God only knows where we’d be without you: In memory of Brian Wilson and Sly Stone (and, belatedly, Rick Nelson)

Brian Wilson performed “Pet Sounds” at a London show in 2002. This video, which shows the second of that concert’s three parts, starts with a marvelous performance of “God Only Knows”:

Wilson’s musical accomplishments are all the more impressive for the painful state in which he managed them. For those interested in knowing more about Wilson’s ordeal—as the target of his father’s sadistic abuse, the other Beach Boys’ intolerance of his peculiar genius, and his brutal exploitation by the quack psychologist Eugene Landy—I highly recommend the 2014 film Love & Mercy, with Paul Dano as the young Brian and John Cusack as the older man, who ends up redeemed by love:

Sly and the Family Stone rock “The Ed Sullivan Show,” back when TV was not so heavily policed that certain moments couldn’t unexpectedly surprise and thrill you:

“Stand”:

”Sing a Simple Song,” with Chuck D. and Isaac Hayes:

Sly and Muhammad Ali on Mike Douglas’s show in 1974. (Note Sly’s various attempts to calm the waters):

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BONUS MATERIAL:

Bob Dylan’s recent cover of Rick Nelson’s “Garden Party,” about the latter’s experience getting booed at Madison Square Garden, when he did a country version of the Stones’ “Honky Tonk Woman.”

The concert was a celebration of oldies, joined by luminaries like Chuck Berry. Nelson cryptically refers to John and Yoko having been there, along with George Harrison—”Mr. Hughes” having been George’s pseudonym when traveling; and Nelson’s reference to George “hiding” in “Dylan’s shoes” suggests an effort at disguise. Dylan’s singing Nelson’s song, with that oblique reference to himself, is a powerful, if playful, expression of respect for Nelson (who died, at 45, in a plane crash, in 1985).

Rick Nelson performs “Garden Party” on “Midnight Special” (hosted by Wolfman Jack), in 1978:

Finally, these threatening times demand that we end with Dylan’s very blue performance of “It’s Not Dark Yet”: