Chords for What Happened to Carl Wilson?
Tempo:
115.45 bpm
Chords used:
G
Gb
D
Eb
E
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
Carl Dean Wilson was born the [Gb] youngest of the three Wilson boys in Hawthorne, California,
the youngest son of Audrey Neva and Murray Gage Wilson.
From his pre-teens, he [Eb] practiced harmony vocals under the guidance of his brother, Brian,
who often sang in the family room with his mother and brothers.
Inspired by country star Spade Cooley at the age of 12, Carl asked his parents to buy him
a guitar for which he took some lessons.
While Brian perfected the band's vocal style and keyboard bass, Carl's Chuck Berry-esque
guitar became an early Beach Boys trademark.
[Gb] While in high school, Carl also studied saxophone.
[B] Turned 15 as the group's first hit, Surfing, broke locally in Los Angeles, [Ab] Carl's father,
Manager Murray, who [B] had sold his business to support his son's band, bought him a Fender Jaguar guitar.
[Gb]
Carl developed as a musician and singer through the band's early recordings and the early
surf lick sound shown [Abm] in Fun Fun Fun [Dbm] recorded in 1964 when Carl was [Gb] 17.
[Ab] Also in 1964, Carl contributed his first [Gb] co-rhyme credit [Ab] on a Beach Boys single with the guitar
riff and solo in Dance Dance Dance, co-written with Mike Love and Brian Wilson.
By [Gb] the end of 1964, he was diversifying, favoring the [Eb] 12-string Rickenbacker that was also nobly
used by [B] Roger McGuinn in establishing the sound of the birds and by [Eb] George Harrison
of the Beatles during this era.
Dave Marsh and the Rolling Stone illustrated history of rock and [E] roll from 1976 [E] say that
Pete Townshend, who expanded on both R&B and rock, was [Gb] influenced heavily by Beach Boy Carl [B] Wilson.
Carl's lead vocals in the band's first three years were infrequent.
Although all members of the band played on their early [Gb] recordings, Brian began to employ
experienced [Dbm]
session musicians [Ebm] to play on the group's instrumental tracks [Dbm] by 1965 [Gb] to
assist with the complex material, but [F] the band weren't [B] entirely eliminated from recording
the instrumental tracks and still continued [Abm] to play on certain songs on each album.
[Gb] Unlike the other members of the band, Carl often played alongside session musicians and
also recorded his individual guitar leads during the Beach Boys' vocal [G] sessions, with
his guitar plugged directly into the soundboard.
His playing can be heard on the introduction to California Girls' 1966 That's Not Me and
throughout 1965's The Beach Boys' [C] Today.
[E] After Brian's retirement from touring in [G] 1965, Carl became the musical director of
the band on stage.
[C] Contracts at the time stipulated that promoters hire Carl Wilson plus four other musicians.
[G] Following his lead vocal performance on God Only Knows in 1966, Carl was increasingly
[D] lead vocalist for the band.
[F] A role previously donned by Mike [D] Love and Brian, he sang leads on the singles Good Vibrations,
Darling, and Wild Honey.
Starting with the [Fm] album Wild Honey, [G] Brian requested that Carl become [E] more involved in
[C] the Beach Boys' records.
In 1969, the [G] Beach Boys' rendition of I Can Hear Musical is the first track produced
solely by Carl [D] Wilson.
By then, he had effectively become the band's in-studio leader, producing the bulk of the
album's during the early 1970s.
Though Carl had written surf [E] instrumentals for the band in the early days, he did not
get into his stride as a songwriter until the 1971 album Surf's Up, for which he composed
Long Promise Road and Fuel Flows, with lyrics by the band's then-manager, Jack Riley.
[G] Carl considered Long Promise Road his [D] first real [C] song.
[G] After producing the majority of Carl and the Passion's So Tough from 1972 and Holland from
1973, Carl's leadership role diminished somewhat due to Brian's brief public emergence
and because [G] of Carl's own substance abuse problems.
For L.A.'s wide album from [E] 1979, Carl contributed four songs, among them Good Timing, co-written
with Brian five years earlier, which became a top 40 American hit.
Carl's main writing [G] partner in the late 1970s was Jeffrey Cushing Murray, [Am] but for Keeping
Summer Alive, he wrote with Randy [C] Bachman of the band [G] Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
[D] Carl told Michael Feeney-Kellan, writer-director of the 1993 documentary The Beach [G] Boys Today,
that [A] Bachman was his favorite writing partner.
