Founding Beach Boys member Dennis Wilson was never able to finish his second solo album, Bambu, which he was working on when he died in 1983 at the age of 39. But years later, fans are still continuing to rediscover his debut solo album, 1977’s Pacific Ocean Blue.
Given his passion for surfing, it’s perhaps not surprising that many of the songs Wilson wrote reference nature in the lyrics. Take, for example, “River Song.”
As Wilson explained in a 1977 interview with David Leaf, author of The Beach Boys and the California Myth, he was inspired to write the song after a walk through the Sierra Mountains.
“A few years ago, I was in the High Sierras walking by this river that was very small and it kept getting bigger and bigger….that’s the guitar sound on the track,” Wilson said.
“And then thinking, Los Angeles vs. the High Sierras, it just makes me sick to think of what’s happening here,” he continued. “That’s the lyrical idea; Carl [Wilson, Dennis’ brother] assisted on some of the lyrics. Musically, it came from the river.”
Walkin’ down by the riverWater running through my knees (ooh)River, oh river moves so free (ooh)Oh mighty river, endlesslyOoh, mighty riverI would love to be like youOoh, lonely riverHas not got the time to say
I was born into the city lifeIt’s all that I’ve ever knownYou know it’s rough gettin’ round this placeSo crowded I can hardly breatheYou can only see about a block or twoIn L. A. that’s the truthI’m lookin’ for some country lifeSome kickin’ room no more city lifeI want the river
At one point in the interview, Leaf pointed out that there seemed to be “a lot of pessimism” in the music on Pacific Ocean Blue, going on to ask if Wilson thought there was “any hope for the world.”
“Absolutely!” Wilson declared. “I think there are a lot of sick people that need a lot of help…people who have to be educated, have to grow. I feel through art…..it can be a great deal of help, like Brian [Wilson, Dennis’ brother] in the ’60s with what he did and what he can do. I wish he would get off his ass and do it again.”
“I have great faith in life itself,” he continued. “I’m religious, and I’m not religious. I get stoned, and I don’t get stoned. I smoke a cigarette, and I don’t smoke a cigarette. I live my life, period. I take it as it comes, and I take responsibility for it. I don’t think I should judge people, but I think it’s time for people to stop fighting. It’s such a profound question that a master would have trouble answering it. Maharishi would say, ‘Meditate.’ All I say is: ‘Enjoy life, try to be an example.'”
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Wilson went on to reflect on the difference between himself and Brian, calling his brother an “inspiration,” but not an “influence.”
“I think musically I’m far apart from Brian,” he said. “He’s a hundred times what I am musically. Our music is different. I think he has been a profound influence in my life. If I was to say that I had a master, Brian would be the man I’d say has guided and helped me through everything.”
Tragically, we’ll never know how Wilson’s music might have evolved in his later years. Still, fans and critics continue to marvel over the work he left behind. Writing for The Atlantic earlier this year, music critic James Parker called “River Song” “immense: a hair-raising, gospel-boosted thumper, proceeding at a gorgeous orchestral trudge, about the river that runs under us all, under all beauty and under all ugliness, bearing us along and carrying us away. Dennis the surfer, his voice roughened by time and substances, has drifted inland—into the veins of the country.”
Related: 1977 Soft Rock Springtime Classic Is Having a Major Moment Nearly 50 Years Later
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