Byron Preiss book

[exposedbrain]

i've had this for awhile, but just finally got around to actually reading the text. it's not a bad book. there are a number of little inaccuracies but there's also some really interesting commentary from Jim Lockhart about recording processes. he spends a lot time on Smile and discusses other post-smile albums in detail and there are a lot of good pictures. not bad for a book that looks like you could have bought it from the scholastic books insert that used to come in the Weekly Reader

[MBE]

I like the book a lot. It's about the music formost and that's what I care about.

[chris.metcalfe]

I always loved the commissioned pictures in it, especially the one for Cabinessence.
Came out about the same time as David Leaf's in the late 1970s and provided us with more info on the unreleased material then previously available.

[Mr. Wilson]

Yea..its a fine book...!!

[MBE]

One thing also should be mentioned is the excellent choice of photos, true David Marks gets the short end of the stick here but he always did until the late 90's.

[Mooger Fooger]

The funniest thing with the Preiss book is that it had the Smile booklet photos unlabelled as such. For years I was on a quest to get the pics, only to realise they were right under my nose!!

[Surfer Joe]

That book was an oasis in the desert, in those pre-net days...information, photos, it was all a whole lot tougher to come by.  And if you happened to meet another hard-core fan, you'd talk for hours and each tell each other five big things the other guy didn't know...

[Roger Ryan]

I always loved the commissioned pictures in it, especially the one for Cabinessence.

That painting almost single-handedly hooked me onto the whole SMiLE mythos when I thumbed through the book in a bookstore when it was newly published; it just seemed so...heavy. I haven't seen the image in 30 years; does anyone have a scan of it?

[Mark H.]

This book and my original Leaf book are worn ragged from years of use in the pre-net days.  I bought duplicate first editions a few years later so as to have "acceptable" copies on my shelves.  My original LLVS is also worn out.

[donald]

I believe this was my first in depth Beach boys book.  Wore the thing out in those old pre net days.  I still have the original copy I bought.  ( I am thinking about the magazine format with the drawing/painting  of the guys on the cover in an old chevy convertible)

Great pictures, great information in a time when info was not just a mouse click away.  Seems quaint now doesn't it?

[Emdeeh]

I've got a color copy of Georgie Chastain's gone-fishin' "funny animal" illo of the BBs from the Preiss book hanging up in my office. A lovely tribute to da Boys and to the wonderful drawing and storytelling talents of Disney comics artist Carl Barks.

[chris.metcalfe]

I always loved the commissioned pictures in it, especially the one for Cabinessence.

That painting almost single-handedly hooked me onto the whole SMiLE mythos when I thumbed through the book in a bookstore when it was newly published; it just seemed so...heavy. I haven't seen the image in 30 years; does anyone have a scan of it?

I have a scan but can't seem to upload it here - any clues?