[G] As a producer and vocalist, [D] Carl's work was not confined to The Beach [E] Boys.
During the 1970s, he also [G] produced records for other artists such as [E] Richie Marne, son
of Dean Marne, and [G] South African group The Flames, two members of which [C] later temporarily
joined The Beach Boys' lineup.
He won backing vocals to many works, [G] including Chicago's hit Baby, What a Big Surprise and
Wishing You Were [C] Here, which Al Jardine and Dennis Wilson also [G] did backing vocals on there
as well from [D] The Beach Boys.
Ellen Johns' Don't [G] Let the Sun Go Down Me with fellow [E] Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, David
Lee Roth's hit cover of California Girls, Warren Zevon's [G] Desperados Under the Eaves,
and the Carnie-Wendy [D] Wilson holiday track Hey Santa.
Carl also recorded a duet with Olivia Noon-John titled You Were Great, How Was I?
for studio
album Soul Kiss 1985.
It was not released as a single.
Carl befriended and gave guitar lessons [G] to Alex Shilton when the Box Tops toured with
[D] The Beach Boys.
By the early 1980s, The [D] Beach Boys were in disarray.
[G] The band had split in two camps.
Frustrated with the band's sluggishness to record new material and reluctance to rehearse,
[D] Wilson took [Eb] a leave of absence in 1981.
He quickly recorded and released a solo album named Carl Wilson, composed largely of rock
and roll songs, co-written with Myrna Smith Schilling, a former backing vocalist for Elvis
Presley and Aretha Franklin, and wife of Wilson's then-manager Jerry Schilling.
The album briefly charted and its single, Heaven, reached the top 20 on Billboard's
Adult Contemporary chart.
Wilson also undertook a solo tour to promote the album, becoming the first member [Db] of The
Beach Boys to break ranks.
Initially, Wilson and his band played clubs like the Bottom Line in New York City and
the Rock Scene in Los Angeles.
Thereafter, he joined the Doobie Brothers [Ebm] as opening acts for their 1981 summer tour.
Wilson recorded another [Db] solo album, Youngblood, in a similar vein, but by the time of its
release [Ebm] in 1983, he had rejoined the Beach Boys.
Although [Eb] Youngblood did not chart, a single, the John Hall-penned What You Do to Me peaked
at number 72, making [Gb] Wilson the second Beach Boy to land a solo single on the Billboard
[Ab] Hot 100, being by Brian, [Ebm] in 1966.
Additionally, the song cracked the top 20 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart.
Wilson frequently performed that song in Rockin' All Over the World from the [Gb] same album, as
well as Heaven from the 1981 album at Beach Boys concerts in the 1980s.
Heaven was [Ebm] also announced as a tribute to Brother Dennis, who drowned in December of 1983.
The Beach [Eb] Boys' eponymous album prominently featured Wilson's lead vocals and songwriting,
highlighted by his It's Getting Late, another top 20 adult contemporary hit, and the Heaven-like
Where I Belong.
In 1988, the Beach Boys scored their biggest chart success in more than 20 years with the
US number one song, Kokomo, co-written by Mike Love, John Phillips, Scott [Gb] McKenzie,
and Terry Melcher, [Ebm] on which Carl sang lead in the chorus.
After this, Love [B] increasingly dominated the band's recorded output and became the driving
force behind the album Summer in Paradise from 1992, [Gb] the first and only Beach Boys album
with no input from Bryan in any form.
In 1992, Carl told Michael Feeney Callen his hope [F] was to record new material by [Db] Bryan.
Carl continued recording through the 1990s and participated in Don Was' lead [Ab] recordings
of Bryan's Searching and You're [Dbm] Still a Mystery, [Eb] songs conceived as the basis of a
cancelled Bryan Wilson Beach Boys album.
He also recorded the album Like a Brother with Robert [Ab] Lamb and Jerry Beckley, while
continuing to tour with the Beach Boys until the [Ebm] last months of his life.
In 1997, Wilson became ill at his vacation home in Hawaii.
He was diagnosed with lung cancer and was started on chemotherapy.
He had been smoking [Gb] cigarettes since his early teens.
Despite his illness and treatments, he continued to play and sing with the Beach Boys throughout
their entire [Eb] summer tour until its completion in the fall of 1997.
Unfortunately, Wilson died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, surrounded by his family,
on February 6, 1998.
[Gb]
[Eb] His death occurred just two months after the death of his mother, Audrey Wilson.
