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Author Topic: The Steven Gaines Thread  (Read 82868 times)
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« Reply #75 on: October 02, 2008, 09:11:06 AM »

This is what happens when people get so nit picky about the history.  Roll Eyes
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« Reply #76 on: October 27, 2008, 07:14:33 PM »

Just for the record, I have over 100 tapes in a bank vault, tapes never heard before by anyone but me, tapes with Brian, particularly the one in Landy's office when he talked about Murry; the heroin tape from Australia; interviews with Marilyn, Diane and their mom and dad; over 12 hours of tapes of Karen Lamm reading her diaries aloud to me; several hours of Landy's bull; taped interviews with Lorne Michaels; interviews with members of the Love family; photographs and memorabilia nobody had ever seen before; a copy of the ms of the book Rocky and Stan were writing about the group; and some mind blowing on-tape stories from David Anderle, Van Dyke Parks, Gary Usher, Nik Venet and on and on and on.  I have five cartons of articles about the group collected from around the world. 
I also have the depositions I gave in three Beach Boy trials, including one in which I presented a taped  interview with Chuck Kaye that got the publishing money from Sea of Tunes back in Brian's pocket.  Also my extensive depositions about how and why my book was plagiarized.
So if anybody tells you that I used everything I had in the book--no matter what you think of my best selling book--they're just bitter and they don't know what they're talking about.

« Last Edit: October 27, 2008, 07:17:15 PM by Beach Boy Author » Logged
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« Reply #77 on: October 27, 2008, 07:23:52 PM »

Hi, Steven, good to see you back. I hope you stick around. May I ask, have you heard Brian's That Lucky Old Sun album? I wonder your opinions, if so.
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« Reply #78 on: October 27, 2008, 09:49:14 PM »

Glad to see you're back, too. Personally, I loved your book, and loved how no punches were pulled.

I too wonder your opinion on TLOS, and on Brian these days in general. Also, off topic, but what albums (by any artist) are your favorites out of your collection?
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« Reply #79 on: October 28, 2008, 12:35:48 AM »

Thanks for giving us another chance to be a little more polite and diplomatic, Mr. Gaines.

That sounds like a lot of really fascinating stuff that you have in your archives, particularly the
anecdotes from David Anderle, Van Dyke et al., and the lengthy discussion with Brian about Murry.

I'm sure you have moved on, but your presence and (previous, possibly renewed) interest in
participating here indicates a renewed interest in the subject. Have you ever considered
pursuing publisher interest in an expanded, updated edition, making use of additional archival
material? Could be a definitive account (not that the previous edition was lacking in any way).

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« Reply #80 on: October 28, 2008, 01:45:15 AM »

Hello Steven,

Good to see you back here. I'm convinced that many fans overhere would like to see you show up here from time to time. I would!

You have been in the unique position to be able to get very close to the group, people surrounding them, and lot's of information the casual fans never know or maybe only vaguely heard stories about. Of course your choice to not use all of them has it's (good) reasons, otherwise we would've read about it back in the 80-ies. But if you think it's relevant to a discussion on this board or can give an answer to questions, I'd be delighted if you'd like to respond once in a while. Of course only if you want to, have the time for it, and if you think certain information can be made public at all (I assume you had good reasons to not use everything for the book at the time).


Are you still in the writing-business these days btw?



Just for the record, I have over 100 tapes in a bank vault, tapes never heard before by anyone but me, tapes with Brian, particularly the one in Landy's office when he talked about Murry; the heroin tape from Australia; interviews with Marilyn, Diane and their mom and dad; over 12 hours of tapes of Karen Lamm reading her diaries aloud to me; several hours of Landy's bull; taped interviews with Lorne Michaels; interviews with members of the Love family; photographs and memorabilia nobody had ever seen before; a copy of the ms of the book Rocky and Stan were writing about the group; and some mind blowing on-tape stories from David Anderle, Van Dyke Parks, Gary Usher, Nik Venet and on and on and on.  I have five cartons of articles about the group collected from around the world. 
I also have the depositions I gave in three Beach Boy trials, including one in which I presented a taped  interview with Chuck Kaye that got the publishing money from Sea of Tunes back in Brian's pocket.  Also my extensive depositions about how and why my book was plagiarized.
So if anybody tells you that I used everything I had in the book--no matter what you think of my best selling book--they're just bitter and they don't know what they're talking about.


