Brian Wilson, who helped shape the “California sound” as co-founder of The Beach Boys, has died at 82, just two days after funk and soul pioneer Sly Stone, of Sly and the Family Stone, who also passed at 82.
Judith Peraino, a Cornell University professor of music who studies rock and pop music, says their deaths mark the end of a pivotal era in music—shaped by issues that still resonate today.
Peraino says: “The passing of Brian Wilson and Sly Stone, two giants of music, marks the end of a hopeful era of 1960s music, and what music could mean in those past (and our current) turbulent times of protest and the federal government’s increasingly militaristic response.
“With Pet Sounds and ‘Good Vibrations,’ Wilson developed an introspective chamber pop that was sometimes optimistic and other times despondent, but which encouraged us to probe our innermost thoughts.
“Sly and the Family Stone, by contrast, embodied a multi-gender, multi-racial vision of community, healing divisions through intricate dance grooves and lyrics that brought ‘everyday people’ together."
For interviews contact Ellen Leventry, (607) 882-5833, eel2@cornell.edu.