He was interred at Westwood Village Memorial [Ebm] Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
the youngest son of Audrey Neva and Murray Gage Wilson.
From his pre-teens, he [Eb] practiced harmony vocals under the guidance of his brother, Brian,
who often sang in the family room with his mother and brothers.
Inspired by country star Spade Cooley at the age of 12, Carl asked his parents to buy him
a guitar for which he took some lessons.
While Brian perfected the band's vocal style and keyboard bass, Carl's Chuck Berry-esque
guitar became an early Beach Boys trademark.
[Gb] While in high school, Carl also studied saxophone.
[B] Turned 15 as the group's first hit, Surfing, broke locally in Los Angeles, [Ab] Carl's father,
Manager Murray, who [B] had sold his business to support his son's band, bought him a Fender Jaguar guitar.
[Gb]
Carl developed as a musician and singer through the band's early recordings and the early
surf lick sound shown [Abm] in Fun Fun Fun [Dbm] recorded in 1964 when Carl was [Gb] 17.
[Ab] Also in 1964, Carl contributed his first [Gb] co-rhyme credit [Ab] on a Beach Boys single with the guitar
riff and solo in Dance Dance Dance, co-written with Mike Love and Brian Wilson.
By [Gb] the end of 1964, he was diversifying, favoring the [Eb] 12-string Rickenbacker that was also nobly
used by [B] Roger McGuinn in establishing the sound of the birds and by [Eb] George Harrison
of the Beatles during this era.
Dave Marsh and the Rolling Stone illustrated history of rock and [E] roll from 1976 [E] say that
Pete Townshend, who expanded on both R&B and rock, was [Gb] influenced heavily by Beach Boy Carl [B] Wilson.
Carl's lead vocals in the band's first three years were infrequent.
Although all members of the band played on their early [Gb] recordings, Brian began to employ
experienced [Dbm]
session musicians [Ebm] to play on the group's instrumental tracks [Dbm] by 1965 [Gb] to
assist with the complex material, but [F] the band weren't [B] entirely eliminated from recording
the instrumental tracks and still continued [Abm] to play on certain songs on each album.
[Gb] Unlike the other members of the band, Carl often played alongside session musicians and
also recorded his individual guitar leads during the Beach Boys' vocal [G] sessions, with
his guitar plugged directly into the soundboard.
His playing can be heard on the introduction to California Girls' 1966 That's Not Me and
throughout 1965's The Beach Boys' [C] Today.
[E] After Brian's retirement from touring in [G] 1965, Carl became the musical director of
the band on stage.
[C] Contracts at the time stipulated that promoters hire Carl Wilson plus four other musicians.
[G] Following his lead vocal performance on God Only Knows in 1966, Carl was increasingly
[D] lead vocalist for the band.
[F] A role previously donned by Mike [D] Love and Brian, he sang leads on the singles Good Vibrations,
Darling, and Wild Honey.
Starting with the [Fm] album Wild Honey, [G] Brian requested that Carl become [E] more involved in
[C] the Beach Boys' records.
In 1969, the [G] Beach Boys' rendition of I Can Hear Musical is the first track produced
solely by Carl [D] Wilson.
By then, he had effectively become the band's in-studio leader, producing the bulk of the
album's during the early 1970s.
Though Carl had written surf [E] instrumentals for the band in the early days, he did not
get into his stride as a songwriter until the 1971 album Surf's Up, for which he composed
Long Promise Road and Fuel Flows, with lyrics by the band's then-manager, Jack Riley.
[G] Carl considered Long Promise Road his [D] first real [C] song.
[G] After producing the majority of Carl and the Passion's So Tough from 1972 and Holland from
1973, Carl's leadership role diminished somewhat due to Brian's brief public emergence
and because [G] of Carl's own substance abuse problems.
For L.A.'s wide album from [E] 1979, Carl contributed four songs, among them Good Timing, co-written
with Brian five years earlier, which became a top 40 American hit.
Carl's main writing [G] partner in the late 1970s was Jeffrey Cushing Murray, [Am] but for Keeping
Summer Alive, he wrote with Randy [C] Bachman of the band [G] Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
[D] Carl told Michael Feeney-Kellan, writer-director of the 1993 documentary The Beach [G] Boys Today,
that [A] Bachman was his favorite writing partner.
[G] As a producer and vocalist, [D] Carl's work was not confined to The Beach [E] Boys.
