The Smiley Smile Message Board

Using any artists, genres, or songs, how would you describe Denny's songs (from Little Bird to the end of his life)


I wanna start by saying the POB album is very BW plus Spector mixed with Dennis Wilson's balls.  ;)

i love whenever someone called it white soul.  or it's the second half of the summer, when things start to get cloudy.  Or even more, it's the beach when it's getting cold.  and badass.

People ask me what it sounds like, I say -

"It sounds like Dennis Wilson. Period."

well that's helpful.

I'd say it's the highest compliment you can pay the man's music.

Didn't the man himself once say "Everything I am or will ever be is in the music. Just Listen"?

That should be known by anyone who has more than a passing interest in the band's music, but even some of us hardcores need to be poked and prodded until we finally get it.

While we're at it, let's throw in the comment that "the man"(my new nickname for Dennis lol) made regarding Brian. At a Beach Boys concert, a fan shouted "Where's Brian?". Dennis answered with "Brian's in the music". Such a simple sentence, but if you think about i t....that pretty much sums it up.  :)

Somewhat maudlin at times.   I know a lot of people really connect/connected with Dennis on an emotional level through some of his music .  I tried.   I like Bamboo a lot better than POB because it is more basic, and has less of the emotional reaching.

(I guess I should duck under my desk now to avoid the negative response I'm about to recieve ) 

We love you, Donald, unconditionally. You just will have to find the inner child in you, the real me you used to be. Then you will realise the emphatic potential that you carry within you, and you'll be able to channel the spirit of Dennis Wilson.

let me get this straight.....I used to be you?    Or I used to be me?   I have emphatic potential?   This changes everything!

 :lol pretty brilliant! To be fair: I got that 'real me' phrase from Garrison Keillor, but never saw it interpreted in this queer way. You are a star...

Jesus with a hangover produced by Spector with a heart.

I'm with you. I love Dennis' songs but sometimes his production is just too much and the over singing can be ...dare I say this...near the level of Bruce "Magnum" Johnston.

I've sometimes compared it to Pink Floyd crossed with Chicago.  It's not super accurate, but on the surface level, it gets the idea across.

I'd throw in a dash of Elton John, especially in the piano playing.

I was thinking about that too! especially Chicago with Dennis' tune: Time.

What tunes of his remind you of PF?

Yeah, maybe with a little of the later Harry Nilsson (think All I Think About Is You, or much of Pussycats) crossed with the Boss. I know a bunch of folks who I've played POB to in the last 20 years and they all hear the Floyd
 thing right away.

That is freakin' awesome! Haha!
My friends and I have a longstanding mantra... WWDWD? or What Would Dennis Wilson Do?


I'd say it's a mix of... classic beach boys, drunken outpours and cocaine jams.
The beach in winter.

What the Beach Boys should've been doing (or at least what some of their music should've sounded like at that point). It sounds authentic. Dennis Wilson acts his age.

A bit of Tom Waits in there too. Especially in his later music.

Hm. Very good. I am imagining Denny doing Waits' 'Martha', or 'Hang Down Your Head', or 'You're Innocent When You Dream'. Could've been gorgeous, you know.

I was listening to the first half of Harry's p*ssy Cats, it's very POB, I love it!

f*** that, I would've loved to hear Dennis do Waits' "16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought Six"!

I feel the only way you could describe Dennis is as a complete original. I really haven't heard music like his elsewhere. You can say he had a feel for rock, jazz, pop, even RnB. Certainlly he was good at both slow songs and fast ones. I've heard him in other people but I don't feel like he was influenced too much by any of them. Brian was an influense of course as well as Carl but I think he took things in a different direction.