A Significant Passing

On Wednesday June 11th, we received the news that singer-songwriter and founding member of the ‘Beach Boys’, Brian Wilson passed away.

For many of us who served in Vietnam this is a tragic loss. For many of us ‘The Beach Boys’ were one of our favorite groups. I had a friend in Washington DC who would record their music from the radio on cassettes and send it to me in Vietnam. Occasionally we could even find their albums or tapes in the main PX and Saigon.

I grew up with ‘The Beach Boys’ and I loved their music. I had actually seen one of their original concerts, a beach party, near Huntington Beach CA when I was 13 or 14 years old. They weren’t ’The Beach Boys’ at that time they were called the ‘Pendletons’’; I guess named after the shirt brand that was popular at the time. As I understand it an agent didn’t like the term and changed their name to ’The Beach Boys’.

I think the thing that was so important about ‘The Beach Boys’ for most of us in Vietnam was the fact that they were singing songs about home. I was a 20 something year old young officer in Vietnam at that time, and they were singing about home. They were singing about pretty girls, warm sunny days on the beach, surfing, fast cars, all of the things that any young man was dreaming about when they came home.

Brian Wilson was the songwriter and artist that brought all of that home to us and that war-torn land. He and his brothers and cousins that formed the group stayed out of the controversy about the Vietnam War to a great extent, while others were writing protest songs, he emphasized home. I don’t know how much he realized how much we appreciated his music.

Brian, rest in peace. I don’t know if you realized it or not while you were living how important you were to us. You will be missed.

Brian Wilson RIP

For more information visit Website: ptaylorvietnamadvisor.com