The Beach Boys FAQ

Author: Jon Stebbins
Publisher: Backbeat Books
ISBN: 1458429148
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 398

Book Description
(Book). A half-century after their first single release, "Surfin'," the Beach Boys continue to define California popular culture and the sunshine-infused sound that will forever be its living soundtrack. But beyond innocent harmonies touting the delights of catching waves and cruising to the drive-in, the Beach Boys are responsible for some of the most sophisticated pop/rock music ever made. Brian Wilson's acclaimed production, the 1966 LP Pet Sounds , was both a creative triumph that inspired The Beatles' best work, and a commercial disappointment that was widely misunderstood by the band's U.S. fans. The Beach Boys followed that with perhaps the greatest three-minute rock single ever, "Good Vibrations," which wowed the critics, was a worldwide number one hit, and ushered Brian Wilson down the path of substance abuse and mental illness. Brian then leapt into the abstract madness of Smile , his epic psychedelic masterpiece that was ultimately scrapped in a 1967 sea of paranoia that nearly drowned the Beach Boys as an act. As the 1970s dawned, the endless summer of nostalgia designated the Beach Boys as its favorite sons. They recorded a critically lauded string of albums even while coping with the knowledge that their creative leader, Brian Wilson, had become a semipermanent recluse and a casualty of his own excess. Still, the Beach Boys continued through controversy, conflict, and death, rising again and again to find more popularity and more commercial peaks into the 1980s and beyond. As the new millennium unfolds, the Beach Boys are still here and continue to be a popular concert attraction and one of rock's most compelling and important stories. In The Beach Boys FAQ , Jon Stebbins explains how the band impacted music and pop culture. This entertaining, fast-moving tome is accompanied by dozens of rare images, making this volume a must-have for fans.

Fifty Sides of the Beach Boys

Author: Mark Dillon
Publisher: ECW Press
ISBN: 1770901981
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 484

Book Description
“A vivid account . . . Young and old fans alike will enjoy” (Publishers Weekly). This book offer a unique journey through The Beach Boys’ long, fascinating history by telling the stories behind fifty of the band’s greatest songs from the perspective of group members, collaborators, fellow musicians, and notable fans. Filled with new interviews with music legends such as Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Alan Jardine, Bruce Johnston, David Marks, Blondie Chaplin, Randy Bachman, Roger McGuinn, John Sebastian, Lyle Lovett, Alice Cooper, and Al Kooper, and commentary from a younger generation such as Matthew Sweet, Carnie Wilson, Daniel Lanois, Cameron Crowe, and Zooey Deschanel, this story of pop culture history both explores the darkness and difficulties with which the band struggled, and reminds us how their songs could make life feel like an endless summer.

The Beach Boys in Concert

Author: Ian Rusten
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781617134562
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 407

Book Description
Chronicles the concerts, successes, tragedies, dramas, and adventures of the legendary American band, collecting rare photographs and never-before-seen memorabilia images.

Good Vibrations

Author: Mike Love
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0399176411
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 449

Book Description
A founding member of The Beach Boys traces his half-century career, discussing the inspirations for his pop classic lyrics, his struggles with self-destructive habits, his spiritual life, and his partnerships with his cousins Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson.

Why the Beach Boys Matter

Author: Tom Smucker
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477318747
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Book Description
“An excellent introduction to the band that might have evolved, [the author] suggests, into the Beatles.” —New York Journal of Books Of all the white American pop music groups that hit the charts before the Beatles, only the Beach Boys continued to thrive throughout the British Invasion to survive into the 1970s and beyond. The Beach Boys helped define both sides of the era we broadly call the sixties, split between their early surf, car, and summer pop and their later hippie, counterculture, and ambitious rock. No other group can claim the Ronettes and the Four Seasons as early 1960s rivals; the Mamas and the Papas and Crosby, Stills and Nash as later 1960s rivals; and the Beatles and the Temptations as decade-spanning counterparts. This is the first book to take an honest look at the themes running through the Beach Boys’ art and career as a whole and to examine where they sit inside our culture and politics—and why they still grab our attention.

Elvis Music FAQ

Author: Mike Eder
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 161713581X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 359

Book Description
Why is Elvis Presley's body of recorded work still so relevant nearly 60 years after he began recording? Elvis Music FAQ is for anyone who has been inspired by an Elvis Presley record. Following in the tradition of the FAQ series, in Elvis Music FAQ, a lot of rare information is woven together in one concise, entertaining package. There are chapters about every year of Elvis's career, including a look at his pioneering original record label Sun; insight on his management; the continued importance of television in his career; a summation of each Presley concert tour; the inside scoop about the role Elvis's band members and songwriters played in his sound; stories about the amusing musical oddities created by those trying to ride on the Elvis success train; details about the contentious role drugs played in his career; and, finally, a full review of every record the King ever issued. One might say that the only truths about Elvis Presley can be found in the grooves of his records, where his natural talent and passion for music comes through always. Elvis Music FAQ aims to be the one essential companion that explains the reason why the voice heard over the speakers still carries such resonance. Dozens of rare images accompany this engaging text.

