Bob Dylan’s opinion on The Beach Boys

When it comes to naming the greatest American songwriters, Bob Dylan is certainly high on the list, alongside the late legendary Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson. Dylan witnessed the band’s rise and Wilson’s evolution as a songwriter. Over the decades, he hasn’t spoken about many bands, but he has shared his opinions on The Beach Boys and Brian Wilson.

What is Bob Dylan’s opinion on The Beach Boys

Bob Dylan has always been a huge fan of The Beach Boys, especially because of Brian Wilson’s songwriting. “Jesus, that ear. He (Brian Wilson) should donate it to the Smithsonian. The records I used to listen to and still love, you can’t make a record that sounds that way. Brian Wilson, he made all his records with four tracks. But you couldn’t make his records if you had a hundred tracks today,” Bob Dylan said, as quoted on Brian Wilson’s official website.

When the musician sadly passed in 2025, he shared a tribute, calling him a genius. “Heard the sad news about Brian today and thought about all the years I’ve been listening to him and admiring his genius. Rest in peace dear Brian.” Both Bob Dylan and The Beach Boys released their debut albums in 1962 and became global stars within a few years.

In 1965, the American band covered Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin'” on their album “Beach Boys Party!”. During the sessions for the album, they also recorded a version of “Blowin’ in the Wind”, which was ultimately left off the record. In his view, alongside his own work and that of bands like The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, The Beach Boys were also experimenting and doing things that had never been done before in music. He said this while talking about his classic song “Desolation Row” (1965).

He said:

“It didn’t bother me that people didn’t understand what I was doing, because I had been doing it long before they were around. And I knew, when I was doin’ that stuff, that that hadn’t been done before, either. Because I’d known all the stuff that had gone down before.”

“I knew what the Beatles were doin’, and that seemed to be real pop stuff. The Stones were doing Blues things — just hard city blues. The Beach Boys, of course, were doin’ stuff that I didn’t think had ever been done before, either. But I also knew that I was doing stuff that hadn’t ever been done before,” Bob Dylan told Rolling Stone magazine in 1987.

The song Brian Wilson and Bob Dylan recorded together

Bob Dylan and Brian Wilson would only record something together in the 80s. Alongside Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, Bob was part of “The Spirit of Rock & Roll”, track from Wilson’s unofficial album “Sweet Insanity”.

That record was rejected by Sire Records due to Eugene Landy’s lyrics (Wilson’s controversial psychologist) and the inclusion of a Rap song called “Smart Girls”. A re-recorded version of the track was included in compilations released decades later. The two artists were good friends, and Dylan even recorded a video in 2022 singing “Happy Birthday” to Wilson on his 80th birthday.

They met for the first time by chance at a hospital one day

Curiously, Bob Dylan and Brian Wilson would only meet each other by change at a hospital one day. “Once I was in the Malibu emergency room getting a weigh-in and this guy walked up to me. He had curly hair and was on the short side. ‘Are you Brian Wilson?’ he asked. ‘Yeah,’ I said.’Hi,’ he said. ‘I’m Bob Dylan.’ He was there because he had broken his thumb.”

“We talked a little bit about nothing. I was a big fan of his lyrics, of course. ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ was one of the best songs, you know? And ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ and ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’ and so many more. What a songwriter! I invited him over to my house for lunch the next day. That was a longer conversation. We just talked and talked about music, we talked about old songs we remembered, songs before rock and roll. We talked about ideas we had. Nice guy,” Brian Wilson said on his social media in 2023.