I'm A Genius, Too! The Murry Wilson Tapes

MP3s: The Beach Boys Help Me Ronda Sessions - Full Version | Edited version
Flash Animations: Peter Bagge's Murry Wilson: Rock and Roll Dad - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

January 8, 1965: The Beach Boys enter the studio to record what will become their second number one hit, Help Me Rhonda. Well into the session, a drunken Murry Wilson (Brian, Carl and Dennis' Dad) arrives and proceeds to commandeer the session with psychodrama, scat singing and weepy, abusive melodrama.

The session tape captured it all, and versions of these tapes have been floating around bootlegs for years. The fact that the tapes survived is itself surprising - you can hear Brian and Murry fighting over the tape recorder controls at the 35:30 mark of the full version, Murry wanting to stop the recording, with Brian ultimately keeping the tape rolling. And it's a good thing that Brian won out, because this audio verifies many of the Murry Wilson horror stories described in the Steven Gaines book, Heroes and Villains: The True Story of The Beach Boys.

Here's the full 40 minute version of the Help Me Ronda sessions for you completionists: (MP3), and here's a twelve minute edit I did for other attention-challenged people such as myself: (MP3). Recently, Listener Jeff alerted me to Peter Bagge's four-part animated Murry Wilson flash series, which Icebox put out in 2001. Here are all four installments as Shockwave 3.0 files: Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four

Listening back to the full Help Me Ronda sessions again, I'm struck by how sane Brian sounds when compared to Murry, and how mature and patient he is for a 22 old standing up to his abusive, alcoholic father. After listening in on this session, It's easy to see why the Beach Boys eventually purchased Murry a fake audio console for their sessions, so he could twiddle knobs to his heart's delight without destroying anything.

Both the Help Me Rhonda tapes and the Peter Bagge cartoons delve into some of Murry's legendary abuse of Brian. On the tape, you can hear Brian deflating Murry (for a split second) by reminding him that Brian was deaf in one ear from one of Murry's blows to his head. The famous eyeball removal is portrayed only in the cartoon (and in the Gaines book). Murry reportedly removed his glass eye and made Brian stare into his empty eye socket. That was when Murry was too busy to make Brian shit on a paper plate in front of the whole family.

Murry so destroyed this recording session that The Beach Boys re-recorded the entire song several weeks later (also re-spelling the name Ronda as Rhonda), and it was that later version which became the hit single version, which was also released on the LP Summer Days (and Summer Nights). The inferior version heard on this session was released as Help Me Ronda on the album The Beach Boys Today! The drunken, sync-o-pated version that Murry tried so hard to create was not to be.

Murry utters his immortal line "Brian, I'm a Genius, Too" at the 30:55 mark of the full session.

Thanks to Jeff, Andy and Dave the Spazz.

Comments

[Bruce]

As someone who can pretty much do the 12 minute version verbatium thanks for the full 40 minutes. This will sit right next to my other faves: Buddy Rich, Barry White, Paul Anka, and of course Shaggy I mean Casey Kasem.

Plus those Pete Bagge cartoons are great saw them years ago, the Joe Jackson stuff is so right on the money.

[bruce]

I almost forgot I'M A GENIUS TOO!!!!

[Andy Baio]

Loosen up a bit, man. Syncopate it.

[John]

Info posted -

Mar 18, 2006 11:35 AM
Subject: My new book
Body: I'm currently working on a Murry Wilson biography that is tentatively titled, "I'm a Genius, Too" that will include many revelations. Right now its looking like a release date of November, 2006.

[fred]

Interesting - on a very similar vein - given this information you've just given - we've published this piece on Brian Wilson, Murray Wilson, Family dysfunction and schizophrenia.

http://www.schizophrenia.com/sznews/archives/003852.html

[Chris]

It's Al Jardine singing the lead.

