Image via Wikimedia Brian Wilson, who died last week nine days shy of his 83rd birthday, was called “child-like” for much of his adult life, and his band’s music will probably be associated with innocence (the makers’, the listeners’, and America’s: all lost) for as long as their recordings endure. When they first made it to radio, the Beach Boys really were boys, kids unable to legally drink or vote, and their early hits celebrated such juvenile pastimes as admiring girls and driving motor vehicles. 1 Never mind that their version of American adolescence was more dream than reality. “Surfin’ is the only life, the only way for me,” the guys sang on their first single, “Surfin’.” Famously, only one of the five voices—that of Dennis, the middle Wilson child—belonged to someone who surfed. But it was Brian’s guilelessness and vulnerability that cemented the band’s reputation for purity of heart.…