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Catch a Wave

The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson

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Catch a Wave

Written by: Peter Ames Carlin
Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
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Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson, along with Mike Love and Al Jardine - better known as the Beach Boys, rocketed out of a working-class Los Angeles suburb in the early '60s, and their sun-and-surf sound captured the imagination of kids across the world. In a few short years, they rode the wave all the way to the top, standing with the Beatles as one of the world's biggest bands. Despite their utopian visions, infectious hooks, and stunning harmonies, the Beach Boys were beset by drug abuse, jealousy, and terrifying mental illness. In Catch a Wave, Peter Ames Carlin pulls back the curtain on Brian Wilson, one of popular music's most revered luminaries, as well as its biggest mystery. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and never-before-heard studio recordings, Carlin follows the Beach Boys from their earliest days through Brian's deepening emotional problems to his triumphant reemergence with the release of Smile, the legendarily unreleased album he had originally shelved.

©2006 Peter Ames Carlin (P)2014 Audible Inc. Entertainment & Celebrities Music Celebrity
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Decent history of Beach Boys and Brian but wanders

As a telling of the overall arc of Brian Wilson, this book does a good job. I didn't have any issue with Pinchot's narration, but I listened at 1.25x speed as I usually do, so that may have helped. The issue I have is that as a Brian Wilson biography, the book tends to lose its focus and goes off on tangents which are not related to Wilson. Specifically, the book will mention an album that Wilson was barely involved with, but then still list every song on the album as well as details related to the song, even if Brian had nothing to do with the song. This info could have been summarized in a sentence such as "Wilson had no input or oversight on the other 9 songs on the album" and then the author could have moved on. As it is, it's unclear if it is a Brian Wilson biography, or a detailed overview of every Beach Boys album? I have no problem with either, but the goal and thereby focus of the book is unclear. But as an overview of the Beach Boys career, with an emphasis on Brian Wilson, the book does is relatively successful. Perhaps it could have been titled "Brian Wilson and Every Beach Boys Song Ever Recorded". Only half-joking.

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