During the 1970s, he also [G] produced records for other artists such as [E] Richie Marne, son
of Dean Marne, and [G] South African group The Flames, two members of which [C] later temporarily
joined The Beach Boys' lineup.
He won backing vocals to many works, [G] including Chicago's hit Baby, What a Big Surprise and
Wishing You Were [C] Here, which Al Jardine and Dennis Wilson also [G] did backing vocals on there
as well from [D] The Beach Boys.
Ellen Johns' Don't [G] Let the Sun Go Down Me with fellow [E] Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, David
Lee Roth's hit cover of California Girls, Warren Zevon's [G] Desperados Under the Eaves,
and the Carnie-Wendy [D] Wilson holiday track Hey Santa.
Carl also recorded a duet with Olivia Noon-John titled You Were Great, How Was I?
for studio
album Soul Kiss 1985.
It was not released as a single.
Carl befriended and gave guitar lessons [G] to Alex Shilton when the Box Tops toured with
[D] The Beach Boys.
By the early 1980s, The [D] Beach Boys were in disarray.
[G] The band had split in two camps.
Frustrated with the band's sluggishness to record new material and reluctance to rehearse,
[D] Wilson took [Eb] a leave of absence in 1981.
He quickly recorded and released a solo album named Carl Wilson, composed largely of rock
and roll songs, co-written with Myrna Smith Schilling, a former backing vocalist for Elvis
Presley and Aretha Franklin, and wife of Wilson's then-manager Jerry Schilling.
The album briefly charted and its single, Heaven, reached the top 20 on Billboard's
Adult Contemporary chart.
Wilson also undertook a solo tour to promote the album, becoming the first member [Db] of The
Beach Boys to break ranks.
Initially, Wilson and his band played clubs like the Bottom Line in New York City and
the Rock Scene in Los Angeles.
Thereafter, he joined the Doobie Brothers [Ebm] as opening acts for their 1981 summer tour.
Wilson recorded another [Db] solo album, Youngblood, in a similar vein, but by the time of its
release [Ebm] in 1983, he had rejoined the Beach Boys.
Although [Eb] Youngblood did not chart, a single, the John Hall-penned What You Do to Me peaked
at number 72, making [Gb] Wilson the second Beach Boy to land a solo single on the Billboard
[Ab] Hot 100, being by Brian, [Ebm] in 1966.
Additionally, the song cracked the top 20 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart.
Wilson frequently performed that song in Rockin' All Over the World from the [Gb] same album, as
well as Heaven from the 1981 album at Beach Boys concerts in the 1980s.
Heaven was [Ebm] also announced as a tribute to Brother Dennis, who drowned in December of 1983.
The Beach [Eb] Boys' eponymous album prominently featured Wilson's lead vocals and songwriting,
highlighted by his It's Getting Late, another top 20 adult contemporary hit, and the Heaven-like
Where I Belong.
In 1988, the Beach Boys scored their biggest chart success in more than 20 years with the
US number one song, Kokomo, co-written by Mike Love, John Phillips, Scott [Gb] McKenzie,
and Terry Melcher, [Ebm] on which Carl sang lead in the chorus.
After this, Love [B] increasingly dominated the band's recorded output and became the driving
force behind the album Summer in Paradise from 1992, [Gb] the first and only Beach Boys album
with no input from Bryan in any form.
In 1992, Carl told Michael Feeney Callen his hope [F] was to record new material by [Db] Bryan.
Carl continued recording through the 1990s and participated in Don Was' lead [Ab] recordings
of Bryan's Searching and You're [Dbm] Still a Mystery, [Eb] songs conceived as the basis of a
cancelled Bryan Wilson Beach Boys album.
He also recorded the album Like a Brother with Robert [Ab] Lamb and Jerry Beckley, while
continuing to tour with the Beach Boys until the [Ebm] last months of his life.
In 1997, Wilson became ill at his vacation home in Hawaii.
He was diagnosed with lung cancer and was started on chemotherapy.
He had been smoking [Gb] cigarettes since his early teens.
Despite his illness and treatments, he continued to play and sing with the Beach Boys throughout
their entire [Eb] summer tour until its completion in the fall of 1997.
Unfortunately, Wilson died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, surrounded by his family,
on February 6, 1998.
[Gb]
[Eb] His death occurred just two months after the death of his mother, Audrey Wilson.
