1

I live in California because of the Beach Boys.

That may be hard to understand if you’re under the age of 40, as there has been a multi-decade campaign to vilify the state. But if you grew up in the sixties, California was a dream. The bleeding edge was on the west coast of our country. That’s where life was free, trends were started, music and movies were made and there were two girls for every boy.

Growing up in the east it’s hard to understand Los Angeles, even to this day. What you’ve got is a city that’s really comprised of endless suburbs, which extend all the way to San Diego in the south and Santa Barbara in the north. And not only does it hardly ever rain, schools are built so you walk outside to classes. This is unfathomable if you grew up in the east.

In the east you’re destined for the best college you can get into, it’s a given. In the west, you’re going to a state school. Seemingly everybody takes courses at the community college before they retire or fly up to a university. Even Brian Wilson.

So what we’ve got here is a string of Southern California families… Growing up in the fifties and sixties when you played outside instead of inside, when there were no cameras and you could get away with pranks, when safety was not first and society was fluid. You didn’t graduate and chase a career, rather you spent time finding yourself, with a series of low-paying jobs while you pursued your dreams, whether they be in business or at the beach or…

And we thought we knew what was really going on out here, but we didn’t. And at this point, most people still don’t.

However the landscape has changed.

The Wilsons and the Loves got together to sing. I can’t tell you the last time I stood around the piano singing tunes. Hell, in the late sixties and early seventies no party was complete without breaking out guitars and singing Beatles songs and other hits of the days.

The Wilsons and Loves didn’t compose beats, they took lessons, they learned on the fly, they weren’t singing and playing to get rich, but because they loved the music.

Now if you’re not a big fan of the Beach Boys I hesitate to recommend this book, because there are a lot of references to songs that you won’t get.

But if you are…

2

I have an issue with oral histories, and for that reason the person who e-mailed me about this book was reluctant to send it. But it’s the BEACH BOYS! I’m always up for more info on the Beach Boys.

And what stunned me was how much I didn’t know, how much I learned.

We all know the basic story, not only have there been books, but even movies. But these interviews are more ground-level. Not the stories of success, but of everyday life. Sure, they go through the making of the records, but more interesting to me is how people met and connected and hung out… This is what you did back in the day, you went out, it was the only way you could meet people. And there was a community of people you met, all with the same interests. And you made friends and…

Brian Wilson met Marilyn Rovell, his teenage bride, at Pandora’s Box, a club on a plot of land that no longer even exists. It was where the Sunset Strip riots took place, the ones that Buffalo Springfield sang about in “For What It’s Worth.”

Today, everybody wants to be instantly rich and famous. Actually, they believe wealth comes with fame, but the goals were not that lofty back then. A lot of the gigs the Beach Boys played were puny. At high schools. This was not a cash machine, this was people playing music.

Now eventually it all blew up, as a result of the success of the records embodying the California Dream, but before that… They were just living their lives on a minor level. Their first hit, “Surfin’,” was on an indie label and made no impact outside of Southern California. Radio was still regional.

And before the Beach Boys came Jan & Dean, my first love. And what astounded me in this book about the Beach Boys is it gave me more insight into Jan & Dean than I’ve ever had, despite knowing Dean Torrence, despite reading his book and so many more.

I guess this book is more about feel than details. Of course there are plenty of details, but you get a vibe…

Jan & Dean were in college, they made records around their school schedules. Lou Adler was the majordomo and the label was clueless, both acts can’t stop bitching about how clueless their labels were. Not only did they not understand the music, but there was no thought put into photos and artwork and…

3

What I took from this book, other than the lifestyle elements above, was incredible insight into the creative process.

Let’s start with the fact that Brian Wilson produced all kinds of records, and wrote many songs that were never hits too. He’s seen as a savant who got in the studio to produce Beach Boys records, but if you were a friend of his, if you made music, he wanted to work with you.

What I’m saying here is Brian’s success did not come out of thin air, he paid his dues, he learned on the job, and despite all the hits, there was a lot of detritus.

As well as people who fell by the wayside, all of whom come alive in this book.

But despite all the insight into the earlier albums, all the stories about the people, what made this book so important, that resonated with me, is the question of creativity. How do you keep it interesting to yourself?

Now from the start of time, not only the label, but the public has wanted something just like the other thing, the hit. And not only are you competing with yourself, but all your imitators too.

But the funny thing is the public says that’s what they want, but really they do not. They want something new and different, unique. And it’s easy to experiment when you’re nowhere, when no one is paying attention, but success can be crippling.

