Yes to all that. Poor Brian. And he was a genius. And Mike Love was a gold plated thundercunt who bullied Brian, demanding hits not 'shit' like Smile. FFS. Surf's Up remains a masterpiece. I saw them at Wembley in around 74 supporting Elton John and supported by The Eagles, Joe Walsh, Chakka Khan and Stackridge. Brian didn't appear as far as I recall.Sky Arts showed the 1976 Beach Boys TV Special over Christmas and I sat through it again despite the cringe factor. The Beach Boys as people really are the epitome of uncool. Mike Love seems to be one of the worst human beings to have ever worked in popular music and dances like a geography teacher trying to paradoy Mick Jagger. The rest of them come across as fairly gauche, easily pliable, possibly even stupid. The special was made with Lorne Michaels. It shows Dennis Wilson randomly judging a beauty pageant and Al Jardine at a farm in the desert being harassed by goats. Worst of all is a skit where Dan Akroyd and John Belushi force Brian Wilson out of bed and down to the beach in his dressing gown, forcing him into the water to go surfing. Its horrible. Its supposed to be funny, but it just looks like bullying a mentally ill man for money. (Which if you read biographies, seems to sum up most of their post Smile career). They made arguably the greatest album of all time, yet their career is riddled with these awful concepts and embarrassing lyrics, usually when Love is allowed his way.
They are such a weird paradox. They are the greatest advert for not working with your family. The three brothers seem horribly damaged by their lunatic father. Most of them often seem to be utterly clueless about music, about culture and about the zeitgeist, but then they open their mouths and those harmonies come out, grown adults weep and Richard Dawkins wonders whether he has actually been right all along about this atheism lark.