The Art of Dennis Wilson

I've been obsessed lately with Dennis Wilson, if I haven't mentioned before in this blog I am a huge fan of The Beach Boys, but it wasn't till late in life that I realized that the leader of the group Brian Wilson wasn't the only songwriting genius. I recently just listened to the now digitally remastered version of Dennis Wilson's only solo album "Pacific Ocean Blue" which many consider to be the best solo album that was released by a Beach Boy. The CD also consists of the "Bamboo" sessions which was supposed to be Wilson's follow-up, but he died before it was finished.

However along with being a talented musical artist, he is known in the film land as the mechanic in one of my favorite "new classics" I've discovered recently "Two-Lane Blacktop". The film follows a cross-country car race between James Taylor's Driver along with Wilson's mechanic against Warren Oates' G.T.O. Laurie Bird appears as the Girl who hitches a ride with both drivers. It's a great film, one of the best of the second golden age known as the seventies. Although Oates is known to have walked away with the film, my favorite performance was probably Wilson. Although both he and Taylor are both amateur actors, Wilson brings a very natural charisma to the screen, he doesn't say much, and most of what he has to say has to do with the car they are driving, but I wonder if he realized just how good he looked on screen.

In the early years, The Beach Boys themselves were always sold as clean-cut, and soon became passe in the midst of the more drug influenced psychidelic period of the late sixties. Despite Brian's own troubles with drugs and alcohol, Dennis was the real rebel of the group, he was the only actual surfer among the group, he drove fast cars and was known to be a womanizer. He lived what The Beach Boys were singing about. Then there was also that infamous story of him being friends with Charles Manson before he became responsible for instigating mass murders with his "Family".

With the summer winding down, I just thought it was the best time to look back at one of rock musics unsung heroes. Now with the recent releases of "Two-Lane Blacktop", and "Pacific Ocean Blue", it's nice to see Dennis Wilson finally getting his due.