what if Brian had only lived to age 24?

[Amy B.]

Interesting NY Times article-- what if Brian had only lived to age 24?

December 29, 2007
Music
Composers’ Lives: Speed Is Critical, Not Length
By BERNARD HOLLAND
Schubert died at 31. How much music did his early death deprive us of? Not a lot.

Rossini died at 76, but give or take a few interesting items at the end of his life, posterity could just as well have cut him off at 37, when he stopped writing operas to concentrate on the more important tasks of eating and drinking.

Life, long or short, looks to be simple addition. Factor in the matter of velocity, however, and we have a law of motion that might make Isaac Newton smile. Life spans measured in years don’t take into account how fast we live them. Composing at the speed of life (forgive me), Schubert at 31 was like any normal musical genius at 65.

The years 1827 and 1828 were his last, and this is only some of what came out of them: first, two memorable song cycles, “Winterreise” and the seven songs posthumously assembled as “Schwanengesang.” Also include the last three Piano Sonatas and the Quintet in C. The sonatas are long and hypnotic, like someone wandering in outer space; the quintet sends back messages from the next world. There are also the great F minor Fantasy for Piano Four-Hands and “Drei Klavierstücke.”

The two Piano Trios were begun at the end of 1827 and finished in 1828. Schubert also wrote choruses for mixed and male voices and worked on a Mass in E flat. Add to this 20 or more songs, among his best and including the wonderful “Shepherd on the Rock” with clarinet obbligato.

Schubert was ill, probably with venereal disease, and knew it. He was also eaten up by too much drinking. Given the time spent sleeping, taking meals, visiting friends and going to concerts, it is a puzzle how Schubert found time to copy all this music out, much less think up what to write. Forty composer-years were lived in about one and a half.

If Elliott Carter had died at 31, we wouldn’t be hearing the music he’s writing now as he approaches 100, said by many to be as fresh as anything that came earlier. If Verdi had died at 78, there would be no “Falstaff.” Stravinsky, who turned serialist in his 70s, certainly had his wits about him as he descended into the icy waters of “Agon” and the “Requiem Canticles.”

On the other hand, what more would Chopin have produced had his Paris doctors had the anti-consumption drugs that have since rendered tuberculosis sanitariums nearly obsolete? Maybe less than we think. He had already done a lot. Chopin revolutionized piano music. (What would Bill Evans or Rachmaninoff have been without him?) He also created a world of harmonic originality and a huge catalog of work. Maybe, at 39, Chopin died of old age. Not so Carl Maria von Weber, similarly afflicted and also dead at 39. Weber had more to do.

Sometimes the spirit outlives the body that houses it. Haydn in old age, broken and exhausted by “The Creation” and “The Seasons,” said musical ideas assaulted him physically when he no longer had the strength to act on them. Aaron Copland lived into his 80s and long past his composing days, with apparent serenity. Brahms announced his retirement at 67 but got the bug again.

Some lives were too short. The deaths of Mozart at 35 and Gershwin at 38 came with the abruptness of amputations. A proper diagnosis of Gershwin’s brain tumor might have given him a few more years. Mozart seems to have contracted a killer virus, perhaps at a Masonic meeting, and simply nose-dived.

Looking at “Così fan tutte” as Mozart’s “late style” or as some kind of summing up is hindsight invented by the people who outlived him. He didn’t see it as “late style” at all. Mozart — always living high and never the impoverished garret dweller of myth — had financial security in sight and more music to write.

Gershwin’s future trajectory is debatable, but the future was there. The ethereal song “Our Love Is Here to Stay” has nothing final about it. Not so Chopin’s “Polonaise-Fantasie,” which sounds like a musician playing at his own funeral.

Richard Strauss was the ultimate professional, even in the planning of his own life span. The “Four Last Songs” and “Metamorphosen” for string orchestra complete the far curve of a symmetrical career. Proust’s metaphor for growing old was a man walking on stilts, which grow taller as he ages, making the view ever better but the walk increasingly wobbly.

