The Smiley Smile Message Board

I was wondering which books you all would recommend that document this era of Brian's winding down involvement best. I'm looking for books that give a peak behind the scenes of what the sessions were like at Bellagio and what their aims were in making the albums of this time as it seems to be one the less documented periods of their history.

Things I'm particularly curious about are "Can't Wait Too Long", "Ol' Man River", and other unfinished pieces that seem to hold so much promise and indicate a great deal of work, but I don't actually have much info on.

Thnx

I can't remember what specific details it goes into, but I would highly recommend Catch A Wave, the Peter Aimes Carlin book. It's the best book I've read on all the different stages of the band's career.

How Deep Is The Ocean by Paul Williams and The Nearest Faraway Place by Tim White.

"Ol' Man River" was shelved when Mike got sick of working on it during a studio session, causing Brian to flee the house and become mentally unbalanced. "Can't Wait Too Long" is a perfect example of Brian's insecurity as a recording artist. He'd work on something over and over, trying to make it "perfect", only to eventually give up in frustration.  That's how you get those kinds of unfinished pieces.

"Can't Wait Too Long" and "Time To Get Alone" were conceived a few months after Smiley Smile and seem to be part of a serious attempt by Brian to resume his old professional life. People make a big deal about how Brian gave "Time To Get Alone" to Redwood, but really, that had always been part of Brian's personality. Remember when he pretty much gave "Surf City" to Jan & Dean (it was based off of Brian's song "Goody Connie Won't You Come Back Home?", and Brian helped with the production)? The only difference was that now Brian had that much higher of a profile.

Soon, though, Brian apparently gave up on such aspirations and retired to the more comfortable confines of his home studio, where he quickly recorded what would be become Wild Honey. While I can't prove it, I think he enjoyed the reduced expectations banging off albums in his home studio created, and the pressures of working in professional studios with famous session musicians intimidated him at this point.

One of the best sources for this kind of info from this period imho is the Stephen Desper-pedia.  I dunno where it went, is it still online?  It was full of fascinating stories and info.  Presumably Stephen Desper's book Recording the Beach Boys is an even better source, but I haven't read it, and I don't have any idea how I would go about acquiring a copy. 

You gotta ask Steve for the book!  Last I heard, he's updating it.  Much of his posts are still on line. 

Personally i think The Nearest Faraway Place is massively over-rated (he's got almost nothing to say about the Surf's Up and Holland albums, and then he sings the praises of Beach Boys '85, even going so far as to compare it to Sunflower). The Peter Aimes Carlin book however is a great book!

Up until the Carlin book came out, The Nearest Faraway Place was the best book on the block. 

This isn't a book, but for God's sake, dig up Jack R's accounts of his time with the group. (I posted a re-edit of his posts at one point, to make for a smoother read---hopefully.)

It's only his point of view, but I found that his writing was very passionate and evocative.

If only he would!  but there's bound to be some reason(s) why he can't update it and get it published
 wish I could find a copy of his book at all. anyone want to copy theirs, page by page and post it in Media?

I don't think SWD would be too thrilled at that - every page carries a copyright notice.

And I think he got a little miffed once in his thread a few years ago when someone posted some quotes from the book without his permission.

Statements like these caused me to pick up the book.  Very disappointing.  It's about 300 pages
and Brian isn't even born until page 120 or so.. You get a history of all things California and about
4 generations of Wilson's..  Their music career is highly glossed over.

Any chance you can provide a link or similar? Would love to read Rieley's accounts.

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,9651.0.html  :-D

I thought all the guys were getting a bit tired of it, with Carl being the one who put his foot down over the matter?

Mebe Mike, mebe Carl. http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,10544.0.html#top

p.s. it's for reasons like this that we are long overdue for a beach boys wiki imo.

It's one of my main focuses in my book. I will have an update within the next few weeks that I hope will see it come out. Thank you to both Billy and Amanda for all their help recently. They knocked it into good shape.

You're welcome! You guys are seriously going to love this book.

