From some clips I’ve seen on YouTube, I’d say Mike Love is the truly crazy one in the Beach Boys. What’s his excuse?
Love’s craziness never approached that of Dennis Wilson, who drowned after drinking all day and diving in the ocean and thinking Charlie Manson had musical talent.
Rumor mill time: Dennis Wilson hung out with Manson’s crew for the drugs and especially the sex. He never thought Manson had any real musical talent, and never promoted his career.
That was all in the mind of Manson (who is a true sociopath).
I managed to catch 45 minutes of the Beach Boys at Bonnaroo in 2012. I was impressed with them, especially Brian Wilson. He played and sang well, even though he was in a chair the whole time. At the time I was in a rush to catch the Ben Folds Five reunion on another stage and didn’t finish watching their set. I now wish I had. Sure you don’t get to see Ben Folds Five reunite every day, but I imagine I’ll have a lot more chances in my life to see Ben Folds put on a good show than I will Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. At least I saw my favorite childhood band play well for 45 minutes though. And they played “Don’t Worry Baby”.
Wilson certainly went through the motions as if he did believe that. Here’s a December 1968 article from Record Mirror magazine (UK) in which Wilson mentions Charles Manson by his first name and says, “when I met him I found he had great musical ideas,” says he’s currently writing music with Manson (this apparently resulted in the Beach Boys song “Never Learn Not to Love”) and adds, “He’s dumb, in some ways, but I accept his approach and have learnt from him.”
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As late as May 1969 Wilson was still talking up Manson as an up-and-coming pop star, now referring to him as “The Wizard” and saying “He may be another artist for Brother Records” [the record label started by the Beach Boys]. This comes from an interview with Keith Altham for Rave magazine, dated May 1969.
Several years ago, I saw Brian Wilson live. (The tour where the second half consisted of Pet Sounds, start to finish. Amazing.) Anyway, he opened the concert singing the BNL’s Brian Wilson. Awesomely self-referential.