Back to the Beach: A Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys Reader

By: Kinglsey Abbot

A Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys Reader The first ever Beach Boys compendium, collecting all of the best articles, interviews and reviews from their four decades of music, plus newly commissioned and previously unpublished pieces. The Beach Boys album PET SOUNDS and single GOOD VIBRATIONS both came top of a MOJO poll of the greatest records of all time, and their standing has never been higher.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1900924021
• ISBN13: 9781900924023
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Helter Skelter Publishing
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 0.8" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Lots of good stuff

I'm no Beach Boys fanatic, but this book is an interesting collection of older British and American journalism, much of it reappearing here for the first time. You get a very good portrait of Brian Wilson, whose mental breakdowns from drugs and other causes rendered him somewhat ineffective for many of the years covered here. Some interesting coverage of the late Dennis Wilson, also, as well as interviews with Mike Love and a little from the late Carl Wilson. Mostly, this book concerns the music, not the melodramas, and that makes it valuable.

This book has it all!

This a good book for hardcore Beach Boys fans only. So much variety from SMiLE to the Brian Wilson/Andy Paley sessions to Holland to Good Surfing, Hello God! and unknown insights in the different areas of the group's career. Happy reading!

a treasure trove

Even having read several books and anthologies on the Beach Boys before, there are pieces in here that I had never even heard of. For fans only, of course, but fans should treaasure it.

Comprehensive & Insightful

Solid chapters on all aspects of the group, its troubles, controversies, triumphs, from the most noted Beach Boys scholars (Nick Kent, David Felton, David Leaf, Timothy White, Dominic Priore, Tom Nolan, Jules Siegal, Kingsley Abbott), of the last 30 years. A bit detailed but also designed to be a fun read. Diehard fans and new recruits will both dig it.

Lots of behind the scenes scoop from every era of the band.

A superbly edited collection of a few dozen features, interviews and editorials that serve as an excellent primer to the Smile-era Beach Boys, as well insights into the early years and Brian's solo daze as well. With reviews. Very good value; 4/5.