I'll never forget the first time Brian Wilson made me see God. It was 1973, and I was sitting in the mostly empty balcony of a second-run movie theater finally watching “American Graffiti,” the movie everyone in my high school was talking about.

Brian Wilson, cofounder of The Beach Boys and the creative force behind the group’s surf sound, orchestral arrangements and perfect harmonies, has died, his family announced on Wednesday.

The death of the poet laureate of adolescent heartbreak was announced by his family on Wednesday: “We are at a loss for words right now.”