And on one wants to fall off the pedestal.

But do you have your finger on the pulse, or did you lose this ability or..?

So Brian just could not do it anymore. First, go on the road. Second, make the same old music.

So he has Al Jardine, then Glen Campbell and then Bruce Johnston replace him and ultimately he just spends his days tinkering, creating. And after meeting Tony Asher, a jinglemeister, a healthy period of time afterward he rings him up and tells him he wants to make an album about love.

That’s right, there was a concept for “Pet Sounds.”

Today people start off wanting to make hits. Or, they say they have a concept for an album, but don’t forget Brian did this before “Sgt. Pepper” and “Tommy,” it was just a feeling.

So he and Tony explored, they wanted to get the vibe right and…

“Pet Sounds” was ahead of its audience. Some works resonate thereafter, like Nick Drake’s, but the songs off “Pet Sounds” became ubiquitous. Despite all the hype in the seventies, I think the truly breakthrough moment was the use of “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” in “Shampoo,” there was truly synergy with the images, you got that Southern California vibe.

And it’s well-known that Capitol buried that album with a greatest hits LP right thereafter when “Pet Sounds” didn’t burn up the charts, but then…

Brian went even deeper, with “Smile.”

All we hear about “Smile” is Brian abandoning it when he heard fire engines and…

That’s not even discussed here. Although it is said that Brian gave up on the project after realizing it was too advanced for the listener.

But before that…

Van Dyke Parks came up with the concept of a journey from east to west, encompassing the entire breadth of the United States.

You might say they were out there.

I guess that’s the point. The Beach Boys were the biggest act in America, and Brian wasn’t even thinking about hits.

Now you’ve got Mike Love talking about writing relatable lyrics for “Good Vibrations,” but…

This was of no concern to Wilson and Parks. They were pushing the envelope, to make it interesting to themselves.

And after the failure of this project, Brian Wilson could never do it again.

4

So reading this book I realized the early to-mid-sixties in Southern California was a unique time. The vibes, the tentacles extended for decades, right up to this very point. But the truth was the musical movement was very brief, basically from 1962-1966. The blink of an eye today.

But unlike today the Beach Boys would not only put out multiple albums per year, they’d have multiple hits. They’d rise to the top of the chart and then fall off and be replaced, all in a matter of months. Nothing moves that fast anymore, never mind the lack of ubiquity.

But did time move on from Brian Wilson? Did the scene just change?

The scene always changes, and very few can adjust, no matter how big and successful they’ve been in their heyday. And then they either grasp at straws, following trends, or give up making music all together.

Or did something change for Brian, such that he couldn’t do it anymore?

Let’s be clear, unlike most creators, Brian wasn’t repeating himself. But despite having the royalty money to execute his wildest fantasies…(bad word, let’s just say support his vision)…he was out on a limb, nobody was supporting him.

And then there was LSD.

Now if you ever hung with Brian Wilson, you knew something was off, something was wrong. As for it being schizophrenia, that tends to manifest itself in your mid to late twenties, when Wilson fell off the edge. But is that what was truly going on?

Maybe he was just spent.

Or maybe…without the support and success, he lost something.

5

Now I could tell you to support your artists’ vision, but that’s really putting it backward. The truth is, usually only the creator can understand their vision. And there was so much money in music in the sixties and seventies and then eighties that labels stood aside and let the acts follow their paths.

But then it changed. The business was no longer cottage industry, the labels were looking for moonshots, they’re still looking for moonshots, and in that case you’re risk averse.

But the nature of being an artist is to take risks.

Let’s be clear, most major acts today are taking no risks, maybe it’s because they’re performers, not artists.

And then there are people who keep telling us they’re artists who complain no one is paying attention.

But the truth is Brian Wilson was not considered a genius until Derek Taylor started a publicity campaign saying that. The public bought it, but what exactly is a genius? Who exactly was Brian Wilson? How could he create and make this music?

That’s the mystery. It was in his head, and he wanted to get it down on tape. In most cases, there’s nothing in someone’s head other than a business construct. Which might be marketed to success, but…

Of course “Bohemian Rhapsody” was like nothing heard previously, however it built upon a decade of rock innovation.

But the intro to “California Girls”? Where did that come from? In a world where radio chopped off most instrumental intros.

And then there’s the theremin in “Good Vibrations”…

It’s not like everybody was doing this, NO ONE was doing it!

And then commercial success separated from Brian’s efforts and…

6

We are all looking for the new and different, but finding someone who provides it…

Hell, we get cartoon movies because people want to escape from scary reality.