Which may be one of the reasons he's holding back on announcing an update. Steve was sick for awhile which set him back, and had some issues posting here with his computer, but he seems to be OK now. PM him. Maybe he's got news for you. He's got interesting things to say these days concerning his recording of Manson.

Well, I'll tell ya what. We had a vote on another board asking posters what the best Beach Boys book was/is.  The most votes went to Carlin's book (29 votes). White's book, "The Nearest Faraway Place", got the second most votes (28). Third went to AGD's book (27) and Leaf's book got 26 votes. And if you read the posts in the book thread, posters had high regard for both Carlin's and White's books. So...........I don't know what to tell you. I enjoyed White's book very much - I'm from California so maybe I appreciated it a little more. Yes, the beginning of the book is more of a "social history" than directly relating to The Beach Boys, but it gathers steam after about 100 pages. Tim White was a BIG fan.  Suggest reading his 2-part article in the May/June '76 issue of Crawdaddy and also Rolling Stone.

I think there's another Beach boys book thread elsewhere on this board where people weigh in on their favorite books. The "Search" function works great here.

I recommended Paul Williams' book earlier in the thread.  He (and David Anderle) had some interesting insights into the Smile/Wild Honey/Smiley Smile era. He incorporated the discussion with Anderle in his book "Outlaw Blues", which I picked up in the late 70's. Then, years later, he copy and pasted that chapter into his book "How Deep Is The Ocean".

You can read excerpts about Brian and the 1967 era here, along with 20/20:

 http://www.rocksbackpages.com/writer.html?WriterID=williamsp

http://www.amazon.com/Outlaw-Blues-Book-Rock-Music/dp/0934558353

Now in paperback...

http://www.amazon.com/Brian-Wilson-The-Beach-Boys/dp/0711961972

Wow, those Rieley threads really made for fun, interesting reading (in spite of his rather embaressing continuous use of 'kewl' and 'dudez' etc). I've always thought Rieley - whatever his personal alleged faults may or may not have been - was right in almost everything he did for the band, and i agree with a lot of his opinions and thoughts on the band.

Let's not forget the Kingsley Abbot compendium "Back to the Beach," which has loads of fascinating behind the scenes accounts. It's my favorite Beach Boys book, well, maybe second after LLVS!

The question as pertains to this thread, though, is does this book treat on the 1967-71 period? I've just done some googling (I'm not at home and won't be for a while so can't just go to the bookshelf) to try to view the contents page, but to no avail. The book definitely deals with the post-Smile years, and I remember lots of great stuff from the Brian's Back era. Not sure about 1967-1971, but I THINK there's stuff on those years.

In any case, I would recommend buying it. It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine when people throw around the "it's a must" phrase all over the place (individuals, after all, each have their own "must" lists, regardless of what other people attempt to dictate on their behalf), so it's really telling to hear me say this: if you're here and reading this post, this book is a must-read.

Yeah, you can see how he charmed and persuaded everybody! I'm nodding my head vigorously at almost everything he said. Get that boy another Pulitzer!

"Remember, we all have the option of liking the art while concluding
that the artist is a schmuck."

David Dalton posted a very brief but interesting look at the time period around "Wild Honey."  It also includes some nice but small photos. 

http://www.gadflyonline.com/05-06-02/ftr-epiphany.html

Dalton is a good writer, too bad he never tackled a Beach Boys book.  I enjoyed his bio of James Dean and things he's written about the Rolling Stones.

But what would it matter? (and I'd be happy to hear Stephen chime in here)
If there is really to be another edition, I can see the point, but he should make it happen. If there's not to be another publishing, why should all those that want to read it, but can't, be deprived ?  In the sense that it's unavailable it seems little different than a sound recording. 
In FACT, this would seem a perfect idea for someone WITH a copy to do a private (bootleg) reprint, if only  xerox copying, and sell them much like the once upon Smile Booklets.
Those did nothing to decrease the "value" of the originals, as I don't see for his book.

To Stephen I say, do a second edition/ republish the first edition, or make your own copies and sell them. NOW!
Or don't be surprised when they start appearing anew and you reap nothing.