How Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson, the original boy of summer, transformed music

I’m picking up sad vibrations.

Brian Wilson — who co-founded the Beach Boys and was the main architect of their sound — is now surfing the heavens after his death was announced by his family Wednesday.

The genius of the group he formed with his brothers Carl and Dennis, cousin Mike Love and their friend Al Jardine in 1961, Wilson was one of the true visionaries of music who defined pop as we know it.

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From 1963’s “Good Vibrations,” Wilson defined not only the California sound but the sound of sunshine, the sound of summer, the sound of dreams.

Inside of his musical mind there seemed to be a world of endless possibility that the rest of us could never have imagined as he explored sonic frontiers with his inventive production techniques, ingenious orchestrations and lush, layered harmonies.

While Love was the frontman of the Beach Boys, Wilson was the Man.

“That ear — I mean, Jesus, he’s got to will that to the Smithsonian,” Bob Dylan once said.

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In many ways, the Beach Boys were The Beatles of American music — even if they haven’t always gotten the same revered respect.

“Me and Mike were a little bit jealous of The Beatles because they took over the whole music scene,” Wilson told USA Today about the battle between the bands in 2021.

But just as “Beatlesque” will forever be a descriptive adjective in music vernacular, “Beach Boyish” should be too.

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While Motown was said to have captured the “sound of young America” in the ‘60s, so too did Wilson and the Beach Boys.

Although the adolescent appeal of songs such as “Fun, Fun, Fun” and “California Girls” had a sunny simplicity, it belied the depth of artistry underneath the surface.

The Beach Boys made it sound so easy, but this wasn’t shallow stuff.

With the Beach Boys’ 1966 masterpiece “Sgt. Pepper,” The Beatles’ 1967 classic that it influenced.

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Name anything else that sounds more like heaven than the transcendent “God Only Knows.” We’ll wait.

No less than Paul McCartney has called it the “greatest song ever written.”

“It was ‘Pet Sounds’ that blew me out of the water,” said McCartney in a 1990 interview. “First of all, it was Brian’s writing. I love the album so much. … I figure no one is educated musically till they’ve heard that album.”

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Wilson, the tortured soul and artist that he was, tried to follow up “Pet Sounds” with the ambitious “Smile,” but the album is part of music legend for remaining unfinished. As the Beach Boys’ creative leader battled his own mental demons and substance abuse, the project was abandoned amid clashes between him and the rest of the band.

While Wilson would remain connected to the Beach Boys for years, it was never the same. And it had to sting when his former group hit No. 1 again with 1988’s “Kokomo” without him, as he launched a solo career that never reached the heights of his Beach Boys work.

But Wilson’s legacy had long been secured as one of the all-time greats. Like Sly Stone, the funk pioneer who “Cowboy Carter” album.

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“He was our American Mozart. A one of a kind genius from another world,” wrote Sean Ono Lennon, John Lennon’s son, on X.

No doubt — Wilson’s musical mission was accomplished.

“I wanted to write joyful music that would make other people feel good,” he said when the Beach Boys were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.

But music — and summer — will never be the same without him.