Murry's 8-page letter to Brian

[onkster]

I was perusing a site featuring various letters throughout history, and behold: here' is Murry's letter to Brian, just after getting fired, it sounds like. I don't recall seeing this anywhere before--maybe it's old news to some.

What an insane guy. Loren S comes up in brief, too.

Feast your eyes:

http://www.lettersofnote.com/search/label/brianwilson

[ontor pertawst]

It's such an amazing document... the rage, the manipulative whining, the occasionally sharp analysis. I would buy a copy of The Murry Letters. Speaking of Lorren...

ME: "The Murry stuff fascinates me. It's Southern California Suburban Shakespeare...  did you ever see his smarmy, pushy side, the gift-giving glad-handling giving-perfume-to-record-execs Murry? "

LORREN: "Yeah, with Murry as Iago. Blown gaskets were a daily feature of Murry's life. He thought reefer was Satan incarnate -- so did ALL the Boys until they, themselves, took up the habit. I'm not sure ML ever did -- getting sweet and soft wasn't his idea of fun. Smarmy, pushy and glad-handing are the other side of the coin from unbridled rage -- they go together. I told you Murry wanted to kill me (or have it done). The reason was mostly drugs. They made Brian rebellious and independent -- not what Murry wanted..."

[Runaways]

i saw this last year or the year before in a guardian article i think.  Pretty interesting stuff.

[Heysaboda]

"the many words of Murry Wilson"

[Ziggy Stardust]

It is incredible how deep that letter is, i've never read it before and he really goes into it all.. i really wonder how Brian felt after reading this or what was his reaction.

[onkster]

He keeps saying how the BBs success will be short-lived.

He says Audree wanted to raise them "like girls".

He plays the tough guy, yet blames everyone around him for not being as big of a bully as he.

Strangely, he accuses Brian of being dishonest--I suspect this is just out of hurt for being fired.

He doesn't think much of Gary Usher either!

Fascinating stuff, indeed.

[anazgnos]

It is incredible how deep that letter is, i've never read it before and he really goes into it all.. i really wonder how Brian felt after reading this or what was his reaction.

I gathered that this letter was unsent.

[Ziggy Stardust]

It is incredible how deep that letter is, i've never read it before and he really goes into it all.. i really wonder how Brian felt after reading this or what was his reaction.

I gathered that this letter was unsent.

Oh

[rn57]

Have read this before but can't remember if the letter itself was displayed. This site has quite a few remarkable epistles.

And looking over it the day after Don Grady's death, Murry's repeated mentions of "my three sons" really stand out. Since this was spring '65, that would have been in the Mike & Bub era.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

I think Brian gave Murry the Sea of Tunes letterhead as a gift, knowing that he would write a letter like this, so that he could purposefully discredit him.

[Sheriff John Stone]

How did the letter become public?

[rn57]

How did the letter become public?

Dennis probably found it in a drawer in '73 and traded it for a coupla "dimes."

[SIP.FLAC]

In Murry's weird, twisted way he thought he was doing the right thing. What a strange and sad man.

[Chris Brown]

We discussed the letter on here a few years back:

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,8066.0.html

A pretty fascinating look into the mind of a very twisted individual.  I can't even begin to imagine growing up with a man like that as a father.

[KittyKat]

I'm sure it was a complicated relationship and there were positives to it underneath all the negatives that were so harmful to his sons.  They loved him and Brian has even said his dad was a hero to him.  The letter doesn't seem like anything you wouldn't expect given what people who were around at the time said about Murry.

[18thofMay]

We discussed the letter on here a few years back:

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,8066.0.html

A pretty fascinating look into the mind of a very twisted individual.  I can't even begin to imagine growing up with a man like that as a father.

I was going to post the link to that! It is amazing how things get recycled.

[urbanite]

I am uncomfortable reading this letter, it's a family matter best kept within the family.  But it is fascinating, full of ego, control, concern, angst and love. 

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

No matter how many hit songs you write or how many hundreds of thousands of dollars you may earn, you will find when you finish this short cycle of Beach Boy success that you didn't do it honestly and for this reason you are going to suffer remorse.

Short cycle of Beach Boy success, huh? Well, we know what to call the complete opposite of Nostradamus...'Murry Wilson'

[JanBerryFarm]

Ten to one Brian never bothered reading it, or got to like page 2, dropped it and went the the drug store.

[Zach95]

Murry's a complicated figure.  I want to believe he deeply loved his children, but the letter reads as a manipulative, twisted way to guilt Brian for firing him.  Notice how each time Murry recognizes his own faults, he's quick to qualify those faults, and project other, more serious faults upon others as justification for his own mistakes.  The man was deeply troubled, and, as stated in the other thread, suffered from some serious mental issues.

[anazgnos]

Murry was a full-blown narcissist, in the clinical sense.  Internet-diagnosis-by-proxy may be a fools errand at best, but it just screams out in everything he did.

[halblaineisgood]

I think if I could see a film clip(if any exist)of murry being interviewed or something, the true nastiness of the man
might then become real to me. But as it is,even when reading the letter,all I can think of is Kevin Dunn from An American Family. And I liked that guy. Then again,maybe I need to brush up on my Beach Boys lit. Too much American Family on YouTube.

[JanBerryFarm]

Would any of you dime-store psychologists want to be father to those three boys?

You'd wither.

[halblaineisgood]

Would any of you dime-store psychologists want to be father to those three boys?

You'd wither.

well put.

[Mike's Beard]

Doh!! Did anybody else squint and struggle to read the scan of the original letter only to then find that the text had been reproduced in large font further down the page?