He was interred at Westwood Village Memorial [Ebm] Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Key:
G
Gb
D
Eb
E
G
Gb
D
_ Carl Dean Wilson was born the [Gb] youngest of the three Wilson boys in Hawthorne, California,
the youngest son of Audrey Neva and Murray Gage Wilson.
From his pre-teens, he [Eb] practiced harmony vocals under the guidance of his brother, Brian,
who often sang in the family room with his mother and brothers.
Inspired by country star Spade Cooley at the age of 12, Carl asked his parents to buy him
a guitar for which he took some lessons.
While Brian perfected the band's vocal style and keyboard bass, Carl's Chuck Berry-esque
guitar became an early Beach Boys trademark.
[Gb] While in high school, Carl also studied saxophone.
_ [B] Turned 15 as the group's first hit, Surfing, broke locally in Los Angeles, [Ab] Carl's father,
Manager Murray, who [B] had sold his business to support his son's band, bought him a Fender Jaguar guitar.
[Gb]
Carl developed as a musician and singer through the band's early recordings and the early
surf lick sound shown [Abm] in Fun Fun Fun [Dbm] recorded in 1964 when Carl was [Gb] 17.
[Ab] Also in 1964, Carl contributed his first [Gb] co-rhyme credit [Ab] on a Beach Boys single with the guitar
riff and solo in Dance Dance Dance, co-written with Mike Love and Brian Wilson.
By [Gb] the end of 1964, he was diversifying, favoring the [Eb] 12-string _ Rickenbacker that was also nobly
used by [B] Roger McGuinn in establishing the sound of the birds and by [Eb] George Harrison
of the Beatles during this era.
Dave Marsh and the Rolling Stone illustrated history of rock and [E] roll from 1976 [E] say that
Pete Townshend, who expanded on both R&B and rock, was [Gb] influenced heavily by Beach Boy Carl [B] Wilson.
_ Carl's lead vocals in the band's first three years were infrequent.
Although all members of the band played on their early [Gb] recordings, Brian began to employ
experienced [Dbm]
session musicians [Ebm] to play on the group's instrumental tracks [Dbm] by 1965 [Gb] to
assist with the complex material, but [F] the band weren't [B] entirely eliminated from recording
the instrumental tracks and still continued [Abm] to play on certain songs on each album.
[Gb] Unlike the other members of the band, Carl often played alongside session musicians and
also recorded his individual guitar leads during the Beach Boys' vocal [G] sessions, with
his guitar plugged directly into the soundboard.
His playing can be heard on the introduction to California Girls' 1966 That's Not Me and
throughout 1965's The Beach Boys' [C] Today.
[E] After Brian's retirement from touring in [G] 1965, Carl became the musical director of
the band on stage.
[C] Contracts at the time stipulated that promoters hire Carl Wilson plus four other musicians.
[G] Following his lead vocal performance on God Only Knows in 1966, Carl was increasingly
[D] lead vocalist for the band.
[F] A role previously donned by Mike [D] Love and Brian, he sang leads on the singles Good Vibrations,
Darling, and Wild Honey.
Starting with the [Fm] album Wild Honey, _ [G] Brian requested that Carl become [E] more involved in
[C] the Beach Boys' records.
In 1969, the [G] Beach Boys' rendition of I Can Hear Musical is the first track produced
solely by Carl [D] Wilson.
By then, he had effectively become the band's in-studio leader, producing the bulk of the
album's during the early 1970s.
Though Carl had written surf [E] instrumentals for the band in the early days, he did not
get into his stride as a songwriter until the 1971 album Surf's Up, for which he composed
Long Promise Road and Fuel Flows, with lyrics by the band's then-manager, Jack Riley.
[G] Carl considered Long Promise Road his [D] first real [C] song.
_ [G] After producing the majority of Carl and the Passion's So Tough from 1972 and Holland from
1973, Carl's leadership role diminished somewhat due to Brian's brief public emergence
and because [G] of Carl's own substance abuse problems.
For L.A.'s wide album from [E] 1979, Carl contributed four songs, among them Good Timing, co-written
with Brian five years earlier, which became a top 40 American hit.
Carl's main writing [G] partner in the late 1970s was Jeffrey Cushing Murray, [Am] but for Keeping
Summer Alive, he wrote with Randy [C] Bachman of the band [G] Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
[D] Carl told Michael Feeney-Kellan, writer-director of the 1993 documentary The Beach [G] Boys Today,
that [A] Bachman was his favorite writing partner.
[G] As a producer and vocalist, [D] Carl's work was not confined to The Beach [E] Boys.
