It's Only Words, and Words are All I Have To Take Your Heart Away

Last year I wondered if Brian Wilson deserved his "genius songwriter" tag even tho he didn't write any of his own lyrics:

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.

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. 🤷‍♂️

And now oh gee look who agrees with me it's only bloody songwriting legend himself Noah fucking Gallagher:

I never loved the Beach Boys,” he says. “I was watching a documentary once and I was like, hang on a minute. Who the fuck’s this Van Dyke Parks? Oh, he’s the lyricist? It’s like, what? Brian Wilson didn’t even write the lyrics? Well, what the fuck? Why is he revered as a great songwriter?

I mean I'm not as hard on Brian Wilson but it's nice to see the Universe once again desperately trying to keep up with me.