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I'll go straight to the experts. I've repeatedly read that Brian Wilson is left-handed. In the past I've chalked it up to misinformation that has spread...but maybe it has some credibility. Can you definitively tell me whether or not this is true?

I know Brian plays a bass guitar in the standard right-handed position. But many left-handed people do this. Is Brian left-handed or right-handed? As of now, I'll categorize this as an "unsolved mystery." Hopefully within a few minutes it will be a definitively closed case....

I'm left handed, but I play guitar and bass right-handed.

But I've seen him writing autographs with his right hand.

But of course in those times writing with your left hand was often discouraged and childeren were tought to write right-handed. So he may be left-handed, still.

carl is a southpaw.

That's a good point. Does anyone know if any Wilson/BB biographers have ever provided insight into this situation?

Check the baseball pix in the MiC book. Throwing a ball always gives it away.

Is it possible he was taught to do it otherwise? Also, I don't have the MiC book. Does anyone know if he's throwing with his right hand?

He throws a baseball left handed; Bats both right and left; writes right handed.  For the record, Carl threw left handed, played guitar right handed, wrote left handed.

Southbay is correct.  The subject was milked for all it was worth on this thread:

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,15279.0.html

I read the thread and realize it was extensively discussed. But I don't know if anything conclusive was ever reached.

He throws left-handed. Bats left-handed and sometimes right-handed, and writes with his right hand.

From what I gather, he's got to be either ambidextrous, or he is naturally left-handed and was encouraged to be right-handed as a child?

carl was left-handed, not brian.

Not really. I write left handed, use a utensil left handed, throw a ball right handed, use scissors right handed.

I am naturally lefthanded, but write, use a fork and scissors right handed. Sports (throwing), is usually something you learn/do naturally. Even switch hitters in baseball have a natural side. Cool, that you learned to do that, though. :)

BTW, those of you who say Brian throws left-handed...in the photo thread, there's a picture of him throwing right-handed.

can you be  more specific, the photo thread is 89 pages long...

All I remember is somewhere June 2013 or before...

According to Wikipedia, "There are four different types of handedness that include: left-handedness, right-handedness, mixed-handedness, and ambidexterity."  It seems some of the folks in this thread are "mixed-handedness," meaning there is a "change of hand preference between different tasks."  When I grew up, we were always told you are whatever hand you write with but that's apparently not the case.  Paul McCartney writes with his left hand, but Kurt Cobain wrote with his right, yet like Paul, he played guitar lefty.  What makes Kurt a lefty?

yep, page 71.  Looks to be from the early 70's, maybe 70 or 71.  The image does not appear to be reversed to my eye.  I don't know what to tell you.  Every other photo I have seen of Brian throwing a baseball (or a volleyball for that matter if one remembers the picture from backstage at Anaheim Stadium) is of him throwing left handed, including throwing out the first pitch at Dodger Stadium, where one would certainly use their preferred throwing hand. What can I say, Brian is a complex guy...

Calling Stebbins and other biographers: take on this challenge and become the first writer to ever give us a definitive scoop on the "handedness" of genius composer Brian Wilson. :)

Ha. It shouldn't be that hard, since Brian is alive. It's not like we're trying to figure out if Lincoln was left-handed based on a photo and some account from 1862. I wonder if most people are just mixed-handed. I do everything left-handed except using scissors, which I do right-handed. I cannot for the life of me use scissors left-handed.

When I was little kid in the early 60's, it was rare finding a pair of lefthanded scissors. Even my very lefthanded brother cuts righthanded.

HUh!  Being a rightie I suppose I've never understood all this about having left handed stuff. Scissors are handed?  weird, they seem like it shouldn't matter.
Perhaps lefties should simply learn to use thig right-handed like normal folks... 

We do, we do! At least we used to. ;)

I always thought that there are only 2 types - righties & lefties. So, going by that knowledge, I used to think that I'm righty. But now, after reading that there are additional 2 types of such thing, I'm definitely mixed-handed, i.e. I write, use fork, scissors etc. with my right hand, but everything else I do using the other hand. F.ex., when I imitate playing banjo while listening to the song with banjo solo, I show it backwards, i.e. as left-handed. Other way around, it's inconvenient to me. Anyway, thanks for bringing that tiny extract, Mr. Forces! Very useful fact it is.

As for the subject, I heard that left-handed people are extremely talented, successful & differ from usual right-handed people. They are more creative, quick-minded etc. etc. I don't know if it's correct or not, but sth. tells me that Brian isn't just right-handed that's all. He may very well be ambidextrous.

BTW, here's the photo from the photo thread that at least implies that Brian could throw right-handed:

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2jkj94J2c1qg49moo10_r1_1280.jpg

Mind you, I'm open to the thinking that the photo could have been flopped...

The Don wrote left-handed, eats with his left, and throws with his right, and masturbates with the right too.

But these days, he has writer's cramp in the left, a focal dysonia in medical terms, fine co-ordination in writing has gone out of the window, but forming guitar chords is not impaired at all.

Strange, huh?

Hope this helps.

I searched this topic because I was reading some comments on Facebook about a picture of Brian in 1957, and one of the commenters stated that he was friends with Brian back in 1957-1958, adding that Brian was a great left-handed quarterback and left-handed pitcher.  Made me seek out this topic on the Board.

