Rocky Pamplin's THE BEACH BOYS' ENDLESS WAVE completed and published

[Reynaldo]

Again, not having read the book, but having read the original thread with Rocky, and new snippets/reviews of the book here, one could almost be led to believe that the book could have turned out in a way to favor the pro-Mike "side" of the story (compared to how Rocky seemingly originally was going to have the book go in a possibly different direction, from what I remember of Rocky's posts from awhile back, which admittedly I have not re-read)... and I do wonder if Mike's people found a way to get Mike's political clout to encourage/strongarm Rocky's book turn out in a way that favors what Mike would want it to say (and not say). Is it out of line to make that assumption? I also understand that a perfectly straight answer for this might not be in the cards either. I also don't imagine there'd be a single person who'd want to admit that.

And hey, I'd assume that many wealthy and powerful celebs might do the same, if an insider had stuff to potentially say in a book; I imagine there are ways to get a particular book watered down prior to release to benefit what they do/don't want public. Maybe I'm totally wrong, but it's hard to assume that a bunch of complex politics are not at work with regards to any release involving this band we love. Just like I imagine there had to have been a bunch of behind-the-scenes discussions with Mike with regards to the 2000 TV movie turning out in a way that he wanted, being that his buddy was an executive producer.  Same goes for Love & Mercy, of course.

Haven't met Mike Love. I know talent, I know management and I know the record and film bizness. The insights Rocky's and my collaboration reveal in the book reflect that and they're damn good.
Rocky  was there. I listened to him for a year or so, hour after hour of information from "behind the veil" so to speak, behind the scenes. Rocky was not in a position to assess what he was telling me from my experienced point of view. Read the book. Buy one, pass it around. Accept our offer of a discount but don't bash it without reading it. Doesn't make sense.

[Reynaldo]

Is the clown beating covered in the book?

Yes, that is in the book. Say what you will about my expertise. I was just a lover of the music when I got involved. What I brought to the table was my ability to assimilate the information Rocky gained first hand, by being there, and put it into a really interesting context. Rocky's and my collaboration produced something insightful that many will find interesting.
Am I as informed as many of the members of this site? No. But I have an experienced overview of show business that shed some light on things in a pretty darn interesting way.
I've been around a block or two and it shows.

[Reynaldo]

If you are looking for nuance, you're not going to find it in Rocky Pamplin. The "Jockstrap Brigade" was appropriately part of the BB's "first as tragedy, then as farce" cartoon re-enactment of their previous fall from the heights. Instead of Lorren Daro and Terry Sachen as agents of discord in the DUMB ANGEL phase of SMiLE, you have dim-witted enforcers employed by one faction attempting to "manage" the preternaturally wily Brian via Keystone Kops-inspired thuggery, all while Carl had his own personal meltdown as the Love/TM faction made its move.

How could Carl NOT have finally had such an episode, given how hard he'd worked to lead the band through its wilderness, only to have that all get set aside in the double maelstrom of ENDLESS SUMMER and Landy I, two unstoppable forces that led to "Brian is Back" and a level of discord that arguably exceeded the conflagrations of the Rieley era? Even a nuanced observer might not have grasped all of this as it suddenly enveloped Carl, temporarily making him as vulnerable to the addictive tendencies in the Wilson clan, propensities already thoroughly explored by his brothers.

Rocky's only possible value would have been to bite the hand that fed him--the Love faction. Failing that, he's nothing but a footnote to a sad but farcical period in BBs history that saw Brian backslide, Dennis self-destruct, all while the group coasted, putting out a series of "meh" (at best) records (MIU, LA, KTSA) via an process of mediocre homogenization (first by the TM faction, followed by Bruce).

All of the above is way over Rocky's head, of course--and absent any way of synthesizing anything he saw, it's not surprising that his recollections--either as an abrasively entertaining troll here, or as "cleaned up" by a ghost-writer--are so spectacularly tone-deaf.

Time to move on, folks...

Yeah, yeah. I'll keep saying it, "contempt prior to investigation" is a sad way to roll. How can you comment on a book you have not read?

I'm gonna talk to the publisher and see if I can post a chapter for Smile members perusal. I just spoke to the Publisher and he may well allow it.

[HeyJude]

My overview on what Rocky recounted to me is a stone cold professional's assessment of the Beach Boys history. Walk a mile in my shoes and read the book before you stomp on me.
Otherwise, you're the one blowing smoke.

While this is less about what's in the book than some of the characterizations you've made here, you do realize that Rocky Pamplin was only involved with the group for a short portion of their history, right? Sure, he stayed in varying degrees of contact with other people who had varying degrees of contact with the band.

But, I'm guessing, Rocky Pamplin has not first hand knowledge of what occured, say, in the 60s, or the mid-late 90s, or the 2012 reunion, etc.

Does the book portend a thorough history of the band's entire career? Or does it start and end mostly with Rocky's stint with the group, with then a few tangential items outside of those years? If it's the latter, then your book nor your words are really characterizing the band's "history", but rather one small portion of it.

Have you read McParland's "The Wilson Project" (preferably the updated 2013 edition), which focuses on Brian's circa 1986 work with Usher? That's a book that has a very detailed breakdown of one small section of Brian's life/career, but doesn't pretend to then deduce any grand final judgements on his life or career.

So, and again this pertains more to posts on this thread rather than specifically the book, if a book is co-written by someone whose stint with the group included Carl Wilson's short run of drug/alcohol difficulties, and who is arguably most famous in the BB sphere for punching out said member of the group while the member was intoxicated/high, then it becomes problematic that that one short section of Carl's life/career becomes the centerpiece of discussion.

It appears this leads to subsequent assessments of Carl's career posted here on this thread that paint him as unprofessional (while pointing to Mike Love as the consummate professional of the band), and such an assessment shows a *glaring* case of tunnel vision of focusing so much on a roughly two-year period where Carl had a rough time.

This isn't a case of BB fans being in denial. I would imagine Carl's story is more complex than any book has yet told. But we have *ample* evidence from Carl's roughly 36-year career in the music business. Whatever one wants to say about his career (and there are plenty of things to criticize; his solo albums aren't exactly A-list material), making a broad judgment of Carl as "unprofessional" and "inconsistent" is *not* something supported by that ample evidence.

Again, the co-author has been kind enough to speak to some of what he did or didn't know going into working with Pamplin on this book. Using Pamplin as a primary source to characterize the group's entire history is justifiably going to cause fans and scholars concerns. I'd say the same thing if McParland had used Usher to draw broad conclusions about the entire band. Same thing with any narrow-focus biography/autobiography related to the band.

