Heroes and Villains: The True Story of the Beach Boys

by Steven Gaines

Description

Boulder: Da Capo Press, 1995 Name and date inscribed on the verso of the front cover. The Beach Boys have been rolling, like the tide their great songs evoke, for more than thirty years, reaching professional peaks and tragic personal depths. In this electrifying account Steven Gaines reveals the gothic tale of violence, addiction, greed, genius, madness, and rock 'n' roll behind the wholesome, surf-and-sun image. Through candid interviews with close friends, family, and the Beach Boys themselves, Heroes and Villains portrays and evaluates all those who propelled the California myth, and the group who sang about it, into worldwide prominence: Murry Wilson, the corrosive father who abused them as children and exploited them as adults; Dennis Wilson, who explored every avenue of excess (including welcoming the entire Manson family into his home) to his inevitable self-destruction; the Wilsons cousin, frontman Mike Love, whose devotion to eastern religion could not quell his violent temper; the wives (more than ten), mistresses, managers, and producers who consumed huge pieces of the musical pie; and of course, the bands artistic center, Brian Wilson, the mentally fragile musical genius who achieved so much and then so little. With dozens of photos, Heroes and Villains recounts the bitter saga of the American dream realized and distorted and the music that survived. . Paperback. Nr. Fine. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

Book summary

Steven Gaines' biography of the American institution known as the Beach Boys is packed with fascinating background detail, whether about the Wilson brothers' combative relationship with their martinet father, Murry; Dennis Wilson's image as the embodiment of the Californian surfer stud and his later descent into drug and alcohol abuse; or the band's creative genius Brian Wilson's increasingly eccentric behavior as his life was overtaken by psychological problems. But, while portraying the more soap-opera-like aspects of the band's existence, Gaines doesn't stint on the musical details, either, documenting such milestones as the birth of the Beach Boys' surfing sound, the tortured genesis of Brian Wilson's groundbreaking "Heroes and Villains," and the recording and ultimate abandonment of the ill-starred album SMILE. A penetrating analysis of the dark side of Californian hedonism, HEROES AND VILLAINS is ultimately a tale of art prevailing in the face of almost overwhelming business and personal trauma.