The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hello all,

So my book went to the printer the other day ahead of its release June 1 in North America and July 12 in the UK (at least according to the UK Amazon site.) There will be a launch party May 28th at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto starting at 8 PM or 8:30 PM, likely to include a Q&A and live entertainment. Please come by if you're in the area. There is also a Montréal event slated for the afternoon of June 16 – one day before Father's Day and four days before the Boys play at the Bell Centre — with details soon to be confirmed. Come one, come all!

Sounds like fun Mark. Congrats on a really cool book, everyone who loves the Beach Boys is going to enjoy it!

Thanks so much, Jon!

Looking forward to the book here as well. Congratulations Mark.

Any clues as to what the 50 sides are? Been looking forward to this book for a while.

Wish I could be there Mark!  You'll not be having a UK launch then?   :lol

There's no UK launch due to us Brits having a priviledged and holier-than-thou attitude...just joking, great news Mark and I'm looking forward to the book.

Looking forward to the book Mark!  Pre-ordered two copies.  As a fellow Canadian, I would love to check out the Canadian launch events, but I am too far west (Calgary). Hope to be reading it in California when I go travel to see this band I kinda like...
Good luck with the launch!

Thanks Fishmonk. Well, the title is a bit of a cheat. 38 of the songs discussed were in fact A-sides or B-sides; the rest are album cuts. But if one of my 50 great interview subjects really wanted to talk about a deep album cut, who am I to stop them? That said, I have tried to include the most popular, acclaimed and representative songs of the group's entire career. I have also included some Brian and Dennis solo material because of the respect fans have for it.  

I would add that the most represented albums are Pet Sounds, Smile and Surf's Up.

Well, I would certainly love to do a UK launch, John, but it's just not in the cards at this point. Man, I sound like The Beach Boys!

Thanks, my fellow Canuck.

If you sound like the Beach Boys, we Brits would pay to see you, given the current dearth of the real thing!   :lol

Ordered my copy months ago Mark, really looking forward it.

Here is the cover:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X4-iw19xL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

And here are some links:

http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Sides-Beach-Boys-Songs/dp/1770410716/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332609238&sr=8-1 (http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Sides-Beach-Boys-Songs/dp/1770410716/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332609238&sr=8-1)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fifty-Sides-Beach-Boys-Dillon/dp/1770410716/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332609205&sr=8-1 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fifty-Sides-Beach-Boys-Dillon/dp/1770410716/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332609205&sr=8-1)

And here's the description:

Reflecting on the Beach Boys’ long, fascinating history, this book tells the story behind 50 of the band’s greatest songs from the perspective of group members, collaborators, fellow musicians, and notable fans. It is filled with new interviews with music legends such as Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Alan Jardine, Bruce Johnston, David Marks, Blondie Chaplin, Randy Bachman, Roger McGuinn, John Sebastian, Lyle Lovett, Alice Cooper, and Al Kooper, and commentary from a younger generation such as Matthew Sweet, Carnie Wilson, Daniel Lanois, Cameron Crowe, and Zooey Deschanel. Even hardcore fans will be delighted by the breadth of this musical-history volume. Plans for celebrating the golden anniversary of “America’s band” include the long-awaited release of 1967’s Smile—the most famous aborted album in rock history—and concerts reuniting the group’s three main surviving members. The band’s music is as influential as it was 50 years ago, and this retelling of how the iconic rock group found itself in the annals of pop culture couldn’t come at a better time.

Of course, they should change that to "five main surviving members."

It's not yet listed on German amazon..  :(

Got to read through it and it is very good. The format is cool in that he got the interviewers to discuss a particular song or period of time. There is a lot of original material here and getting most of The Beach Boys for it is a big coup. There is a tad taken from the Todd Gold book that shouldn't be there (such as a quote from "Brian" on writing  "This Whole World") but he really has the story told in a fair and unique way. I enjoyed it very much and recommend it highly. I can honestly say I learned new things from it which is rare for me. Good job Mark!

Thanks, Mike. Coming from you that means a lot.

Hello everyone,
I think I'm due with an update on my book. The original launch date was June 1, but Amazon is already shipping out copies and I've heard reports of it appearing in bookstores everywhere from Toronto to California. Here is a nice review I got from Publishers Weekly: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-77041-071-8.

For those in Canada, I am slated to do a couple of TV interviews: Canada A.M. June 4 and CHCH Morning Live (Hamilton) on June 8. Regarding the launch events, in Toronto it will be at the Gladstone Hotel on May 28. Doors open at 7 p.m. and it gets underway at 7:30 PM. I'll be participating in a Q&A with Liz Worth, author of a very cool oral history about the Toronto punk scene entitled Treat Me Like Dirt. A good local band called the Roughtones will perform, adding a few Beach Boys songs to their repertory. The Montréal launch event is at 2 PM on June 16 at Paragraphe bookstore. There I will be interviewed by Bernard Perusse, music critic for the Montreal Gazette and a BIG Beach Boys fan. It would be great to see any of you out if you happen to be in the area.