During the 1970s, he also [G] produced records for other artists such as [E] Richie Marne, son
of Dean Marne, and [G] South African group The Flames, two members of which [C] later temporarily
joined The Beach Boys' lineup.
He won backing vocals to many works, [G] including Chicago's hit Baby, What a Big Surprise and
Wishing You Were [C] Here, _ which Al Jardine and Dennis Wilson also [G] did backing vocals on there
as well from [D] The Beach Boys.
Ellen Johns' Don't [G] Let the Sun Go Down Me with fellow [E] Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, David
Lee Roth's hit cover of California Girls, _ Warren Zevon's [G] Desperados Under the Eaves,
and the Carnie-Wendy [D] Wilson holiday track Hey Santa.
Carl also recorded a duet with Olivia Noon-John titled You Were Great, How Was I?
for studio
album Soul Kiss 1985.
It was not released as a single.
Carl befriended and gave guitar lessons [G] to Alex Shilton when the Box Tops toured with
[D] The Beach Boys.
By the early 1980s, The [D] Beach Boys were in disarray.
[G] The band had split in two camps.
Frustrated with the band's sluggishness to record new material and reluctance to rehearse,
[D] Wilson took [Eb] a leave of absence in 1981.
He quickly recorded and released a solo album named Carl Wilson, composed largely of rock
and roll songs, co-written with Myrna Smith Schilling, a former backing vocalist for Elvis
Presley and Aretha Franklin, and wife of Wilson's then-manager Jerry Schilling.
The album briefly charted and its single, Heaven, reached the top 20 on Billboard's
Adult Contemporary chart.
Wilson also undertook a solo tour to promote the album, becoming the first member [Db] of The
Beach Boys to break ranks.
Initially, Wilson and his band played clubs like the Bottom Line in New York City and
the Rock Scene in Los Angeles.
Thereafter, he joined the Doobie Brothers [Ebm] as opening acts for their 1981 summer tour.
Wilson recorded another [Db] solo album, _ Youngblood, in a similar vein, but by the time of its
release [Ebm] in 1983, he had rejoined the Beach Boys.
Although [Eb] Youngblood did not chart, a single, the John Hall-penned What You Do to Me peaked
at number 72, making [Gb] Wilson the second Beach Boy to land a solo single on the Billboard
[Ab] Hot 100, being by Brian, [Ebm] in 1966.
_ Additionally, the song cracked the top 20 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart.
Wilson frequently performed that song in Rockin' All Over the World from the [Gb] same album, as
well as Heaven from the 1981 album at Beach Boys concerts in the 1980s.
Heaven was [Ebm] also announced as a tribute to Brother Dennis, who drowned in December of 1983.
The Beach [Eb] Boys' eponymous album prominently featured Wilson's lead vocals and songwriting,
highlighted by his It's Getting Late, another top 20 adult contemporary hit, and the Heaven-like
Where I Belong. _
In 1988, the Beach Boys scored their biggest chart success in more than 20 years with the
US number one song, Kokomo, co-written by Mike Love, John Phillips, Scott [Gb] McKenzie,
and Terry Melcher, [Ebm] on which Carl sang lead in the chorus.
After this, Love [B] increasingly dominated the band's recorded output and became the driving
force behind the album Summer in Paradise from 1992, [Gb] the first and only Beach Boys album
with no input from Bryan in any form.
In 1992, Carl told Michael Feeney Callen his hope [F] was to record new material by [Db] Bryan.
_ _ Carl continued recording through the 1990s and participated in Don Was' lead [Ab] recordings
of Bryan's Searching and You're [Dbm] Still a Mystery, [Eb] songs conceived as the basis of a
cancelled Bryan Wilson Beach Boys album.
He also recorded the album Like a Brother with Robert [Ab] Lamb and Jerry Beckley, while
continuing to tour with the Beach Boys until the [Ebm] last months of his life.
In 1997, Wilson became ill at his vacation home in Hawaii.
He was diagnosed with lung cancer and was started on chemotherapy.
He had been smoking [Gb] cigarettes since his early teens.
Despite his illness and treatments, he continued to play and sing with the Beach Boys throughout
their entire [Eb] summer tour until its completion in the fall of 1997.
_ Unfortunately, Wilson died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, surrounded by his family,
on February 6, 1998.
[Gb] _ _
[Eb] His death occurred just two months after the death of his mother, Audrey Wilson.
