While attending York University in Toronto in 1990, Steven Page started writing an ode to Brian Wilson in his parents’ basement for his band Barenaked Ladies. Page, who was 19 at the time, personally connected to the Wilsons’ struggle with mental health and wanted to bring more attention to it. Page said that Wilson was depicted as a “rock and roll casualty” for so long, which was a stigma he wanted to change while bringing more awareness of mental health issues.
“Even then, as a teenager, I could hear in the music this kind of struggle between light and dark,” said Page, “and that really appealed to me.”
The lyrics reference Wilson’s “bed years,” when he had remained mostly bedridden from the late 1960s through early ’70s due to his substance abuse and mental health issues, and Page’s struggles.
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‘Lying in bed, just like Brian Wilson did’
Page revealed he was lying in bed, just like Brian Wilson did, as shared in the lyrics, during some of the more debilitating depressive episodes in his life.
Drove downtown in the rain
Nine thirty on a Tuesday night
Just to check out the late night
Record shop
Call it impulsive
Call it compulsive
Call it insane
But when I’m surrounded, I just can’t stop
It’s a matter of instinct
It’s a matter of conditioning
Matter of fact
You can call me Pavlov, the dog
Ring a bell, and I’ll salivate
And how’d you like that?
Dr. Landy, tell me
You’re not just a pedagogue
Cause right now I’m
Lyin’ in bed, just like Brian Wilson did
Well I’m
I’m lyin’ in bed, just like Brian Wilson did, oh
So I’m lyin’ here
Just starin’ at the ceilin’ tiles
And I’m thinking about
What to think about
Just listenin’ and relistenin’
To smiley smile
And I’m wonderin’ if this is
Some kind of creative drought because
“Brian Wilson” was first released on the Barenaked Ladies’ 1990 demo tapes, Barenaked Recess, then on The Yellow Tape in 1991 before making its way onto the band’s 1992 debut Gordon. The song was also featured on the Barenaked Ladies’ 1996 live album Rock Spectacle, before the band released a shorter, more radio-friendly version, “Brian Wilson 2000,” as a single in 1997.
The single became a hit for the band, peaking at No. 18 on the Canadian chart and reaching the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 68, and has remained a staple on the band’s setlist.
Brian Wilson Records “Brian Wilson”
Wilson liked the song so much that he performed it as the opening song during his Pet Sounds tour in 2000. Wilson’s version of “Brian Wilson” also appeared on his 2000 live album, Live at the Roxy Theatre.
“I was honored that they would use my name,” joked Wilson about the song during a 2015 Reddit interview, “but it embarrassed me a little bit because I was lying in bed a lot, haha.”
Page remembered when Wilson stopped by the studio while Barenaked Ladies was recording their 2000 album Maroon, coincidentally in the same Los Angeles studio (then called Western) where the Beach Boys recorded Pet Sounds decades earlier, and played his rendition of “Brian Wilson” to the band.
“It was amazing to hear this song that I wrote in my parents’ basement when I was a teenager being sung by one of the most important composers in the history of mankind,” recalled Page. “Even if it was a joke, it was mind-blowing.”
He added, “At one point where I sing ‘If you want to find me / I’ll be out in the sandbox wondering where the hell all the love has gone / Playing my guitar and singing and building castles in the sun,’ he changed it to ‘Playing my piano.’ He [Wilson] just turned to me and said. ‘I don’t play guitar.’”
In 2005, Barenaked Ladies performed “Brian Wilson” at a pre-Grammy tribute, where Wilson was being honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year.
Since leaving the band and finding his treatment for his mental health, Page has often spoken at colleges, universities, in collaboration with the Canadian Mental Health Association, and more about his struggles.
Photo: Annette Buchkowski/Toronto Star via Getty Images
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