The Beach Boys FAQ: All That's Left to Know About America's Band

by Jon Stebbins

A half-century after their first single release, “Surfin' ” the Beach Boys continue to define California popular culture and the sunshine-infused sound that will forever be its living soundtrack. But beyond innocent harmonies touting the delights of catching waves and cruising to the drive-in, the Beach Boys are responsible for some of the most sophisticated pop/rock music ever made. Brian Wilson's acclaimed production, the 1966 LP Pet Sounds , was both a creative triumph that inspired The Beatles' best work, and a commercial disappointment that was widely misunderstood by the band's U.S. fans. The Beach Boys followed that with perhaps the greatest three-minute rock single ever, “Good Vibrations ” which wowed the critics, was a worldwide number one hit, and ushered Brian Wilson down the path of substance abuse and mental illness. Brian then leapt into the abstract madness of Smile , his epic psychedelic masterpiece that was ultimately scrapped in a 1967 sea of paranoia that nearly drowned the Beach Boys as an act.

As the 1970s dawned, the endless summer of nostalgia designated the Beach Boys as its favorite sons. They recorded a critically lauded string of albums even while coping with the knowledge that their creative leader, Brian Wilson, had become a semipermanent recluse and a casualty of his own excess. Still, the Beach Boys continued through controversy, conflict, and death, rising again and again to find more popularity and more commercial peaks into the 1980s and beyond. As the new millennium unfolds, the Beach Boys are still here and continue to be a popular concert attraction and one of rock's most compelling and important stories. In The Beach Boys FAQ , Jon Stebbins explains how the band impacted music and pop culture. This entertaining, fast-moving tome is accompanied by dozens of rare images, making this volume a must-have for fans.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography

336 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2011

Reviews

[Paul Bryant]

Last week's depressing news was that the remnants of the Beach Boys were going to do a geriatric world tour. It should be called the As If We're Not Rich Enough Already Tour. The Beach Boys were a crucial and extravagantly brilliant art pop band between 1962 and 1985 and as if that wasn't enough since 1985 they have entertained us endlessly with all their hideous lawsuits, dramatic psychiatric interventions, death, drugs and the kind of comedy sibling rivalries which make me grateful to be an only child. In the middle of all that came Brian Wilson's eerie Lazaruslike rising, equal amounts of total brilliance (Smile), utter shite (Gettin' in Over My Head) and head-scratching leftfieldisms (That Lucky Old Sun, Reimagining Gershwin).
Brian's own live shows are strange stuff. He sits behind his keyboard like a man who's just been paralysed by a dreadful stroke, barely moving, and all the instrumentation and most of the voices are laid on by his great band. So it's like a Beach Boys tribute band featuring a weird guest appearance by Brian Wilson. I imagine this gruesome world tour will be similar, except with Mike Love Not War leaping about reminding people how many lyrics he wrote and how he never ever told Brian not to fuck with the formula.

In 1967 the Beach Boys released a cute song called "Vegetables" :

I know that you'll feel better
If you write us in a letter
And tell us the name of your favourite vegetable


Dear Beach Boys

The name of my favourite vegetable is Brian Wilson. the beetroot which you already sung about in your hit Beetroot to your School...! Although why anyone would want to take a beetroot to their school is not made clear in the song.

Yours surfily

P Bryant

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great read, having loved and listened to the music of The Beach Boys for most of my life, and read every book going, I thought I knew all their was to know about this wonderful band, but no.... Jon still had a few nuggets up his sleeve, the book is littered with some great photos also lots of which I hadn't seen before, my favourite being a lovely one of Brian and Marilyn in 1964. This book is a must read for all those that love the band, or music in general really, I also liked the fact that in places Jon was able to laugh at the nonsense that takes place within the group!

great stuff Jon when's the next book out?

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Growing up to the sounds of "California Girls" and "Good Vibrations", I wanted to read more about the legendary group that, to this day, impacts my memories of growing up in the late '60s and '70s during the height of love and teenage revolutions. Stebbins offers his reader wonderful insights into the making of this group, their music, their highs and lows along the road to fame with family, friends and fans. The Beach Boys are depicted as American as apple pie, with all of its connotations, and Stebbins does a good job of compiling his sources to give avid fans of their music, what they want to know.

