OBITUARIES
Not Fade Away
Fondly remembered this month...
ROBERTA BAYLEY/REDFERNS; JUAN NAHARRO GIMENEZ/GETTY IMAGES; GARY WOLSTENHOLME/REDFERNS VIA GETTY IMAGES
ANDY PALEY
Brian Wilson/Jonathan Richman collaborator
(1952–2024)
BRIAN Wilson routinely described Andy Paley in glowing terms. “He’s the most frighteningly talented person that I’ve met,” Wilson told The Mix in 1996, “and the greatest musical genius I’ve come across in many years – maybe my whole life.” By then, the pair had combined for Wilson’s self-titled comeback album of the late ’80s, with Paley co-producing, co-writing and playing a dizzying range of instruments.
He was Wilson’s first port of call after escaping the clutches of Eugene Landy in 1992. Paley was asked to collaborate on an album that would include input from various Beach Boys. The resulting project was never completed, though Wilson maintained that “the new material just kicks the shit out of Smile”.
Raised in New York, Paley was writing songs before he hit puberty. He was still a teenager when he moved to Boston and formed Catfish Black – featuring soon-to-be Modern Lovers Jerry Harrison and Ernie Brooks – who were rebranded as The Sidewinders for their Lenny Kaye-produced debut of 1972. Four years later, he and younger sibling Jonathan formed power-pop duo The Paley Brothers, but it proved to be another short-lived venture. They issued a sole album on Sire before splitting in 1979.