The Smiley Smile Message Board

Howdy all, finally getting back into reading since I have a lot more stare-at-the-wall time than usual. Wanted to know what the general consensus is on BB literature, which books are the most in-depth to the best of their factual ability and cover all the ups and downs without bias. I'm anxiously awaiting the 2nd run of Ken Sharp's Dreamer but I'd like a depressing/uplifting/heartbreaking/life-affirming book on the Boys to dig through in the meantime.

As noted by others above, Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson by Peter Ames Carlin is fantastic. To me it's the best starting point for anyone who is interested in reading a chronological overview of Brian's life.

Becoming The Beach Boys 1961-1963 by James B. Murphy is one of the most incredible books on the band I have ever had the pleasure of reading. The amount of details crammed into it, especially given its relatively limited temporal focus, is absolutely insane.

Speaking of incredible books, The Beach Boys In Concert: The Ultimate History Of America's Band On Tour And Onstage, by Ian Rusten and Jon Stebbins is another amazing resource for anyone interested in the touring history of the band. It's more of a reference book/textbook than a book book, but it's really something else.

Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile! is another amazing work. Similar to the In Concert book, it's more of a scrapbook than a book book, but it's extremely enlightening if you're interested in learning more about how the band was viewed/what was being written about the band in the press leading up to, during, and after The Smile Sessions.

The Lost Beach Boy: The True Story of David Marks by Jon Stebbins is another one worth reading. It contains a lot of stories you won't find anywhere else, and the amount of details David provides about the period of time that he was in the band, and what he was up to before the band was formed and after he left it, makes it an extremely worthy entry into the Beach Boys literary canon.

Wouldn't It Be Nice: Brian Wilson and the Making of Pet Sounds by Charles Granta is a solid book/resource. My only issue with it is that I never felt like the book really explored what Brian was aiming to accomplish by making Pet Sounds, (aside from what is already well known) nor did it add to my appreciation of the album itself, but it does have a lot of really good insider information about how the album was composed and produced. Tony Asher provided his own recollections of what the composing process with Brian was like.

I haven't yet had the pleasure of reading Philip Lambert's Inside the Music of Brian Wilson, but I own the book and actually plan to start reading the book later tonight. From everything I've ever heard about it though, it's highly recommended.

I own The Beach Boys and the California Myth, but never got around to reading it beyond the first couple of chapters. One of these days I will finish it.

There are plenty of other great books worth reading too – The Beach Boys FAQ: All That's Left To Know About America's Band by Jon Stebbins, Brian's recent autobiography/memoir, and from what I hear, The Real Beach Boy: Dennis Wilson by Jon Stebbins is great as well, although I haven't yet had the pleasure of reading it. But I feel like the books above are the cream of the crop when it comes to books written about the band.

Man... first post on this board in years, but I guess I'm back. I blame Sunshine Tomorrow. ;D

Howdy all, finally getting back into reading since I have a lot more stare-at-the-wall time than usual. Wanted to know what the general consensus is on BB literature, which books are the most in-depth to the best of their factual ability and cover all the ups and downs without bias. I'm anxiously awaiting the 2nd run of Ken Sharp's Dreamer but I'd like a depressing/uplifting/heartbreaking/life-affirming book on the Boys to dig through in the meantime.

I posted my thoughts about what I consider to be the best books about the band in a thread from a few years ago:


I would say my only update to this is that I have now read “Inside The Music of Brian Wilson”. It’s good, but dry. A lot of reviews point this out, and while reviews can sometimes be off-base with their critiques, it is an accurate criticism in this case.

For my money, the best book on the band is Jim Murphy’s “Becoming The Beach Boys”.

The Leaf book informed my early fandom on its reissue in 1985.  Agree with Debbie that it remains the major influencer of all of the major books that followed.

I am partial to The Beach Boys In Concert (Backbeat 2103), I can't explain why ;D

Unfortunately it costs a pretty penny these days, especially for someone just starting down the BB road.

Wasn't there talk of a revised edition at some point?

Unfortunately it costs a pretty penny these days, especially for someone just starting down the BB road.

Wasn't there talk of a revised edition at some point?

