I, Murry
(or, "le groupe, c'est moi.") Part 9 of A History of Brian Wilson.
Here in Part 9 of A History of Brian Wilson, it is still in 1962, and unfortunately, dad Murry Wilson is still firmly embedded in both Brian’s personal life and musical career with the upstart Beach Boys. The Boys have recently succeeded with the local hit “Surfin’,” but success is fleeting; if this group is to be anything more than a local one-hit wonder, it is incumbent upon them to write new songs and find a record label to put them out. With respect to the former, Brian was in these days beginning his career as a songwriter, composing “Surfin’ Safari” with Mike Love, “Surfer Girl” by himself, and a batch of songs with main partner Gary Usher (including “409” and eventually, “In My Room”).
As discussed in the preceding chapter, Brian’s partnership and friendship with the outsider Usher quickly became a flashpoint for conflict with Murry.
Moving forward with the story:
Notwithstanding the conflict brewing between himself and Murry Wilson, Gary Usher maintained a tenuous position within the group’s orbit, writing with Brian and providing career guidance. (Usher himself was certainly poised to benefit too from his association with a young and promising Brian Wilson.) At this point there was still just the one Beach Boys single on the small label, soon to be forgotten. In later years, Usher recalled that he urged Brian to get moving with new demo recordings in the hopes of getting another single pressed or another label interested. Usher claimed (credibly) that he advised Brian to not “sit around and wait for a company to come to you.” So they booked studio time to record Wilson-Usher songs that were intended to promote Gary’s solo career, in addition to others that were set aside for the Beach Boys. The Beach Boys eventually recorded good demos of “Surfin’ Safari,” (a Mike Love co-write from early ‘62 that would prove superior to the Wilson-Usher tunes save “In My Room”) and “409,” among other songs.
Meanwhile, Murry was moving on another flank in the effort to keep the ball rolling. At the end of March 1962, he drafted a contract through which he attempted to secure the continued support of Hite and Dorinda Morgan, who had come through for the group on the “Surfin’” single. Murry’s contract—reproduced for viewing in James B. Murphy’s 2015 book Becoming the Beach Boys—essentially signed the Beach Boys over to the Morgans without obligating them to do anything in return. Notwithstanding Murry’s reputation as a hard-nosed, driven business leader, he approached the Morgans as a supplicant, in effect pleading, “don’t abandon us.” Hite Morgan would have had little reason not to sign the document. Murry was presumably motivated to keep the family venture alive (for his own purposes) but his acumen in the music business is questionable.
Murry’s true strengths lay in the fields of physical and psychological authoritarianism, where he was an auteur. His contract with the Morgans included the following as its final paragraph:
It is understood, that Brian Wilson, Leader of the ‘Beach Boys’, may hire or fire any one of the Beach Boys from time to time at his discretion, to keep the group together, or to improve same by adding a new member, or reducing the number of persons known as the ‘Beach Boys.’
On its face, this clause confirmed a practical necessity: Brian Wilson must be the leader of the Beach Boys. And as such, Brian must be able to fire any of the group members. At this particular moment in 1962, a third party reading this language could have reasonably understood it as a father’s admirable effort to protect his son’s musical leadership from all challengers, internal and external. But that’s not what it was. The true historical import of the language is what it says only by omission.
First, the contract specifies that Brian could hire or fire band members at will, but only for the purposes of “keeping the group together” or “improving” it. In other words, the contract remained silent as to Brian’s authority to disband the Beach Boys, should he want to do that for whatever reason. (And who, exactly, would determine what constitutes “improvement” of the Beach Boys, should that question ever arise?)
Second and more importantly, the contact similarly (and conspicuously) omitted to grant Brian the authority to fire the band’s manager. Under no circumstances could that be contemplated; not even if Brian wanted to fire the manager to “improve” the group or “keep it together.” Either intentionally or unconsciously, Murry crafted the contract this way because Brian was never supposed to be the “leader” of anything. At most, Brian was to be the Beach Boys’ straw-boss while Murry governed autocratically from behind the scenes, leveraging his abusive history with Brian.1
In his 1986 book Heroes and Villains: The True Story of the Beach Boys, Steven Gaines speculated that Murry included the hire-fire clause “to keep Dennis in line.” However, if that was Murry’s motivation, why would he give Brian, and not himself, the contractual power to hire and fire band members? Gaines’s unstated assumption was that Murry would be giving Brian the order. If Murry wanted to fire Dennis (or anyone else) from the band, he would direct Brian to act in his Murry-assigned role of “leader” and Brian would obey. In the end, Murry’s contractual feint was intended to keep everyone in line, not just Dennis.
And, per the contractual language, none of it would work as Murry intended without two preconditions: first, that Brian would be the formally designated “leader” of the Beach Boys. Second, that Murry would give Brian orders behind the scenes, outside the view of third parties. Murry’s control over Brian, individually, was the key to his control over the whole band, collectively.2 It was Murry alone, more than anybody else, who at this relatively early stage understood that he who controlled Brian would control the Beach Boys.
