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The Voices in Brian Wilson’s Head


“My story is a music story and a family story and a love story,” he wrote in his 2016 memoir, “but it’s a story of mental illness, too.”

The Beach Boys leader’s story is well told by now, but reading his often blunt retelling is harrowing, especially as he describes years swaddled in drugs and alcohol, and controlled by the notorious Dr. Landy. The final chapter is entitled “Today!,” with the exclamation point marking the positivity — nagging internal voices, self-doubt, and even depression notwithstanding — with which Wilson lived in 2016. At the Radio City show, which came a little after that Christmas party, my songs were performed by other people, like Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Vince Gill, and Elton John.

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