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Catch A Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption
of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson (Peter Ames Carlin)
Publishers Weekly:
In this exhaustive tome, former People magazine
writer Carlin chronicles the lives of the Beach Boys and Brian
Wilson. By now the Wilson story is well-known, and Carlin doesn't
stray much from the script: Wilson's abuse at the hands of his
cantankerous father, Murry; his decline into depression; his
drug use; and the band's slide from the top of the charts, singing
about surfing and fast cars, to the depths of despair and, ultimately,
Wilson's redemptive 2004 release of Smile. While the major beats
of the story may not be news to fans, Carlin's comprehensive
research adds an entirely welcome perspective. Based on numerous
primary interviews, and parsing through hundreds of hours of
unreleased studio tape, he succeeds in rendering an immediate
and often heart-wrenching look at both the psychological abuse
and the artistic muse that prodded Wilson to greatness and paralyzing
depression. In one memorable passage drawn from the studio session
tape, Carlin renders the torment endured by Wilson at the hands
of his father during the recording of the hit "Help Me,
Rhonda." It is moments like these, mixed in with Carlin's
sober insights, that raise this effort a cut above the standard
rock biography.
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