[Pete]

What's the big deal about abuse? Anyone who has been in a recording studio has heard far worse from their own producer. And Murray is being an overprotective father like most- thinking he knows best.
Hey happens everyday everywhere. I don't see the big deal. Now as far as the rest of the behind the scenes stories, well that's different.That plate incident and slap is abuse.

[E]

Loosen up, sing from your hearts, loosen up, sing from your hearts, loosen up, sing from your hearts, loosen up, sing from your hearts, loosen up, sing from your hearts, loosen up, sing from your hearts, loosen up, sing from your hearts, loosen up, sing from your hearts, loosen up, sing from your hearts, loosen up, sing from your hearts, loosen up, sing from your hearts, loosen up, sing from your hearts, loosen up, sing from your hearts, loosen up, sing from your hearts, loosen up, sing from your hearts, loosen up, sing from your hearts, loosen up, sing from your hearts, loosen up, sing from your hearts....

[sonofprent]

The track Murray Wilson sings the blues at www.myspace.com/theinhumanebeatbox may be of interest to anyone who appreciates the genius that is murray wilson.
Syncopate it

[Dr Volt]

You always love the music you listened to going through your teens. I'm glad these guys stuck it out, they are an important part of my life.

Murry, I once heard bits of these horror stories and Brian's deaf ear. I hope it's not too hot where you are. You're great too. A great Fool

Bill

[chuck]

Wow, that is shocking, and props to Brian for not just smacking Murry. Nice dig at Jonny Rivers, too

[Jack Gasoline]

Hello, it's brilliant! Does anyone have this in a lossless file format by any chance? Thanks!

[Nicholas]

Where does Brian blame his father for the hearing loss? I don't hear that part at all.

[ralph smith]

From what I have heard and seen in past films of this session Murray was an out of control Dictator that couldn't tell his own son Brian he loved him and that alone would have given more support than him trying to be a Manager to the boys.

[ottawangel]

Those poor boys. The world is lucky that they didn't give up. Brian was one brave little guy.

Whether or not 'everybody' does things like Murray did certainly does NOT justify it. Ever.

[Pamela]

Pete, you're right. It happens everyday, everywhere, morning, noon, night. However no one--not a single person--has the right to abuse another human being. And it takes one sick son-of-bitch to abuse children, whether it's verbally, psychologically, physically, or sexually. (And think about it, if he were really being that ole' overprotective, Daddy-knows-best type, wouldn't he let the kids relax and sing, thus making better songs and, in the end, more money and security for not only his brood and ya know, himself? Plus that whole not berating their sobriety and sanity away?)

Now, Pete, seriously. If you were in a moderately successful band and one day in the studio everyone's working hard and concentrating on a new song, things are going well and it feels right and your producer comes in forty-five minutes late, drunk, screaming personal things you told him in confidence at you and your band (oh, and your bandmates? those are your brothers, he's verbally attacking them too), starts to screw around with the control panels, thus ruining recording after recording, costing YOU and YOUR BANDMATES time and money, are you really going to just shrug it off or are you going to have a meeting to fire the bastard?

Well, these poor kids can't fire their producer, they can't draw a line in the sand between what they'll verbally take from their producer and what they won't, and that's further abuse. And I'm glad Brian kept the audio going--just to serve Murray a plate of a very special Brian Wilson delicacy over and over on the internet.

[mike hansen]

there was a webpage witgh a 'different' version (even different version on youtube) that had an excerpt from the vocal track with talking in the background on a now defunct webpage. Wish I could find it...

[Dee Rohrabaugh]

I dunno, his dad was being kind of a pest the way drunks are by constantly repeating himself..but where's the "weepy, abusive melodrama"? The guy never raised his voice. He always addressed the sons he was talking to as "dear". Taken in context, his remark "I'm a genius too" isn't at all what the commentary on this page makes it out to be. Sounds like typical Brooklyn dad sarcasm to me. Haven't read the book, and certainly would *never* condone child abuse, but this?? One earlier commenter was dead on, musicians take far worse abuse from their producers in the studio than Murray was handing out in this recording.