IS Brian Wilson a "Songwriting Genius"?

When it comes to calling Brian Wilson a musical genius, I stand at the front of the line. But that's where it ends with him for me - a MUSICAL genius. Genius musical writer, arranger, producer. But I can never compare him as a songwriter to Lennon/McCartney or Ray Davies because he never wrote lyrics, which is obviously half of the damn job. From an article about the current documentary, Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road:

When it came to lyrics, Mike Love was Brian’s most trusted collaborator. Just as the Beatles had the songwriting team of Lennon-McCartney, the Beach Boys had Wilson-Love, a partnership that defined much of the band’s early ’60s output. Songs like “Surfin’ USA,” “Fun, Fun, Fun,” and “California Girls” were the combination of Wilson’s sonic innovation and Love’s talent at writing relatable verses and catchy hooks.

Except that they didn't "collaborate" on the lyrics at all, Love simply wrote them himself in these cases!

Even when he worked with other lyricists, commercial success was his end goal: Pet Sounds hits like “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” were co-written with Tony Asher, a man who wrote advertising jingles for a living. When Wilson sought to capitalize upon the countercultural trends of the mid-’60s with his esoteric, retrospectively hailed (albeit aborted) Smile album, he hired abstract lyricist Van Dyke Parks to help him tap into the trippiness of the zeitgeist.And Love wasn’t afraid to get adventurous himself, if he figured out a way to make it sellable. After all, he wrote the lyrics to “Good Vibrations,” perhaps the most innovative track the band ever released.

Wilson's musical binary has always been his hero Phil Spector, but even Spector co-wrote the words to a ton of his classics. It's just a weird thing, that we're so comfortable calling Wilson a songwriting genius while also being totally fine he literally just hired people to write the lyrics for him. 🤷‍♂️

But hey, I love what I love. :)