Published by Blue Rider Press in hardback, Kindle and audio-CD formats (the latter recorded at Love’s Incline Village home studio by Sparks-based engineer Tom Gordon), it should interest several readerships: Beach Boys fans, Baby Boomers, nostalgia buffs, musicologists, and rock- or pop-music lovers in general. Most of all, the book has the reverberation of truth. Passages that could be construed as self-serving are mitigated by qualifiers such as, “to the best of my recollection” or “in my opinion,” and supported by citations of media accounts and legal documents: a credit to the research of co-author James S. And the lead singer and co-writer with cousin Brian Wilson of many of the band’s hits doesn’t hold back on gritty details of his memories from the Beach Boys’ 54-year history - including his stormy relationship with the brilliant but unstable Wilson.īut when Love delivers his takes on the episodes - closely entwined with the cultural currents of the 1960s and ’70s, from the optimism of the JFK administration to the sexual and psychedelic revolutions, civil-rights and anti-war movements, the Maharishi and Charles Manson, the rise of album-oriented rock and the nostalgic re-embrace of the Beach Boys’ harmonious pop - he does so with the perspective of a man in his seventies. Love’s memoir - “Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy” - hit bookstores and on Tuesday. But he’s never told his story in print - despite millions of words others have penned about America’s most celebrated rock band. His scathing speech at the Beach Boys’ 1988 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame still generates YouTube clicks. Mike Love has never been shy about speaking his mind.
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