The Beach Boys and the California Myth

by David Leaf

This book was one of the first Beach Boys bios to be published. Leaf is a fanatical Beach Boys expert, friend of the band to this day, and a frequent consultant on BB-related projects. His writing is not critical, but it is factual, and he tells the story well, illustrated with hundreds of vintage photos (reproduced from magazines, for the most part, so the quality is as dubious as the obscurity of the material is welcome). - squishy66, Amazon review

Genres: Music, Biography, History, Nonfiction, Rock N Roll

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Garrett Cash · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is perhaps the most historically important book on the Beach Boys since it was the first serious book written on their career in 1978. It was also written while all the members were still alive, and written contemporaneously to their last days of artistic greatness when Brian recorded Love You. While you probably won't get any new insights if you've read The Nearest Faraway Place (which is the greatest work on the Beach Boys), the book still provides a fascinating portal to understanding perceptions of the group at different points that you don't get as much in other works. Leaf relies a lot on interviews with many people that let one see things in ways they might not have seen something before. The basic facts that you probably already know are reported, making this a superb introduction to the history of The Beach Boys with a focus on Brian (that's a bit woefully outdated unfortunately). Overall, White's book is still definitive, but for hard core fans of the band who want to take a look at some of our earliest source material for information you can't miss this work.

[Judy M Reyes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a huge Brian Wilson fan and Beach Boys follower, and a native of Los Angeles, California. I was a little girl during the rise of their music in early 1960s. So I see this book as part of Southern California history and culture, of which I am a student. I'm not neutral on the topic. I've watched virtually every YouTube video about the BB and Brian.

Much more has been written now, more authoritative and analytical, and the ongoing survival of Brian and the group are astounding. Brian's biopic Love and Mercy brought more people to the topic of the Beach Boys' early years, the backstory. Leaf wrote about them a long time ago. This book is mainly about Brian.

Leaf's work is seminal and important in understanding whatever "truth" can be gleaned from the group's legends. The book is one version of Brian's troubled and stellar story. I'll be reading more books about the group and Brian. I attended a live interview by Leaf, of Brian, in Oct. 2019 at UCLA for a scholarship fundraiser. Wonderful to see them both on stage, old friends.

The book, out of print, is available to borrow in digital version, at internetarchive. com. Wonderful free resource.

[Debbie Wilkerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tied with Timothy White's Nearest Faraway place for the best book about the Beach Boys written from a purely biographical perspective.

Even more impressive when you rate it against the quality of Beatles books from the same era.

[Joe Emery · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must for any fan.

[Carol Storm · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the earliest of the Beach Boy biographies, this book was clearly written by an author who knows and loves the subject matter. David Leaf's handling of the saga is far more reverent than that of authors like Steven Gaines. Leaf presents Brian Wilson as a near-saintly figure, Christ-like and vulnerable, forever being betrayed by his brutal father and his clueless brothers. Moreover, Leaf accepts whole-heartedly the claim that Brian Wilson was a genius, and that his long-vanished album SMILE would indeed have been better than any other rock album ever made, including those by the Beatles like Sgt. Pepper.

Since this book was written before the death of Carl and Dennis Wilson and Brian's final departure from the group. Leaf is able to ignore the fact that all of the Wilson brothers were tortured souls and that, paradoxically, it may have been Brian who had the strongest will to live and the greatest resilience. In Leaf's introduction, we are presented with a horror-movie type scenario. A dazed and broken Brian, gibbering with fear, being literally dragged on stage for thousands of screeching fans to point and jeer at, like some rock and roll Quasimodo in a California remake of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. While there may be some truth to this grim picture, Leaf's blind worship of Brian causes him to overlook the fact that the other Wilson brothers were also deeply flawed individuals.

Last but not least, Leaf adheres religiously to the anti-Mike Love school of Beach Boys criticism. Lead singer Mike Love is presented as a no-talent jerk who was simply riding on his cousin Brian's coat tails. The fact that he wrote the lyrics to most of the Beach Boys' biggest hits is dismissed because the hit records are supposedly not as deep and complex as the songs on PET SOUNDS, the legendary 1966 concept album. But in reality, Mike Love was a big part of the Beach Boys story. His lyrics built on the breezy wise-cracking humor of both Chuck Berry and Lieber and Stoller, and did just as much as the group's legendary vocal harmonies to make the Beach Boys a gigantic part of rock history.

I'm proud that I listened to the Beach Boys in high school, and it's clear that David Leaf feels the same way. For that alone this book is worth three stars. I don't care if other kids made fun of me at the time. And if you're reading this, Jay Braun, you suck!!!

[Bob Breckwoldt · Rating 5 out of 5]

At one time (the 1978 edition) this was the must have for all fans of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, written by a fan with some degree of objectivity and distance. But between the 1979 and this revised edition it became a book written by friend and fan of Brian Wilson, reducing the objectivity he could or would allow himself in the coda to the original -which thankfully he didn't amend. Later years saw him being closer to PR than journalism (always a fault of all music journalism. the blurring of PR and objective scrutiny of your subject). However, even if now superseded by works such as Peter Ames Carlin's "Catch a Wave", it still stands as a great compelling story up to that point - 1979. Leaf has suggested an update, but his closeness to the subject may make any future publication look more like hagiography than biography. 5 stars for its historical importance, as the book on the Beach Boys for so many years.

[Keely · Rating 5 out of 5]

Far and above any other book on the Beach Boys. Magnificent.