Musical revolutionaries Sly Stone and Brian Wilson leave life’s stage nearly simultaneously

Sometimes there are strange symmetries in death, as in life.

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The twin passings of Sly Stone and Brian Wilson this week brought that into sharp relief. Both were musical geniuses who paid a high price for their gifts. They burned bright, with art they created at their peaks that became more moving and meaningful with time, only to see their creative lights extinguished suddenly through mental health and addiction issues. Both were 82 when they died — Stone on Monday and Wilson on Wednesday.

“It's such an unsettling coincidence,” said Anthony DeCurtis, contributing editor at Rolling Stone. “These two figures, they were very different and massively influential, and each ran into a wall of their own problems in many ways. As much as they achieved, it’s hard not to think that they could have done more.”

With his late brothers Carl and Dennis, Beach Boys co-founder Wilson was the architect of the California sound that captured surfing and sun, beaches and girls. Yet for all the “Fun, Fun, Fun,” there was something much deeper and darker in Brian’s abilities as a composer.

It was more than disposable music for teen-agers. He had an unparalleled melodic sense, hearing sounds in his mind that others couldn't. He could worm his way into your head and then break your heart with songs like “In My Room” and “God Only Knows.” The tour de force “Good Vibrations” — had anyone ever heard of the theremin before he employed its unearthly wail? — is a symphony both complex and easily accessible.