Brian Wilson takes on Gershwin

“I was very proud to be able to work with Gershwin,” Brian Wilson says toward the end of a telephone call from Los Angeles.

The topic is Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin, his latest album and the centrepiece of his current tour. It offers his own take on various classic George Gershwin chestnuts as well as two jointly composed songs. Not that the former Beach Boy actually sat down with the composer of Porgy and Bess. Gershwin died in Hollywood in 1937, five years before the 68-year-old Wilson was born in nearby Inglewood, Calif.

Instead, as part of a recording project for Walt Disney Records, Wilson was granted access to the Gershwin archives by the late composer’s estate, and used uncompleted works as the basis for two new songs. Gershwin’s Will You Remember Me? served as the basis forThe Like in I Love You, while another number, originally entitled Say My Say, was retooled by Wilson into Nothing But Love
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How, exactly, did that work? “Well, I took some of Gershwin’s chords and wrote a melody to it,” Wilson says.
And that’s all he says. Wilson is not the most loquacious of interviews, and isn’t much inclined toward detailed explanation. I had been warned to avoid questions that could be answered “yes” or “no,” because he has a tendency to consider such monosyllables full answers.
But, even with that guideline in mind, Wilson is difficult to draw out.
For instance, one of the most striking things about Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin is that some songs are presented in classic Great American Songbook style, with lush backing harmonies and subdued rhythm, while others were given a full-on rock ’n’ roll treatment. So I ask Wilson if he can talk a bit about how he approached the various songs.
“Well, we wanted each song presented the way George would have wanted it to be presented,” he says.
Okay, then. So what was the inspiration for I’ve Got Rhythm, which in Wilson’s setting sports simplified chords, doo-wop vocals and honking saxophone?
“We wanted to have a Beach Boy feel to it, combined with Gershwin,” he says. Apparently, that is what George would have wanted.
Wilson feels a deep attachment to Gershwin’s music. According to press material for the album, he was introduced to Rhapsody in Blue as a toddler. Indeed, he uses one of the themes from the piece – offered in classic, Beach Boys-style falsetto – as a touchstone in the album, linking the songs in a sort of conceptual rhapsody.
But asking him to explain his approach to the music doesn’t always shed light on that affection. His treatment of ’S Wonderful, for example, lends the tune a samba feel that puts the melody in 6/4, instead of the original 4/4. Why? “We wanted it to sound interesting, and kind of happy, you know?”
His take on I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’ is done instrumentally, with bass harmonica carrying the melody. How did that come about? “Well, we wanted something to sound different,” he says. “Something kind of unusual. So we put bass harmonica on it.”
Then there’s Wilson’s It Ain’t Necessarily So, which omits the Cab Calloway-inspired call-and-response chorus. Why did he not use that part of the original? “Because it was all taken care of,” he says.
As for the way he reharmonized Gershwin, avoiding the complex jazz chords most arrangers favour and relying instead supporting these familiar melodies with the sunny major-interval harmony he built the Beach Boys vocal sound around, Wilson says simply, “That’s how I always heard ’em.”
In concert, Wilson will follow his Gershwin material with a second set built around more typical fare, such Good Vibrations and Wouldn’t It Be Nice. But he seems particularly pleased with the newest part of his repertoire. “I’m proud of all 12 of them,” he says of the Gershwin selections. “They’re really good songs.”