Tom Dunne: The Beach Boys documentary tells a complicated tale brilliantly

Rock and roll band The Beach Boys pose for a portrait circa 1964 in Los Angeles, California. L-R: Al Jardine, Mike Love, Dennis Wilson, Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Firstly, many thanks for all the kind comments on last week’s column, particularly from those of you in the “marriage counselling” arena. 

And those of you offering a “bag of cans” and an opportunity to listen to The River on a ghetto blaster in a field somewhere will live with me.

Knowing you are “there for me” means a great deal.

And all is good again at Chez Dunne. In fact, Mrs Dunne was more than happy to watch the two-hour Disney+ Beach Boy special with me as long as it involved a couch and a Patron Margarita.

Said documentary is a masterpiece. It tells a complicated tale brilliantly. It wades into the many myths — did ever a band generate so many — and lays most to rest. At its end, there is just the music and a family band that rattled the Beatles.

It is directed by Frank Marshall and has interviews with most of the major players. The reviled Mike Love, Al Jardine and Bruce Johnson, members of The Wrecking Crew who played on their records, McCartney, Don Was and many more.

The picture that emerges is of an incredibly talented band that is, above all else a family.

Brian, Carl and Dennis were the brothers, Love a very close cousin. Left home alone when their parents took a family holiday to Mexico, they borrowed $300 from Love’s mum, their aunt, and rented instruments.

When the parents returned, Murray, their dad and a part-time songwriter, took one listen to what they’d written and immediately sold his business to become their full-time manager. I tell that story, rather than the many later wild and crazy ones — studios on fire, sandpits, breakdowns — because it speaks of the incredible talent that was there from day one.

Music and particularly harmony, had been in the family since they were born. But Brian’s ability to work out the vocal parts in the music of the Four Freshman was a huge signifier of what was to come. He could hold the many parts simultaneously in his head and then show the others.

It was one of these they sang to Love’s mother that convinced her to give them the $300 for instruments. That’s over $3,000 in today’s money. Trust me, when you hear them sing it here, you’d give them the money yourself.

1964: Al Jardine, Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Carl Wilson and Dennis Wilson of the rock and roll band "The Beach Boys" sing around a piano . (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Then there is Brian, a special child from the off. The footage of him directing the Wrecking Crew on Pet Sounds is jaw-dropping. He is both fragile and gifted beyond belief. 

I’ve interviewed him five times, more than I’ve interviewed anyone else, and it has not always been easy. But he sticks to certain mantras: Phil Spector is a genius, ‘Be My Baby’ is the perfect pop song, Rubber Soul was the album that changed everything.

He only really talks in music. He is only ever really engaged when it is about music. Everything else struggles to command his attention.

Two things shine through in the documentary. Firstly, the music, lifted to the sublime by the greatest vocal harmonies — both in composition and performance — of all time, and secondly the family: take one of those voices out and it wouldn’t have been the same.

Brian was as lucky to have them as they were to have him. They had the voices that allowed him to realise his ambitions.

I talked to Love and Johnson as part of the promotion for this. Johnson is the man who pushed Pet Sounds into the hands of Lennon and McCartney. “Were they rattled? I asked. “No, just very, very impressed” he said, laughing.

I’ve warmed to Love. He’s unjustly vilified. Yes, he did sue them, but he did write the lyrics to most of the early hits and wasn’t being paid. He had no choice.

I talked too to director, Frank Marshall. I didn’t get time to research him prior to the interview, so I kept the five minutes we had on topic. We mostly discussed why he’s wanted to make this and the film’s ending which is very, very, poignant.

My ignorance turned out to be a blessing. If I’d known more, we’d have had to discuss the production company he formed with Steven Spielberg, his five Oscar nominations, his work on the Indiana Jones films, the Bourne series, Alive, Sixth Sense, The Last Waltz and Congo.

Save all that for the public interview. In the meantime, don’t miss this!