David Leaf

[southbay]

Watched Beautiful Dreamer again last night and wondered, what is the status of David Leaf?  Inner circle, outer circle, hanging out somewhere with Joe Thomas and Rocky Pamplin? 

[ghost]

Pretty soon he'll be blown away.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

[SMiLE Brian]

Rocky Pamplin is one detestable person from what he did to all the Wilson brothers. Not sure what David's been up to...

[pixletwin]

Rocky Pamplin is one detestable person from what he did to all the Wilson brothers. Not sure what David's been up to...

What did he do?

[ghost]

Rocky Pamplin is one detestable person from what he did to all the Wilson brothers. Not sure what David's been up to...

What did he do?

Isn't he the guy that did a little ding danging with Marilyn while Brian was off buying dildos for masseuses or whatever? Um.. 

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Yeah, that's him.

[SMiLE Brian]

Rocky Pamplin is one detestable person from what he did to all the Wilson brothers. Not sure what David's been up to...

What did he do?

Beat up Carl and Dennis along with having an affair with Brian's wife.

[Smilin Ed H]

"Inner circle, outer circle, hanging out somewhere with Joe Thomas and Rocky Pamplin? "

Brian's going to work with Thomas again, so all must have been smoothed over

[monicker]

Marilyn had an affair?? 

[willy]

Yeah but, c'mon, the guy was a Playgirl centerfold  


Edit: that's Rocky, not David 

[onkster]

Marilyn had an affair?? 

Yeah, and at one point, Brian climbed into bed with them, hugged them, and told them he loved them. Strange nights indeed (most peculiar, mama)...

I believe David Leaf is still making films, the last one being the Harry Nilsson doc. Good stuff.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Watched Beautiful Dreamer again last night and wondered, what is the status of David Leaf?  Inner circle, outer circle, hanging out somewhere with Joe Thomas and Rocky Pamplin? 

Right now, David's kinda inner-outer circle. Ish.

[southbay]

Watched Beautiful Dreamer again last night and wondered, what is the status of David Leaf?  Inner circle, outer circle, hanging out somewhere with Joe Thomas and Rocky Pamplin? 

Right now, David's kinda inner-outer circle. Ish.

Thanks.

[guitarfool2002]

From certain books I got the image of Stan and Rocky as a "Hans and Franz"  "we're here to pump you up!" sketch from Saturday Night Live. Two muscle-bound jocks browbeating Brian into getting fit and dragging him around various exercise regimens in the name of "shaping up", then berating him if he reached for a smoke or something. It's actually not funny in the big picture but the image of Brian hiding, sneaking cigarettes and junk food while those two jocks were looking for him is sort of funny. Considering these people were successful, wealthy, grown men acting like kids.

[southbay]

In retrospect, maybe I should have referenced Nick Grillo and Stephen Love instead....

[The Shift]

Lotta respect for David. His California Myth book fuelled my love of this music and woke me to Smile proper; as I understand it he played a major hand in getting Brian touring along with the health benefits that brought; played a big hand in getting the BWPS idea acceptable to Brian; … and handed me my first-ever back stage pass to meet Brian at a M&G back in '02 at the RFH! Without all that, we might not be where we're at now, waiting for the postman in early Nov.

Andrew'll correct me if I'm offline with any of this but David's a good soul in my book.

[southbay]

Lotta respect for David. His California Myth book fuelled my love of this music and woke me to Smile proper; as I understand it he played a major hand in getting Brian touring along with the health benefits that brought; played a big hand in getting the BWPS idea acceptable to Brian; … and handed me my first-ever back stage pass to meet Brian at a M&G back in '02 at the RFH! Without all that, we might not be where we're at now, waiting for the postman in early Nov.

Andrew'll correct me if I'm offline with any of this but David's a good soul in my book.

Looking strictly from the outside, I tend to agree.  Reading his reissued book when it was released in 1985 was my first real introduction to the Beach Boys.  I had the chance to meet him briefly twice and he was gracious each time.  In no way did I mean to compare him to Rocky Pamplin.  Poor taste, but it was a just a reference to someone no longer in the circle...

[MBE]

Leaf is one of the people I feel never let the facts get in the way of presenting the Brian and 5 buttholes view. In fact I would go so far as to say that he made the problems between the band worse. I really wish I never had the misfortune of talking to him. Priore and I had different views as well but he treated me with a lot of respect. I was only just starting out back then in writing and was very polite to David. He just acted like he was too good to be talking to me. For me I learned from him how not to approach the band or people in general.