He was interred at Westwood Village Memorial [Ebm] Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
the youngest son of Audrey Neva and Murray Gage Wilson.
From his pre-teens, he [Eb] practiced harmony vocals under the guidance of his brother, Brian,
who often sang in the family room with his mother and brothers.
Inspired by country star Spade Cooley at the age of 12, Carl asked his parents to buy him
a guitar for which he took some lessons.
While Brian perfected the band's vocal style and keyboard bass, Carl's Chuck Berry-esque
guitar became an early Beach Boys trademark.
[Gb] While in high school, Carl also studied saxophone.
_ [B] Turned 15 as the group's first hit, Surfing, broke locally in Los Angeles, [Ab] Carl's father,
Manager Murray, who [B] had sold his business to support his son's band, bought him a Fender Jaguar guitar.
[Gb]
Carl developed as a musician and singer through the band's early recordings and the early
surf lick sound shown [Abm] in Fun Fun Fun [Dbm] recorded in 1964 when Carl was [Gb] 17.
[Ab] Also in 1964, Carl contributed his first [Gb] co-rhyme credit [Ab] on a Beach Boys single with the guitar
riff and solo in Dance Dance Dance, co-written with Mike Love and Brian Wilson.
By [Gb] the end of 1964, he was diversifying, favoring the [Eb] 12-string _ Rickenbacker that was also nobly
used by [B] Roger McGuinn in establishing the sound of the birds and by [Eb] George Harrison
of the Beatles during this era.
Dave Marsh and the Rolling Stone illustrated history of rock and [E] roll from 1976 [E] say that
Pete Townshend, who expanded on both R&B and rock, was [Gb] influenced heavily by Beach Boy Carl [B] Wilson.
_ Carl's lead vocals in the band's first three years were infrequent.
Although all members of the band played on their early [Gb] recordings, Brian began to employ
experienced [Dbm]
session musicians [Ebm] to play on the group's instrumental tracks [Dbm] by 1965 [Gb] to
assist with the complex material, but [F] the band weren't [B] entirely eliminated from recording
the instrumental tracks and still continued [Abm] to play on certain songs on each album.
[Gb] Unlike the other members of the band, Carl often played alongside session musicians and
also recorded his individual guitar leads during the Beach Boys' vocal [G] sessions, with
his guitar plugged directly into the soundboard.
His playing can be heard on the introduction to California Girls' 1966 That's Not Me and
throughout 1965's The Beach Boys' [C] Today.
[E] After Brian's retirement from touring in [G] 1965, Carl became the musical director of
the band on stage.
[C] Contracts at the time stipulated that promoters hire Carl Wilson plus four other musicians.
[G] Following his lead vocal performance on God Only Knows in 1966, Carl was increasingly
[D] lead vocalist for the band.
[F] A role previously donned by Mike [D] Love and Brian, he sang leads on the singles Good Vibrations,
Darling, and Wild Honey.
Starting with the [Fm] album Wild Honey, _ [G] Brian requested that Carl become [E] more involved in
[C] the Beach Boys' records.
In 1969, the [G] Beach Boys' rendition of I Can Hear Musical is the first track produced
solely by Carl [D] Wilson.
By then, he had effectively become the band's in-studio leader, producing the bulk of the
album's during the early 1970s.
Though Carl had written surf [E] instrumentals for the band in the early days, he did not
get into his stride as a songwriter until the 1971 album Surf's Up, for which he composed
Long Promise Road and Fuel Flows, with lyrics by the band's then-manager, Jack Riley.
[G] Carl considered Long Promise Road his [D] first real [C] song.
_ [G] After producing the majority of Carl and the Passion's So Tough from 1972 and Holland from
1973, Carl's leadership role diminished somewhat due to Brian's brief public emergence
and because [G] of Carl's own substance abuse problems.
For L.A.'s wide album from [E] 1979, Carl contributed four songs, among them Good Timing, co-written
with Brian five years earlier, which became a top 40 American hit.
Carl's main writing [G] partner in the late 1970s was Jeffrey Cushing Murray, [Am] but for Keeping
Summer Alive, he wrote with Randy [C] Bachman of the band [G] Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
[D] Carl told Michael Feeney-Kellan, writer-director of the 1993 documentary The Beach [G] Boys Today,
that [A] Bachman was his favorite writing partner.
[G] As a producer and vocalist, [D] Carl's work was not confined to The Beach [E] Boys.
