Composing
the book you’ve always wanted to read is probably one of the better reasons to
start a writing project, but not everyone has the ability to do the job right.
I’m ashamed to admit I chuckled when I saw that the sole credit in James B
Murphy’s author bio on the back of Becoming
the Beach Boys, 1961-1963 was “veterinarian.” I shut up when I started
reading his book. Murphy is a very good writer, and the book he always wanted
to read was definitely worth writing.
The main
goal of Becoming the Beach Boys is to
examine the band’s earliest years to clear up the multitudinous misconceptions
about that era. Murphy’s research is almost absurdly thorough. He lets no
detail go un-checked. Brian Wilson claimed it was raining when The Beach Boys
recorded “Surfer Girl”, so Murphy checked the local weather records to confirm
that memory. The author goes to tremendous lengths to find out how the group’s
long-lost first recordings were found and settle the circumstances behind the
band’s first song, “Surfin’”. According to legend, Wilson patriarch Murry and
matriarch Audree were on vacation in Europe when their sons used their food
money to rent instruments to learn the song. Murphy consults period documents,
such as Murry Wilson’s passport records, and utilizes his own powers of
deduction to chisel out the most likely version of this oft-told tale.
Murphy’s
work is particularly necessary since The Beach Boys story stars so many
unreliable narrators intent on telling the most self-serving versions of the
tale (Murry, for example) or suffering patchy memories (Brian). The relatively
minor players fascinate Murphy too, so we get extended bios of the band’s
associates and collaborators during this period. Admittedly, the information
digging can get a bit excessive, and only serious Beach Boys scholars won’t
skim Murphy’s minutia about the guys who started Candix records or serial
numbers on record labels or the dimensions of the handbills used to promote
concerts. Consequently, Becoming the
Beach Boys is not always a fun read, but it is an important historical
document through and through. James B. Murphy definitely possesses the
attention to detail I want from the dude who’s either writing a book about my
favorite American band or diagnosing why my cat keeps throwing up all over the
place.
