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The Beach Boys And The California Myth
''The Beach Boys and the California Myth'' is a 1978 biography of the Beach Boys that was authored by American writer David Leaf, editor and creator of the ''Pet Sounds'' fanzine. It was the first full-length book written about the band, and an early piece of writing that revealed much of their internal conflicts and family history. The book was influential in cementing a popular narrative of the band – one that caricatured Brian Wilson as a tortured artist, tortured genius. Later biographies, including ''Heroes and Villains: The True Story of the Beach Boys, Heroes and Villains'' (1986) and ''Catch a Wave (book), Catch a Wave'' (2006), drew heavily from Leaf's book. Revised editions have been published in 1985, as ''The Beach Boys'', and in 2022, as ''God Only Knows: The Story of Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys and the California Myth''. Background While living in New Rochelle, New York, Leaf developed a fascination with the Beach Boys after reading Tom Nolan (actor), Tom Nolan ...
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David Leaf
David Leaf (born April 20, 1952) is a Peabody and WGAW award-winning writer, director, and producer, known for his associations with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys since the late 1970s. Leaf's 1978 biography ''The Beach Boys and the California Myth'' examined the behind-the-scenes tensions and family history that had never been covered before. According to music critic Richie Unterberger, Leaf was "the first author to write extensively, and honestly, about the Beach Boys." Leaf also wrote the first authorized biography of the Bee Gees. Since 2010, Leaf has been a professor at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. See also * ''An All-Star Tribute to Brian Wilson'' * '' Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile'' * '' Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)?'' * ''The U.S. vs. John Lennon ''The U.S. vs. John Lennon'' is a documentary film about Lennon's transformation from member of the Beatles to anti-war activist opposing the reelection ...
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Brother Records
Brother Records, Inc. (BRI) is an American holding company and record label established in 1966 that owns the intellectual property rights of the Beach Boys, including "The Beach Boys" trademark. It was founded by brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, and their cousin Mike Love. As of 2011, the corporation was equally owned by four shareholders and directors: Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, and the estate of Carl Wilson. Background and formation The Beach Boys decided to form their own label, Brother Records, in response to Capitol Records' lack of support for the band's more ambitious album ideas. According to biographer Steven Gaines, Mike Love was "the most receptive" to the proposal, wanting the Beach Boys to have more creative control over their work, and supported Brian Wilson's decision to employ his newfound "best friend" David Anderle as head of the label, even though it was against band manager Nick Grillo's wishes. Plans for the company began in August 1966. I ...
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Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life he created for ''The Saturday Evening Post'' magazine over nearly five decades. Among the best-known of Rockwell's works are the ''Willie Gillis'' series, ''Rosie the Riveter#Saturday Evening Post, Rosie the Riveter'', ''The Problem We All Live With'', ''Saying Grace (Rockwell), Saying Grace'', and the ''Four Freedoms (Norman Rockwell), Four Freedoms'' series. He is also noted for his 64-year relationship with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), during which he produced covers for their publication ''Boys' Life'', calendars, and other illustrations. These works include popular images that reflect the ''Scout Promise, Scout Oath'' and ''Scout Law'' such as ''The Scoutmaster'', '' ...
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Brian Wilson Is A Genius
"Brian Wilson is a genius" is a line that became part of a media campaign spearheaded in 1966 by the Beatles' former press officer Derek Taylor, who was then employed as the Beach Boys' publicist. Although there are earlier documented expressions of the statement, Taylor frequently called Brian Wilson a "genius" as part of an effort to rebrand the Beach Boys and legitimize Wilson as a serious artist on par with the Beatles and Bob Dylan. With the aid of numerous associates in the music industry, Taylor's promotional efforts were integral to the success of the band's 1966 album ''Pet Sounds'' in England. By the end of the year, an ''NME'' reader's poll placed Wilson as the fourth-ranked "World Music Personality"—about 1,000 votes ahead of Bob Dylan and 500 behind John Lennon. However, the hype generated for the group's next album, ''Smile'', bore a number of unintended consequences for the band's reputation and internal dynamic. Wilson ultimately scrapped ''Smile'' and reduced ...
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AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Guide' ...
