Dennis Carl Wilson was born 1944, December 4, on a Monday, as Dennis Carl Wilson.

"They say I live a fast life. Maybe I just like a fast life. I wouldn't give it up for anything in the world. It won't last forever, either. But the memories will ..."

When Dennis Wilson spoke those words in 1965 maybe he really believed that the fast life couldn't last forever, that someday he'd grow up. Dennis Wilson was 20 then, and he had plenty of time.

But Dennis Wilson, the only real surfer in the Beach Boys supergroup, never stopped living the adolescent fantasy he helped immortalize in classic hits like Surfin USA, Little Deuce Coupe and Help Me Rhonda fast cars, easy chicks, perfect waves and endless summers. When his lifeless body was pulled from 13 feet of murky water off a Marina del Rey boat slip late last month, the innocence of those pleasures was long lost. At 39, Wilson had drowned after a day of drinking and diving into bone-chilling 58-degree water clad only in cutoff jeans and a face mask.

Dennis Wilson was the middle brother and drummer in The Beach Boys. As the group evolved, Dennis emerged as a formidable musician and songwriter.

The Sixties was Brian Wilson's decade. That much is sure. But The Seventies was Dennis's. And as the decade proceeded, Dennis became more focused on making his big statement. Dennis was always an individualist. He always stood out from the rest of the group, and as 1977 approached, he was about to stand out again, but in a way that was completely unexpected by his brothers and bandmates.

Dennis Wilson was losing the momentum that had peaked in 1977 and '78. Trouble in the band, personal problems, substance abuse, and the loss of a studio all contributed to a slowdown in creative production. Then on 28 December, 1983, it all came to an end. At 5:55 pm Dennis died in a drowning accident, and with him, many believed, one of the greatest possibilities of artistic renewal in the group may have dissapeared.

Dennis Wilson was followed up by Mike Kowalski.