The Murry Quote Topic

[bgas]

Brian's acquaintances repeatedly described him as a weird or even goofy personality, but not as a tyrant.

Right, let's not forget how he took Brian to see The Four Freshman (he even managed to arrange for Brian to be able to meet them), bought Brian a car, bought Dennis a surfboard, purchased a guitar and lessons for Carl. He even told the boys about sex late one night when they were young teenagers! The guy tried to be a good dad, and look at how hard he worked to break the BBs into the industry. He just couldn't control the bad aspects of his personality. If you ever read about Murry's childhood, you'll understand why. His dad was far worse than Murry ever was.

What I find hard to take is how with Murry's own father being such a shithead to him, you'd think the last thing in the world he'd want to do would be to subject his own children to the same kind of pain he was put through.

Except, from what I've seen/heard, the person that doesn't follow in the footsteps of a parent such as that is more the exception than the norm, unfortunately. Most folks swear they'd never want to do it, and fall right into the gap.

[Myk Luhv]

I like how people seem to think material provisions somehow serve to negate the physical and emotional abuse that Murry seemingly relentlessly subjected his kids to whenever he could.

[hypehat]

Brian's acquaintances repeatedly described him as a weird or even goofy personality, but not as a tyrant.

Right, let's not forget how he took Brian to see The Four Freshman (he even managed to arrange for Brian to be able to meet them), bought Brian a car, bought Dennis a surfboard, purchased a guitar and lessons for Carl. He even told the boys about sex late one night when they were young teenagers! The guy tried to be a good dad, and look at how hard he worked to break the BBs into the industry. He just couldn't control the bad aspects of his personality. If you ever read about Murry's childhood, you'll understand why. His dad was far worse than Murry ever was.

What I find hard to take is how with Murry's own father being such a shithead to him, you'd think the last thing in the world he'd want to do would be to subject his own children to the same kind of pain he was put through.

Except, from what I've seen/heard, the person that doesn't follow in the footsteps of a parent such as that is more the exception than the norm, unfortunately. Most folks swear they'd never want to do it, and fall right into the gap.

This is true. Brian is, by any objective measure, a really bad father. He would admit as much himself, and his own way of dealing with the step of becoming a parent is enough to suggest this - Brian's fear of becoming a parent like Murry made him a different sort of bad father to his daughters.

[The Heartical Don]

Brian's acquaintances repeatedly described him as a weird or even goofy personality, but not as a tyrant.

Right, let's not forget how he took Brian to see The Four Freshman (he even managed to arrange for Brian to be able to meet them), bought Brian a car, bought Dennis a surfboard, purchased a guitar and lessons for Carl. He even told the boys about sex late one night when they were young teenagers! The guy tried to be a good dad, and look at how hard he worked to break the BBs into the industry. He just couldn't control the bad aspects of his personality. If you ever read about Murry's childhood, you'll understand why. His dad was far worse than Murry ever was.

What I find hard to take is how with Murry's own father being such a shithead to him, you'd think the last thing in the world he'd want to do would be to subject his own children to the same kind of pain he was put through.

Agree. It is, as Dave Marsh noted somewhere, a basic human mystery. I think it is located in the animal part of the human brain. One can rationalize endlessly, but even the best intentions get overruled by instinctive violence eventually. Sexual abuse of children by their parent(s) is a notorious example, it is transferred across the generations. Perhaps it's a sign of a split personality.

I wrote above that I think that people like Murry, and his dad Bud, are basically very insecure folks. They make up for that by being both enormously ambitious and very aggressive. That is why Murry both created the Beach Boys and destroyed the mental sanity of its most talented member.

[Mike's Beard]

Brian's acquaintances repeatedly described him as a weird or even goofy personality, but not as a tyrant.

Right, let's not forget how he took Brian to see The Four Freshman (he even managed to arrange for Brian to be able to meet them), bought Brian a car, bought Dennis a surfboard, purchased a guitar and lessons for Carl. He even told the boys about sex late one night when they were young teenagers! The guy tried to be a good dad, and look at how hard he worked to break the BBs into the industry. He just couldn't control the bad aspects of his personality. If you ever read about Murry's childhood, you'll understand why. His dad was far worse than Murry ever was.

What I find hard to take is how with Murry's own father being such a shithead to him, you'd think the last thing in the world he'd want to do would be to subject his own children to the same kind of pain he was put through.

Agree. It is, as Dave Marsh noted somewhere, a basic human mystery. I think it is located in the animal part of the human brain. One can rationalize endlessly, but even the best intentions get overruled by instinctive violence eventually. Sexual abuse of children by their parent(s) is a notorious example, it is transferred across the generations. Perhaps it's a sign of a split personality.