[Reynaldo]

My overview on what Rocky recounted to me is a stone cold professional's assessment of the Beach Boys history. Walk a mile in my shoes and read the book before you stomp on me.
Otherwise, you're the one blowing smoke.

While this is less about what's in the book than some of the characterizations you've made here, you do realize that Rocky Pamplin was only involved with the group for a short portion of their history, right? Sure, he stayed in varying degrees of contact with other people who had varying degrees of contact with the band.

But, I'm guessing, Rocky Pamplin has not first hand knowledge of what occured, say, in the 60s, or the mid-late 90s, or the 2012 reunion, etc.

Does the book portend a thorough history of the band's entire career? Or does it start and end mostly with Rocky's stint with the group, with then a few tangential items outside of those years? If it's the latter, then your book nor your words are really characterizing the band's "history", but rather one small portion of it.

Have you read McParland's "The Wilson Project" (preferably the updated 2013 edition), which focuses on Brian's circa 1986 work with Usher? That's a book that has a very detailed breakdown of one small section of Brian's life/career, but doesn't pretend to then deduce any grand final judgements on his life or career.

So, and again this pertains more to posts on this thread rather than specifically the book, if a book is co-written by someone whose stint with the group included Carl Wilson's short run of drug/alcohol difficulties, and who is arguably most famous in the BB sphere for punching out said member of the group while the member was intoxicated/high, then it becomes problematic that that one short section of Carl's life/career becomes the centerpiece of discussion.

It appears this leads to subsequent assessments of Carl's career posted here on this thread that paint him as unprofessional (while pointing to Mike Love as the consummate professional of the band), and such an assessment shows a *glaring* case of tunnel vision of focusing so much on a roughly two-year period where Carl had a rough time.

This isn't a case of BB fans being in denial. I would imagine Carl's story is more complex than any book has yet told. But we have *ample* evidence from Carl's roughly 36-year career in the music business. Whatever one wants to say about his career (and there are plenty of things to criticize; his solo albums aren't exactly A-list material), making a broad judgment of Carl as "unprofessional" and "inconsistent" is *not* something supported by that ample evidence.

Again, the co-author has been kind enough to speak to some of what he did or didn't know going into working with Pamplin on this book. Using Pamplin as a primary source to characterize the group's entire history is justifiably going to cause fans and scholars concerns. I'd say the same thing if McParland had used Usher to draw broad conclusions about the entire band. Same thing with any narrow-focus biography/autobiography related to the band.

Fair enough assessment and I don't pretend that the book is a history of the Beach Boys. But of all the other Beach Boys books, none of them started with someone who was there day in and day out, inside the story, behind the scenes, for any length of time. It's a pretty cool peek into somewhere no other book has gone.
A historian, I, and certainly Rocky, ain't.

I'm gonna get a chapter posted for Smile.

[HeyJude]

Fair enough assessment and I don't pretend that the book is a history of the Beach Boys. But of all the other Beach Boys books, none of them started with someone who was there day in and day out, inside the story, behind the scenes, for any length of time. It's a pretty cool peek into somewhere no other book has gone.
A historian, I, and certainly Rocky, ain't.

I'm gonna get a chapter posted for Smile.

The aforementioned Gary Usher book covering the 1986-87 period is certainly a case of someone who was there day in, day out.

Beyond obviously the Brian and Mike autobiographies, there are other books that get in-depth interviews with people who were in the fold even longer than Rocky. For instance, Jon Stebbins's "The Real Beach Boy" talks to lifelong Dennis friends and associates.

And of course the Stebbins/David Marks book is from an insider point of view.

Jim Murphy's "Becoming the Beach Boys" is an unparalleled work on the band's early years; by going back and digging into some Mark Lewisohn-level primary research, I'd frankly trust that book *more* than the half-century-old recollections of some folks.

I'm not at all interested in turning away from the not-so-fun side of the BB story. Despite its shortcomings, the Steven Gaines "Heroes and Villains" book got a lot of the story out there that needed to be out there. But, while Gaines seemed to have a varying amount of interest among the different eras of the band, he tackled not one small era of the band, but the whole story (up to 1986 or whenever that book was published). The particular book was the first to dive into the whole Rocky Pamplin part of the story. I doubt many fans knew the name Pamplin before that book. So I'm not opposed to that part of the story being out there. But fans and scholars have to weigh the angle/credibility, etc. accordingly. Trust me, BB fans and scholars have waded into countless books, and the knowledgeable fans are pretty good at sniffing out what's great, what's okay, what's questionable but still contains some important info, and the rest. For instance, a year or two ago a Carl Wilson biography was published. It was well-intentioned; author seemed like a nice guy, but it just didn't have much new information and skipped over the last years/decade+ of Carl's life. Take something like Scott Wilson's "Son of a Beach Boy." That book definitely needed a good editor/co-author, but the content was too important to let any of that get in the way.

Let it also be known that I don't always agree with all fans on books. For instance, some don't rate Gaines's "Heroes and Villains" too highly. But to me, despite a myriad of shortcomings, it's an important work until someone else comes along and does a better job.

[CenturyDeprived]

Again, not having read the book, but having read the original thread with Rocky, and new snippets/reviews of the book here, one could almost be led to believe that the book could have turned out in a way to favor the pro-Mike "side" of the story (compared to how Rocky seemingly originally was going to have the book go in a possibly different direction, from what I remember of Rocky's posts from awhile back, which admittedly I have not re-read)... and I do wonder if Mike's people found a way to get Mike's political clout to encourage/strongarm Rocky's book turn out in a way that favors what Mike would want it to say (and not say). Is it out of line to make that assumption? I also understand that a perfectly straight answer for this might not be in the cards either. I also don't imagine there'd be a single person who'd want to admit that.

And hey, I'd assume that many wealthy and powerful celebs might do the same, if an insider had stuff to potentially say in a book; I imagine there are ways to get a particular book watered down prior to release to benefit what they do/don't want public. Maybe I'm totally wrong, but it's hard to assume that a bunch of complex politics are not at work with regards to any release involving this band we love. Just like I imagine there had to have been a bunch of behind-the-scenes discussions with Mike with regards to the 2000 TV movie turning out in a way that he wanted, being that his buddy was an executive producer.  Same goes for Love & Mercy, of course.

Haven't met Mike Love. I know talent, I know management and I know the record and film bizness. The insights Rocky's and my collaboration reveal in the book reflect that and they're damn good.
Rocky  was there. I listened to him for a year or so, hour after hour of information from "behind the veil" so to speak, behind the scenes. Rocky was not in a position to assess what he was telling me from my experienced point of view. Read the book. Buy one, pass it around. Accept our offer of a discount but don't bash it without reading it. Doesn't make sense.