“Metamorphosen” mingles broader vision and fading energies. No one wrote a more apt goodbye. Ever the survivor, Strauss died at 85, not in a fall to earth but in a graceful slide.

[donutbandit]

what if Brian had only lived to age 24?

We wouldn't have heard Pet Sounds. We would have heard tantalizing prequels in 1965. We probably wouldn't know about Brian's drug problems. We certainly wouldn't know about all the crap he has endured in the years since.

He would probably be viewed as someone who was really begining to come into his own as a composer, but the direction he would have taken wouldn't be clear.  He would probably be viewed as something like Jan Berry, who effectively "died" in 1966. Nobody ever knew what Jan might have accomplished in later years (though it was apparent early on that Brian was far more gifted.)

[the captain]

what if Brian had only lived to age 24?

We wouldn't have heard Pet Sounds. We would have heard tantalizing prequels in 1965.

Pet Sounds was released in late spring 1966. Brian was born in early summer 1942. Depending on specifically when he died, one can presume we'd have heard Pet Sounds.

The answer to the question is that he'd be revered in the way all rock's (hell, music's) early casualties are. People would assume everything he would have done would have been great, instead of talking sh*t about his actual product since then. ("Oh, Hendrix would have kept changing the world..." Nobody figures he'd have become a cheese factory a la Clapton, although he probably would have. Morrison? I shudder to think of the "poetry" he had in store for us.)

He's lived, and thus gotten older, just as everyone who lives does. He has repeated himself artistically. He has suffered down periods as well as ups, and the ups are few and far between, as tends to be the case in pop culture for older people.

But Smile would either not exist at all or would just barely exist in a few booted sessions. And that would fucking suck for me.

[pixletwin]

I have thought of this quite a bit actually. I sort of think Brian would have been regarded the way I regard Buddy Holly. A genius in embryo that never got the chance to break out of his shell.

Production and songwriting wise, Buddy was on the verge of an artistic renaissance, I believe. His production techniques and songwriting were just starting to get interesting and his creativity was really starting to soar.

So I think Brian would have had that sort of reverence.

[Dancing Bear]

All the fans would have spent an absurd amount of time wondering numerous "what ifs"...

Oh wait, we've been doing that for the last 40 years. Nevermind. 

[Sheriff John Stone]

Yeah, I'm thinking of that comment from Mike Love, in one of the documentaries, when he's talking about Brian after Pet Sounds/SMiLE.  Mike said (paraphrasing slightly), "Brian's last dynamic production was Heroes And Villains, and that was 1967".

[Jonas]

What, no Friends? Wild Honey? Sunflower? Funky Pretty? Marcella? No Thanks!

[Sheriff John Stone]

What, no Friends? Wild Honey? Sunflower? Funky Pretty? Marcella? No Thanks!

And The Beach Boys Love You

[Smilin Ed H]

World would be a poorer place.

[pixletwin]

World would be a poorer place.

Mike Love would be a poorer guy.

[Sheriff John Stone]

World would be a poorer place.

Mike Love would be a poorer guy.

I didn't think Mike performed songs written after 1966 anyway - except Kokomo.

[Amy B.]

Where was it that Carol Kaye said she thought Brian would one day write film scores or maybe go to school to study music? People probably would have mourned what could have been, speculating that Brian was about to become much more than he was, when in reality, he was about to have a breakdown and become less productive.

So he had hit his peak already by 24, just as Schubert had hit his by age 31.

[Cam Mott]

No Wilson Phillips.

[the captain]

No Wilson Phillips.

I consider that the silver lining.

[Dancing Bear]

World would be a poorer place.

Mike Love would be a poorer guy.

Au contraire, he would have still toured eleven months a year, 40 years straight, anyway, AND the fans wouldn't bug him about rarities in the setlist.  

