Brian Wilson was one of the most respected pop composers of the 20th century. His work with the Beach Boys helped shape the sound of the 1960s, and Pet Sounds earned a reputation as one of the most influential albums ever made.
But for every soaring harmony or tender ballad, there was a weirder side to Wilson that couldn’t be ignored.
Whether it came from his struggles with mental illness, drug use, or just a deep streak of eccentricity, some of his songs went completely off the rails in ways that were both fascinating and deeply unhinged.
Sometimes the Beach Boys got weird but it was mostly great
Take "A Day in the Life of a Tree" from 1971’s Surf’s Up. On paper, it was a song told from the perspective of a dying tree. In practice, it was one of the bleakest, strangest things the Beach Boys ever recorded.
The instrumentation was sparse and funereal, and Wilson reportedly found the lyrics so depressing he couldn’t bring himself to sing them. Their manager, Jack Rieley, ended up doing the vocals instead. It sounded more like a eulogy than a pop song. Oddly affecting, but completely out of left field.
Then there was "Mt. Vernon and Fairway," a suite included as a bonus EP with Holland in 1973. Wilson worked on it while the rest of the band focused on more grounded material, and it showed. The suite followed a boy who finds a magical transistor radio that whispers a bizarre, meandering fairy tale.
It played more like a lo-fi children’s audiobook than a Beach Boys track, complete with eerie narration and scattered synths. Wilson was serious about it, but even the band didn’t seem to know what to make of it.
"Johnny Carson" from 1977’s The Beach Boys Love You took things to another level. Built on clunky Moog synths and robotic vocals, it was literally just Wilson listing reasons why Johnny Carson was impressive.
There was no subtext, just Brian, full sincerity, praising a talk show host for always keeping his cool. It was bizarre and oddly specific, but somehow still catchy. If you ever needed proof that Wilson’s brain worked differently from the average pop songwriter, this was it.
Even some of his unreleased or half-finished work bordered on surreal. "Vegetables," from the aborted Smile project, stood out as both playful and completely unhinged.
The song was a goofy tribute to healthy eating, complete with crunching sound effects, reportedly provided by Paul McCartney chewing celery in the studio. Wilson thought it was hilarious, but to most listeners, it landed somewhere between novelty and curiosity.
These songs weren’t necessarily bad. They were some of the most revealing parts of Wilson's catalog. They showed how thin the line could be between brilliance and chaos. When he was focused, Wilson wrote some of the most beautiful music of the 20th century.
Even when he drifted, he didn’t just get quirky; he fully embraced the bizarre. And that tension is part of what made him so unforgettable. Now that he’s gone, the full range of his legacy feels even more important to revisit.
Brian Wilson wasn’t just a genius; he was a creative force that didn’t follow normal rules. Sometimes that meant perfect harmonies and timeless ballads. Other times it meant vegetables, talking trees, and tributes to late-night TV hosts. But whatever he gave us, it was always, unmistakably, Brian.