But not in the heyday of the Beach Boys. That’s when you had to turn on the radio to find out what was going on, to be hip. The records informed us.

And everybody knew them.

7

So what is your life about?

I guess if you’re a civilian with a straight job it’s about getting married, buying a house, having children and getting a gig that will pay for all this, that will move you up the lifestyle ladder.

But an artist… It’s a journey into the wilderness. You never know what will resonate, what will work. As for those people e-mailing me complaining that their music can’t pay for their house and family…who told you to have a house and family?

And let’s be clear, it was all much cheaper back then, but…

The art always came first. Which is one of the reasons that relationships didn’t tend to last, the creators were married to their music, their vision, their projects.

All of this is clear in this book in a way that I have not seen previously. Most acts blink, give us more of what we’re looking for, they’re afraid to fall off the pedestal.

But Brian not only did not see himself as being on a pedestal, he actually got freaked out by people, public access. In many ways he was a child who never left the streets of Hawthorne, with its sports and good times and…

He was always trying to get this down on wax when everybody else was busy growing up.

It’s hard to be out of step with society.

Some complained.

Brian just retreated.

And although they trotted him out for decades thereafter, it was different. Because in the sixties, in his heyday, people were waiting with bated breath for Brian’s next work.

But the people were just a couple of years and a couple of changes behind Brian. Everybody told him he was on the wrong path, but he wasn’t.

What path are you on?

Tune in Saturday May 23rd to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

Are not really about AI.

They’re about reduced prospects for college graduates, the detachment of techies from the general public and the fanning of the flames of AI by prognosticators and the media.

It’s income inequality run rampant, I tell you.

One thing we’ve learned is the tech bros are not like us. The dueling dullards arguing over OpenAI at the trial… From the sidelines, everybody looks bad. Elon Musk looks greedy and Sam Altman appears smug and…aren’t these guys rich enough?

As for the Molotov cocktail thrown at Altman’s house… I do not approve, of the action or any future violence, but I understand it. What we’re seeing is a ramping up of actions against those reaping rewards from a game that most people cannot even play. It started with Luigi Mangione shooting the CEO of United Health and… All we hear from those with a public voice is violence will not be condoned (ironic in a gun-riddled society where even 6 year olds shoot people), they never speak to the underlying condition. They label the shooter a crank and…

And now as bad as the health care system is, Congress let the Obamacare subsidies expire and prices went through the roof and millions of people are now going bare. And what is the response of those who don’t want to deliver these subsidies? That the people involved can go to the emergency room. That’s like telling people to drive without insurance because the people they collide with are probably have coverage. It’s just kicking the can down the road, we all end up paying, and believe me, the public knows it.

When done right, heroes should not be zeros, they should be able to relate to the public, or be leaders. Instead, everybody’s chasing the dollar. You’ve got vapid musical acts and then billionaires bitching that someone wants to take their money… Did you check out the Bezos interview? He’s talking about all the taxes rich people pay, but he leaves out that many billionaires don’t pay anything at all, they just borrow against their stock, kicking a taxable event down the road.

Billionaires are not like us. But we no longer mean that in a good way.

We used to admire the leaders, techies replaced rock stars. They were pushing the envelope, wowing us with their breakthroughs, thrilling us with constant innovation. But it seems the game of musical chairs has ended, no one new can grab a seat and those who remain are self-centered and self-satisfied, their idea of charity is to build a school that their kids can go to. They’re doing anything but spreading the wealth around, and the public knows it.

So the truth is this graduating class had access to AI for all four years of college, and have been using it. It’s not like they were boycotting ChatGPT with their schoolwork, rather the issue is how to keep students from using it. So it’s not AI they’re pissed about, but…

Come on, we keep hearing that AI is going to take our jobs and then destroy the world.

As far as taking your job…if you deal in ones and zeros, if you’re a coder. But beyond that, the human is still king, because of AI’s hallucinations/mistakes. God, we’re seeing it in court and books and…professionals are constantly being busted for relying on AI that not only is wrong, but makes things up! We are not moving to a society where this is accepted. Just the opposite, the screws are tightening now that the problem is being evidenced in quantity.

As for corporations… It’s all a ruse I tell you. They say they’re laying people off because of AI, but the truth is it’s a cover-up, they just want to lay people off! Think about it, if AI was actually doing these jobs, they’d lay off people in waves, as AI became able to do their jobs. But instead, these companies are laying off thousands all at once! They don’t want to look bad and say they’re just firing/downsizing people, then the public blowback is too great. And then Wall Street starts to wonder if anyone’s in charge, why were these companies so far from rightsized!