Overall, Murry’s self-drafted contract with the Morgans had little to do with the Beach Boys as a music band. It was instead a quasi-legalistic manifestation of Murry’s internal psychology and Wilson family politics. Murry intended to run and control the Beach Boys as he had his family back in Hawthorne. This was what Murry was attempting to memorialize in writing, even if only to himself, in secret, or unconsciously. It was the nearest he could come to declaring outright: The Beach Boys is my band. And I, Murry, will control Brian and therefore control the Beach Boys.
Fortunately for the Boys (and Murry too), the contract remained only symbolically relevant. It may not have been enforceable in the first place, and anyway, Hite Morgan does not seem to have been as tenacious has he could have been in his dealings with the Wilsons. In Morgan’s world—that of the small, independent publishers, labels, and distributors—business was seat-of-the-pants. Profit margins were relatively thin, and legal and accounting practices were of course opaque. The little firms had difficulty meeting overhead. The concept of the big-time rock ‘n’ roll band simply did not exist, and the recording business was at least a couple of years away from recognizing just how much money could be made with youth music. The Beach Boys were nothing special—some kids who had scored locally with a derivative novelty single, and nobody was banging down their door or paying too much attention. It would be up to the Beach Boys to make something happen.
Now arrives the moment upon which Murry’s reputation as the Beach Boys’ fearless champion is heavily based. According to the common reading of history, Murry tucked the demo recordings of “409” and “Surfin’ Safari” under his arm and, like Larry Csonka on a 35-yard touchdown run, battered through the music-biz naysayers until major label Capitol Records surrendered and agreed to sign the Beach Boys. This is not entirely false, but as the research of Beach Boys historians such as Jon Stebbins and Jim Murphy has clarified, Murry’s efforts were only one part of a more realistic chain of events in which a network of showbiz-connected people went to bat for the Boys, ultimately resulting in the fateful meeting with Capitol.
Murry was a maniac, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have smarts. No, not at all—at a minimum, he was probably sharp enough to understand certain basic things about the business. However, it is less likely he possessed either the psychological stability or minimally agreeable personality that would be necessary to enter into sophisticated dealings with the likes of Capitol’s executives. Murry’s true métier was obstruction, destruction, and exploitation of weaker parties, not deal-making and bridge-building. (A review of the available sources reveals a number of witnesses who knew Murry personally and were repelled by him.) His connections were limited and he couldn’t have brokered a deal with the likes of Capitol all by himself.
But Murry was very noisy. People knew when he was around. And, as Brian Wilson could probably confirm, Murry was not the kind of man who just goes away. There is at least one recording industry figure who claimed to have “basically forced” his own contacts at Capitol to take a meeting with the Beach Boys just to get Murry off his back. In this instance then, Murry’s abrasiveness worked in the Beach Boys’ favor. His motivation is of course a separate question.
In May 1962, three individuals representing the Beach Boys—Murry Wilson, Brian Wilson, and Gary Usher—went up to the Capitol Records tower on Vine Street to meet with a young Artists & Repertoire executive who handled the label’s youth music. Murry detested Usher, so it can be assumed that he was there at Brian’s behest (or passive approval). The A&R man listened to songs like “409” and “Surfin’ Safari” and told his bosses that Capitol should sign this group right away.
During contract negotiations, the terms came around to song publishing. The Morgans at Guild Music Co. owned the publishing rights on the scattering of Beach Boys tunes written during their stewardship, but of course Capitol’s publishing arm would take the rights for all new songs going forward. This was standard industry practice; unestablished artists and performers did not retain their own publishing. But Gary Usher interrupted at this point, telling Capitol that it was too late—the publishing was already taken.
In other words, if Capitol wanted these Beach Boys, they could only get them without the music publishing. This was unorthodox. It could have killed the deal. Reportedly, the A&R man paused, but Capitol soon agreed to the conditions. In truth, Usher was bluffing—he and Brian hadn’t actually set up their publishing company yet. But now they would be free to do so independent of Capitol.
Years later, Usher remembered that after the meeting, Murry berated him in the elevator on the way down to the Capitol parking lot. But why? Murry would seem to have had every reason to be grateful for Usher’s contractual gamesmanship. After all, Usher saved the publishing. But Murry wasn’t grateful. He was furious.
It’s certainly possible that this initial Capitol sit-down had ended without a deal being hammered out, and Murry therefore assumed that Usher had ruined everything with his reckless impudence. And even if a handshake-deal had safely been made that day, Murry could still have been angered by how Gary could have cratered it all with his big mouth. But it is also possible that Murry’s ire had been triggered mainly by his belated discovery that Brian and Gary had been wheeling and dealing behind his back.
In other words, up until that day Brian had (purposefully, or instinctively, or conveniently) neglected to inform Murry about his plans to form a publishing company with Gary Usher. And Murry only became aware when Usher spilled it right there in the midst of negotiations with Capitol. (If this reading is accurate, it would hearken back to the day in 1961 when Murry discovered the yet-to-be-named Beach Boys rehearsing in the Wilson music room.)
