Has anyone read this book? I just finished it, and I don't know what to think. On the one hand, it has praise from Liz Smith on the cover, which is never a good thing. On the other hand, the author apparently did lots of interviews with friends and family including Marilyn Wilson, Brian's wife.
The whole thing seemed very sensationalist, and focused more on Brian's mental health problems and Dennis' womanizing rather than the music.
Does anyone know if this book is really true or just exaggerated? I'm looking at you, Joost.

It definately is a very sensationalist book that focusses mostly on the scandals and gossip, and hardly on the music, but I must admit that it's one of my favorite Beach Boys biographies. It's an entertaining read. And from what I've read elsewhere (interviews, authorized books, posts from insiders on Beach Boys forums etc.), it seems that most of what's in it is true...

If you want a more serious Beach Boys biography with less gossip and scandals, check out Catch A Wave by Peter Ames Carlin. That's probably the best one.

It is painfully clear though that Steven Gaines' field is gossip and not music. Pretty much everything he writes in the book about the Beach Boys' music is wrong. He for instance calls "Today!" a weak album with too many car songs (definately one of their best albums and doesn't have a single car song), praises "Party!" as a brilliant album (while it's a very sloppy album of live recorded acoustic cover songs, released only to give Brian more time to finish "Pet Sounds") and writes about an album simply called "The Beach Boys" being #1 on the album charts in the mid 60s (the only Beach Boys album that was ever #1 was a live album called "Concert").

Thank you!

Oh, and one more thing: stay away from "Wouldn't It Be Nice", Brian Wilson's so-called 'autobiography'. It was really written by ghost writer Todd Gold (who took care of the pre-Landy years) and Brian's former shrink/manager Eugene Landy (the worst 'villain' in the Beach Boys story). After pretty much his whole band and family sued him because of that book, Brian declared under oath that he didn't write and never even read the book. It's full of lies and portrays Landy as some sort of godlike messiah who dedicated his life to protecting Brian from the evil other Beach Boys.

Speaking of Landy, do you know what the reason was why he lost his license? Do you know that song "Eve Of Destruction" by Barry McGuire? It was written, along with a few Byrds and Jan & Dean songs, by one 'P.F. Sloan'. In the 90s there was some uncertaintly for a while about if P.F. Sloan really existed and if he did, who he was. Landy then claimed that he was P.F. Sloan, while in fact P.F. Sloan was a real person and had been a member of somewhat succesful Beach Boys soundalikes The Fantastic Baggys in the early 60s.

Sounds like somebody needs to write a book about Eugene Landy.  Any idea where he is now?

Update: Wikipedia says he's dead.

Sounds like somebody needs to write a book about Eugene Landy.  Any idea where he is now?

Yeah, he died last year. He was a complete bastard who probably could've used some help himself, but a book about him would certainly be interesting.

If it weren't so sad, it would be hilarious.