@richopp, you don’t have the full picture. I hold no songwriter in higher regard than Brian Wilson. My first live concert was The Beach Boys in the summer of 1964, when Brian was still playing bass and singing on stage. Upon hearing the Smiley Smile album in early ’68, I became obsessed with Brian, reading everything I could find on him (two chapters in Paul William's great book Outlaw Blues is about the aborted Smile album), and buying every bootleg album of the Smile recordings I could find. I know FAR more than you about the man, and love his music at least as much as any living human being. So don’t lecture me on Brian Wilson.
Shortly before I read the quote from Brian about "Bohemian Rhapsody", I made a pilgrimage from San Jose to Brian’s mansion in Bel Air with a songwriter I had been recording demos with for a year. We brought a copy of our demo to give to Brian, intending to ask him to produce us in a pro studio (I had engineered the demos, using a pair of condenser mics, a Sony Mixer, and Revox and Teac reel-to-reel recorders).
Standing at the front gate, I rang the buzzer. Brian’s wife Marilyn answered, but wouldn’t let us see Brian. She said to leave the tape against the gate, which we did. Dusk was just descending, so we walked up the driveway of the house next door, to see what we could see (stalking?). Through his dining room window, we saw Brian sitting in a high-back chair at the table, absolutely motionless for about 15 minutes. We left, and never heard from Brian.
The next year (1976), Brian was trotted out for his "comeback"---the 15 Big Ones album. At that time it was disclosed that Brian, from his years of drug abuse, had sustained brain damage. He was being treated by Psychologist Eugene Landy, for mental illness. I rest my case.
