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Ken Sharp’s long-awaited new book Dreamer: The Making of Dennis Wilson’s Pacific Ocean Blue is now available for pre-order.

The book is available in soft-cover for $35 plus shipping and in a very limited signed hardcover edition for $55 plus shipping. The book will only be available directly from Ken and you can order your copy by emailing him at sharpk@aol.com

From Ken: “40 years since its initial release, Dennis Wilson’s Pacific Ocean Blue, the first solo album by a member of the Beach Boys, is widely regarded as a cult masterpiece, a stark confessional vehicle of naked primal emotion and deep pain. Dreamer: The Making of Dennis Wilson’s Pacific Ocean Blue is the first book devoted to the creation of this seminal rock and roll classic.”

“Via extensive interviews conducted with many of the record’s main principals numbering songwriting collaborators, engineers, session musicians, record company personnel, management, fellow Beach Boys, friends, family, music writers and more, the 416-page book is structured as an oral history and chronicles the fascinating back story behind this extraordinary album. Decades on, the album is eliciting retroactive praise and accolades with the 2008 CD reissue selected by the likes of Rolling Stone, Mojo and Uncut as reissue of the year.”

Apart from being a great all-around guy and tremendously talented writer and singer-songwriter (check out his music on his website (www.ken-sharp.com), Ken is one of the most knowledgeable and enthusiastic Beach Boys fans I have ever met. I did not know Ken while I was researching and writing Becoming the Beach Boys, 1961-1963. But I certainly knew of Ken. He was hard to miss. His name kept coming up time after time after time. In Goldmine, Record Collector, Rock Cellar. His superb rock journalism and insightful interviews with the Boys were consumed, re-consumed, cross-referenced, scribbled on index cards, scrawled across dry erase boards, appreciated, and generously quoted (and footnoted).

I recall thinking, “If I ever meet this guy Ken Sharp, I have got to thank him for these essential, ground-breaking interviews.” He always asked the right questions. Well, I think it was a week or two after Becoming was published when I got the first nibble of interest. The phone rang and it was Ken. He could not have been kinder or more enthusiastic about the book. Writing can be a lonely, solitary road, and you’re never quite sure if you have anything worthwhile. Ken was such a contagious shot of literary/music adrenalin, and we spoke for a long time about the Boys, the early days, and music. We finished speaking and arranged a time for a follow-up interview that appeared in Goldmine. When I hung up the phone, I remember feeling the first hint, after nine years, that maybe I had written something worth contributing to the Beach Boys story. It was a great, gratifying feeling. So, thank you, Ken. You may never fully know how much that meant to me.

And SOON . . .we will be reading and enjoying Ken’s Dreamer: The Making of Dennis Wilson’s Pacific Ocean Blue. What a terrific gift for every Beach Boys and Dennis Wilson fan. 416 pages dedicated to Dennis’ stunning debut. Make room on your bookshelf.

Everyone on here really should order a copy - Ken has done a fantastic job, and was also cool enough to request the use of my POB sessionography in the book, which I gladly obliged...


http://ken-sharp.com/dennis-wilson/index.html

Ordered mine earlier this week, can't wait to receive it.

Very cool. Thanks for the heads-up!

Thanks for bringing it to my attention! I'm definitely getting a copy of this!

Me too! Gotta act fast on this one.

Hardback's already sold out apparently.

Paid for mine last week, and it's in the mail.....can't wait!!

Got home early from an appointment to find the paperback book in my mailbox. After a quick browse through all I can say is "WOW". Thank you Ken!!!!

My paperback copy arrived today. This is a very nicely and carefully designed product. Lots and lots of photos and interviews, and it looks to be quite thorough in approach.

getting really excited, (copy in the mail) his oral history for Record Collector was pretty special to me when first getting really into Dennis.

Long time lurker here with not much to contribute, but I will say that this is a must buy book for fans of Dennis and Pacific Ocean Blues.  I got mine in the mail on Saturday and have had a pretty tough time staying on task with obligations knowing that this book is waiting for me. Do yourself a favor and buy it.

Hey guys - picked up my copy from the PO Box the other day, and WOWWWW is the word! Fantastic, 400-plus pages in this tome, WELL WORTH it to everyone on here, I am sure!
Please support the author by ordering a copy! The more of these types of projects that generate significant interest, the more likely there will be for more to come, from various authors!
FYI, Ken tells me that he has re-ordered a small stock of the hardbacks, in case anyone prefers that edition!

Ken Sharp was interviewed about a. o. his involvement in the forthcoming Presley '69 live release. This is what he says about the book about Dennis:


and I’m reprinting my books on Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys

http://www.elvisinfonet.com/interview_Elvis-69-Ken-Sharp.html

Any idea when this might be available? I missed it last time. I sent an email to him many months ago indicating my interest in getting the book.

I e-mailed him a few days ago and received a very nice reply saying he "may do a very small repressing late this year". I suggest you e-mail him and let him know you're interested in a reprint!

Thanks for the update. I wrote to him last year in hopes of him doing another printing then, but I just followed up to let him know I'm still interested.

Just watched a copy on ebay climb from 35.00 to 305.00 in 2 minutes of bidding. Could be a seller scam to jack up the price but either way I really wish Mr. Sharp would do a second print. I've emailed him once a year for 3 years asking for updates and nothin. Is there any way this forum can move things along?

.

I emailed him a couple months ago too.  He responded and said he was planning to do a reprint later this year and he would let me know.  If I hear anything, I'll post it.

I just noticed he posted on Facebook about doing another printing in hardback and softcover. If anyone is still interested, make sure you email him! As a reminder, here's his website: http://ken-sharp.com/dennis-wilson/index.html (http://ken-sharp.com/dennis-wilson/index.html)

fantastic. gonna drop a line once more just to make sure i'm on the email list. somebody's about to pay $316 for the one on ebay if it doesn't go even higher in the next few days

I agree. I got ‘Becoming The Beach Boys’ through my kindle and it’s a great way to read the book (and it does make the book so much more accessible to people by selling it digitally). Hopefully this happens with this book down the road.

Agreed. I made the same request of Endless Summer Quarterly — received a nice reply, said they prefer "old school."

I highly recommend this book!  Alan Boyd's take-by-take description of the POB tour rehearsal tapes, plus the facsimile of the Starship Radio Network bulletin in which a planned taping of Dennis and his band for the Don Kirshner Rock Concert series is reported, alone are worth the price of admission! Not to mention all the other cool stuff, like Dennis' own words, memories and comments from many of the principals - including the other BBs - and photos of tape box & console sheet track sheet info - plus my sessionography. A stellar collection of all things POB, and a few things Bambu!