It really is a fine read.

I received my copy in Australia on Friday and I'm really enjoying the read. I'm about halfway through and I like the way you've incorporated the interviews with backround history.

I urge you all to acquire a copy of this book.

Well done, Mark!

Okay, it's on my amazon wish list.  :3d

Thanks, MFP. I'm so glad you're digging it.

Here's a hatchet job review, which, of course, can't even get some of the basic facts straight: 

http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/05/22/the-beach-boys-have-a-senior-moment/

Good work, Mark, looking forward to reading your book.

Absolutley, bgas. I was very disappointed to find eight errors in the piece, none of which emanate from my book. I tried to get them to make the changes before the article went online, but my first request fell upon deaf ears. I'm still trying to work it out with them.

I figured as much. Talk about taking things out of context; they might as well not even have written the article, for all the things they got right. 
But, I suppose, if it leads some more people to purchase your book it will help alot.

Nice to see Mark's book get such a significant mention in the L.A. Times article on the upcoming Hollywood Bowl gig:

A Beach Boys homecoming at the Hollywood Bowl

May 28, 2012     

Some surprises among the stats:
 
“All This Is That,” a relatively obscure song from the 1972 album “So Tough,” which was credited as Carl & the Passions, has been included nearly every night — as has “Don’t Back Down,” a song that never charted from 1964’s “All Summer Long” album. “This Whole World,” from 1971’s “Sunflower,” has turned up 10 times, according to the obsessive documentarians at www.setlist.fm.
 
The group’s Top 10 hit that has surfaced least frequently? “Dance, Dance, Dance,” which has been played, played, played just five times so far.
New thoughts on old songs:
 
In Mark Dillon’s new book “Fifty Sides of the Beach Boys,” the Canadian author interviewed — yep — 50 different sources about their favorite songs from the group’s career.
 
What is Alice Cooper’s favorite number, you ask? In the book, they quote him discussing “In My Room”: “I was 15, I was the perfect age for that. Your room is your sanctuary. It’s your Batcave. It’s the only thing you own, so there’s a certain holiness to it. ‘Mom, Dad — don’t come in my room. It’s off limits.’”
 
As for the ubiquitous Zooey Deschanel? She cites “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” from the watershed 1966 album “Pet Sounds” album. “Talk about blowing my mind. I can listen to the song over and over again.” She’s also a big fan of the separate vocal and instrumental tracks that became available with the 1997 “Pet Sounds” box set: “Listening to just the vocals is really exciting. It still sounds fresh. It always makes me happy.”


http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2012/05/a-beach-boys-homecoming-at-the-hollywood-bowl.html

Thanks for posting, Ed. And for your fine photos!

Mark, your new book just arrived today via Amazon, and I'm totally impressed.  When I ordered the book I had presumed that you had mainly edited together a bunch of submissions from other people discussing 50 Beach Boys songs.  For example, my assumption was that Zooey Deschanel wrote the entire section discussing Wouldn't It Be Nice, and so on, for each of the 50 songs.   And while the reader does get to hear the perspective of Zooey Deschenal, et al, the majority of the the writing is yours, and also incorporates a number of references to previously published material, resulting in one neat package explaining the history and progression of The Beach Boys in chronological order thru the story behind 50 of their songs.

(Hey, and one more thing, thanks for using Aug. 21, which was the day I bought it, as the release date for Sunflower, rather than the more commonly used estimate of Aug. 31.)

You're most welcome, Mark.  Loved the way my photos look in the book, btw...

I know you responded to this comment on another thread, but thought I'd reprint it here:

It is really a good read. So much fresh info.

Thank you for the kind words about my book. Regarding the earlier release date for Sunflower, I got that info from Endless Summer Quarterly. Was it you who wrote that letter explaining it? 

Posted the link on my FB page today, looks like we may have sold another copy or two from there.  Looking forward to getting my hands on it as well!  I'm hoping to get mine at a real book store, if I can find one.

Yeah, that was my letter in ESQ explaining that I'd purchased Sunflower on Aug. 21, and that the Aug. 31 date that is commonly used came from researcher Brad Elliott, who said that date was just an estimate on his part, since the record company didn't have a record of the actual date.  Glad you were able to use that info for your book.  I'm still in the midst of reading your book and totally enjoying it!

Which issue of ESQ was this in?

ESQ Issue 91, Spring 2011.  It includes a photocopy of the beginning of a letter to a friend, written Aug. 21, 1970, raving about Sunflower, which I had purchased earlier that day, the same day it had been put on the shelves at the record store.

Thanxx. I remember reading it at the time, just couldn't remember which issue toi look for, to read again. and there's too many to read them all again...

Picked up my copy at the Barnes and Noble at teh Irvine Spectrum last weekend while in LA for the BNeach Boys shows.  Honestly, I wasn't planning on buying the book.  But I picked it up, told my wife, "Hey, this guy is on the SS board."  I looked at it a little bit and got totally sucked in.  The contributors to the book are really fantastic.