The Sad Truth About The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys were a huge part of the soundtrack of the '60s, and even people born decades after they reached their height of popularity are bound to know their music. "Good Vibrations," "California Girls," "Surfin' Safari"... great Beach Boys songs aren't exactly rare. Despite their huge successes and enduring legacy, however, their story isn't exactly a happy one.

Murry Wilson was the father of Beach Boys Brian, Dennis, and Carl - as well as their first manager - and, put simply, he was a pretty horrible guy. In I Am Brian Wilson: A Memoir, Brian spoke about the abuse they suffered at the hands of their father. He wrote:

"My dad was violent. He was cruel."

How cruel? Well, the Beach Boys' songwriter and composer became deaf in one ear thanks to a blow from a lead pipe delivered to his head as a 3-year-old. As children, Brian says they were all on the receiving end of abuse - he himself was once handed a beating with a 2-by-4, for example, but it was only Dennis who ever fought back.

The psychological abuse was there, too. When they were children, Murry would pull out his glass eye and make the boys stare into the empty, gaping hole of his socket.

Murry also constantly berated them during his time as their manager: he told them that they were losers, they were worthless, and they were failures. In 2010, The Guardian reported on the discovery of a letter, handwritten by Murry and addressed to Brian. Dated May 8th, 1965, a time when the Beach Boys were enjoying chart-topping success, it read:

"It has become very apparent to me that the family cannot exist under the worrisome and trying conditions that have been going on for the last five or six years. […] No matter how many hit songs you write or how many hundreds of thousands of dollars you may earn […] you are going to suffer remorse."

Watch the video video for more of The Sad Truth About The Beach Boys.

#BeachBoys

Murry Wilson | 0:19
Brian's demons | 1:40
The Mansons | 2:40
A day at the zoo | 3:59
Dennis' death | 4:50
Love and hate | 6:01
Kokomo | 7:06
Carl's death | 8:01
Hindsight | 8:49

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