The Beach Boys

by Boys Beach

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

405 pages, Hardcover

Published April 2, 2024

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A titanic tome of photos, ephemera and recollections of the iconic Beach Boys. Captures their own words and stories from before the first record through their hit years and lean years to their big comeback in the seventies (and hints of more recent years). Meaningful tributes from other musicians, published interviews and minimal commentary round out the saga. The book stops short of later tragedies and controversy, leaving the reader with an uplifting overview of their epic career.

[Billy Naylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE book on America's Band, told in their own words & including tons of great pictures, many of which are being published for the first time.

[Frank . · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnifique livre, autant sur le plan graphique que textuel. Vous trouverez une collections de témoignages des membres : Brian, Dennis et Carl Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine ainsi que Bruce Johnston et d’autres membres qui ont rejoint le groupe au fil du temps. La seule critique qui m’apparaît fondée est que l’histoire prend abruptement fin au début des années 1980. Toute la période subséquente de Kokomo jusqu’à l’ultime album That why God Made the Radio est occultée.

[Tyler Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deifies Brian Wilson a bit too much, and maybe slightly too self-masturbatory in places, but what did you expect. This is probably as good a retrospective can get of the Beach Boys, albeit clearly biased as it is written by themselves (with noticeably more commentary by the alive members for obvious reasons).
Also unsurprisingly doesn’t go into the stranger stuff surrounding the Beach Boys (no mention of Dennis’ friendship with Charles Manson, for example).

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great old photographs and all of the members of the band contributed some dialogue. Everything definitely had a positive slant to it. Nothing new was revealed that the average fan didn’t already know. In reality it seems a lot was left out. BUT, it was still a fun and nostalgic read.

[Jodie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in their own words, this hefty book contains memories and extensive photographs from throughout their career. Vividly details their highs, lows, subsequent comeback and their overall impact on the music industry.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This somewhat made up for the horrible recent documentary— a standard oral history here but within that a nice focus on the songwriting, the performances; the music.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there was ever a book about the Beach Boys that I would say “you need to have in your book collection” then this one is it. Lavished with quotes and interviews from the band the members themselves and interspersed with an array of photographs, this comprehensive book details all of the songs and albums within the history of the Beach Boys. As a huge fan of the group, I learned so much from this voluminous book. The only drawback was that even though the book had a copyright date of 2023, all of the information and interviews gathered must have stopped at the time of Dennis Wilson’s passing. I say that because there was no mention of the song Kokomo and the album it was on. But still, this book was truly a musical masterpiece and now I’m looking for it for my collection.

[Kevin Monsell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been on the coffee table, read in starts & stops. Not sure when I actually finished. Thoroughly enjoyed it.