The Smiley Smile Message Board

I've just entered into the Stephen King Universe.
And have already spotted an Smile reference,
Within the novel "Salem's Lot" at page 202 quote "The Child Is the Father of the man".
Has anyone else spotted any other Beach Boys bits & pieces
within the works of Stephen King?. Many thanks  ;D

That quote is from William Wordsworth, IIRC, a poet. Sorry for being pedant, BTW.

Damn I did know it was from Mr Wordworth but i suppose I just wanted to think that SK knew about Smile :hat

Beach world from Skelton crew references the beach boys

Also I think they are referenced in the body (stand by me) 

Thanks for the info. Anymore refs out there?.

I think King is definitely a Beach Boys fan, mentions them many times in different books, off the top of my head I can recall the following - Pet Semetary, Dreamcatcher, Tommyknockers, Christine.

Tommyknockers

Oh man, wait till you get to The Dark Tower!   :3d

Yes, new one out soon.

But sort of on topic. I got into 50's rock'n'roll after reading Christine as an adolescent. That lead to me discovering the Beach Boys. So I have Mr King to thank for that.

"Surfin Safari" was in the "Graveyard Shift" movie.  

I think he has more of a penchant for putting old music of any kind in his books, not necessarily that he's a bigger Beach Boys fan than he is of any of a number of other bands.  He loves quoting song lyrics in all of his books, or using a song to represent what happens in that chapter, or whatver... and sometimes those happen to be Beach Boys songs (usually the singles)

Just remembered that Good Vibrations is mentioned in Bag Of Bones.


I think he is a bigger fan than you realise, there is a massive amount of bands that he could choose to reference but The Beach Boys pop up frequently in his works.

He was born in '47. It's not put of the question to think that at same point he was a big fan. His books are also always deeply rooted in american culture, so I should think he appreciates the BB's on several levels. Musically and culturally.

But Ron is also right to point out that many bands are mentioned and quoted in his books, and poets also.

I'm sure I read in one of his autobiographical bits (either in Danse Macabre or On Writing) that he actually lost his virginity while Help Me Rhonda was on the radio. I believe the covers band he sometimes plays with, The Rock Bottom Remainders, sometimes do Sloop John B and Little Deuce Coupe, too.

That said, King's tastes tend to go towards rather muscular blue-collar rock & roll - Springsteen, Bob Seger, that kind of thing. I very much doubt he's any kind of fan, as opposed to someone who likes the hits he knows from the radio.

Stephen Kings Jukebox

http://www.yoda.arachsys.com/sk/jukebox.html

Doesn't have all of his books though.

I know and yes I can't wait too. But seeing that I've managed to collect all his books
from charity shops since nov 2011. I need to read a few more of
his books first esp ""IT"  :hat

New Dark Tower out this month.

And if I could recommend just one, then read The Talisman also. It's a collaboration with Peter Straub, fantastic

IT is fantastic,  so is The Stand,  two of my favorites.

Yes The Stand was my first SK book I've read & finished.
Now onto Salem's Lot then onto IT hopefully over the course
of this easter weekend

I would also recommend his novelette collections, like Hearts in Atlantis and Four Past Midnight.  Both very excellent.   

I' ve been very lucky in that within the past six months.
I've collected all his books for only an pound or two in charity shops.
So I've got them all ready to read.

Being quite a King fan, I'm envious. In the same way as when someone becomes a Beach Boys fan, and has all those wonderful discoveries ahead.

I was in Australia backpacking from Feb 2011 to Jan 2012 and managed to read the complete works of Stephen King! I had already read about 20 books before I went and read the rest, including the Dark Tower series, in Australia as his books were easy to get from second hand book stores (plus I really like his stuff). Under The Dome is a good one too.

This makes me think of Dave Barry, who is also a big Beach Boys fan (in the surf and cars way, not the obsessive smiley smile way) as well as a friend of Steven King.

This column is about sneaking into the republican national convention to see the Mike and Bruce show:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2008/09/02/51521/dave-barry-in-search-of-the-beach.html

My favorite quote: "The band at the Republican kickoff bash here was the Beach Boys. Granted, they are also largely deceased, but they still go around touring as a band consisting of backup musicians and a vial containing several ounces of Brian Wilson's saliva."

This column is about seeing the Mike and Bruce show around 1999:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1430937/posts

But my favorite Dave Barry Beach Boys shout out, which I can't find online, is a column about how everything they play on the radio sucks, where his key example is that they NEVER play Custom Machine, which is what they would play all the time if it were up to him.

Did you get to Fremantle?  That's my hometown.   Hope you had a great time over here.  Though how could you NOT,  travelling Oz and reading King...

 
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Being quite a King fan, I'm envious. In the same way as when someone becomes a Beach Boys fan, and has all those wonderful discoveries ahead.
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Me too..    I might just have to go and read some of them again.   My first was Carrie, then The Shining when I was 14,  He was all I would read for a few years.   The latest one I read was Under the Dome,  Sorry to say I didn't really like it.

When I was a teenager I was going on a long trip, and bought "Rose Madder" to read on the ride.  Good book.  So when I got back from vacation, I started reading all of them.... IN ORDER LIKE A MAN.  lol

I think I got up to about The Talisman before I started going insane.  So I stopped for a few years, then read the Dark Tower series.  To be honest I can't believe that he lived up to the hype in the Dark Tower, he actually pulled it off.  I was proud of him, he walked the line and barely made it as good as it was hyped up to be.  I think it'll be an amazing set of movies if they ever get the balls to make it. 

His books from the last 10 years or so have started slipping though, in my opinion.  He's gotten a little more bitter in his old age... he takes himself too seriously now and his ego has blown up to massive proportions.  More and more cynicism and political commentary is creeping into his books, which is sad to see, since he's such a fantastic writer and far above that. 

I did go to 'Freo' and loved it! Such a cool little place which seems to be home to so many classic American cars everywhere like Ford Thunderbirds etc , I much preferred it to Perth.

Yep Freo is better ;)   We love our American vintage cars over here, I almost bought a 67 Mustang last year.   It's one of the reasons I loved Christine so much.