Brian Wilson’s songs – Surfin’ USA, California Girls, I Get Around, Good Vibrations and God Only Knows – have become classics with music reviewers describing him as ‘one of pop music’s true geniuses.’ ‘His 1966 masterpiece Pet Sounds remains a benchmark in pop culture, blending classical harmonic theory with melodious songcraft, baroque orchestrations and an audacious sound palette.’
He has died at 82 after a life of professional highs and precarious mental health exacerbated by drugs and the after effects of a childhood blighted by a violent father. His clinical diagnosis was schizoaffective disorder (hearing voices) and manic depression.
In later years he re-emerged in the new millennium to delight his old fans and capture a new generation of music lovers.
He was born 20 June 1942 3.45 am Inglewood, California, with a birth chart split between Neptunian creative talents and anguished fears. His Gemini Sun (a favourite pop singer/songwriter sign) was conjunct Jupiter and square a 5th house Neptune which in turn was trine a 12th house Venus in Taurus (rules the throat). He was custom-built for lyrical happiness. But underlying that was the darker, desperately afraid and trapped Mars Pluto in Leo sextile Saturn Uranus in Gemini. His highly-strung Virgo Moon conjunct North Node was square Saturn. Algol was conjunct his Ascendant. Gemini’s lightness and darkness magnified.
Hia father Murry Wilson, a would-be songwriter who worked on the production line at the nearby Goodyear tyre factory, subjected all three sons to physical and mental abuse who lived out his thwarted ambitions through his sons while constantly belittling their achievements.
Born 2 July 1917 3pm Hutchinson, Kansas, Murry Wilson had a controlling Sun Pluto in Cancer and deeply buried, volcanic Mars in the 8th with a neurotic Neptune, Saturn, Venus conjunction sextile Jupiter. His relationship chart with Brian was extremely fraught with a ‘cruel’ composite Sun, Saturn Mars conjunction and a bullying, dominating composite Mars Pluto conjunction square Uranus.
Sly Stone, March 15, 1943, frontman of Sly and the Family Stone, has also died. He is credited as the founder of the “progressive soul” movement, playing a critical role in the development of psychedelic funk which fused soul, rock, psychedelia, and gospel in the 1960s and 1970s.
His chart bears similarities to Brian Wilson though their style was different. Stone had a musical Pisces Sun opposition Neptune; with his Neptune in an Air Grand Trine to Saturn Uranus in Gemini trine Mars in Aquarius, formed into a Kite by Mars opposition Pluto. He also ended up with heavy drug problems and at one point in his later life ended up homeless.
Sly and Brian were brilliant, gifted
musicians who were broken by
heavy drug abuse.
Sly’s decline is even more
heartbreaking, as he lost
everything and was reduced to
being a homeless derelict.
Nick Kent’s overview of him is
worth checking out, in
“Apathy For The Devil”.
Thank you for doing these charts, Marjorie. Both Brian Wilson and Sly had a positivity, a bubbling joy, that came through the realm of sound. Neptune on a good day. Of the two, I adored Sly and met him in Cali when he was struggling. I was tongue-tied even if he was out of it because there are very few true geniuses and Sly was one of them.
Brian Wilson’s “Sail on Sailor” is my favorite Neptune song. It has a confusing lyric in it: Some say the lyric is “fight Neptune’s borders”, some say “fight Neptune’s daughters” and others say “fight Neptune’s waters”. Leave it to Neptune to be confusing. Whatever the lyric, it’s a great ode to the great waters.
Thank you Marjorie. I hadn’t realised that Sir Paul McCartney’s birthday is only two days before Brian Wilson’s. The Beatles Sgt Pepper album was influenced by Brian Wilson’s wonderful musical creativity apparently. McCartney’s tribute said:
“Wilson “had that mysterious sense of musical genius that made his songs so achingly special”, the Beatles musician said in a statement on Instagram.
“I loved him, and was privileged to be around his bright shining light for a little while,” BBC Website
And thanks for Sly Stone’s natal chart too. Another creative powerhouse. I was interested to see his home and family loving Cancer Moon and Jupiter, maybe finding expression through Sly and the Family Stone’s huge hit, ‘Family Affair’. The Beach Boys were a family affair too – the band consisted of brothers, a cousin, and a family friend.
Wishing them both the “harmony of the spheres” as they pass on. An outstanding musical legacy never dies.
So the father was a big contributing factor to the onset and then lifelong mental illness. So sad,l and tragic. And, what’s worse, likely inescapable.
Hi Marjorie, Typo in the headline “Brain” should be “Brian.” You can delete this.
Sad about both these deaths as both Wilson and Sylvester Stuart were in their respective ways huge innovators in the world of popular music.
Brian Wilson’s Saturn in the 1st House would certainly tie in with a dictatorial father and a restricted childhood. On the plus side it would have given him the discipline and endurance necessary to create great music. It might explain why apparently spontaneous sounding records such as Barbara Ann actually took hours of recording and numerous takes to get right. To hear Wilson’s genius at full throttle I would suggest listening to the Beach Boys album Surfs Up where some of the tracks are simply sublime.