Buttmunker

I heard that both Heroes and Villains and the self-penned Wouldn't It Be Nice: My Story by Brian Wilson are the "definitive" books to read. Would that be accurate?

Out of those two, which would be the one that holds no punches, tells more of the truth without "white-washing," and is told in the best narrative? I'm sure "Heroes" paints Brian in a bad light, while "Wouldn't It Be Nice" essentially explains/defends his actions.

Is there a book that beats those two?

auto

Seriously dude? Another one?

Buttmunker

I'm taking a break from my Kennedy Obsession..

Duh Vuh Duh

I'm about half way through Wouldn't It Be Nice and Brian is very honest in it and doesn't defend his actions and definitely admits to and gets into gory detail about how messed up he was and what was troubling him.

Buttmunker

I'm reading it, too, and I think it is a good telling. Brian is very honest, which is important. Maybe too honest for cousin Mike Love, as he didn't contribute any memories to the story, as Brian says in the acknowledgements. Neither did Al Jardaine.

Duh Vuh Duh

I agree and seems like he often had a love/hate relationship with Mike since he was the other "leader" of the band and they seemed to butt heads a lot.

Buttmunker

It seems sad to me that, with all the abuse Brian suffered in his youth when he was healthy, all the mental illness in his middle-age, and all the resentment from loved ones now that he's being treated ... the man has never had a moment's contentment, one way or the other. Very sad.

Yet he has brought us all great joy with his music. Ironic?

JiM T

"Wouldn't It be Nice" is an amazing and sometimes downright traumatizing read, but for my money, the last act of the story overly glorifies Dr. Eugene Landy, the doctor who first greatly helped Brian, then proceeded to take terrible advantage of him. It's been rumored that Dr. Landy himself may've actually ghost-written the book! I wish that Brian would go through and revise this book sometime to reflect his true return to glory: his solo career, and (most importantly) the completion of "Smile".

Buttmunker

I am interested in a book that details the very early years of the Wilson brothers and cousins - before they were Beach Boys, then stopping essentially when their streak ended - 1966.

There's enough books that go into Brian's mental illness, and the band's floundering through the late 60's and through the 70's. I want just the "juice." The leading up to, the "growing up with Murry" period.

Everyone, in every book, makes Murry out to be a monster. In retrospect, I think he was probably a better father than any of the Beach Boys were. Murry Wilson put his sons first, concentrated on making their career work, while working his own career to rub two nickels together.

Brian was an absentee father. Dennis? C'mon...... I don't know about Carl - maybe he was a good father to his kids, but the books out now don't really go into their personal lives too much (not to that degree). And I think we can count Mike Love out of the Father of the Year award - forever.

Aphex Twin

Anyone wanting to read or have read "Wouldn't It Be Nice", check out this line in Eugene Landy's wikipedia entry:

"Landy's depiction in glowing terms in the second half of Wilson's autobiography, Wouldn't It Be Nice: My Own Story (published that year) would indicate Wilson's approval of his methods, were it a legitimate autobiography. However, Wilson testified in an unrelated court case that he had never even read the final draft of the manuscript, much less written any of it, and the book is suspected of having been written under Landy's influence rather than Wilson's."