[Jason]

He's a propaganda artist. I don't particularly care for his writing.

[Jon Stebbins]

Leaf is one of the people I feel never let the facts get in the way of presenting the Brian and 5 buttholes view. In fact I would go so far as to say that he made the problems between the band worse. I really wish I never had the misfortune of talking to him. Priore and I had different views as well but he treated me with a lot of respect. I was only just starting out back then in writing and was very polite to David. He just acted like he was too good to be talking to me. For me I learned from him how not to approach the band or people in general.

Same exact view I have of David. I was an orig. subscriber to his Pet Sounds fanzine, and I first met David in the '70's when we were both hardcore fans. I was very disappointed with the way he ignored the importance of the other Beach Boys in his California Myth book, and he mainstreamed the habit of heaping overblown credit on the Wrecking Crew, and ignoring Carl, Dennis etc... for their instrumental contribution to the BB's recorded output. When I approached him to help me (at the suggestion of a mutual friend) with some info for my Dennis Wilson book back in '98 Leaf was rude to me, and he pretty much blew me off. I figured he was having a bad day or something, but he did it again a couple years later. I think of California Myth and Beautiful Dreamer as fiction, nicely presented but insubstantial...because as Mike said they don't have much to do with fact.

[MBE]

Thanks for backing me up on this Jon. Why am I not surprised?

 I should point out that people like Jon, the late Byron Priess, and Andrew are genuine and have helped me over the years with my own research unselfishly.

[Jim V.]

Sorry to go off topic, but Mr. Eder, I am SERIOUSLY excited to read your book. Please find a way to get this thing out there. I will definitely be a buyer.

And, yeah, David Leaf, I gotta admit, after reading that book it seriously leaves the impression that Brian was so horribly treated by his friends and family all the time. I've now came to accept it was pretty much up to him that Smile was scrapped, and that his workload kept getting lighter and lighter. Up until like '75, I'd pretty much say Brian did what Brian wanted, when he wanted to. Then there's his way of seriously overrating unreleased material. The man actually made "Lazy Lizzie" sound like it should be on Pet Sounds Part Deux. Yes, he was right about "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" and "Sherry, She Needs Me", but still he is/was a Brianista of the highest order. I also agree that he didn't give Denny and Carl enough credit for their helping out with their brother. I also think the Beautiful Dreamer doc was complete garbage. At first I liked it, but then I realized what a one-sided portrait was being painted, and how this was the equivalent of an infomercial for BWPS. It was after this that I realized how ridiculous it was that he nearly always ignores the other Beach Boys.

On the other hand I gotta say that I really did enjoy his Harry Nilsson documentary.

[punkinhead]

Leaf is one of the people I feel never let the facts get in the way of presenting the Brian and 5 buttholes view. In fact I would go so far as to say that he made the problems between the band worse. I really wish I never had the misfortune of talking to him. Priore and I had different views as well but he treated me with a lot of respect. I was only just starting out back then in writing and was very polite to David. He just acted like he was too good to be talking to me. For me I learned from him how not to approach the band or people in general.

Same exact view I have of David. I was an orig. subscriber to his Pet Sounds fanzine, and I first met David in the '70's when we were both hardcore fans. I was very disappointed with the way he ignored the importance of the other Beach Boys in his California Myth book, and he mainstreamed the habit of heaping overblown credit on the Wrecking Crew, and ignoring Carl, Dennis etc... for their instrumental contribution to the BB's recorded output. When I approached him to help me (at the suggestion of a mutual friend) with some info for my Dennis Wilson book back in '98 Leaf was rude to me, and he pretty much blew me off. I figured he was having a bad day or something, but he did it again a couple years later. I think of California Myth and Beautiful Dreamer as fiction, nicely presented but insubstantial...because as Mike said they don't have much to do with fact.

glad to see some back up by legit people.
Somehow, I hope David does a search for himself on google and finds this thread! 

[punkinhead]

"Inner circle, outer circle, hanging out somewhere with Joe Thomas and Rocky Pamplin? "

Brian's going to work with Thomas again, so all must have been smoothed over

Is this true?
what's your source?