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Richie Unterberger
Richie Unterberger (born January 19, 1962) is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing. Life and writing Unterberger attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote for the university newspaper ''The Daily Pennsylvanian'' and in the early 1980s was a deejay on the Penn radio station, WXPN-FM. Just prior to graduating in late 1982, he started reviewing records for '' Op'' magazine, which marked the start of his career as a freelance writer. From 1985 to 1991, Unterberger was an editor for '' Option''. Since 1993, he has been a prolific contributor to AllMusic, the on-line database of music biographies and album reviews, for which he has written thousands of entries, and many of his on-line contributions have been printed in the AllMusic guide series. Unterberger contributes to various local and national publications, including ''Mojo'', ''Record Collector'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''Oxford American'', and '' No Depression''. He has writ ...
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Peter Ames Carlin
Peter Ames Carlin (born March 13, 1963) is an American journalist, critic and biographer who has written for publications such as ''People'' magazine, ''The New York Times Magazine'', '' The Los Angeles Times Magazine'', and ''The Oregonian''. Several of his published books focus on popular music and musicians, including '' Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson'' (2006). Early years Born in Syracuse, New York, Carlin was raised in Seattle, Washington, where he attended public schools including Garfield High School, from which he graduated in 1981. He attended Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, for a year then graduated from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon in 1985. Career Carlin started publishing freelance work in 1985. Still living in Portland, he contributed stories to a wide variety of publications, including cover stories to ''The New York Times Magazine'' and ''The Los Angeles Times Magazine''. In 1993, Carlin ...
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Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States. The publication has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes. It is owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by the Times Mirror Company. The newspaper’s coverage emphasizes California and especially Southern California stories. In the 19th century, the paper developed a reputation for civic boosterism and opposition to labor unions, the latter of which led to the bombing of its headquarters in 1910. The paper's profile grew substantially in the 1960s under publisher Otis Chandler, who adopted a more national focus. In recent decades the paper's readership has declined, and it has been beset by a series of ownership changes, staff reductions, and other controversies. In January 2018, the paper's staff voted to unionize and final ...
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Steven Gaines
Steven Gaines (born 1946) is an American author, journalist, and radio show host. His 13 books include ''Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons''; ''The Sky’s the Limit: Passion and Property in Manhattan''; '' The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of The Beatles''; '' Heroes and Villains: The True Story of the Beach Boys''; ''Marjoe'', the biography of evangelist Marjoe Gortner; ''Fool's Paradise: Players, Poseurs and the Culture of Excess in South Beach''; and ''One of These Things First'', a memoir. His 1991 biography of the fashion designer Halston (''Simply Halston'') was the basis for Ryan Murphy's 2021 Netflix series, for which Ewan McGregor won the Best Actor Emmy Award. Gaines was a contributing editor at New York Magazine and his journalism has appeared in '' Vanity Fair'', the '' New York Observer'', the ''New York Times'', ''Los Angeles'', '' Worth'', and'' Connoisseur''. From 2003 to 2010 Gaines hosted a weekly, live roundtable radio inte ...
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The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. Since 2018, the paper's main news ...
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Melinda Wilson
Melinda Kae Wilson (née Ledbetter, born October 3, 1946) is an American talent manager who is the second wife and longtime manager of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. She was formerly a model and car saleswoman. Ledbetter is credited with helping to initiate Wilson's court-ordered separation from his former psychologist, Eugene Landy, and leading Wilson to proper medical care. Her account of her early relationship with Wilson was dramatized for the 2014 biopic '' Love & Mercy'', in which Ledbetter is portrayed by Elizabeth Banks. Background Melinda Kae Ledbetter was born on October 3, 1946 in Pueblo, Colorado to Rosemary and Leonard Ledbetter, an Air Force pilot who had been stationed there. Melinda grew up in Whittier, California and is of German and Irish descent. She had a 16-year career as a commercial model for designers including Bob Mackie and Anne Klein, after which she became a sales representative for a Cadillac dealership in Los Angeles. In 1986, while working at the ...
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Barry Gibb
Sir Barry Alan Crompton Gibb (born 1 September 1946) is a British musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He rose to worldwide fame as a member of the Bee Gees, one of the most commercially successful groups in the history of popular music. With his younger brothers, fraternal twins Robin and Maurice Gibb, he formed a songwriting partnership beginning in 1955. He has lived in Britain, Australia, and the United States, holding dual UK–US citizenship, the latter since 2009. Born in Douglas on the Isle of Man, Gibb was raised in Manchester, where he took part in the skiffle craze. In 1955, he formed his first band, the Rattlesnakes, which evolved into the Bee Gees in 1960, after the Gibb family had moved to Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia. They later returned to England, where they achieved worldwide fame, then moved to the United States in 1975. Well-known for his wide vocal range, Gibb's most notable vocal trait is a far-reaching high-pitched falsetto. As a so ...
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