I sometimes run across a book by David Leaf just called The Beach Boys (http://The Beach Boys) (e.g. https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Beach-Boys-by-David-Leaf-1985-HC-DJ-Pages-208-Great-Condition/143246494207?epid=4474660&hash=item215a2809ff:g:MV8AAOSwO2pcjrjP (https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Beach-Boys-by-David-Leaf-1985-HC-DJ-Pages-208-Great-Condition/143246494207?epid=4474660&hash=item215a2809ff:g:MV8AAOSwO2pcjrjP)). I'm assuming this is not the one in question. Just curious what it was.

David is busy being a UCLA professor these days, but he could also be writing. I guess we'll know if he announces some future projects. Another amazing (and famous) writer who was a friend of David's was Timothy White. "The Nearest Faraway Place" took a fascinating approach as well.

"The Nearest Faraway Place was the first Beach Boys book I ever got, back in the mid 1990's. The extensive history of the family lineage is a bit much for my taste, but then again I haven't really read it since I was in my early teens.

Thanks, Debbie. Timothy White's book is another that fascinates me but once again is way beyond my budget.

Jay, that history aspect must make TNFP unique. I understand no other BB book goes into it in such depth.

Maybe my local university library has, or can get hold of, one or both of these. :smokin

I sometimes run across a book by David Leaf just called The Beach Boys (http://The Beach Boys) (e.g. https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Beach-Boys-by-David-Leaf-1985-HC-DJ-Pages-208-Great-Condition/143246494207?epid=4474660&hash=item215a2809ff:g:MV8AAOSwO2pcjrjP (https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Beach-Boys-by-David-Leaf-1985-HC-DJ-Pages-208-Great-Condition/143246494207?epid=4474660&hash=item215a2809ff:g:MV8AAOSwO2pcjrjP)). I'm assuming this is not the one in question. Just curious what it was.

I found the family lineage very informative. Reading about Murry's dad, Buddy. Also one of Buddy's brothers (I think, it's been a while since reading the book) reminded me a lot of Brian - a lot of promise, but something emotionally /mentally happened. And reading that the closest relationship Brian had to relatives was to his maternal Grandfather. He could confide in him. Unfortunately he died while still in his fifties or early sixties.
As a lover of history I was fascinated and shocked by the conditions the Wilson family had to live in at Carmel by the Sea. What was Buddy thinking?!

That is the second edition of same book, with a further short addendum to the story included. The revised edition if you will...

I'll add my two cents and my recommendation for the Timothy White book, The Nearest Faraway Place. Definitely seek this one out.

What White did was place the history of the band *in context* with the other histories which intertwined in and out of the band's own journey through generations, times, and places. It was far more than a family tree...In fact as mentioned, this was one of the first if not the first books to go into the family trees of the Wilsons, the Loves, etc. But White took it beyond that.

In discussing, let's say the song "409", White had already branched off and traced the history of Chevrolet and Ford, and how Ford's V-8 engine and Model A car became key elements of the hot-rod scene to follow in the 50's and 60's. White got into the Chevy Corvette, and the move toward high-power race inspired engines. And he got into how the hot rodders came about, devoting time to key players like Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, etc. Then it wrapped up with how Gary Usher came to own and drive a Chevy which he was hot-rodding piece-by-piece as many in the scene had to do as they earned more spare change to buy new parts...and Usher's hot rod Chevy was the car they revved up and recorded on the street with Brian's tape deck, which became the intro to "409", and how the ideas for that song started to flow as Brian and Gary were driving around car parts stores looking for things Gary wanted to add to his Chevy. "Giddy up...".

So that's just one example of how Timothy White wove so many elements and backstories and related histories into telling the story of the Beach Boys.

Too much of history - especially as taught in the schools but I won't jump on that soapbox - is now relegated to a system of rote memorization and programmed regurgitation of dates and names. Where is the context? What came before and after? *Why* did this event happen and what led directly to it happening? The dates and names have been recorded already...at some point the importance of memorizing and repeating those wears out its value...and you need to explore *why* beyond those names and numbers.

White did a masterful job at doing just that, and as this element of connecting the histories instead of spitting out data that had appeared elsewhere, it's a terrific read. I actually wish he had expanded more on the intertwining details and cut some of the band's data which had been reported and published elsewhere, or expanded the book in general, but what we got is top-notch writing and historical research.

Nothing happens in a vacuum, and this book demonstrates that notion very well.

I'll add my two cents and my recommendation for the Timothy White book, The Nearest Faraway Place. Definitely seek this one out.

