The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hey - why no thread in the book section for this?

I love this book, OK the text is not great but when it came out it was a great source of information - and the illustrations and photos are fantastic! It also had lyrics for songs that weren't released for years, like Can't Wait Too Long.

Great book!

[attachment deleted by admin]

Agreed, it, along with the Leaf book of the same year, were/are indispensable.
Sadly, Byron Preiss died last year in an auto accident on the way to synagogue.
R.I.P.

C-Man

Is this book a hard find? How much can I get a copy for?

The cover looks like the sister of Leaf's book.

They came out at almost exactly the same time - couldn't quite tell you which came first but they both end at pretty much the same point  - MIU.

The illustrations alone are worth getting the book for. There is a priceless one of the band as Disney animals...

Its a pretty straight forward history otherwise, but the design is outstanding.

I got mine on ebay for about 20 bucks, I think.

When it pops up in used stores, it isn't bad -- mine was $10 at Half Price Books.

More than can be said for Leaf.  I'm still holding out to find one of those for a decent price.

I got really lucky on my Leaf.  I got a near perfect 1985 copy on eBay for $25, because the lister didn't add the words "David Leaf" or "rare" or "California Myth" to the auction title and somehow it got missed by everyone.

Haha.  Or "beach boys" "book"...

I saw this once for $5 and DIDN'T buy it because it wasn't the Leaf book. Stupid, stupid me.

Essential, as is the Leaf book, can't believe California Myth has been criticized for being too pro-Brian !...Sad news regarding Preiss...Has either book been updated lately ? AGD (among  others) would surely know something...

Leaf's book came out in 1978, Preiss's in 1979.

I have two extra copies of the Preiss book.  Msg me if interested.

Not "lately", but the Preiss book was updated in '83 (minus the illustrations), and of course, as mentioned above, the Leaf book was updated in '85.

C-Man

thanx c-man, sounds like Barnes and Noble won't be much help at this point...

Since I have been one of those, let me make a brief comment -- Leaf is very factual and accurate when he is reporting.  It's still a great book.  But it largely represents Brian's point of view, and assumes that Brian Wilson IS the Beach Boys at times.  If you read around and hang out for a while, you will learn that Brian does have faults and made some mistakes that cost the group dearly.  All my comment about Leaf were saying is that it would be nice to have a balancing point of view, that also values the other members and explores their lives as well.

Jeff, or anybody with Leaf's Book, I'm really mainly interested in that book at this point for any potential pictures that I haven't seen.  Are there any in there that are not seen elsewhere?

Off the top of my head, I would say yes, especially in the early 70's.  It has the only pic of Toni Tenille with the band I have ever seen for instance.

errr....how do we know what you haven't seen?

You don't have to to answer my question.

Sorry - should have used a smiley! Didn't mean to piss you off!
Anyway, just looking through it there are A LOT of photos in there that I haven't seen elsewhere - even on the net, but they aren't very good quality quite often - they are very dark in the copy I have (the 1978 paperback).

Is the My Solution session photo widely available? Thats a good one, as is the shot of Bruce writing 'The Beach Boys played here for the Money' next to the set list at a 1971 gig.

You didn't.  I am kind of pissed that possession of that book has eluded me, though.

This was the first in depth book on the Beachboys that I purchased.  I still have it somewhere but the binding on this magazine size paperback edition has deterioated so that the book is becoming a stack of glossy pages.

Was there a better book as early as this one?

Although this post was about the Byron Preiss book - where the pictures are great quality - here is one by Ed Roach of Dennis having fun on stage from the David Leaf book


[attachment deleted by admin]

I have one for sale -- msg me if interested. Tell me your budget.

There's some cool photos from Brian's high school days. The ones that I can think of right off the top of my head are of "school ditch day" (the elusive Carol Mountain is in that shot as is Robin Hood) and a pic from a high school assembly performance by Brian, Keith Lent, Bruce Griffin and someone (Bob Hanes, are you reading this?????). If I'm not mistaken, most of the photos in Leaf's book came from Peter Reum's old collection.

I don't think there are any really rare pics in the Leaf book that you can't find on-line.  I think there is a pic of Jasper Dailey singing in the studio that I don't recall seeing anywhere else.  It is a great book IMO balanced or not....it was the first book that explored Smile as far as I know.

Bicycle RIder - did you get the answer you asked about? Never sure about PM's!