Steven Gaines
Auteur van The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles
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Steven Gaines is known for writing about one of America's pastimes: celebrities and pop culture icons. His works include The Love You Make (about the Beatles), Heroes and Villains (about the Beach Boys), Obsession: The Life and Times of Calvin Klein, and Philistines in the Hedgerow: Passion and toon meer Property in the Hamptons. (Bowker Author Biography) toon minder
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The Beach Boys were three Wilson brothers, Brian, Dennis and Carl, their cousin, Mike Love, and childhood friend, Al Jardine. The Wilson boys began life solidly behind the 8-ball, psychologically, despite their enormous musical talent, thanks to their domineering, demanding and abusive (both psychologically and physically) father, Murray. Brian, the oldest, came in particularly for the abuse, and was the brother who could never be good enough in Murray's judgement. And he certainly developed the most acute psychological problems. Carl, the youngest, was his mother's favorite, thereby receiving her protection from Murray, and, whether coincidentally or not, maintained the most emotional equilibrium throughout his career and life.
It's a sad tale, and the fact that these men were able to create so much fabulous and iconic music over, more or less, a 15-year recording career, is an amazing testament. Sadly, in this book, that creative process is mostly glossed over. I was a young boy with a transistor radio when The Beach Boys were at their early peak with songs like "I Get Around" and "Help Me, Rhonda" on the charts. Later, in my early and middle teens, I loved their more progressive albums like "Surf's Up" (still a favorite of mine) and "Holland." And then there's the tour de force that is "Pet Sounds," which I did not come to really appreciate until much later.
Gaines does describe well, in particular, Brian Wilson's struggles. His schizophrenia was, for a long time, hidden under his heavy drug use (considered more or less normal for rock stars at the time), his abnormal and reclusive behavior put down as the understandable eccentricity of the artistic genius. Even that "genius" appellation, settled on Brian after the release of "Pet Sounds" (and enhanced by the Beatles' avowed admiration for that album), became a heavy element in Brian Wilson's emotional burdens. And while Brian did have people trying to look out for him and keep him on an even keel (especially his wife, Marilyn), he was also surrounded by "drainers," sycophants always happy to gain acceptance into Brian's orbit by sneaking him drugs and booze.
And so on. All the members of the band, individually and collectively, come in for this sort of examination (with the exception of Jardine, the quite, calm one). Bad business decisions, money-wasting, fly-by-night schemes, Dennis Wilson's extended dalliance with Charles Manson and crew, we read about them all. But we spend precious little time with the musicians in the studio or onstage. It's amazing to realize that The Beach Boys (sans Brian, whose mental troubles early on caused him to stop performing live) remained one of the world's most popular and largest grossing live acts well into the 1980s. This is even though, by the end, the band was broken into two factions who, for the most part, hated each other. So we get told, of some important individual concert, that the band gave a great performance that brought down the house, there was evidently no attempt to find somebody describe what it was like to be at a Beach Boys concert at that time (let alone what it was like to be onstage during one).
A funny thing, though. By the end of the book, I actually did feel like I had a strong perception of what these people where like, and who they were. I'd even gained an affection for them. Who knows how accurate a perception that is, but still, I do feel like this book provides an effective description of a dysfunctional musical family, trying desperately to overcome that dysfunction and to emphasize the "love" element of their love-hate relationship with their father, their talent, their fame, and each other. There are dark sides to their behavior, to put it mildly. None of them were equipped emotionality for committed romantic relationships. Dennis, in particular, the good-looking one, reveled in his "playboy" behavior, even during his three or four (I lost count) marriages. Racism peeks through the narrative a few times, one of their business managers is fired when it's discovered that he's gay, and none of them thought twice about leveling anti-Semetic slurs when riled for one reason or another. So it's the old question of whether one is willing/able and/or desirous of separating the artists from the art. So this isn't the book to go to for a proper examination of The Beach Boys' music and creative process. But it's a pretty strong portrait of their lives (as far as I know), warts and all.… (meer)