Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy

In Good Vibrations, Beach Boys frontman Mike Love provides his biography and history of the Beach Boys. He comes from a working class family that sought the good life in California. His Grandfather did quite well with a sheet metal operation. His parents also had a love of music. He eventually teamed up with some cousins and friends to form a musical group. One of his cousins (Dennis) was an avid surfer, and they eventually decided on pop with a surfer theme. There timing ended up being perfect, because shortly thereafter, a surfer craze picked up, with Life magazine doing a big spread. This created a huge demand for their surfer-themed music. With this lucky break, they were able to jump start their career. Then, they worked hard, toured insistently and became very popular. Brian Wilson helped compose many of the songs and had a reputation as a troubled musical auteur, thus giving the band more cache. The band weathered ups and downs and eventually settled on business reality. Their classic hits were what people wanted to hear. They were also ahead of their time in lining up corporate sponsorships. They also received numerous breaks. They were able to stage numerous comeback due to their "positive" appeal. They were friends with Reagan and Bush, helping them to emerge better after hitting some political pressure.
The band also had many downs. Love admits he was a chronic womanizer. He would go in and out of marriages, producing many offspring from many different women. Drinking was his drug of choice. However, other bandmates were in to many harder drugs. He eventually explored transcendental meditation to clean up his act. Others had much more challenging expriences. One died due to medical issues. Another Beach Boy drowned while drunk. Their fortunes waxed and waned, in part due to mismanagement and outright fraud on the part of their representatives. (They admitted to not knowing much about what was going on.) The relationship with Brian was always a challenge. They produced great things together, but his mental issues and drug addiction created difficulties.) There were lawsuits against each other, against their record companies and management.
Loves story comes across well. He admits to making many mistakes. He calls out times when he felt he was wronged, but does not shove people under the bus. (Well, except for Charles Manson and Dennis's psychologist - but he does that more by admitting various public facts.) He comes across as the "business" side of the band, while Brian is the "art" side. Without the business, there would be no money for the art. Without the art, the business would not exist. He does defend himself, and provides a great history of the band.