The Twilight Zone FAQ

Author: Dave Thompson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1495046117
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Book Description
The Twilight Zone is among the most beloved shows in American television history, a pioneering fantasy behemoth that bridged the cultural gap between the 1950s and 1960s with thought-provoking mystery, mind-boggling theorems, and occasionally outright horror. The Twilight Zone FAQ takes the reader back to that halcyon era, looking back on the show and its impact as a force for societal change, via reflections on the manifold topics and controversies that the show took on – from the space race to the Red Menace, from paranoia to madness and beyond. Dave Thompson traces the history of the show – from its earliest flowering in the mind of then-unknown Rod Serling through its slow birth, shaky beginning, and breathless five-season run – and he shows how it became the blueprint for so much of the fantasy television that has followed. Chapters deal with the comic books, novels, and many other spin-offs, including the movie, the TV revamps, and even the amusement park ride. In addition, this FAQ offers a full guide to every episode, providing details on the cast and music and pinpointing both the best and the worst of the series, all adding up to a brightly opinionated time machine that catapults the reader back to the true golden age of American television.

The Beat Generation FAQ

Author: Rich Weidman
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 1617136344
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 377

Book Description
(FAQ). The Beat Generation FAQ is an informative and entertaining look at the enigmatic authors and cutting-edge works that shaped this fascinating cultural and literary movement. Disillusioned with the repression and conformity encompassing post-World War II life in the United States, the Beat writers sought creative alternatives to the mind-numbing banality of modern culture. Beat Generation writers were no strangers to controversy: Both Allen Ginsberg's prophetic, William Blakean-style poem "Howl" (1956) and William S. Burroughs' groundbreaking novel Naked Lunch (1959) led to obscenity trials, while Jack Kerouac's highly influential novel On the Road (1957) was blamed by the establishment for corrupting the nation's youth and continues to this day to serve as a beacon of hipster culture and the bohemian lifestyle. The Beat writers shared a vision for a new type of literature, one that escaped the boundaries of academia and employed an organic use of language, inspired by the spontaneity and improvisational nature of jazz music and abstract expressionism (Kerouac coined this writing style "spontaneous prose"). In search of deeper meaning, Beat Generation writers experimented not only with language but also with spirituality, art, drugs, sexuality, and unconventional lifestyles. Although the movement as a whole flamed out quickly in the early 1960s, replaced by the onset of the hippie counterculture, the Beats made an indelible mark on the nation's consciousness and left a long-lasting influence on its art and culture. This book details the movement its works, creative forces, and its legacy.

The X-Files FAQ

Author: John Kenneth Muir
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 1495046044
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 373

Book Description
(FAQ). The X-Files FAQ explores Chris Carter's popular 1990s science-fiction TV series, which aired on Fox for nine seasons and inspired spin-offs, including feature films, TV shows, toys, novels, and comic books. The book explores the series in terms of its historical context and analyzes how many of the episodes tackle the events of their time: the Clinton era. The X-Files FAQ also tallies the episodes that are based on true stories, selects touchstone moments from the almost decade-long run, and organizes the series by its fantastic subject matter from serial killers to aliens, from prehistoric menaces to ethnic and religious-based horrors. In addition, the book recalls the TV antecedents ( Kolchak: The Night Stalker ) and descendants ( Fringe ) of The X-Files , examines the two feature films, and investigates Chris Carter's other creations, including Millennium , The Lone Gunmen , Harsh Realm , and The After . Featuring numerous stills and the show's most prominent writers and directors, The X-Files FAQ allows readers to relive the "Mytharc" conspiracy and the unforgettable monsters of the week from the Fluke Man to the Peacocks.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show FAQ

Author: Dave Thompson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 149506378X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 417

Book Description
The Rocky Horror Picture Show FAQ is the in-depth story of not only the legendary stage show and movie but of a unique period in theatrical history – in the movie's UK homeland as well as overseas. Rocky Horror has been performed worldwide for more than 40 years in over 30 countries and has been translated into more than 20 languages. Inside these pages, we see Rocky Horror as sexual cabaret and political subversion, as modern mega-hit and Broadway disaster. At the movie house, we learn when to shout, what to throw – and why people even do those things. Here is the full story of the play's original creation; its forebears and its influences are laid out in loving detail, together with both the triumphs and tragedies that attended it across the next 40 forty years. Packed with anecdotes, The Rocky Horror Picture Show FAQ is the story of dozens of worldwide performances and the myriad stars who have been featured in them. From Tim Curry to Anthony Head, from Reg Livermore to Gary Glitter, from Daniel Abineri to Tom Hewitt, the lives and careers of the greatest ever Frank N. Furters stalk the pages, joined by the Riff-Raffs, Magentas, Columbias, and all. The book also includes the largest and most in-depth Rocky Horror discography ever published, plus a unique timeline – The Ultimate Rocky Horror Chronology – detailing the who, what, where, and when of absolute pleasure.