I may indeed read the book at some point, and this wasn't meant as bashing,  just my attempt to be realistic based on what glimpses I've had thus far. I'm still somewhat curious. Yet I can understand that powerful parties who potentially stand to gain or lose based on the book's content could yield their power (via methods that I have no insight on), much like I assume that the final cut of the film Love & Mercy (as well as it turned out IMHO) was almost certainly impacted politically in *some* fashion by not just what the filmmakers wanted to say, but what they could/couldn't say without problems arising.  If lines are crossed, I imagine the wrath of known litigious folk could be a result. While you personally haven't met Mike Love, that in and of itself doesn't tell me that my assumption above is by definition completely incorrect.  I frankly think it would be rare and gutsy/stupid for any book like this by any insider about a famous band to simply be released without certain considerations being made. 

[Reynaldo]

Again, not having read the book, but having read the original thread with Rocky, and new snippets/reviews of the book here, one could almost be led to believe that the book could have turned out in a way to favor the pro-Mike "side" of the story (compared to how Rocky seemingly originally was going to have the book go in a possibly different direction, from what I remember of Rocky's posts from awhile back, which admittedly I have not re-read)... and I do wonder if Mike's people found a way to get Mike's political clout to encourage/strongarm Rocky's book turn out in a way that favors what Mike would want it to say (and not say). Is it out of line to make that assumption? I also understand that a perfectly straight answer for this might not be in the cards either. I also don't imagine there'd be a single person who'd want to admit that.

And hey, I'd assume that many wealthy and powerful celebs might do the same, if an insider had stuff to potentially say in a book; I imagine there are ways to get a particular book watered down prior to release to benefit what they do/don't want public. Maybe I'm totally wrong, but it's hard to assume that a bunch of complex politics are not at work with regards to any release involving this band we love. Just like I imagine there had to have been a bunch of behind-the-scenes discussions with Mike with regards to the 2000 TV movie turning out in a way that he wanted, being that his buddy was an executive producer.  Same goes for Love & Mercy, of course.

Haven't met Mike Love. I know talent, I know management and I know the record and film bizness. The insights Rocky's and my collaboration reveal in the book reflect that and they're damn good.
Rocky  was there. I listened to him for a year or so, hour after hour of information from "behind the veil" so to speak, behind the scenes. Rocky was not in a position to assess what he was telling me from my experienced point of view. Read the book. Buy one, pass it around. Accept our offer of a discount but don't bash it without reading it. Doesn't make sense.

I may indeed read the book at some point, and this wasn't meant as bashing,  just my attempt to be realistic based on what glimpses I've had thus far. I'm still somewhat curious. Yet I can understand that powerful parties who potentially stand to gain or lose based on the book's content could yield their power (via methods that I have no insight on), much like I assume that the final cut of the film Love & Mercy (as well as it turned out IMHO) was almost certainly impacted politically in *some* fashion by not just what the filmmakers wanted to say, but what they could/couldn't say without problems arising.  If lines are crossed, I imagine the wrath of known litigious folk could be a result. While you personally haven't met Mike Love, that in and of itself doesn't tell me that my assumption above is by definition completely incorrect.  I frankly think it would be rare and gutsy/stupid for any book like this by any insider about a famous band to simply be released without certain considerations being made. 

Good news I think. Rocky and I have permission to post one full chapter of the book for Smile perusal. As I mentioned this site was very influential in getting me involved and I'm indeed thankful.
It's the 2ed chapter titled "Last Ditch Effort" and we hope you'll like it. It will be along probably within a day. A few logistics are left to be worked out.
You are astute in your observations about having to be careful about a book including rich, influential people.
As one of my attorney friends reminded me when I realized that my name would actually go on the book, and I'll quote him here because it is an amusing and brilliant and frightening quip, all at the same time, "A rich, vexatious litigant can always cause trouble." Ha.
Believe me, that was on our minds. More to come.

The book is getting a review in the British Magazine "Record Collector" sometime in the near future and I will, in a shameless act of self promotion, post it here when it comes out.

The Chapter 2 is coming as promised along with what we call the before and after Pics of Brian when he went from 300+ pounds down to his "fighting" weight of 195.
That physical transformation with regard to the old adage "a pic is worth a thousand words" is quite remarkable, and for any of you doubters as to the efficacy of the Stan Love/Rocky Pamplin effect, this will be undeniable proof. I think you'll like it. Fun stuff.

[Reynaldo]

As promised, here's the 2ed Chapter. I'm going to try and figure out how to get the "before" and "after" pics of Brian that were taken by Stan Love posted as well but they did not seem to print out when I transferred the chapter. Not sure why.

The Beach Boys' Endless Wave - Chapter two

Last Ditch Effort

Let’s back up a bit. This is a good time to explain some of the entangled Wilson and Love family history, introduce you to other assorted brothers and cousins, and give you some perspective as to why my best friend Stan and I entered the Beach Boys’ orbit.

Stan had five family ties to the Beach Boys. Four were in the band: Stan’s oldest brother, Mike Love, who has always been front man and lead singer, and his first cousins, Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson. Stan’s middle brother, Stephen Love, was the Beach Boys’ business manager.

The oldest Wilson brother, Brian, is the gentle genius who co-founded what’s often called "America’s Band" in 1962. Enough about him for now; I’ll fill you in on his challenges and accomplishments throughout Beach Boys’ Endless Wave.

Brian’s younger brothers, Dennis and Carl, are dead now. When they joined the Beach Boys in their middle teens, both boys had sweet voices and attitudes and did whatever their big brother and cousin asked of them. Dynamics sure changed as they grew up.

Mike Love, the oldest Beach Boy, has a long and involved relationship with his younger cousin, Brian. They co-founded the Beach Boys, and for years cooperated on songwriting. Mike has his own variety of hardworking genius; he’s the invaluable mixture of glue and sweat that held the band together for decades.

Mike has always been the dependable Beach Boy, sober and present through thick and thin and thousands of gigs. As the frontman and lead singer, he embodied the Beach Boys image with his voice and mesmerizing stage presence. The Beach Boys would have folded in 1964 without him, and he’s kept the band on the road for well over 50 years.

Even though he was not a family member, rhythm guitarist and vocalist Al Jardine was an important influence on the emergence of the band.

He was there when the group was still in high school, left for a while on the suggestion of his father to attend dental school, but luckily returned and stayed. Al sang the lead on the band’s first number one hit song, “Help Me Rhonda.”

