intercourse with me anymore ... I am a very unhappy and broken-heated [sic] man about my family."[20] Although their marriage ended in divorce in 1966,[21] they remained closely involved with each other until his death.[22] According to music historian Mark Dillon, it has been alleged that Wilson had one or more extramarital affairs, "but whether this was in the aftermath of his separation from Audree or was ultimately the cause is not known."[23] Biographer Peter Ames Carlin suggested that Brian's song "Let Him Run Wild" (1965) was inspired by Murry's affairs.[23]

After he was relieved as the Beach Boys' manager, Wilson produced and managed the Sunrays

In June 1964, Murry produced three tracks for David Marks' group the Marksmen: "Car Party", "Casanova", and "Leaves".[19] During the mid-1960s, Murry produced and managed the Sunrays,[24] a group comprising five students who attended Hollywood Professional High School. The Sunrays earned some media attention and a bit of airplay for their initial singles, but never broke into the national Top 40. Their two best-known singles, "I Live for the Sun" and "Andrea", were regional hits in California. Members of the Sunrays described Murry as "the [nicest] man ever" and denied seeing any abuse from him toward the Beach Boys.[25] Session drummer Hal Blaine remembered of the Sunrays sessions, "You could smell the liquor something terrible when he [Wilson] came near you. Everybody got a two-dollar bill as a tip before we started, and then he'd get down on one knee and say a prayer. It was very weird."[26]

In February 1965, Wilson visited a Beach Boys recording session for "Help Me, Rhonda" and, to the group's annoyance, attempted to resume his role as the band's producer. A tape of the session later circulated widely among bootleggers.[27] On May 8, Murry drafted an eight-page letter to Brian in which he correlated the Beach Boys' rise to fame with the disintegration of his family. He wrote that he felt he was "almost [in] a living hell" and "wanted to give up completely on two separate occasions."[23] Dillon wrote that the letter "provides a wealth of insight into his conflicted personality, and it made headlines in 2009 after being posted online."[28]

For their next album, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) (released July 1965), Brian wrote a novelty song inspired by his father: "I'm Bugged at My Ol' Man".[29] Murry later commented on the song, "He meant it as a put-on, but he meant it."[30] In July, he sent a letter to Brian requesting that he be officially granted sole ownership of Sea of Tunes, per a verbal agreement they had reached in 1962.[31] According to historian Keith Badman, "Brian allowed Murry to take total control to stop his father's continual hassling on the matter."[32]

In 1966, the Beach Boys released the album Pet Sounds. On the advice of his father, Brian sped up the track "Caroline, No" to make the vocal sound younger.[33] Murry later told Rolling Stone that he enjoyed the album and praised it as a "masterpiece of accomplishment for Brian", noting that it had become a ubiquitous influence on the music heard in product commercials.[34] Dennis echoed that his father "used to go to pieces when he heard stuff like 'Caroline, No.'"[35] Venet, who was not as effused with the album, told biographer Steven Gaines that he believed the record was Brian's attempt to "torment his father with songs his father couldn't relate to, and melody structures his father couldn't understand."[36]

In October 1967, Capitol released Murry's The Many Moods of Murry Wilson,[37] an easy listening LP that included a rendition of "The Warmth of the Sun".[30] While promoting the album in Britain, he told Disc & Music Echo that "after 'Good Vibrations' Brian lost a lot of confidence. He didn't think he could ever write anything as good as that again ... With [my] LP I'm going to nudge my boys' competitive spirit."[38]

In 1968, Wilson appeared on the Beach Boys' Friends album, singing the low note in "Be Here in the Mornin'".[39] In early 1969, he co-wrote the Beach Boys' song "Break Away" with Brian, and was credited under the pseudonym "Reggie Dunbar" on the record, which was released without much commercial success.[40] In October, he returned to the studio to work on various productions, including a song titled "Gonna Be Alright".[41]

In late 1969, Wilson sold Sea of Tunes, over the band's objections, for the undervalued amount of $700,000 (equivalent to $4.88 million in 2019).[21][42][32] In the early 1990s, the catalog was estimated to be worth between $20 million ($37.5 million in 2019)[43] and $40 million ($69 million in 2019).[44] Brian later suggested that his signature was forged by his father on several related business documents, making the sale illegal.[43][45]

In April 1970, Wilson assembled a tape comprising songs that he had recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders called "So Much in Love" and "Love to Be Your Lover". The tape begins with a spoken interlude in which Wilson suggests the Beach Boys should record these songs, as he "doesn't have long to live".[46] In August 1971, Wilson cut a song he wrote called "Won't You Tell Me".[47] The Sunrays released their version of the song on the 1996 compilation For Collectors Only: Vintage Rays.[48] A version featuring Brian and Carl on lead vocals remains unreleased.[49] On September 11, Disc & Music Echo reported that Dennis had permanently left the Beach Boys was in the process of "setting up a production and publication company with his father".[50] In 1972, Murry worked on various songs, including one called "Take Back the Time".[51] In October, he recorded a commercial jingle that he intended to offer to the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant chain.[52]

During his final years, Murry regularly socialized with Dennis. Audree recalled, "They were buddies. It's the most amazing thing ... Dennis called his father on Mother's Day and Murry told him, 'I'm just going to live about a month.' Dennis didn't tell me this, thank God! I didn't need to know that, but he could tell Dennis that."[53] Three weeks later, on June 4, 1973, Murry died at his home in Whittier, California after suffering a heart attack at the age of 55.[54][22] Brian and Dennis did not attend the funeral, but Dennis visited Murry's body in the morgue.[22] Brian later said, "I didn’t go to his funeral. I went to New York with Diane, my sister-in-law. I wasn’t staying away out of anger or anything. It was just too many things all at once, and I was not in the mood to go to my dad’s funeral."[55]

Murry was buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.[56] Shortly after Murry's death, Brian told an interviewer that he was planning to record Murry's song "Lazaloo". It was also reported that Brian wrote a song, "Just an Imitation", as a tribute to his father.[22] As of 2014, a tape of the song had yet to surface.[57] Wilson later described it as "a beautiful ballad and kind of a tribute to my dad."[58]

• The Many Moods of Murry Wilson (1967)

Wilson wrote at least 50 compositions in his lifetime, with over 25 recorded by other artists. Listed below are released compositions, authored or co-authored by Wilson, that were recorded by himself or other artists.[66]

Citations

Bibliography