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« Reply #81 on: November 02, 2008, 03:18:29 AM »

Hi Steven -

let me join the board members above - great to see you back! I am quite stunned about your list of recorded info on Brian and the Boys. Perhaps my initial thought is that of others here: on the one hand I'd love to know the contents; but on the other hand maybe there's stuff in there that might be hurtful to people still living (hurtful not of your free will of course, but because it might bring back sad memories).

I hope you'll drop by every now and then.
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« Reply #82 on: November 02, 2008, 11:40:18 AM »

Welcome back, Mr. Gaines!
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« Reply #83 on: November 10, 2009, 02:06:12 PM »

Hey, I've popped up again.  It's amazing how Heroes and Villains keeps on selling (and pissing people off.)
All these years later I'm still gobsmacked about how much Brian's "autobiography" ripped off my book.  At the time a reporter from Billboard kept on calling me asking me if I wasn't angry, but the truth was I had a lot of other stuff to think about, a new book in the works, and I didn't want to start a lawsuit.  It was only years later when I was giving deposition at a libel lawsuit that I read the passages in Brian's book and Heroes and Villains side by side that I realized they were identical.  I wonder what happened to the guy who wrote that book?

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« Reply #84 on: November 10, 2009, 02:19:50 PM »

Hey, I've popped up again.  It's amazing how Heroes and Villains keeps on selling (and pissing people off.)
All these years later I'm still gobsmacked about how much Brian's "autobiography" ripped off my book.  At the time a reporter from Billboard kept on calling me asking me if I wasn't angry, but the truth was I had a lot of other stuff to think about, a new book in the works, and I didn't want to start a lawsuit.  It was only years later when I was giving deposition at a libel lawsuit that I read the passages in Brian's book and Heroes and Villains side by side that I realized they were identical.  I wonder what happened to the guy who wrote that book?

I gather for a while, Todd Gold was Brian's publicist. Not heard of him for years.

Small tale about the pseudobiography and your book (and the Leaf tome) - in a review I wrote for Beach Boys Stomp (venerable UK fanzine), I pointed out that huge chunks of the two books were lifted piecemeal and rightly called it plagiarism. Some short time later I got a communication from Brains & Genius demanding - not requesting, demanding - that I print a retraction and apologise or else. My response was to photocopy the relevant parts of 'Brian's' book, Leaf's and yours, highlight the similarities and mail it to B&G with a note saying, in essence, see you in court any time, anywhere. Never heard another word.

Later, in Billboard, Gold attempted to excuse his disgraceful act by stating that, as the majority of Brian's responses to his questions were terse and/or monosyllabic, he had to flesh out said answers, and that this was standard practise.
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« Reply #85 on: November 10, 2009, 02:26:31 PM »

He worked for People magazine for years. Had to deal with some sexual harassment claims.

http://gawker.com/117995/elizabeth-leonard-replaces-todd-gold-at-people
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« Reply #86 on: November 10, 2009, 03:25:34 PM »

Hi Mr. Gaines,

I read your book recently and the monetary transactions in the Beach Boy world reminded me of how long lasting the effect of greed can be.  Also the lack of trust in the right people who really had their best interests at heart. 
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« Reply #87 on: November 10, 2009, 04:17:19 PM »

Mr. Gaines,
      If I haven't already, I'd like to thank you for your great book. I first read it when it came out and I was 12, I think, and it was the only easily available BB book that I could find. I must have read it fifty times since then and I think it's one of the best representations (along with Catch a Wave and The Nearest Faraway Place) of the BB and their crazy world.
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« Reply #88 on: November 11, 2009, 12:03:07 AM »

I for one would love to read a sequel . All the crazyness that has gone down since 1985 man it would be good to hear the truth about it. I think Mr. Gaines is the only one who wouldn't hold back on anyone, while at the same time he would be fair.
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« Reply #89 on: November 11, 2009, 12:21:00 AM »

What is the "heroin tape"? It's been a while since I read the book.  Didn't it have something to do with David Frost?

