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Overview
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 band’s 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.Through candid interviews with close friends, family, and the Beach Boys themselves, this biography portrays and evaluates all those who propelled the California myth, and the group who sang about it, into world-wide prominence. With dozens of photos, this book recounts the bitter saga of the American dream realized and distorted, and the music that survived. 66 photos.
Synopsis
"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"
Publishers Weekly
Wallach ( Women's Work focuses on the staunch ferocity of maternal love and the ineffable terror experienced by a seven-year-old in this story of turmoil atan exclusive Manhattan school. Harried Cornelia Fuller is clumsily juggling many problemsa recent divorce from a narcissistic actor, unpaid billswhen she anxiously observes that her child, Livvie, can barely read. Unbeknownst to Cornelia, Livvie, who attends the elite Boston School, endures the derision of classmates, as well as repeated sexual molestations furtively inflicted on herby the institution's janitor. Suddenly, Dr. Billy Connor, the school's ruthlessly pragmatic new headmaster, plans to expel Livvie and other students with conspicuous learning difficulties. Cornelia joins a group of incensed mothers intent on ousting Connor, but her most indispensable ally is Dane Nillssen, a benevolent psychiatrist eager to heal both Fullers' anguish. With moving acuity, Wallach portrays the traumas weathered by mother and child, and carefully delineates the temperament of Billy Connor, for whom self-aggrandizement overrides judiciousness. This cogent, penetrating tale juxtaposes innocence and tyranny with uncommon subtlety. (October 17)
Editorials
From the Publisher
Winner of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for best Pop Music Book.