{"id":1235,"date":"2020-03-08T13:04:57","date_gmt":"2020-03-08T17:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/?p=1235"},"modified":"2020-03-08T22:27:50","modified_gmt":"2020-03-09T02:27:50","slug":"an-inside-look-at-the-humility-and-humanity-of-carl-wilson-from-one-of-his-co-writers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/an-inside-look-at-the-humility-and-humanity-of-carl-wilson-from-one-of-his-co-writers\/","title":{"rendered":"An inside look at the humility and humanity of Carl Wilson from one of his co-writers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Robert White Johnson\u2019s parents had a cottage on a lake about an hour away from where he grew up in Moline, Illinois. On those weekend drives in the 1960s, Robert and his brother Gary would pass the time in the car listening to Beach Boys records on a battery-operated 45 rpm record player, singing harmony along with the voices on the records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Carl Wilson
(Photo courtesy of the Beach Boys)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Two decades later, Robert would be writing songs with Carl Wilson, who along with his brothers Brian and Dennis, cousin Mike Love and high school friend Al Jardine founded the Beach Boys in the early 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two songs that were co-written by Johnson and Carl Wilson \u2014 \u201cIt\u2019s Getting Late\u201d and \u201cWhere I Belong\u201d \u2014 ended up on the Beach Boys\u2019 25th studio album titled The Beach Boys<\/em>, which was released on June 10, 1985. The album got to No. 52 on the U.S. Billboard 200 Albums chart, making it the group\u2019s highest-charting album since the release of 15 Big Ones<\/em> in 1976. The single \u201cGetcha Back,\u201d written by Love and longtime Beach Boys collaborator Terry Melcher, a singer, songwriter and producer and son of actress Doris Day, made it to No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and No. 2 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The album is notable for a number of reasons: it\u2019s the first one the band recorded after the accidental drowning death of drummer Dennis Wilson in 1983; produced by Steve Levine, it was the band\u2019s first album to be recorded digitally; it was the last album released  by Caribou Records, a label owned by James Guercio \u2014 who managed the Beach Boys in the 1970s and had also managed and produced the band Chicago as well as the Buckinghams and Blood Sweat and Tears; and it was recorded at a time when Brian Wilson \u2014 who has little to do with the recording of the album but contributed two songs for it, \u201cIt\u2019s Just A Matter of Time\u201d and \u201cMale Ego,\u201d co-written by Love \u2014 was suffering from long-term drug abuse and mental illness and was in the clutches of Eugene Landy, a psychotherapist who would become known for his unconventional treatment of, and control over, Brian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“The Beach Boys,” released on June 10, 1985, was the band’s 25th studio album.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It was into this world that Johnson entered in the early 1980s to collaborate with Carl Wilson, who at the time had become the de facto leader of the Beach Boys due the aforementioned series of circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the thing \u2013 outside of what an amazing human being Carl Wilson was \u2013 was his artistry, his music. Every note mattered to him when we wrote,\u201d said Johnson in a telephone interview from his home in Nashville, Tennessee. \u201cWhen we would work on a song, he wanted to make sure that everything was right, all the little nuances, the melody and the phrasing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story about how he and Carl got together to write features a unique set of circumstances as well, according to Johnson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After spending a lot of the 1970s on the road, playing every small nightclub and Holiday Inn he could as a member of a cover band, Johnson was discovered by country star Dottie West and her husband Byron, who convinced Johnson to move to Nashville to advance his career. Johnson wrote songs for other artists, like Ronnie Milsap, and eventually formed another band of his own called RPM in 1981. RPM, featuring Johnson as lead singer, released two albums and had a modest hit single titled \u201cA Legend Never Dies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The band RPM, including member, left to right, Mark Gendel, Tommy Wells, Robert White Johnson (in hat and sunglasses), Jimmy Lee Sloas, along with manager Jerry Schilling, second from right, and Carl Wilson.
(Photo courtesy of Robert White Johnson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the time, a tape of the band\u2019s music made its way to the office of attorney Peter Paterno, a top music business lawyer then, who happened to be listening to it the day that Jerry Schilling, a music industry professional who had been a member of Elvis Presley\u2019s \u201cMemphis Mafia\u201d \u2014 a group of friends, associates and relatives who accompanied and protected Elvis from the beginning of his career in 1954 until his death in 1977 \u2014 was in Paterno\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schilling was also managing the Beach Boys and Carl Wilson\u2019s solo career at the time and he loved the RPM sound. It was Schilling who would eventually introduce Johnson to Carl Wilson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJerry said, \u2018You need to get with Carl. You guys would really connect.\u2019 So at a Beach Boys show in Nashville, I met Carl,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cWe just immediately connected. There was just this thing. I felt like he was family. He said, \u2018Let\u2019s work out some time to write together.\u2019 So over the next couple of years, he would come here [to Nashville] and we would work at a studio. I had a studio that RPM had recorded some recent demos called The Castle \u2013 it literally looked like a castle \u2014 in Franklin, Tennessee. Beautiful facility, world class. They just let Carl and I go crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson said that the first time he sang backgrounds with Carl, it was life-changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe had such power and strength in his voice. And I was like, \u2018Man, I gotta step up to the plate.\u2019 He encouraged me and we had fun doing it. It was one of those moments in your life where a light goes on and you go, \u2018OK, I get it,\u2019\u201d said Johnson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the two first started writing together, Carl and his second wife, Gina Martin, daughter of crooner, Hollywood legend and Rat Pack stalwart Dean Martin, had a place in Nederland, Colorado, near Caribou Ranch, where the label Caribou Records recorded the albums it released. Johnson and Wilson would write at Wilson\u2019s home and at the ranch as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember Carl put me up the first time in one of the cabins out there [at Caribou Ranch] and I went to have breakfast in the studio area,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cThere was this nice guy welcoming me to breakfast. He said, \u2018Hey, if you get a chance, sign the book over there. Everybody that comes I have them sign the book.\u2019 After breakfast I went over and opened up the book and there\u2019s names like Elton John and John Lennon. Turns out the guy I was talking to was Jimmy Guercio. Jimmy created this amazing environment at the ranch that probably has never been duplicated anywhere else. It was just a moment in music history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For The Beach Boys<\/em> album, Wilson and Johnson had written \u201cIt\u2019s Getting Late\u201d in a Los Angles writing session with Myrna Smith, Schilling\u2019s ex-wife who had been a member of the Sweet Inspirations, the all-girl background singers for Elvis in the 1970s. Wilson and Johnson would write another of the album\u2019s songs, \u201cWhere I Belong,\u201d at Wilson\u2019s house in Nederland, Colorado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Robert White Johnson and Carl Wilson at Wilson’s home in Nederland, Colorado.
