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In reply to the discussion: Post a strange, odd or unique fact about music. [View all]Miles Archer
(18,837 posts)21. Brian Wilson never heard his music in stereo.
http://www.biography.com/news/brian-wilson-beach-boys-facts
He Never Heard His Music in Stereo
As a young child, Brian Wilson lost almost all of the hearing in his right ear. The percentage of hearing left is so meager that he has lived most of his life essentially deaf in one ear. For a man whose late 60s stereo recordings from albums like Pet Sounds and Surfs Up still inspire a certain awe among his fans, it seems incredible that he could only hear his music in mono.
There are various theories about how Brian lost his hearing, none of them completely substantiated. Brian himself attributed the loss to a blow to the head he incurred as a toddler from his frequently abusive father Murry, who both encouraged his boys to be musicians and ruled over them with an iron hand. His mother, however, variously remembered a scuffle with another toddler and what she referred to as a nerve impingement that may have been the result of a tonsillectomy. Whatever the cause, the loss prompted Brian to be more protective of his remaining hearing and had much to do with his decision to stop playing concerts with the Beach Boys in the mid-60s.
He Never Heard His Music in Stereo
As a young child, Brian Wilson lost almost all of the hearing in his right ear. The percentage of hearing left is so meager that he has lived most of his life essentially deaf in one ear. For a man whose late 60s stereo recordings from albums like Pet Sounds and Surfs Up still inspire a certain awe among his fans, it seems incredible that he could only hear his music in mono.
There are various theories about how Brian lost his hearing, none of them completely substantiated. Brian himself attributed the loss to a blow to the head he incurred as a toddler from his frequently abusive father Murry, who both encouraged his boys to be musicians and ruled over them with an iron hand. His mother, however, variously remembered a scuffle with another toddler and what she referred to as a nerve impingement that may have been the result of a tonsillectomy. Whatever the cause, the loss prompted Brian to be more protective of his remaining hearing and had much to do with his decision to stop playing concerts with the Beach Boys in the mid-60s.
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