The Beach Boys - John Tobler

The Beach Boys
John Tobler
First Published: PB. 1977. Phoebus, London.
This Edition: HB. 1978. Hamlyn, London.

Formatted as a large hardback book replete with many colour photos, although The Beach Boys may feel a bit like an annual at times this early biography is still a pretty good introduction to the band, written with some occasional '70s flair. Piecing the history of the band together with frequent reference to press interviews and charting the group's various successes and tribulations, it's a great primer for those with a nascent interest in the band. 

Particularly interesting for British fans, it often reflects on how the band were faring in the UK and pinpoints milestone events such as their 1975 Wembley Stadium show that are otherwise ignored by other biographers. Long-term fans might also find some intriguing claims and quotes long since ironed out of the band's preferred narrative. It often surprises me how candid the boys were with the press in the '60s and '70s, often talking openly about their financial woes, drug issues and the like, but in the '80s they seemed to try to cleanse their story of these elements as they became 'America's Band'. So there's intriguing detail to be had in this book about some of those more nefarious aspects. For example, Charles Manson gets solid column inches and the question of his possible interactions with Brian is answered unequivocally via a quote attributed to Bruce Johnston: 

Manson used to come up to Brian's house a lot, and Brian probably had a lot of tapes of Manson, although I never sang on any of the sessions. 

Other nuggets appear that have seemingly eluded the notice of latter-day biographers. Mike's assertions provide an interesting counter-point to the received notion that he scuppered Brian's plans to sign Redwood (later Three Dog Night) to Brother Records: "There was one of the stupidest mistakes in the world of recording... They'd go in and they wouldn't sing well enough for him... He was at that period of his life where he was horrible to live with... the fact of the matter is that he had them in the studio for several days, and he was really funny. They didn't meet up to his expectations, but they went off and made billions". Although Redwood were never signed to Brother, Tobler claims that Danny Hutton was, along with "a girl singer named Amy, said to resemble Mary Hopkin vocally". I've never heard of this mysterious Amy; I'm inclined to disregard this statement unless anyone can add any validity to it?

There's a discussion of Brian's deal with Bruce and Terry's production company in 1975, speculated to be an attempt to leave The Beach Boys with a deal that included "probably the highest production royalty any producer has ever received". Another interesting scrap I don't think I've read elsewhere is a reference to the band buying their own Hollywood nightclub to showcase The Flame in the early '70s. Take it all with a slight pinch of salt since the book also includes several errors, such as confusion over the various releases of 'Surfin'' (a subject that seems to have confused biographers for decades!) and a totally erroneous claim that Kenny and the Cadets recorded the songs 'Samoa' and 'Lone Survivor' and released this as a single on Dot in 1961. Just a few clicks in 2022 confirms that this single exists, but was released by a group called The Beachcombers. Such errors are few and far between and totally excusable - in fact, they add colour to a book that is essentially a time capsule of what the band was (or appeared to be) in 1977.

They must have printed large volumes of this book, since it can still be easily found for under £5 and it's worth picking up if you can get it for that price.