His interest in folk music inspired Brian to arrange “Sloop John B” for the band to cover and Al later composed an unfinished original about his wife entitled, “Lady Lynda,” which Brian helped him finish and the band recorded. It has been on their live stage play list ever since.

Stephen didn’t aspire to be one of the Beach Boys; instead, he focused on academics and athletics. He was student body president of Morningside High School, class of 1965, and graduated seventh in his class of 535 students. Stephen was a star player on the Monarchs’ football team and earned first team all-league honors as a wide receiver on offense and as a safety on defense. Playing both offense and defense is rare enough; winning first team honors for playing both sides is almost unheard of.

Stephen was offered several football scholarships, including one to the University of Southern California, but he’d just had his heart broken by his high school sweetheart and he couldn’t muster the requisite enthusiasm to play football at the college level. Instead, he decided to accept an academic scholarship at USC, thinking he should buckle down and learn something useful that would prepare him for a career.

Stephen excelled academically at USC, graduating magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish in 1969. His grades were so good that he applied for and received a full-ride fellowship to USC’s prestigious Graduate School of Business Administration.

The summer he graduated from college and before he started his two-year MBA program, Stephen visited his younger brother, Stan, in Eugene, Oregon. Stan played center on the University of Oregon basketball team, and he was fast becoming one of the top college players in the country.

As Stan’s roommate and close friend, I met Stephen during his visit. Since I was a running back for the Fighting Ducks of the University of Oregon, our shared football background helped us become good friends. We just clicked. It takes courage, athleticism and intestinal fortitude to play the game of football, and we recognized and respected these qualities in each other. You could say we were cut from the same cloth.

Stephen began working for the Beach Boys full-time that summer, and he worked part-time in the group’s offce during the school year until he earned his MBA. He assisted the band’s business manager, Nick Grillo, a man who was under a lot of pressure because the group was in decline, revenues were down, and the bills were piling up.

The band was not as popular as it had been before the British Invasion. The music scene changed dramatically with the likes of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Cream, and The Who. Jimi Hendrix had the bad taste to announce, “Well, we’ll never have to listen to that lame surf music again,” at the Monterey Pop festival in 1967.

That was, at best, mean-spirited crap in my opinion.

Since Brian had written most of the songs either alone or with Mike, he still received a good income from royalties, but the other Beach Boys’ income mainly depended upon touring. They never managed to tone down their lavish lifestyles, and they were in dire need of cash. Brian and his wife Marilyn took it upon themselves to keep the group afloat during the band’s lean days in the late Sixties and first few years of the Seventies.

Stephen’s involvement in the business offce was perfect timing. Even before he became manager, he brought fresh energy into a problematic scenario. The band (minus Brian) took to the road, and slowly but surely, a turnaround in their fortunes took place, as always, on the back of Mike Love, the reliable workhorse, day in and day out. In fact, if this book ever had an alternative title, it would be something like Mike Love—I’m Still Standing. (Kudos to the Rocket Man himself, Elton John, who is celebrating 50 years of music fame and fortune with a TV special titled—yup, you guessed it—“I’m Still Standing,” after his enormous hit record of the same name.)

When Stephen took over the reins and replaced Nick Grillo as manager in April, 1972, momentum was finally building as the Beach Boys’ concert tours became increasingly popular. One of Stephen’s first major decisions was to start a repayment program from the band to Brian and Marilyn for $330,000 they’d poured into the group over the previous few years (well over two million dollars in today’s money). Stephen had Brian’s back. When all the money was eventually repaid, Marilyn gratefully told Stephen, “Thanks for looking after us.”

In 1972, the Beach Boys were commanding a pitiful baseline “performance fee” of only $5,000 per show. This was just the minimum fee for showing up—it didn’t include a percentage of the gate or memorabilia sales, of course. During Stephen’s tenure as manager, he ramped up the performance fee tenfold to $50,000 per show.

The first really big check the band got in the early Seventies was for a 1974 concert in Oakland, one that didn’t include Brian. They sold out the stadium, and promoter Bill Graham sent them a check for $150,000. Stephen took a picture of that check and framed it.

November, 1965, partying in the early days before fame, fortune, drugs and the excesses of the rock-and-roll lifestyle derailed Brian Wilson. This intimate party celebrated the release of a new album, Beach Boys Party! Back row, left to right: Al and wife Lynda Jardine, Carl Wilson, Carol Botnick (friend of Marilyn Wilson), Dennis and his rst wife Carole Wilson, Ron Swallow (roadie). Front row: Mike Love, in the company of adoring fans, Bruce Johnston (who toured as Brian’s replacement), Brian with his wife Marilyn Wilson, and college freshman and future Beach Boys manager Steve Love.

In 1975, Rolling Stone magazine recognized the Beach Boys as one of the biggest concert draws in the business, and they named the band’s road crew, under the direction of workhorse Jason Raphalian, the best on tour. Stephen and the band were especially proud of that accolade.
However, touring and playing your greatest hits in every concert venue is one level of success; making creative new music is entirely another level. What was really going to put the Beach Boys back on top was Stephen’s creative and risky “Brian’s Back” campaign, a public relations masterstroke that led to the securing of a multi-million-dollar record deal with CBS Records in 1977. The new deal included a whopping $2 million cash advance against future album deliveries—worth well over $8 million in today’s dollars. The deal’s full potential was $8 million in 1977 dollars, or over $32 million today. It was one of the biggest music deals of the Seventies.

Under Stephen’s guidance, the band would complete their deal with Reprise Records and join the CBS Records family.

The entire music industry was intrigued by the prospect of the long-idle Brian Wilson returning to active duty as a composer and producer. With the sold-out concert tours and new major label deal in place, the career of America’s one-time favorite pop music group was undergoing a massive resurgence.

The viability of the CBS deal was contingent upon Brian Wilson’s active participation: CBS insisted that Brian write and produce 75% of the new music. Though the Beach Boys were still viable on the road, they needed new music to feed the insatiable public beast or they’d fade from view.

If Stephen could get the musical wizard Brian Wilson to compose again after a decade and record his matchless melodies and vocal arrangements, he might be able to orchestrate a complete resurgence of the band’s career.

If Brian still had some magic left in his battered soul, he just might be able to recreate the lush sound he was so famous for, the harmonies that were a major component of the soundtrack of the Sixties. If the dormant genius could rise to the occasion and produce hit songs as he had before, doing his own version of Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound,” the chances were good that their careers could be resurrected.

