Ian--at a remove of 45+ years, it's easy to forget what a tumultuous year 1978 really was for the band. Some of that was captured in semi-real time by David Leaf in his first update to "the Myth" (as he likes to call it now), but your on-the-ground, almost-blow-by-blow chronicle captures it in (literally and figuratively) glorious-but-gory detail. A lot of suffering in the psyches of the Wilson brothers, who were all having problems with the "noose of success" that had tightened around each of them in similar but different ways.
The pictures you provide are also riveting, as we can see the tip of decline coming for both Brian and Dennis, despite the fact that in many of the photos they look better than one's memory of the time recalls. The newspaper quotes and insider commentaries from the road fill in further details, ranging from humorous to harrowing.
It's just a tremendous, unflinching portrait of a group literally trapped by the dark, lingering afterglow of their earlier success.
Major kudos for the dedication on display to grind through one of the most fraught periods in the band's history...
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