I wrote above that I think that people like Murry, and his dad Bud, are basically very insecure folks. They make up for that by being both enormously ambitious and very aggressive. That is why Murry both created the Beach Boys and destroyed the mental sanity of its most talented member.

Wot, Mike? 

[The Heartical Don]

Brian's acquaintances repeatedly described him as a weird or even goofy personality, but not as a tyrant.

Right, let's not forget how he took Brian to see The Four Freshman (he even managed to arrange for Brian to be able to meet them), bought Brian a car, bought Dennis a surfboard, purchased a guitar and lessons for Carl. He even told the boys about sex late one night when they were young teenagers! The guy tried to be a good dad, and look at how hard he worked to break the BBs into the industry. He just couldn't control the bad aspects of his personality. If you ever read about Murry's childhood, you'll understand why. His dad was far worse than Murry ever was.

What I find hard to take is how with Murry's own father being such a shithead to him, you'd think the last thing in the world he'd want to do would be to subject his own children to the same kind of pain he was put through.

Agree. It is, as Dave Marsh noted somewhere, a basic human mystery. I think it is located in the animal part of the human brain. One can rationalize endlessly, but even the best intentions get overruled by instinctive violence eventually. Sexual abuse of children by their parent(s) is a notorious example, it is transferred across the generations. Perhaps it's a sign of a split personality.

I wrote above that I think that people like Murry, and his dad Bud, are basically very insecure folks. They make up for that by being both enormously ambitious and very aggressive. That is why Murry both created the Beach Boys and destroyed the mental sanity of its most talented member.

Wot, Mike? 

  I hadn't noticed this interpretation... I meant, as a manager, material supplier, and studio wizard, of course.

[Carrie Marks]

Brian's acquaintances repeatedly described him as a weird or even goofy personality, but not as a tyrant.

Guy I know, name of Marks, would beg to disagree. 

Guy I know, name of Henn, would then disagree with Dave. 

Guy I know, name of Marks, would disagree with Andrew's assessment of his feelings towards Murry.

[Myk Luhv]

Oh snap!

[Andrew G. Doe]

Brian's acquaintances repeatedly described him as a weird or even goofy personality, but not as a tyrant.

Guy I know, name of Marks, would beg to disagree.  

Guy I know, name of Henn, would then disagree with Dave.  

Guy I know, name of Marks, would disagree with Andrew's assessment of his feelings towards Murry.

Hm.  I thought he witnessed a fist fight between Murry and Dennis that was broken up by Elmer, and was on the receiving end of more than one noogie ?

[Ian]

Funny thing about Murry is that despite being such a pain to be around (he made the first Australian tour a real drag allegedly) they allowed him to tag along on later important trips.  Murry was with them in Paris in Nov 66 (he ran the press conference that the BBs chose to skip) and in Australia in Apr-May 1970 (He even gave interviews to Sydney papers!).  Not a shy man that is for sure.

[Carrie Marks]

Brian's acquaintances repeatedly described him as a weird or even goofy personality, but not as a tyrant.

Guy I know, name of Marks, would beg to disagree.  

Guy I know, name of Henn, would then disagree with Dave.  

Guy I know, name of Marks, would disagree with Andrew's assessment of his feelings towards Murry.

Hm.  I thought he witnessed a fist fight between Murry and Dennis that was broken up by Elmer, and was on the receiving end of more than one noogie ?

Yes, Murry was one of countless people he witnessed Dennis fist fight with, that is true. But David was on the receiving end of a couple of broken noses from his own father, who he doesn't consider a categorical tyrant either, so a few noogies aren't going to have him screaming "abuse!"

Of course he wishes Murry hadn't swindled and erased him from BB history and even more hurtful than that was the betrayal at the hands of someone he considered (for good or bad) a 2nd father....so naturally he has mixed feelings about the guy. But you should be careful...you took some quotes that were edited by other people to fit their storyline and pieced together what you THOUGHT David might feel like and presented it as "I know a guy who feels..." which leaves readers believing (falsely) that you have some sort of insider's insight into the way David feels about something as complex as Murry Wilson.  That's how these myths get spread....

By the way, did you see the new BW Songwriter's dvd where they play audio from an argument between them in the studio and David says Murry was right?

[TdHabib]

I always loved Desper's description of Murry as a freight train in a public library.

[Mike's Beard]

David's own father bust his nose a few times? Am I the only one who finds that appalling?

[Andrew G. Doe]

But you should be careful...you took some quotes that were edited by other people to fit their storyline and pieced together what you THOUGHT David might feel like and presented it as "I know a guy who feels..." which leaves readers believing (falsely) that you have some sort of insider's insight into the way David feels about something as complex as Murry Wilson.  That's how these myths get spread....

Extremely fair and entirely valid point.

[Mr. Cohen]

AGD, he's trying to protect from "the brains that are trying to hurt you." "Forget who you are", AGD. Now listen to a man that loves you.