Brian cried when he signed the CBS contract. Could he miraculously create another hit record? For Brian, the thought was painful and frightening; he really wanted no part of fame or success again. After all, look what it had brought him before, nothing but heartache and disappointment. Brian had been a broken man for almost a decade.

Did he have the mettle to put his fragile self, his talent, and his soul on the line again? That was the multi-million-dollar question. We were going to see if Stephen could prop Brian up, with my help and Stan’s, and get the golden goose to produce a hit record that would resonate with the times.

A lot had happened during the years that Brian had been in bed, not writing music, totally withdrawn from the band. Cocaine and heroin had become his drugs of choice. He would call his dealers at all hours, day or night, and tell them there was a thousand dollars in the mailbox (that always guaranteed a quick delivery). Brian was a physical and emotional wreck. At his peak weight, he carried over 300 pounds on his 6-foot, 3-inch frame, had greasy hair down past his shoulders, a scraggly beard, unclipped toenails, nicotine-stained fingers, and went unbathed for days, sometimes weeks at a time.

To further complicate the challenges he faced, Brian heard voices on a regular basis, voices sometimes telling him to harm people, or that people were about to harm him.

Brian had his first nervous breakdown two days before Christmas in 1964, when he suddenly left a concert tour, vowing never to tour again. Instead, he focused on writing new music for the band; he wanted to expand creatively and write with people of his own choosing.

Brian stayed home to write music over the next couple of years, and the Beach Boys toured without him. Brian’s music evolved through several new albums in 1965 and 1966, with his masterpiece, Pet Sounds, coming out in 1966. In 1967, he was hard at work at what was to be its follow-up, Smile.

Mike was not happy with some of the esoteric lyrics Brian’s new collaborators were writing. Though he recognized that Pet Sounds was a musical masterpiece, he knew what worked for the band. He thought Brian should stick to the proven and comfortable formula of surfing, hot rods and California girls, and he was essentially correct. It took years before Pet Sounds sophisticated brilliance was broadly accepted, and it never became a commercial hit.

Since the group’s founding, Brian had always shared the credit with Mike because he was gentle, generous, and he’d looked up to his older cousin. In the early years, they shared the same vision of the band’s sound and image—fun in the sun, bikinied babes, fast cars, and the California surf style of living.

Now all Brian wanted to do was stretch out and explore further reaches artistically, to compete with the likes of the Beatles.

In 1967, Mike’s discomfort with Brian’s new musical direction caused things to get more than a little heated. As portrayed in the film Love and Mercy, they had an ugly scene, and it brought things to a head. Brian had reached his breaking point; his mental and physical reserves were stretched so thin, he was done.

At that point, Brian effectively quit the band and withdrew into a cocoon of drugs and disenchantment. He vowed he would never write songs again for the Beach Boys, and he opted to slip into oblivion. He just couldn’t take it anymore. He checked out. Why, he asked himself, should he continue shouldering the awesome responsibility that comes with writing the songs, doing the arrangements, teaching the others their parts, both vocally and instrumentally, slaving away in the studio, all the while dealing with a changing audience that was seemingly turning on him and his music?

Years went by and Brian stayed in his cocoon, sometimes not leaving his bedroom for months except to go downstairs to the kitchen and eat (and eat and eat). Brian had hit his lowest point. He was in the throes of addiction, a seemingly hopeless lost cause, and he’d been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. He had absolutely no interest in life, love, music or anything of value. Being a productive member of society was dead last on Brian’s list of priorities. He was not interested at all in writing or recording new music, singing, or touring—those were the very things that had overwhelmed his childlike, overly generous, sensitive, and creative nature.

He was a defeated shell of a man, simply waiting to die. If ever there was a modern-day tragic Shakespearean character, Brian filled the role. He had, in the vernacular of surfers, wiped out.

Psychologist Eugene Landy was hired for the first time in 1975, but he was fired by Stephen after his fees climbed to over $22,000 a month. Marilyn reached the end of her rope in 1976, when she felt Brian was a danger to himself and to the family. She threatened to have him committed to a mental institution.

Stephen pleaded with Marilyn to delay committing Brian and to give it one more try, take one last chance to save Brian. He asked her permission to hire his younger brother, Stan, to enter their home and drag Brian out of bed—against his will, if necessary—to try and save Brian’s life. Marilyn acquiesced, thank God.

When Brian’s youngest brother, Carl, learned about the arrangement, he enthusiastically said, “Smart move, Steve.”

Mike was guardedly optimistic. His brother Stan was a professional basketball player who had a stint with the Lakers, but did that make him a qualified protector—essentially a life preserver?

Stephen lobbied hard. “Listen, Stan is our brother, he’s Brian’s cousin, and he’s absolutely trustworthy. He has Brian’s best interests at heart. That kind of loyalty isn’t available anywhere else, at any price.”

Mike agreed.

Stan’s duties included making Brian take a daily shower, driving him to his psychiatrist, getting him to a gym for exercise, watching his diet, and eventually getting him back into the recording studio to write and record again for the first time in years. This was a monumental task, but Stan, who had come off a two-year stint with the Lakers, had the stamina and the discipline.

It wasn’t smooth going at first. After years of not working and not getting out of bed, Brian had an aversion to doing anything except eating, sleeping, and taking drugs. He was rich and famous, used to making his own rules, and hellbent on

fulfilling his subconscious death wish.

Brian steadily fought the idea of having a keeper, and he tried to fire Stan at the least provocation, ranting, “This is my house. Leave me alone! You’re fired!”

Marilyn would always push back. “You either do what Stan tells you to do, or you’re going to the mental hospital.”

Clearly, Stan needed more backup in the extremely demanding, nearly impossible task of saving a lost soul who would go to any length to get drugs. That’s when Stan suggested to Stephen that they bring me aboard to help.

This was the situation I walked into when Stan first brought me to Brian’s mansion. I was hired the day after Stan introduced me to Brian and Marilyn, and Stephen’s dynamic duo, as he referred to us, was in place. Stephen’s "No Drugs in Brian’s Life" policy was implemented with extreme urgency. “No drugs” wasn’t just a policy, it was our law. No drugs of any kind, anytime, anywhere, from anybody. Ever, period!

Marilyn agreed.

Stephen declared that if Stan and I couldn’t keep drugs out of Brian’s life, no one could. He said this with the resolute confidence of a born leader. He had sworn us to our task.

Our mission was to save Brian’s life, a daunting undertaking, and we took it seriously. We monitored Brian around the clock. It wasn’t easy. After all, Brian is a genius, and he would prove to be extremely crafty and resourceful when it came to feeding his drug habit. Brian didn’t hesitate to approach complete strangers and beg them for drugs. Many were all too keen to accommodate him just because of who Brian is, a famous and legendary pop star. This was just one element of our ever-challenging task. Being vigilant 24/7 was the name of the game for our crew.