I have another question about Brian's autobiography, for anybody who might be able to answer it. Considering all the legal stuff that resulted from the book, would it ever have a chance of going back in print? Is it legally blocked from being republished?
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« Reply #90 on: November 11, 2009, 03:40:09 AM »

Yes that is the David Frost meeting. The "Brian" book never had  a US reprinting. I think it did in England. It may get reissued there but not here. I hope it never does really because so much bad info is in there. I mean I can't use it at all really for research.
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« Reply #91 on: November 11, 2009, 11:19:55 AM »

Most of the BB/Brian information on Wikipedia cites the book as a source.
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« Reply #92 on: November 11, 2009, 02:52:18 PM »

Well that's the problem. The Todd Gold stuff is plan and simple garbage.
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« Reply #93 on: November 12, 2009, 11:08:40 AM »

I finally got around to reading Heroes and Villains this past summer...I love all those little juicy details...
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« Reply #94 on: November 13, 2009, 07:19:26 AM »

I wish I knew where the transcripts were to the tapes, I'd publish them here for everyone to have a look at.  I just started using a computer then  (I wrote the Beatles book on a Selectric) and the tapes were probably transcribed on those big floppy disks.  I don't even know if there's a computer around old enough to play them.  The tapes themselves are in a bank vault.

Thanks for all the good words about the book.
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« Reply #95 on: November 13, 2009, 06:41:27 PM »

Hey everybody, let's all go hunt down those transcripts!  Grin  Wink
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« Reply #96 on: November 13, 2009, 06:44:41 PM »

Steven, I have a question for you. A page or two back in this topic, you mentioned that you have several hours of Landy on tape. I was wondering, were you ever given access to the "therapy songwriting sessions" with Brian and Landy from the early 1980's?
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« Reply #97 on: November 18, 2009, 12:53:50 PM »

I got this in the mail today, it's a GPS tour of Beach Boy locations in Los Angeles based on places in Heroes and Villains.

http://topey.com/796446-GPS-show-locations-where-Beach-Boys-make-history.html
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« Reply #98 on: November 18, 2009, 01:01:55 PM »

Steven, I have a question for you. A page or two back in this topic, you mentioned that you have several hours of Landy on tape. I was wondering, were you ever given access to the "therapy songwriting sessions" with Brian and Landy from the early 1980's?

No, when I was involved I dont think Landy was blatent enough to be writing songs with him yet.  Landy gave me all that access because he was convinced that I would write an article about him and he'd be on the cover of Rolling Stone.  It was only after "Brian Wilson is Trying to Catch Another Wave" (New West magazine, 1976) was published that Landy let go of all pretense and became Brian's writing partner.  Landy was such a charlatan as a doctor.  I have a copy of a book of hip slang he published before he became Brian's shrink.  He was a used car salesman.
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« Reply #99 on: November 18, 2009, 05:24:49 PM »

Steven, you might or might not be aware that Landy also apparently claimed in print one time to have been the co-producer of Barry McGuire's "Eve Of Destruction". Phil Sloan, the author of the song, wrote a vehement letter to one of the Hollywood trades (circa 1990-'92?) refuting this and at the same time expressing love and support for Brian Wilson.

Also- in the years just after your book was published, it got to be a steadily bigger issue that Pet Sounds was not available on CD. In those pre-Internet days of limited information, I asked around wherever I could and was given two rumors as to the hold-ups: (1) lawyers representing Dennis' estate and (2) Landy negotiating for a big title- specifically, "executive producer" of Pet Sounds, which was of course done nine years before he met Brian. (Not vouching for that, but it was floating around in 1988-'89).

When you were first here in 2008 I re-read H & V as a ramp-up to grilling you here as much as you were open to it.  A year's gone by, but I will get my thoughts together on the book when I can in the next day or so and publish a mini-review in this thread.  Time has been very good to it.

I would also like to see an updated edition, but I'd really rather see an expanded edition- at least another hundred pages on the era already covered.  It sounds like you've got the material; it would just be a matter of the market, and the book's reputation ought to be a huge plus there.  How much longer was the first draft- do you recall?
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