As the Beach Boys sang “house,” the song, “All Summer Long,” didn’t just change chords — in a luscious instant, it ascended to a higher place. Another wave of voices flooded in, but it was the revelation of that chord that was the hook, the spice, the thing that made me melt.

Tributes have been pouring in this past week for Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys co-founder and pop music maestro, following his death aged 82. But there have been possibly none so personal as the memories of writer David Leaf,

A musical genius is the only way to describe Brian Wilson after his passing recently at age 82. Brian created a sound and a soundscape from 1961 to 1966 that resonated all over the entire world. All of a sudden everyone was singing Surfing USA among other songs to put California and The Beach Boys in everyone’s consciousness forever then.