Stephen’s last-ditch effort to avoid institutionalizing Brian worked, despite some surprising actions by Brian’s own brothers, and despite every wily effort Brian made to get drugs. Brian did come back from the edge, and Stephen’s "Brian’s Back" campaign made the band richer than it had been in its heyday in the Sixties.

If a Hall of Fame for rock managers existed, Stephen likely would have been inducted. Instead, all too soon, he was exiled. I’ll tell you the story, for I’m partly responsible for what happened; in my view, however, Stephen could be considered an unsung hero.

[Reynaldo]

Tried again to post the pics. Can't get them to copy on to the site.
Anybody got some suggestions as to how I can get that accomplished?
Thanks.

[ReggieDunbar]

Tried again to post the pics. Can't get them to copy on to the site.
Anybody got some suggestions as to how I can get that accomplished?
Thanks.

Thank's for sharing!!! If you e-mail them to me, on henrik.pallin@gmail.com I'll upload them for you.

[rab2591]

In 1967, Mike’s discomfort with Brian’s new musical direction caused things to get more than a little heated. As portrayed in the film Love and Mercy, they had an ugly scene, and it brought things to a head. Brian had reached his breaking point; his mental and physical reserves were stretched so thin, he was done.

At that point, Brian effectively quit the band and withdrew into a cocoon of drugs and disenchantment. He vowed he would never write songs again for the Beach Boys, and he opted to slip into oblivion. He just couldn’t take it anymore. He checked out. Why, he asked himself, should he continue shouldering the awesome responsibility that comes with writing the songs, doing the arrangements, teaching the others their parts, both vocally and instrumentally, slaving away in the studio, all the while dealing with a changing audience that was seemingly turning on him and his music?

“In 1967...At that point, Brian effectively quit the band...he opted to slip into oblivion...He checked out.” Brian had been “in bed for years...not writing music.”

So his OBVIOUS work on Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, Friends, 20/20, Sunflower, Surf’s Up, Holland, Carl and the Passions, etc isn’t Brian? I can’t believe people are still trying to pass on this myth...a myth that has been so easily disproven countless times now. Brian was still doing arrangements, he was still teaching his bandmates harmony parts to his songs. Yeesh, the 1968 Set which came out yesterday is just continued evidence that Brian was still very present on post SMiLE albums. Wild Honey and Friends are some of Brian’s most cohesively sounding albums ever (not to mention on Smiley SMiLE, Friends, and Wild Honey he shares the songwriting credits on almost every song (all but four songs he’s not credited and one of those being a cover song)!

No doubt Brian had his issues during this time, and no doubt he did withdraw at times, and his presence on post SMiLE albums wanes with each release after Friends. Yet he is vividly present on nearly every Beach Boys album ever released. People love to perpetuate this myth that Brian stayed in bed for years not doing anything...when the reality of what actually happened is FAR more interesting than this bed myth could ever be.

[Lee Marshall]

"contempt prior to investigation is unfair and quite honestly BS."  I agree...100%.  Knowing that you're a walkin'/talkin' proponent of a "natural high" seems to make entire sense in terms of your 'take' on things regarding this topic of discussion.  It says that you're gullible and easily fooled.  Meanwhile much of what you've shared here tips the scales in my favour.  Your posts are all one needs to read in order to deduce that you don't know what the f*** you're talking about when it comes to THIS SPECIFIC story.  Then there's this chapter of twaddle.  I'll insert myself where needed.

Mike Love, who has always been front man and lead singer ... Mike has his own variety of hardworking genius; he’s the invaluable mixture of glue and sweat that held the band together for decades.  Well no.  He hasn't always been the front man.  Nor has he ever been the only member of the Beach Boys to sing lead.  As you'll mention shortly.  Al sang lead on their first #1 hit.  Brian sang lots of leads.  Then, thankfully, up stepped the best voice in the band, Carl, to take over.  Dennis also left Mike behind vocally and creatively.  A cause for jealousy?  You Betcha.  When Jack was managing things Mike was moved back into the pack while Carl was moved forward to run the show musically.  And in regard to holding the band together...Mike's lack of commitment to rehearsing meant that the Beach Boys lost their signature sound and that they became SO SLOPPY sounding that Carl left the band in disgust.  In his absence the live sound really plummeted to the point that the NON-creative side had to give in, agree to rehearse and welcome Carl back in order to save them from falling off of the stage and live performing.   With Mike in charge they sucked.

Mike has always been the dependable Beach Boy, sober and present through thick and thin and thousands of gigs. As the frontman and lead singer, he embodied the Beach Boys image with his voice and mesmerizing stage presence. The Beach Boys would have folded in 1964 without him  What?  Rocky, of course, was there at the time and can accurately detail the comings and goings of the band circa 1964?  As for Mike's dependability and his soberness the Hall of Fame inductions dispel that cloud of farted out air instantly.


The band was not as popular as it had been before the British Invasion. The music scene changed dramatically with the likes of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Cream, and The Who. Jimi Hendrix had the bad taste to announce, “Well, we’ll never have to listen to that lame surf music again,” at the Monterey Pop festival in 1967.  That was, at best, mean-spirited crap in my opinion.  Hogwash delivered by the dump truck load!!!  The Boys were the most successful pre British Invasion act in America post the British Invasion.  Good God!!!  In the very chapter you, again, mentioned Help Me Rhonda...their 1st #1 hit.  The Boys grew in stature after the Brits landed.  And that Hendrix quote?  Misquoted.  Came from a recorded song on his first L.P. 'Are you Experienced'.  He was referring to his friend Dick Dale.

Brian and his wife Marilyn took it upon themselves to keep the group afloat during the band’s lean days in the late Sixties and first few years of the Seventies.
 a turnaround in their fortunes took place, as always, on the back of Mike Love, the reliable workhorse, day in and day out. So the fact that the Wilsons supplied cash to keep the ball rolling was equaled by Mike's back and reliability?  The rest of the crew were what?  Mannequins?  


