The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson says guitar legend ‘inspired him to write about cars and surfing’

A guitar legend proved to be an influence on The Beach Boys‘ Brian Wilson, who says he was “inspired to write” by the rock hero.

Wilson would write some of the all-time great songs of the 1960s, including God Only Knows and Wouldn’t It Be Nice. But before the band got their artistic break with Pet Sounds, the band were writing consistent pop songs, radio-friendly hits which would cement the band as one of the biggest in the United States. Their California image of surfing and fast cars can be heard on many of their earliest albums, and it was inspired by an unlikely figure who Wilson would regularly listen to. Praising the veteran of the stage in an interview with Rolling Stone, the Beach Boys’ mastermind said Chuck Berry was the man who inspired some of the band’s greatest hits

He said: “He taught me how to write rock & roll melodies, the way the vocals should go. His lyrics were very, very good. They were unusually good lyrics. I liked Johnny B. Goode, all about a young, little kid who played his guitar.

“He inspired me as a lyricist. He made me want to write about cars and surfing. I liked the lyrics to Roll Over Beethoven. It felt like what he was doing was new.”

Wilson also noted Berry’s Sweet Little Sixteen as the influence to one of The Beach Boys biggest hits. The songwriter said that “the melody and the chord pattern inspired me to write Surfin’ U.S.A.” Other influences in Wilson’s life would be The Beatles, particularly Paul McCartney.

The pair are believed to have had a friendly relationship despite the ongoing battle between the two songwriters in the studio. McCartney has since shared the “big influence” Wilson and The Beach Boys had on The Beatles, prompting them to make Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

McCartney said: “The Beach Boys I think was a big influence on the harmony. There was a little intercontinental rivalry. Mainly Brian. His writing, I think he’d heard one of our albums and thought ‘I’ve got to do better’ and that was Pet Sounds which I loved. It’s still one of my big albums.

“It was so atmospheric and different and yet it was The Beach Boys still and we heard Pet Sounds and thought ‘right, we’ve got to do something better than that,’ so we did Sgt. Pepper’.“

Wilson was equally stunned by The Beatles’ Rubber Soul release, saying he first heard it at his house in Los Angeles. He said: “I heard Rubber Soul one night in my house here in L.A., and I was so blown out that I said, ‘I have to record an album as good or better than Rubber Soul. If I ever do anything in my life, I’m going to make that good an album.’ And so we did.”

Wilson later commented on the rivalry between himself and McCartney, describing it not as a hostile one, but one of “mutual inspiration”.