During the 1970s, he also [G] produced records for other artists such as [E] Richie Marne, son
of Dean Marne, and [G] South African group The Flames, two members of which [C] later temporarily
joined The Beach Boys' lineup.
He won backing vocals to many works, [G] including Chicago's hit Baby, What a Big Surprise and
Wishing You Were [C] Here, _ which Al Jardine and Dennis Wilson also [G] did backing vocals on there
as well from [D] The Beach Boys.
Ellen Johns' Don't [G] Let the Sun Go Down Me with fellow [E] Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, David
Lee Roth's hit cover of California Girls, _ Warren Zevon's [G] Desperados Under the Eaves,
and the Carnie-Wendy [D] Wilson holiday track Hey Santa.
Carl also recorded a duet with Olivia Noon-John titled You Were Great, How Was I?
for studio
album Soul Kiss 1985.
It was not released as a single.
Carl befriended and gave guitar lessons [G] to Alex Shilton when the Box Tops toured with
[D] The Beach Boys.
By the early 1980s, The [D] Beach Boys were in disarray.
[G] The band had split in two camps.
Frustrated with the band's sluggishness to record new material and reluctance to rehearse,
[D] Wilson took [Eb] a leave of absence in 1981.
He quickly recorded and released a solo album named Carl Wilson, composed largely of rock
and roll songs, co-written with Myrna Smith Schilling, a former backing vocalist for Elvis
Presley and Aretha Franklin, and wife of Wilson's then-manager Jerry Schilling.
The album briefly charted and its single, Heaven, reached the top 20 on Billboard's
Adult Contemporary chart.
Wilson also undertook a solo tour to promote the album, becoming the first member [Db] of The
Beach Boys to break ranks.
Initially, Wilson and his band played clubs like the Bottom Line in New York City and
the Rock Scene in Los Angeles.
Thereafter, he joined the Doobie Brothers [Ebm] as opening acts for their 1981 summer tour.
Wilson recorded another [Db] solo album, _ Youngblood, in a similar vein, but by the time of its
release [Ebm] in 1983, he had rejoined the Beach Boys.
Although [Eb] Youngblood did not chart, a single, the John Hall-penned What You Do to Me peaked
at number 72, making [Gb] Wilson the second Beach Boy to land a solo single on the Billboard
[Ab] Hot 100, being by Brian, [Ebm] in 1966.
_ Additionally, the song cracked the top 20 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart.
Wilson frequently performed that song in Rockin' All Over the World from the [Gb] same album, as
well as Heaven from the 1981 album at Beach Boys concerts in the 1980s.
Heaven was [Ebm] also announced as a tribute to Brother Dennis, who drowned in December of 1983.
The Beach [Eb] Boys' eponymous album prominently featured Wilson's lead vocals and songwriting,
highlighted by his It's Getting Late, another top 20 adult contemporary hit, and the Heaven-like
Where I Belong. _
In 1988, the Beach Boys scored their biggest chart success in more than 20 years with the
US number one song, Kokomo, co-written by Mike Love, John Phillips, Scott [Gb] McKenzie,
and Terry Melcher, [Ebm] on which Carl sang lead in the chorus.
After this, Love [B] increasingly dominated the band's recorded output and became the driving
force behind the album Summer in Paradise from 1992, [Gb] the first and only Beach Boys album
with no input from Bryan in any form.
In 1992, Carl told Michael Feeney Callen his hope [F] was to record new material by [Db] Bryan.
_ _ Carl continued recording through the 1990s and participated in Don Was' lead [Ab] recordings
of Bryan's Searching and You're [Dbm] Still a Mystery, [Eb] songs conceived as the basis of a
cancelled Bryan Wilson Beach Boys album.
He also recorded the album Like a Brother with Robert [Ab] Lamb and Jerry Beckley, while
continuing to tour with the Beach Boys until the [Ebm] last months of his life.
In 1997, Wilson became ill at his vacation home in Hawaii.
He was diagnosed with lung cancer and was started on chemotherapy.
He had been smoking [Gb] cigarettes since his early teens.
Despite his illness and treatments, he continued to play and sing with the Beach Boys throughout
their entire [Eb] summer tour until its completion in the fall of 1997.
_ Unfortunately, Wilson died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, surrounded by his family,
on February 6, 1998.
[Gb] _ _
[Eb] His death occurred just two months after the death of his mother, Audrey Wilson.
He was interred at Westwood Village Memorial [Ebm] Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. _ _ _ _ _
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