One morning, the phone in Tony Asher’s office rang. He was sure, at first, it was a prank. “Hello, Tony? This is Brian Wilson. I need to write an album for Capitol Records, and I don’t have anybody to write it with. I’m under a lot of pressure because we’re already three months behind and I was wondering if you wanted to work on some of the songs with me.” Asher, a twenty-six-year-old advertising copywriter, did not know Brian Wilson very well. It was a call he never expected to receive. But he had only one answer, because no one in 1966 could say no to Brian Wilson. “I’d love to do it,” Asher said, when he realized the person on the other line wasn’t a colleague down the hall trying to trick him. “Just tell me where and when.”
“Great,” Wilson replied. “Come out next Tuesday.”
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