Happy Birthday, Denny!

The incomparable drummer Dennis Wilson, who with brothers Brian Wilson and Carl Wilson, cousin Mike Love and Al Jardine, formed The Beach Boys. Dennis was the only one who surfer; he suggested "surfing" as the theme for the first hit song, cleverly titled, "Surfin'".

He passed away in 1983. I miss him terribly. You know how when you've never met someone but have an idea of what they may have been like? Dennis' music is truly a window into his soul. I never got the chance to meet him but I'm fortunate to have met and talked with people, at length, who did know him - his ex-wives, Barbara Wilson and Karen Lamm; his sons; John Stebbins, author of Dennis Wilson, The Real Beach Boy and Ed Roach, friend to Dennis and photographer for The Beach Boys, among others. Whatever picture I had painted in my head about Dennis was true - all of it. Here are some of Dennis' more lively quotes:

"They say I live a fast life. Maybe I just like a fast life. I wouldn't give it up for anything in the world. It won't last forever, either. But the memories will."

"Brian Wilson is the Beach Boys. He is the band. We're his fucking messengers. He is all of it. Period. We're nothing. He's everything."

"I made a dollar a day sweeping a laundry out. Then we made a record that was number two in Los Angeles. We got so excited hearing it on the radio that Carl threw up."

"I hope that the karma will fuck up Mike Love's meditation forever. That album is an embarrassment to my life. It should self-destruct."
- 1979 on M.I.U.

"If there wasn't The Beach Boys and there wasn't music, I would not even talk to them. But through music I fell in love with my brothers."