 However, touring and playing your greatest hits in every concert venue is one level of success; making creative new music is entirely another level. What was really going to put the Beach Boys back on top was Stephen’s creative and risky “Brian’s Back” campaign, a public relations masterstroke   A masterstroke?  It was a lie.  It was soon discovered to be a ploy.  Brian wasn't back.  The whole 'however many big ones' album quickly rose and fell, failed to deliver on the promise, saw songs released incorrectly [like It's OK should have been released BEFORE Rock 'n' Roll Music...you know...at the beginning of the summer...not at the end of it.], and it generally disappointed except for Had to Phone Ya.  Compared to Friends, 20/20, Holland, Surf's Up, Carl and the Passions and Holland [which thankfully all gave us a LOT less Mike] this stuff was back to the drawing/board-teaching little fingers to play music by comparison.  Brian's Back?  There was one chance to make that first impression and the Loves blew it...badly.  The ramifications would last a decade.  THAT is on their backs.

For Brian, the thought was painful and frightening; he really wanted no part of fame or success again. After all, look what it had brought him before, nothing but heartache and disappointment. Brian had been a broken man for almost a decade.  Did he have the mettle to put his fragile self, his talent, and his soul on the line again? That was the multi-million-dollar question. We were going to see if Stephen could prop Brian up, with my help and Stan’s, and get the golden goose to produce a hit record that would resonate with the times.  Let's prop up "the golden goose".  Now THAT'S compassion.  The true bottom line eh?


To further complicate the challenges he faced, Brian heard voices on a regular basis, voices sometimes telling him to harm people, or that people were about to harm him.  So you finally get to this.  The crux of the matter recognized [in this printing] at long last.  Almost as an afterthought the fact that Brian had been dealing with a mental illness, the true basis for his problems, was nodded at and then shelved?  Let's pound the sh*t out of Carl and Dennis [unmercifully] and forget to address the elephant in the room which Brian was forced to ride.  Cowards at every turn...ol' Rocky and Stan.  Just plain cowards.

Brian had his first nervous breakdown two days before Christmas in 1964, when he suddenly left a concert tour, vowing never to tour again. Instead, he focused on writing new music for the band; he wanted to expand creatively and write with people of his own choosing.  Right.  Generally and often NOT Mike.  Mike penned lyrics for far less than 1/2 of their songs...even fewer during the glory years.

Brian stayed home to write music over the next couple of years, and the Beach Boys toured without him. Brian’s music evolved through several new albums in 1965 and 1966, with his masterpiece, Pet Sounds, coming out in 1966. In 1967, he was hard at work at what was to be its follow-up, Smile. [Again, as had been the case with Pet Sounds...without Mike...who bitched and moaned and complained to the point of more than mere annoyance...and to anyone and everyone connected.  Hells Bells.  he pretty much chased Van Dyke away.  What an Ass!!!  That wouldn't have impacted at all on poor Brian now would it have?  Friggin' idiot!!!]

Mike was not happy with some of the esoteric lyrics Brian’s new collaborators were writing. Though he recognized that Pet Sounds was a musical masterpiece, he knew what worked for the band. He thought Brian should stick to the proven and comfortable formula of surfing, hot rods and California girls, and he was essentially correct. It took years before Pet Sounds sophisticated brilliance was broadly accepted, and it never became a commercial hit.  He was, in fact, essentially wrong.  The musical times were a-changin'  The band's fans were maturing.  Brian knew that the Boys had to keep ahead of the curve.  To return to 1964 was ever-so-wrongheaded which would be proven in the mid 70s when Mike finally ''wrassled' control of the group away from the creative half and turned it into Sha Na Na with plastic buckets and sand shovels.   Oh and it didn't take years for fans to appreciate Pet Sounds.  It was instantaneous.  [and Sloop John B, Wouldn't It Be Nice/God Only Knows and Caroline No offer further proof]  The record company was not forthcoming about album sales and accrued profits in real time.  It was, in fact, a BIG hit.  Still is.

Since the group’s founding, Brian had always shared the credit with Mike because he was gentle, generous, and he’d looked up to his older cousin.   Wrong.  Check out the Mike nominated to the Song Writers Hall of Fame thread for the breakdown on how few songs he actually helped to create.  Mike has always endeavored to grab far more credit than is actually due.  He now has dubious credit for quite a slew of songs he likely contributed little or nothing to in terms of their composition.

Now all Brian wanted to do was stretch out and explore further reaches artistically, to compete with the likes of the Beatles.  [As of Rubber Soul in 1965.  Everybody knows that.  Writin' 'bout girls on some Beach wasn't gonna get that done.  And let us not forget that Mike only contributed to a handful of the car songs so forget that.  The future was only going to be discovered by moving forward, onward and upward.]

In 1967, Mike’s discomfort with Brian’s new musical direction caused things to get more than a little heated. As portrayed in the film Love and Mercy, they had an ugly scene, and it brought things to a head. Brian had reached his breaking point; his mental and physical reserves were stretched so thin, he was done. [Thanks, in part, to the witless, heartless, talent-shy greed-hog who helped push him there with his incessant crapola.]

At that point, Brian effectively quit the band and withdrew into a cocoon of drugs and disenchantment. He vowed he would never write songs again for the Beach Boys, and he opted to slip into oblivion. He just couldn’t take it anymore. He checked out.   So there was no Smiley Smile?  No Wild Honey?  Friends was a myth?  20/20 was just an eyesight thing?  Sunflower?  Something which grew in the garden.  Surf's Up?  Indeed.  And Holland?  They just went there to buy some wooden shoes?

Years went by and Brian stayed in his cocoon, sometimes not leaving his bedroom for months except to go downstairs to the kitchen and eat (and eat and eat).  Mental illness Einstein.  Mental illness.  Plus he was likely hiding from Mike and his pack of loveless sycophants.

He was a defeated shell of a man, simply waiting to die. If ever there was a modern-day tragic Shakespearean character, Brian filled the role. He had, in the vernacular of surfers, wiped out.  Thanks Dr. Rocky.  You remain a coward.  An IGNORANT coward.  Disloyal.  Untrustworthy.  A bully.  Unworthy


Stephen declared that if Stan and I couldn’t keep drugs out of Brian’s life, no one could.  After all, Brian is a genius, and he would prove to be extremely crafty and resourceful when it came to feeding his drug habit. Brian didn’t hesitate to approach complete strangers and beg them for drugs.   That would seem like genius to someone who played way too many games without a helmet.  

 Stephen’s "Brian’s Back" campaign made the band richer than it had been in its heyday in the Sixties.  Huh?  Why?  Inflation?  Wasn't because of new record sales.  Must have been because of the body of work they collectively helped to record...and perform...all based on the creative genius of Brian D Wilson along with collaborators like Gary Usher, Roger Christian, Tony Asher, Van Dyke Parks, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Al Jardine and even Mike Love and Bruce Johnston.  I can't, off the top of my head, recall a Beach Boys song David Marks helped to write back in the day.  Stephen's campaign was bogus and as I said earlier they blew the chance to score long term when the campaign delivered bullshit.  [just like this book]
.