I am mixed-handed myself.  I do most things left-handed, but play guitar, cut with scissors, and throw a Frisbee right-handed.  The Frisbee thing is weird because I throw a ball left-handed.  The scissors and guitar were done out of necessity of what was available to me at the time I learned those tasks.

Many left-handers wear a watch on their right hand, including myself.  Brian wears his on his left hand.

Which one does he masturbate with? That will tell us if he is left or right handed

In that case, I'm ambidextrous.


I mean, ha ha, that was a funny comment :lol

I'm a lefty. I threw lefty, but batted righty. I write lefty, and when I started to learn the play the guitar, my teachers gave up on me because they were right and I was lefty. So, I play any stringed instruments righty. When I drum, I play a right handed kit, but I pretty much play like Ringo does.

Kurt Cobain was a known lefty and played guitar left..  but he's been filmed signing autographs with his right hand.
So I have no idea how people determine if you are left & right..  It doesn't seem as clear cut as I thought it was.

I'm left handed, and I can tell you this sounds very left handed to me too.  Like said above throwing the ball is the dead giveaway... batting I can bat left or right, same with shooting a gun, and the writing thing I'd bet money he was forced to learn to write right handed (I wasn't, but I'm much younger).  I also play guitar right handed, reason being I can play anybody's guitar and don't need to have a special one around strung lefthanded...  conscious decision I made when I learned to play.


You can kind of tell too by Brian's famous way of playing piano (does more rhythm with his right hand, walking bassline with his left hand). 

Another thing worth mentioning though is that people are very complex, intelligent creatures... Brian's deafness in one ear may have determined which hand he uses to do things as well, in a subconscious way... even the way he plays piano.  I know lots of people play piano like that but since Brian prefers it it could be because he's left handed, OR it could have something to do with which ear he hears better out of... same with throwing a ball, even.... and it could possibly even explain why he writes right handed, maybe when he signs autographs he stands on a certain side so he can hear better and then signs with the convenient hand in that stature. 

It's just hard to figure somethings out, but I wouldn't rule out that his hearing has something to do with it. 

  Former baseball great Dave Parker (Pirates, Reds) is right handed but batted from the left, as several have done. That always seemed weird when I was a kid.

   I am right handed yet iron left handed.

The handedness of scissors is in which half of the paper is forced down as you cut it.  Scissors meant for right handed people will be hinged so the right blade will be the upper blade, and thus the right half of the paper will be forced down.  Left handed scissors are hinged so the left bade will be the upper blade.

Since everyone is admitting their handedness:  I'm an artist, and naturally that means the safe bet would be to assume I'm left handed.  But I'm not.  I'm not just right handed, I'm almost exclusively right handed.  I'd only need half of a hand to count how many things I do with my left.  That's not to say that I wouldn't notice if my left hand was suddenly amputated.  I have attempted to draw several times without my left hand steadying the paper, and it's a complete disaster.

That photo of Brian from 1968-'69 dressed in white with baseball glove is reversed; look at the part in his hair

Sorry, posted in the wrong thread. (giggle)

The hair alone is not proof.  I've seen a few pictures where Brian's hair is parted on the left, but everything else in the picture (buttons, guitars, in picture text, whatever) proves the picture wasn't flipped.

Another thought:  My elder son is left handed, but he's surprisingly flexible about it.  Although he'll usually be doing something with his left, he frequently simply does things with whichever hand is more convenient at the time.  Probably more noteworthy is that when I was teaching him how to write, his first impulse was to imitate me right down to which hand I was using (right).  Since I had already noted his tendency to do things left handed, I stopped him then and instructed him to use whichever hand he felt more comfortable using (specifically not mentioning  "left" or "right").  I could have turned him into a right handed writer just by letting him imitate my right handed style.

Sound explanation. The thing about scissors got me puzzled too. I was like, "what's the diff?" Re lefties being blessed artistically, it's one of those stupid myths made up by lefties to boost their originality. Ha! Some lefty friends are no-talent in that dept. College student from our class wasn't brilliant either. As to famous people, I'm very sure that da Vinci would be genius even as a rightie. He'd paint Gioconda the same way just with diff. hand.

You are quite possibly the first person I've ever seen use the painting's Italian name.  You have made me very happy.

Wait.  You guys can do it with only one hand?  Your wives have my sympathy.


All kidding aside, I would assume nearly everyone does it right handed.  I'm a lefty and I wank righty.  Why?  Pants are made right handed.  Due to the way the openings in underwear, jeans, and pants face there is no option.

And yeah I get it drop your pants.  The thing is you are trained by your pants to use your right hand as your dick hand when you pee, so other needs just fall to the hand you use for that.

I write and play guitar left handed, throw left handed, bat and hockey stick right handed, and the drums are a mix:  The bottom of the kit is left handed (left foot for kick, right for hihat) but the top is right handed (toms go high to low left to right).  Hihat and ride swap places

 
This is what brought me to this thread.  I have noticed that her frequently writes the melody for the left hand while the right plays ryhthm

A lot of pianists play that way though, especially those Brian would have been influenced by: Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc.



I do think this is a good theory, though.

I consider myself right handed because I write with my right hand but almost everything else I do left handed, hold guitar, knife, shoot pool and hockey stick etc so maybe that’s left heavy/mixed handed. 

I also read that southpaws have a higher rate of accidents, probably because things are made for righties.

Also read that Dennis played drums like a lefty would or possibly ambidextrous and with Carl having been left handed it would seem likely Brian was left handed as well or at least ambidextrous.