(Photo by Gina Wilson, courtesy of Robert White Johnson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI knew almost every Beach Boys song. I grew up on their music. It was in my heart, my mind, my brain. I always wanted to write a song like that, with Carl,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cI had the basic idea on it. I remember sitting in his living room in his place in Nederland. There was this huge, all glass living room that faced the Continental Divide. It was just such an inspiring place to hang out. This song didn\u2019t take very long. I think I worked a little while longer on the lyrics, but it came together fairly quickly. I had a feeling about that song, if it had a chance it could really do well. The vocals on that song are crazy incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first time that Johnson heard a recording of  \u201cWhere I Belong\u201d was at West Lake Studios in Los Angeles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were in the process of overdubbing. It\u2019s where I met Steve Levine, who was producing the album. I remember him pulling me aside and telling me it could be huge.  He had fun playing it. He played it for me a couple of times,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t totally finished but was pretty far along by the time I first heard it in the studio. It brought tears to my eyes. All the elements had come together. Here was Carl doing the lead and the guys [the Beach Boys] doing the backgrounds. Steve wanted to get the song right, as far as production, and I thought he did a marvelous job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Producer Levine, according to Johnson, was excited about releasing \u201cWhere I Belong\u201d as a single off the album, but the record company officials didn\u2019t agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think if they [label officials] would have followed up with \u2018Where I Belong\u2019 as a single, I think it could have been a bridge, and Beach Boys fans would have been into it,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cI think younger people, maybe newer fans, would have liked it as well. Levine was excited about releasing it as a single, but it wasn\u2019t his choice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There seems to be some agreement on that. In their book Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys: The Complete Guide to Their Music,<\/em> authors Andrew G. Doe and John Tobler single out \u201cWhere I Belong,\u201d describing the song as \u201csimply magnificent, with block harmonies of almost chilling power.\u201d Doe also praises \u201cWhere I Belong\u201d in the liner notes of the album\u2019s 2000 CD reissue as \u201cachingly beautiful\u201d and \u201cthe album\u2019s undisputed highlight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Robert White Johnson still lives in Nashville and still writes songs. He owns his own music publishing\/production company called RadioQuest.
(Photo courtesy of Robert White Johnson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Johnson and Carl Wilson remained close until Wilson\u2019s death in 1998. For the album Like A Brother<\/em> \u2014 a collaboration of Wilson, Gerry Beckley of America and Robert Lamm of Chicago \u2014 Johnson co-wrote the song \u201cI Wish For You\u201d with Wilson. The album was recorded before Wilson\u2019s death but not released until two years later in 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to his work with Wilson, Johnson has contributed songs for Peter Wolf, lead vocalist for the J. Geils Band; B.J. Thomas; Lynyrd Skynyrd; 38 Special; Van Zandt; and Celine Dion, for whom he co-wrote the hit single \u201cWhere Does My Heart Beat Now,\u201d which reached No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and No. 1 on the Radio & Records Adult Contemporary chart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1995, Johnson formed his own music publishing\/production company RadioQuest. He also won a Dove Award in 1996 as producer of the Inspirational Album of the Year, Unbelievable Love<\/em>, by Larnelle Harris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it is Johnson\u2019s time with Carl Wilson that still resonates to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was one of the most lovely humans to ever walk the Earth. He didn\u2019t have a mean bone in his body. And the fact that he was that way with all that he\u2019d been through, with all the fame that he had experienced, there was always this humility. He was kind to everybody,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think Carl ever got the accolades that he deserved for his musical contributions, instincts and abilities. If it hadn\u2019t been for him, the Beach Boys would have died a long time ago. He kept it together, he kept it going. He was the heartbeat, he kept it real, vocally and artistically. He was a true inspiration to me, even with his regard to his humanity. It doesn\u2019t take me much to get teary-eyed thinking about him. I was honored to be his friend.\u201d 
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Robert White Johnson\u2019s parents had a cottage on a lake about an hour away from where he grew up in Moline, Illinois. On those weekend drives in the 1960s, Robert and his brother Gary would pass the time in the car listening to Beach Boys records on a battery-operated 45 rpm record player, singing harmony […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":1236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tvdbook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1235"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1250,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions\/1250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}