[Tom Ryerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I have ever read about the Beach Boys, and I have to say it's top notch. It's written with a wry sense of humour which makes it an easy and enjoyable read. I have been a fan of the band for over 35 years, and have collected most of thier music on CD. One thing I always find interesting was that to Brian Wilson, the Beatles were his biggest competition, and unfortuantely they weren't in the same league. The Beach Boys were very serious, and sung about cars, surfing and girls. They never deviated from that. The Beatles sang about everything, including ficitional characters like Rocky Racoon and Lady Madonna. The Beatles had imagination, the Beach Boys had technique. Brian Wilson owes Paul McCartney the world for the later saying that Pet Sounds influenced Sgt. Pepper. It was a lie, but Brian could sleep at night. The Beach Boys are/were a brilliant band, but they will never be on the same playing field as the Beatles, who were the greatest rock band in the universe. At any rate, this is a great book about a great band, and I recommened it to any Beach Boys fan.

[Mike Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book that really does answer (or attempt to answer) a lot of faq’s. I’ve been a Beach Boys fan for about 50 years and I learned a lot from this book. I’m also one of those that prefer their earlier music rather than the drugged, mystical music. The Beach Boy story is one of wonder and tragedy. This book tells it all.

[Nestor Rychtyckyj · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m actually getting around to reading this now even though it was published back in 2011. Since then the Beach Boys 50th Anniversary reunion tour has come and gone and both Brian Wilson and Mike Love had published their memoirs. Both of them are touring separately and doing their best to ignore each other. None of this takes anything away from this fine Jon Stebbins book and in fact the end of the Beach Boys reunion just reinforces what Stebbins was already seeing.

These FAQ books are much better (at least with this one and the Clash) than their titles would seem to indicate. Jon Stebbins obviously knows and loves the Beach Boys since they started recording in 1961 and this knowledge and love of the band is felt on every single page. This is more like a reference than a biography of the band – almost anything you can think of is covered here: all of the members who came and went over the years, the instruments that everybody played and their best and worst concerts all over the years. All of this is readily available, but the real value of the book lies in how Jon Stebbins brings us into the Wilson family and shows us what made Brian, Carl and Dennis become the center of the most successful rock group in America. Mike Love remains more of an enigma but his contributions to the success and longevity of the Beach Boys are not overlooked. The author points out several times that the Beach Boys needed Brian Wilson, but Brian Wilson also needed the Beach Boys to succeed. In fact, some of the best and most relevant work was done by the Beach Boys when Brian stepped away from the band (and we don’t mean “Kokomo”).

A big part of the book rightly focuses on Dennis and Carl Wilson, who both passed away much too early and that many Beach Boys fans stopped following the band after Dennis drowned at age 39. However, Brian Wilson had stopped touring much earlier and not many people outside of California ever saw the original 5 Beach Boys perform together.

There’s so much more in this book – both David Marks and Al Jardine appear prominently as do their battles to be given credit (both artistic and financial) for their roles in the band. The Beach Boy story often is simplified as “good” Brian vs. “bad” Mike, but the story is much more complicated than that. This book presents both sides of the story and anybody that appreciates the Beach Boys will enjoy this.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't even finish reading this book. There is absolutely new information in here, and the author didn't interview anyone even close to the Beach Boys. All of the text is either culled from other well-known sources or comes from the author's own opinions and assertions. And the FAQ title is misleading; it's not set up like a "Frequently Asked Questions" guide. There are better books and websites about the BBs; don't waste your time with this book.
The Beach Boys FAQ: All That's Left to Know about America's Band

[Thomas Engler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok statistical and individual outline of the beach boys

A lot of individual remarks about each of the Beach Boys which is good. A little bit over-the-top and analyzing each song . A great bibliography not a must read for Beach boy fans but okay

[Tom Nolan]

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