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Product Description
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.
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First Sentence
It was a surfer's dream. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
It was a surfer's dream. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Steven Gaines is only interested in the Beach Boys for their freak-show value. Throughout the book, he shows more interest in the sex and drug habits of their roadies and hangers-on than in the beautiful music the group made. The Beach Boys Today, arguably the best American rock album of the '60s, is dismissed in a single inaccurate paragraph. Instead, you get pages and pages of Jerry Springer-esque sleaze. The parts about the band's relationship with the Manson family and Brian Wilson's bizarre behavior are admittedly interesting, but as the book grinds on there is more coverage of sleazy peripheral figures like Stephen Love and Rocky Pamplin than there is of Carl Wilson, who didn't do anything interesting except make nice music for 30 years. If you're looking for any sort of thoughtful discussion of the band's music, you won't find it here. I'm hoping Paul Williams' new book will be the definitive Beach Boys' bio -- he's a great writer (Timothy White's weird book certainly wasn't.)
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I enjoyed this book but felt a bit empty after I had read it.
The book is well written. The opening chapter is a superb piece of writing and draws you in immmediately. The author writes of the chronological events of the lives of the main Beach Boys as he sees it, constructed from interviews with many people. He must have been obsessed when he wrote this!
The book is well written. The opening chapter is a superb piece of writing and draws you in immmediately. The author writes of the chronological events of the lives of the main Beach Boys as he sees it, constructed from interviews with many people. He must have been obsessed when he wrote this!
I was left with a lot of sad impressions about Dennis and Brian Wilson. I had hoped to learn more of the good qualities of the people in the band, but the author was only really concerned with the drug use and sexual exploits and so focussed on the more notorious of the band. Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston hardly got a mention (because they are too boring to the author and didn't mess up as hugely as Dennis and Brian?)
I guess it is hard to write a book about such a complex bunch of people, the music, the lives, the inter relationships, the politics.
It left me feeling a bit like I would rather have not known so much negative information because it seems so poignant that the music so beautiful, was made by people who were sad and messed up, self obsessed, indulged and emotionally immature.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you're looking for a book that goes into the Beachboys' songwriting and studio sessions in fine detail then this is not the one for you. But it is a very enteratining account of forty years in the lives of one of the best groups ever. Alright, it does have its faults. We could do without some of Gaines' opinions on the Beach Boys' albums - his view that the 'Beach Boys Party' album is far superior to 'The Beach Boys Today' is, quite frankly, laughable. Also the book certainly needs updating to include recent events such as Carl's death and Brian's triumphant return. But it is a real eye-opening read full of sex, drugs, fights, money problems etc. and benefits from being much more objective than so many music books that are clearly written from a fan's point of view. Great fun!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
America's band - Dysfunctioning in harmony
The first book on Beach Boys to tell the whole sorry account of the family that had a gift for harmony and in Brian Wilson an incredibly talented writer composer and arranger. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Bob Breckwoldt
The story of the Beach Boys
This is a riveting read. Steven Gaines leaves no stone unturned in his factual account of the Californian musicians who epitomised the American dream of sun, sand and surfing. Read more
Published on 21 April 2010 by Joyce Miller
Readable but problematic
This was the first book about the Beach Boys I read and though interesting and exhaustive it seemed flawed in many areas, especially in the light of subsequent listenings and... Read more
Published on 10 April 2001
Smile
This book cuts through the wholesome image of the Beach Boys exposing seriously troubled people. It is well written and gives the reader an insight into the world of not just the... Read more
Published on 16 May 2000
I really enjoyed reading this!!!!!
This was a very informative and interesting book. While I did already know many of the things in this book, there were still more things I learned by reading it. Read more
Published on 22 July 1999
Just See What you've Done
A sometimes insightful and sometimes frightening book about one of the greatest songwriters of our time. Read more
Published on 20 July 1999
Wow
Never before have a read a book so thorough about the people who make up a band and the music that was produced. In a way, too much at the same time as just enough. Read more
Published on 19 July 1999
No wonder this book is controversial.
I loved this book. It told everything. Now I understand why it upsets people so much. I thought Steven Gaines was kind to the Beach Boys, considering. It's also well written . Read more
Published on 2 May 1999
Terrific book you wont want to put down
This is an incredibly well-researched book. I've read them all and none of them has all the interviews and insider information that this book has. Read more
Published on 18 Feb 1999
Business, no pleasure
Another relative hack job from Gaines, whose book about the Beatles was also pretty lurid. Here the problem is not only that he focuses almost exclusively on unpleasantness,... Read more
Published on 23 Dec 1998
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