Brian Wilson

Prompt #42 by Barenaked Ladies

Jun 09, 2026

Last week began our Billboard 90’s Hot 100 round of song prompts, and can’t think of a better introduction. Gangsta’s Paradise, by Coolio, prompted some great fiction! Thanks to Theresa Greene, Chris B. Writes, Marty D. Snow, and Bill Ferguson 🇨🇦 for their submissions, and everyone who read, liked, shared, and commented.

Week #41 Feature🏆

This week’s Feature Award goes to Chris B. Writes for his poetic-battle-rap submission titled, Lose Their Paradise.

Chris’ passion is evident, and inspiring. And I highly recommend listening to his video rap, but he’s included the written poem in the post as well.

Behind the poem: This is for all the caregivers who have had enough of the dysfunctional systems that try to hold us down.

Awards
MJ Polk
·
December 24, 2025
If you’re like me, music has inspired you over and over again throughout your life. At Stories from the Jukebox — with your help, we’ll turn those songs into prose that will tell a new story, your story. Each week one Subscriber Submission is awarded the Weekly Feature Award🏆 and sits in a prominent position, front and center of that week’s newsletter.
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Drop a few coins in the Jukebox🫙

Here’s this week’s prompt, Brian Wilson, by Barenaked Ladies!

"Brian Wilson" is a song by Canadian rock band Barenaked Ladies from their 1992 album Gordon. The song was written by Steven Page as a tribute to the Beach Boys' co-founder Brian Wilson. (Via Wikipedia)

It was released as a single and peaked at number 18 on the Canadian Singles Chart. In 1998, the song peaked at number 68 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Wilson himself covered the song on his live album Live at the Roxy Theatre (2000).

The song was written by singer/guitarist Steven Page in his parents' basement around his twentieth birthday, in 1990.The first lines of the song chronicle one of Page's many late-night journeys to Sam the Record Man on Yonge Street. The song generally tells the story of a man whose life parallels that of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, with lyrics about suffering from mental illness and obesity.

Wilson rearranged and sang this song a cappella with his new band at live concerts, one of which was recorded for a live album in 2000. Wilson visited Barenaked Ladies while they were recording Maroon whereupon they played him some of their works-in-progress, and then he played them his version of "Brian Wilson". At the end, he turned to them and asked, "Is it cool?" Upon his departure, his advice to the band was "don't eat too much." The band described the entire experience as surreal.

Calling all Poets, Fiction, & Non-Fiction writers that love music — Share your prose of 1500 words or less, using the prompt, Brian Wilson.

Remember:

Each Tuesday I’ll publish a newsletter with that week’s song prompt — along with a featured writer’s submission from the previous week. (Newsletter isn’t sent to subscribers until after the deadline.)
Anyone is then free to run with it! Just add the link to your story or prose in the comments of this newsletter.
Subscribers to Stories from the Jukebox, also have a chance to be featured in the following week’s newsletter. And I’ll do my best to give feedback and restack each submission.

There’s always rules:

All forms of prose are welcome, just keep it under 1500 words.
Submissions must be published by midnight on Monday June 15, 2026.
Submissions must include a tag/link to this week’s Song Prompt Newsletter embedded within the post.

While anyone is welcome to add their post in the comments at any time — all rules must be followed for a post to be eligible to be featured or shared.

How would you like to pick our prompt? Find out how to join our revolving list of Headliners here.

In this the second week of our Billboard 90’s Hot 100 round of song prompts, we visit the Barenaked Ladies. This round of songs will be brought to you entirely by Founding and Paid Jukebox Members.

Bill Ferguson 🇨🇦 is a prolific fiction writer and founding member of the Jukebox. His publication Observation in Time is absolutely loaded with stories! Bill publishes everything from 50 word micros, to themed series like A Bar Guy Story, and many more.

Here’s our Headliner, Speaker’s Corner, by Bill Ferguson 🇨🇦!

I could have chosen any Barenaked Ladies song for today’s prompt as this prompt is more about an event rather than a song.

I chose Brian Wilson because it is my favourite song of theirs and the fact that Brian Wilson, the musician, would play it in his concerts from time to time. To me this makes it just that much more special. I was fortunate to see The Barenaked Ladies live at Massey Hall in Toronto during the early part of their career. It was quite an enjoyable event.