Having been involved with 70 media projects in the years since 1974, I tend to look at new Beach Boys books as reruns of books that have preceded the book I am reviewing, unless the author breaks new ground. Of the recent books on the Beach Boys as a band or biographies of individual members, only the James Murphy book Becoming the Beach Boys 1961-63 deserves the praise of being innovative, but not The Beach Boys America's Band.
It appears that Mr. Morgan, the book's author, felt that there was a need for a coffee table type of book covering the recording history of the Beach Boys. The book is lavishly illustrated, as it needs to be as a coffee table book. There are no pictures or historical articles that are unfamiliar to me, yet it appears to me that people under 40 years old would be thrilled to view the visuals in this book.
The book is organized chronologically, beginning with Surfin' and ending with That's Why God Made Radio. The book's coverage of each single and album is information any curious fan could see online. The author, Johnny Morgan, appears to have forgotten the 4 by Beach Boys EP, and doesn't seem to be aware of the appearances by the group's members on other artists' recordings.
Furthermore, there is no coverage of solo projects by the group's members. These stumbling points are significant enough to grouse about. The coordination of text and visual content is herky-jerky. Whoever proofread the text missed misspellings of several words and people's names.
What makes the book purchase a bargain is the price, the excellent visuals that whoever did photo research found, the accuracy of the basic information (e.g. release dates, color illustrations of original albums and singles, chart performance,etc), and the presentation as a hardback book instead of those trade paperbacks that always end up with pages coming loose and falling out.
I was somewhat in disagreement with Mr. Morgan's critiques of group members. Throughout the book, I found his assessment of Brian particularly off center. For example, the opinions he expressed of songs like When I Grow Up and Til I Die.
Overall, I would give this book a C on the old scale of A being excellent, B being very god, C being Average, D being Don't Bother, and F being a waste of a good tree. This book will be more than enough for people with a casual interest, but as a book to turn to by serious students of The Beach Boys or music scholars, it is irrelevant. For the latter group, there is Andrew Doe's out of print complete critique of the group, or his site located within Endless
Summer Quarterly's site, Bellagio 10542.
Copyright 2015 by Peter Reum - All Rights Reserved
It appears that Mr. Morgan, the book's author, felt that there was a need for a coffee table type of book covering the recording history of the Beach Boys. The book is lavishly illustrated, as it needs to be as a coffee table book. There are no pictures or historical articles that are unfamiliar to me, yet it appears to me that people under 40 years old would be thrilled to view the visuals in this book.
The book is organized chronologically, beginning with Surfin' and ending with That's Why God Made Radio. The book's coverage of each single and album is information any curious fan could see online. The author, Johnny Morgan, appears to have forgotten the 4 by Beach Boys EP, and doesn't seem to be aware of the appearances by the group's members on other artists' recordings.
Furthermore, there is no coverage of solo projects by the group's members. These stumbling points are significant enough to grouse about. The coordination of text and visual content is herky-jerky. Whoever proofread the text missed misspellings of several words and people's names.
What makes the book purchase a bargain is the price, the excellent visuals that whoever did photo research found, the accuracy of the basic information (e.g. release dates, color illustrations of original albums and singles, chart performance,etc), and the presentation as a hardback book instead of those trade paperbacks that always end up with pages coming loose and falling out.
I was somewhat in disagreement with Mr. Morgan's critiques of group members. Throughout the book, I found his assessment of Brian particularly off center. For example, the opinions he expressed of songs like When I Grow Up and Til I Die.
Overall, I would give this book a C on the old scale of A being excellent, B being very god, C being Average, D being Don't Bother, and F being a waste of a good tree. This book will be more than enough for people with a casual interest, but as a book to turn to by serious students of The Beach Boys or music scholars, it is irrelevant. For the latter group, there is Andrew Doe's out of print complete critique of the group, or his site located within Endless
Summer Quarterly's site, Bellagio 10542.
Copyright 2015 by Peter Reum - All Rights Reserved
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