Murry acted fast to staunch the wound and subsequently decreed that there would be no song publishing partnership between Brian Wilson and Gary Usher. If Brian wanted to own his own publishing, he would partner with his father instead. To Murry, there was no injustice or dishonor in this reversal, for Brian had never been more than a piece of property belonging to Murry Wilson.3 The prospect of Murry handing over his possession—and its financial yield—to the likes of Gary Usher was preposterous. Even sillier was the prospect of Brian reaping the economic benefit of his own labor and creativity without his parents cashing in.
And cash in they would: Murry and Brian soon formed their own publishing company, to be named “Sea of Tunes,” with Brian thereafter providing the tunes and Murry controlling the sea. (In his book of 2016, Mike Love said that Murry was—or would eventually become—the sole shareholder of Sea of Tunes and that Audree Wilson was a co-director of the company.)4 Gary Usher remained in the picture for a while, continuing to collaborate and socialize with Brian. (The album on which most of their songs would appear, Surfin’ Safari, would be recorded soon after the Beach Boys signed with Capitol.)
According to Brian Wilson’s 1991 autobiography, Wouldn’t It Be Nice: My Own Story, during this period (mid- to late-1962) Gary Usher advised Brian to knock Murry on his ass. This could only mean that Gary himself wanted to deck Murry, but knew Brian had to be the one to do it. In the book, Brian says he was “gutless” in his failure to do that or otherwise intercede in the Murry-Usher conflict. While that’s an unduly harsh term for a young man who by age 19 had withstood a lifelong stream of physical and psychological abuse, there is a receding, passive character to Brian’s behavior here, as there is over much of his life. As Murry railed at Gary, the ball was in effect being kicked into Brian’s court. Technically, the matter of publishing should have been Brian’s ultimate decision. And it may have indeed turned out to be just that.
At this point, Brian was around 20 years old. He was a capable adult in some ways, a dependent child in others. He still lived in his parents’ tiny house. He certainly hadn’t been pampered there, but a poisonous swaddling had occurred, effectuated through violence and fear, and it was still going on, even if Brian wasn’t fully aware of it. (In the earliest days of the Beach Boys, friends would drop by the Wilson home for social visits and were told by the parents that while Carl and Dennis were available to hang out, Brian could not be disturbed because he was writing.) In any event, because Brian was not yet 21, he was too young under then-existing law to enter into any enforceable business contract with his new pal Gary—some “guardian” like Murry would have had to sign on Brian’s behalf.
And even if Brian had been of legal age, he would still have to weigh the costs and benefits of defying his father.
The narrative picks up on the issue of costs and benefits in Part 10 of the History of Brian Wilson series
Go back to preceding post in this series
Selected References for Part 9
“Beach Boys: David Marks Guitar Clinic Part 1.” at YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk-HhvXO7O4 (posted by Megaknappster)
Carlin, Peter Ames. Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 2006.
Gaines, Steven. Heroes and Villains: The True Story of the Beach Boys. New York: Signet/New American Library, 1986.
Kubernik, Harvey. Turn Up the Radio! Rock, Pop, and Roll in Los Angeles 1956-1972. Solana Beach, CA: Santa Monica Press, 2014.
__________. “Kubernik: Beach Boys’ ‘Feel Flows’ Box Set.” Music Connection, July 2, 2021. At: https://www.musicconnection.com/kubernik-beach-boys-feel-flows-box-set/ (last accessed September 22, 2021)
Leaf, David. Album Notes to The Beach Boys, The Pet Sounds Sessions. Capitol Records, 1997.
“The Lost Beach Boy Part 1.” At YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZVWU-VITho (posted by Megaknappster)
McParland, Stephen J. Murry: The Many Moods of a Beach Boy Dad. CMusic Books, 2022.
Murphy, James B. Becoming the Beach Boys 1961-1963. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2015.
Rusten, Ian, and Jon Stebbins. The Beach Boys in Concert: The Ultimate History of America's Band on Tour and on Stage. Milwaukee: Backbeat Books, 2013.
Stebbins, Jon. The Lost Beach Boy. London: Virgin Books, 2007.
__________. The Beach Boys FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About America’s Band. Milwaukee: Backbeat Books, 2011.
White, Timothy. The Nearest Faraway Place: Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys and the Southern California Experience. New York: Henry Holt, 1994.
Wilson, Brian, with Todd Gold. Wouldn't It Be Nice: My Own Story. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.
A few years later, when Pet Sounds lyricist Tony Asher was in negotiations with song publisher Murry Wilson over the terms of his songwriter’s contract, Murry threatened to have Brian fire him as lyricist, claiming, “my son’ll do anything I tell him to!” Although Brian always remained susceptible to his father’s influence, this wasn’t true, strictly speaking. However, Murry’s outburst (as it was recalled by Tony Asher himself) provides evidence of his preferred state of affairs between himself and Brian.
This sequence of events, if true, would indicate that the idea of Brian retaining his own publishing never crossed Murry’s mind; that it was only after Usher had the idea, discussed it with Brian, and let it slip during contractual negotiations that Murry stepped in to effectively seize Brian’s songs as his rightful property.
As sole shareholder of Sea of Tunes, Murry gained not just a windfall, but financial power over his son: the ability to disburse or withhold money. The same power applied to any of Brian’s co-writers, most notoriously Mike Love.