I mean whose jobs is AI actually taking? God, AI is a buzzword, it’s everywhere, the sky is falling! But it’s not.

Look at the computer… Now lawyers do their typing themselves. There is no longer is a steno pool, but this efficiency has flowed to the bottom line. As for the value add of the steno pool, there was none.

But there isn’t even spellcheck for AI! The companies themselves can’t root out the hallucinations!

Yes, AI found security holes in Apple’s OS, and that’s worth extrapolating and contemplating, but now that AI is being used for even coding it turns out that sans human oversight, it can’t do the job.

I’m not going to sit here and say AI won’t have an effect on the world, but everybody losing their job overnight, no…

But these are the same people who sold us crypto. And then Polymarket and Kalshi. Systems that look flat on the surface, but are rigged by people using inside information and quants. You can’t win if you’re the average punter. As for online gambling, the odds are stacked against you, but if you do happen to win big, they limit your bets.

And then we’ve got the ultimate grifter in D.C.

We are talking about college graduates here, they’re not dumb, they can see through what is happening, Trump may have successfully primaried candidates, but that’s because boomers voted his way, youngsters overwhelmingly went for the incumbents.

Get the picture here?

It’s us against them.

And the only us who will stand up and take a risk are the young ‘uns, who’ve got their lives in front of them as opposed to behind, they’ve got nothing to lose.

As for Eric Schmidt…talk about a smug as*hole… I figured I’d ask him about music discovery, he dismissed the question like it was positively inane, saying it would all be solved by machine learning momentarily. That was before Covid, needless to say it didn’t happen, it will NEVER HAPPEN! It comes down to humans, not the machine. Whether it be TikTok or something that hasn’t surfaced yet.

But these techies believe chips and software can solve every problem, run the world. They’re the ones who are myopic, not us.

As for the constant trumpeting of AI by the press… This is the same press that was gung-ho during the dot com revolution at the turn of the century, and then the market collapsed. Turned out you couldn’t deliver a popsicle for free.

So far, the startup AI companies are financially challenged. Anthropic just posted a profit, but it’s bupkes compared to the investment. ChatGPT is still struggling.

As for data centers… It was a field day for Wall Street. Never mind the financial engineering, like keeping the centers off the books of companies like Meta. No one anywhere thought about the social aspects. It’s fracking on steroids. Not only do you want to build these eyesores, you want to use all our electricity too! And you’ve got Elon Musk installing gas turbines that cause noise air and noise pollution without getting permits first. This guy doesn’t only think that the rules don’t apply to him, but the laws don’t apply to him! He’s got a long history of doing this, ignoring the U.S. government, it’s cheaper to settle after the fact, if there even is a settlement.

But Musk is too out of touch to realize after DOGE he’s no longer a public hero, he’s got his acolytes, but Tesla has stalled and many are wary of anything he does. Never mind his riches.

So you thought you could be a rock star.

But now not only are the odds long, it takes longer than ever to make it and even if you do, you can’t make anywhere near the riches of the techies.

And then you thought you could build apps.

But that turned out to be a free market, people don’t pay for apps.

So where are your entry points if you’re an entrepreneur?

And if you’ve just got a computer science degree, they’re laying off people in your world, not hiring.

And prices are going up and you’re told not to worry about it. And buying a house is off the table for many, and they also don’t want expensive kids and…

We’re told we’ve got smartphones, so we should be happy! That our standard of living is higher than it’s ever been before! Maybe, but compared to the winners, most people are positively broke.

But they don’t get a voice, because they don’t have the money to pay for politicians, if they even vote.

But the old and wealthy, they’re invested in the game. Believe me, college graduates are aware that not only Bezos flipped, but even Tim Cook. None of them have a backbone, and if they’re called on it, they say they have no choice.

EVERYBODY has a choice.

But not everybody has options.

That’s what this is all about, options. People are sick and tired of doors being shut.

They’re starting to break them down.

If you’re waiting for a public reaction, a conflagration over Trump’s slush fund or ballroom or arch…

People only react when it affects them directly.

People feel their futures are bleak, and that’s what they’re reacting to.

It’s plain as day.

Dan Beck was Michael Jackson’s product manager and has written a book about the experience, “‘You’ve Got Michael’: Living Through HIStory.” If you want to know what it was like working at a record label in the pre-internet era, this is the place.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dan-beck/id1316200737?i=1000768901251

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/8aed22c2-dda8-4684-af71-e4d4864ad6ef/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-dan-beck