[endofposts]

Someone on a film message board speculated about Orson Welle's reputation if he hadn't lived beyond "Citizen Kane."   I think it would have ripped off the world, not only of some great films he made after that, but just his general Orson-ness.  Not to mention, "They will sell no wine ... before its time."  I feel the same way about Brian.  He still had some greatness in him, along with the not-as-great.  And the world would have been robbed of his Brian-ness.  A lot of the acclaim he's received in recent years isn't just for his body of work, but the fact that he's still here.  90% of life is just showing up.

[SG7]

It would be sad. I would be afraid he would get lumped in with Joplin and Hendrix as the people who died young in the 60s and thats it. I would always wonder what could have been. I think about that kind of thing with Joy Division sometimes....

[TdHabib]

I think about it all the time about Kurt Cobain, what if he was still around...

[Aegir]

World would be a poorer place.

Mike Love would be a poorer guy.

I didn't think Mike performed songs written after 1966 anyway - except Kokomo.

You're probably joking - I hope you're joking - but in recent years the touring band has performed these post-1966 songs:

Do It Again
It's OK
I Can Hear Music
Cotton Fields
Rock and Roll Music
Come Go With Me
'Til I Die
All This is That
Sail On Sailor
Disney Girls
Summer in Paradise
Still Cruisin'
Kokomo
Back in the USSR
Getcha Back
Cool Head, Warm Heart
Forever
Santa's Goin' to Kokomo

and I'm sure I've missed a few.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Yes, I was joking; note my little smiling "sheriff" at the end. After pixletwin made that comment about Mike Love being a "poorer guy", I had to respond.

Even though it's now 2008, the more things change, the more they stay the same...

Edit: "Santa's Goin' To Kokomo"! Are YOU joking?

[Aegir]

There's some emoticons I don't understand, the police officer being one of them. There's so many connotations one could draw from it.

But I wonder if the Beach Boys would've continued if Brian died in 1966. I don't think the rest of the band could've stepped up and written a full album of songs that early on, or that they would even want to.

[Sheriff John Stone]

There's some emoticons I don't understand, the police officer being one of them. There's so many connotations one could draw from it.

But I wonder if the Beach Boys would've continued if Brian died in 1966. I don't think the rest of the band could've stepped up and written a full album of songs that early on, or that they would even want to.

I'm not so much concerned that you understand the emoticon (I love that word), just what's WRITTEN before it.

YES! the Beach Boys would've continued without Brian in 1966. He stopped touring in late 1964, stopped producing them in late 1967, and with the exception of about 5 minutes per album, stopped writing for them in 1970 (Sunflower was recorded in 1969).

They could've come with some kind of album(s). Have Mike write one extra song, Dennis one extra, Carl one extra, Al, etc. Throw in a couple of covers, and you have - L.A. Light Album.

[smile-holland]

Edit: "Santa's Goin' To Kokomo"! Are YOU joking?

They did sheriff, they really did....

[mikeyj]

They did sheriff, they really did....

Gee I bet a lot of fans of the Mike+Bruce show will never be going again after that!!

[Loaf]

What if Brian died during the making of Smile, say Jan 67... his legend would have been bigger than Lennon or Hendrix.

Mike's career wouldn't necessarily have changed. He could still have his Brian-free Kokomo-moment in 1988.

BUT, what if Carl and Dennis, overwhelmed by grief and wonder at the poignancy taken on by the unfinished Smile, didn't want to go on with Mike, but formed a new band (the Wilsons?) and tried to continue Brian's good work? We would have had much more of Dennis' great stuff, and sooner, and perhaps Carl's songwriting would have blossomed as well as his production techniques.

OR, Maybe even mantra-Mike would have been converted to the Smile way after Brian's death, the BBs would have overdubbed their voices without complaint onto the Smile backing tracks. It would have been a teenage requiem to God. The BBs as a whole would have taken up Brian's mantle and released several more albums of graceful beauty.

Thanks to Brian selfishly staying alive in 1967, we have been denied music twice as good as Smile.

How's that for a what-if?