[mtaber]

I give Ron credit for coming onto this site and reading through our various responses.  I think the main problem with the book is simple.  Ron's source of information seemingly is Rocky and, to some degree, the Love camp.  Rocky was only involved for a short period of time and has shown on this site a propensity for braggadocious postings.  Thus, had he (Rocky) collaborated with someone with an extensive understanding of the group's history, much of Rocky's BS would have been filtered out.  Anyone with a good amount of expertise on the history of the Beach Boys would realize that Mike's role was less than this book would seem to have you believe.  Mike has had his share of mental health problems over the decades, for example.  Lee pointed out a number of other inaccuracies. 

I have not read the book.  I have read the part that Ron just posted.  I have read Rocky's posts on this site a couple of years ago (has it been that long?).  That's enough for me.

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

It's just so blatantly obvious that Rocky's just another clown (quite similar to the luHvster) trying to make cashola on Brian's coattails and got the blessings of Mike Love if he made Mike look good in the book. In fact, several passages in the post sounds like Mike wrote them himself. How very sickening. It's just the unpleasant icing on the stale cake as to why I will not waste time reading this book that only succeeds in trying to rewrite history.

[Pretty Funky]

‘....and Al later composed an unfinished original about his wife entitled, “Lady Lynda,” which Brian helped him finish and the band recorded. It has been on their live stage play list ever since.’


No it hasn’t.

[♩♬🐸 Sorry Entertainer ♯♫♩🐇]

I give Ron credit for coming onto this site and reading through our various responses.  I think the main problem with the book is simple.  Ron's source of information seemingly is Rocky and, to some degree, the Love camp.  Rocky was only involved for a short period of time and has shown on this site a propensity for braggadocious postings.  Thus, had he (Rocky) collaborated with someone with an extensive understanding of the group's history, much of Rocky's BS would have been filtered out.  Anyone with a good amount of expertise on the history of the Beach Boys would realize that Mike's role was less than this book would seem to have you believe.  Mike has had his share of mental health problems over the decades, for example.  Lee pointed out a number of other inaccuracies. 

I have not read the book.  I have read the part that Ron just posted.  I have read Rocky's posts on this site a couple of years ago (has it been that long?).  That's enough for me.

Same here

[rab2591]

It's just so blatantly obvious that Rocky's just another clown (quite similar to the luHvster) trying to make cashola on Brian's coattails and got the blessings of Mike Love if he made Mike look good in the book. In fact, several passages in the post sounds like Mike wrote them himself. How very sickening. It's just the unpleasant icing on the stale cake as to why I will not waste time reading this book that only succeeds in trying to rewrite history.

Right? Those parts about Brian apparently doing nothing but laying in bed for years seem to be lifted straight from Mike's laughably pathetic 2005 lawsuit against Brian.

[SMiLE Brian]

Rocky is the patsy for a love hit job....

[Jay]

.......And breath.

[SMiLE Brian]

It’s a lovely game....

[guitarfool2002]

I have to say that I give a tip of the hat to Ron for coming in and joining the discussion, but after reading the excerpts posted so far, some of those statements are just completely wrong or out of line factually and otherwise.

As much as I respect the fact Ron is here taking the questions and comments about the book, some of the "facts" and statements seen so far simply do not line up with the actual facts and truth. And I wasn't going to go there, but some of the comments in the book's excerpts do indeed sound like either the nonsense written in Mike's 2005 lawsuit that got chucked out of every court that heard it, or even perhaps more blatant, some of the PR nonsense that has come from the Love group and his more ardent supporters and defenders in the past decade or more. Key phrases, comments, the wording, etc...it could be a press release.

And it's still baffling how a book could do a 180 degree flip in a few years to turn into a glowing praise of Mike Love. It's fine to praise Mike and his role in the band, but some of those quotes are the same kind of sycophantry that has been and usually gets debunked on arrival when it appears.

[Lee Marshall]

Ya think that I might have been a little rough on dear ol' Ron Craig?  Well guess what?  I have no time for people who think because they've had something of a 'hand' in tossing together a few words, ideas and semi-fictional stories provided by ill-informed 1/2 milers, part-timers and a host of others looking to have their bottoms smooched, buffed and polished, that we will idly just sit back and encourage yet another barrage of pure unadulterated bull excrement to be wafted down upon the great unwashed.

The guy is as transparent as they come.  He admits he doesn't know the people he's 'writing' about, that he's merely some level of 'fan-boy' and that he's somehow qualified here because he's stood on or near a stage professionally.  Whoop-dee-doo.  His sources for accumulating and deciphering facts are clearly and desperately 'wanting'.  This tripe wasn't even ready to be proof-read and edited let alone printed.  Yet he's in here chastising folks who haven't read the obvious foolishness at hand. 

To me?  THAT doesn't deserve a pass.  It does encourage scorn though.  [and plenty of it.]  Better to call a spade a spade.  If Ron wants to save his reputation he should do everything he can to make the point to the powers that be that this 'book' is not ready to hit the shelves.  If it does though...bind it like a little girl's diary and then don't provide any keys with which to open it.  Trees will die for THIS!!!???!!!???!!!

There otta be a law. 

[SMiLE Brian]

Lee is da man!

[Reynaldo]

Ya think that I might have been a little rough on dear ol' Ron Craig?  Well guess what?  I have no time for people who think because they've had something of a 'hand' in tossing together a few words, ideas and semi-fictional stories provided by ill-informed 1/2 milers, part-timers and a host of others looking to have their bottoms smooched, buffed and polished, that we will idly just sit back and encourage yet another barrage of pure unadulterated bull excrement to be wafted down upon the great unwashed.

The guy is as transparent as they come.  He admits he doesn't know the people he's 'writing' about, that he's merely some level of 'fan-boy' and that he's somehow qualified here because he's stood on or near a stage professionally.  Whoop-dee-doo.  His sources for accumulating and deciphering facts are clearly and desperately 'wanting'.  This tripe wasn't even ready to be proof-read and edited let alone printed.  Yet he's in here chastising folks who haven't read the obvious foolishness at hand. 

To me?  THAT doesn't deserve a pass.  It does encourage scorn though.  [and plenty of it.]  Better to call a spade a spade.  If Ron wants to save his reputation he should do everything he can to make the point to the powers that be that this 'book' is not ready to hit the shelves.  If it does though...bind it like a little girl's diary and then don't provide any keys with which to open it.  Trees will die for THIS!!!???!!!???!!!

I'm curious. Have you seen more than the one chapter?

There otta be a law.