What White did was place the history of the band *in context* with the other histories which intertwined in and out of the band's own journey through generations, times, and places. It was far more than a family tree...In fact as mentioned, this was one of the first if not the first books to go into the family trees of the Wilsons, the Loves, etc. But White took it beyond that.

In discussing, let's say the song "409", White had already branched off and traced the history of Chevrolet and Ford, and how Ford's V-8 engine and Model A car became key elements of the hot-rod scene to follow in the 50's and 60's. White got into the Chevy Corvette, and the move toward high-power race inspired engines. And he got into how the hot rodders came about, devoting time to key players like Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, etc. Then it wrapped up with how Gary Usher came to own and drive a Chevy which he was hot-rodding piece-by-piece as many in the scene had to do as they earned more spare change to buy new parts...and Usher's hot rod Chevy was the car they revved up and recorded on the street with Brian's tape deck, which became the intro to "409", and how the ideas for that song started to flow as Brian and Gary were driving around car parts stores looking for things Gary wanted to add to his Chevy. "Giddy up...".

So that's just one example of how Timothy White wove so many elements and backstories and related histories into telling the story of the Beach Boys.

Too much of history - especially as taught in the schools but I won't jump on that soapbox - is now relegated to a system of rote memorization and programmed regurgitation of dates and names. Where is the context? What came before and after? *Why* did this event happen and what led directly to it happening? The dates and names have been recorded already...at some point the importance of memorizing and repeating those wears out its value...and you need to explore *why* beyond those names and numbers.

White did a masterful job at doing just that, and as this element of connecting the histories instead of spitting out data that had appeared elsewhere, it's a terrific read. I actually wish he had expanded more on the intertwining details and cut some of the band's data which had been reported and published elsewhere, or expanded the book in general, but what we got is top-notch writing and historical research.

Nothing happens in a vacuum, and this book demonstrates that notion very well.

Thanks for the clarification. You see the first edition go for big bucks, but this edition seems more moderately priced.

Well, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the David Leaf book I linked above. Looking forward to giving it a read. I'm adding Timothy White's book to my list.

Despite all of it's flaws, I have a soft spot for Steven Gaines' Heroes and Villains, if only for all the recounting of Dennis' last days and the little details about all the business deals . And don't forget The Lost Beach Boy, that Jon Stebbins wrote with Dave Marks a few years back, lots of history of the BBs early days.

The Stebbins books are all indispensible for numerous reasons (still hoping the "Real Beach Boy" update happens soon!).

The Steven Gaines "Heroes and Villains" is, for better and worse, still an important book that delves into some aspects that no other biographies have touched on much. Indeed, subsequent books (including supposedly/allegedly the 1991 Brian "autobiography") relied sometimes *heavily* on details first related in the Gaines book.

Reading the Gaines book, it's clear he got elements of the story and access to people that no other books have been able to (or have tried to). The Gaines book is *not* a great book to delve into the actual enjoyment of the music. His familiarity with the actual music released over the years seems secondary. But in terms of the *whole* story, warts and all, including all the interpersonal stuff (which *did* impact the actual band's career as well at times), the Gaines book is still important, and a key book to cover the era up to, well, whatever year that book stops (essentially around the early-mid 80s).

I think the salacious stuff (stuff like Dennis's alleged prison fantasies, etc.) kind of scared people off of the book being the first book to retell key events like the Australia '78 debacle.

Gaines actually briefly posted here, and seemed to indicate he still had *tons* of audio covering a lot of what he covered in his book. For better and worse, that stuff should not only be preserved, but made available to scholars.

Ed Roach mentioned in a post to me on another board (and I believe on this one as well) that he was surprised at how factual Gaines' report of Dennis' last months was. IIRC he said that there was stuff in there, Ed thought only he would know.

Stephen became close with a number of key people, so I'm not surprised that this was accurate. He's a very likeable man personally - very witty and warm. I did NOT want to be in his book and hired an attorney in hopes of staying out of it, but it really wasn't feasible. Stephen knew that tabloid stuff sells (being successful with that previously), but he was actually a decent person. I think his friendships with Karen Lamm, Cynthia Lennon and others were very real. I got the impression he really cared about the BB's and friends, unlike a hateful fantasist UK author whom some people still believe. I refuse to name him. He was a drug addict at the time who simply made things up about people. Stephen Gaines would never do that.