Brian Wilson Left an Indelible Mark on Car Culture from Behind the Mic

The chief songwriter of the Beach Boys helped to shape car culture – and American culture in the 20th century.

When American pioneers traveled across the vast Western frontier to settle in California, it was just another state (the 31st, to be precise). As David Leaf so eloquently put it in his book “God Only Knows: The Story of Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys, & the California Myth,” Brian Wilson, along with his band the Beach Boys, transformed California into a state of mind. Their songs about surfing, cars, and chasing girls created out of thin air the mythological California dream and the concept of teen culture, building on the groundwork laid by folks like Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley.

The Beach Boys were formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961 by brothers Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and childhood friend Al Jardine. While their early records revolved mostly around the regional fad of surfing, the band’s music would soon shift focus to a different kind of suburban daredevil, the hot rodder. Early singles “409” and “Shut Down” touched on these themes, but it wasn’t until their fourth album, 1963’s Little Deuce Coupe, that they would fully embrace car culture. Little Deuce Coupe may very well be the first rock n’ roll concept album, with songs like “Ballad of Ole’ Betsy,” a dedication to a worn-out Deuce hot rod, the self-explanatory “Car Crazy Cutie” and “Our Car Club,” and nine other songs about the hot rod lifestyle.

Even deep album cuts like “No-Go Showboat” demonstrate Wilson’s impeccable ear for harmonies and songwriting. Their follow-up, 1964’s Shut Down Volume 2, also featured a gaggle of car songs, including “Don’t Worry Baby,” a love song so sweet that most listeners don’t realize that the lyrics are about a woman encouraging her boyfriend to win a drag race. It wouldn’t be long before the Beach Boys would gradually shift from “teen music” to more mature themes with albums like the critically acclaimed “Pet Sounds.” However, the mark they left on car culture is immeasurable. Their wildly popular hit songs shone a light on the burgeoning Southern California car culture, helping it spread like wildfire through the rest of the country.

While Dennis Wilson, the youngest Wilson brother, is credited as being the lone Beach Boy to actually live the surfing and hot-rods lifestyle the band extolled, it was brother Brian’s songwriting that helped propel these subcultures into the mainstream. Wilson is thought by many to be the preeminent American musical genius of the twentieth century; others would just call him a genius, period.

Wilson was a bit of a car enthusiast himself, owning a 1951 Mercury, a Corvette Stingray, and an early Mustang, among other desirable machinery. Chevrolet paid tribute to Wilson with a social media post, featuring Wilson, a gal pal, and a surfboard on the beach with a Stingray convertible – an iconic California image if there ever was one – with the text “God only knows where we would have been without you.” We couldn’t say (or sing) it any better if we tried. Rest easy, Brian. Thanks for everything.