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,

The Beach Boys have put out a statement, saying: “The world mourns a genius today, and we grieve for the loss of our cousin, our friend, and our partner in a great musical adventure. Brian Wilson wasn’t just the heart of The Beach Boys - he was the soul of our sound.

I'll never forget the first time Brian Wilson made me see God. It was 1973, and I was sitting in the mostly empty balcony of a second-run movie theater finally watching “American Graffiti,” the movie everyone in my high school was talking about.