And my runner up for greatest love song ever written? Barbara by Dennis Wilson

So, this song is called "Barbara"

I'm not named Barbara, and frankly, I don't even know a single Barbara! Therefore, how could I possibly relate to such a song? Well, that's an obviously silly and facile question, right? So, my point?? Hmmmmm, I suppose it must have something to do with the simply transcendent power of music (or really any art form when done well) in and of itself regardless of subject matter, chops, skill, finesse, or complete lack of. I mean, God Only Knows and Please Let Me Wonder are both really saying the same thing, aren't they? The former is highly (and rightfully) regarded as an all time classic of pop music, and the latter is really not regarded at all other than as a somewhat bright spot amid the Beach Boys "fun in the sun" phase, and a positive step in the direction of Pet Sounds as all those scholarly music tomes will tell you!

Ah, hindsight!!

So then there's Dennis Wilson. For many people, the wrong Wilson. He certainly wasn't genius Brian or angel voiced Carl. Hell, he wasn't even Mike Love. So, what was he? Well, he was most certainly a genuine surfer and the main attraction ladies-wise in the Beach Boys ranks. He was also a womanizer, drug addict, alcoholic, several times married, who died tragically young at 39 from drowning. That part is all neatly accepted history. But for anyone who's cared to do their homework, Dennis was quite possibly the most emotionally in-tune of the Wilson bothers/Beach Boys. He had a great voice, right up there with Brian and Carl, but the abuse he heaped upon his vocal chords served to roughen it very early on. This limited his vocal range (technically at least) but somehow managed to increased his emotional scope. Brian and Carl (well, at least Carl) and Al Jardine could sing rings around Dennis, but none could ever hope to achieve the simple emotionality he put across. Dennis' voice made you feel comforted and loved even if you knew the man himself was in a spiral.

"Barbara" this quiet ode to his then wife, is supposedly just a demo he hoped would be given a full orchestral/Beach Boys production along the lines of his two tracks from the Carl And The Passions album. But it's hard to imagine the song working any better under such circumstances. It's about Barbara, for sure. But it could really be about anyone. Though I suspect, even for Dennis, it was really about the feeling that motivated his fingers across the keys of his piano. That fleeting, but visible light just out of his reach, but one that would hover close, so he could feel it, smell, it, taste it, know it.

Dennis was the real deal in a sense that we've hardly seen, and it's hard to imagine what could have been when what was seems so inevitable.