Wouldn't It Be Nice: My Own Story. Brian Wilson with Todd Gold

by Brian Wilson

Book Overview

In a riveting and candid autobiography, music legend Brian Wilson reveals the truth about his meteoric rise to superstardom, his total breakdown, and his long, miraculous struggle back to the top. It... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0747531455
• ISBN13: 9780747531456
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
• Length: 398 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

incredible book

i'm not the biggest beach boys fan ever or anything, but this book is totally awesome!! sex, drugs, destruction, abuse, infidelity, insanity, revenge, back-stabbing, suicide... you'd look for this in your favorite heavy metal band's book, right? WRONG!!! this beats them all! this book has so much dysfunction, you won't even believe it until you read it. it's like the best drama ever. and it's all straight from brian wilson's mouth, so you know it's true. some people have said this book glorifies dr. landy too much. well, i disagree. i believe what brian says about him. brian is sane, intelligent and insightful now. aside from all the incredible amounts of dysfunction and despair though, you get to see brian climb out of it and become sane and happy again. this book is so amazing, i've read it over and over. i wish i could erase it from my memory and read it again for the first time! IT'S THAT GOOD. just get it!! even if you don't like the beach boys, i think you could appreciate this book, because it's all about real life.

Tragic genius.

It's sad how often the words "tragic genius" get mentioned in the same sentence. Brian Wilson is Exhibit A for the term in the contemporary American pop music world. This book is riveting, revealing in ways even Wilson himself might not have been aware of. The basic facts of his life--the abusive father, drug use, sandbox in the bedroom, his firing from the band, estrangement from family--were well known before the book's publication in 1991. But a good deal is added to the mix (including cruel stories meant to make enemies like Mike Love look bad). I think the moment that hit me the hardest was how employees in his house would walk around him when he was comatose on the floor, merely calling it "Brian being Brian." His stupor helped them exploit his position without interference. I was less interested in Landy's position in his life (the psychiatrist turned album producer is up there with the hairdresser who did the same thing in the 1970s) than in Wilson's revaluation of his career and life. The book is full of backgrounds on the songs that made the Beach Boys famous, which fans of the music will appreciate. This book sent me back to the music itself, deepening my appreciation for it. As a human document, it pays tribute to Wilson as a survivor--few could have lived through what he did. No history of the 60s pop music era will be complete without consulting this book.

I believe Brian

It is amazing, with all he went through, that Brian is the lone survivor of his original family. I'm glad he's still here, and I believe we all owe Eugene Landy a debt of gratitude for saving Brian. What he did WORKED. Brian chronicles his life up to the lawsuit-forced separation from his therapist with honesty and wit. It's extremely hard for a bipolar schizophrenic with additional drug-induced brain damage to read anything, let alone write. Brian admits he couldn't even remember how to play the piano at his lowest point. But now he's back, he'll be treating us to a "Pet Sounds" tour -- and he could have easily been the first Wilson casualty. No matter what you think of Dr. Landy, he was the one who helped Brian save himself. I believe Brian was being honest in this book.

The Most Brutally Honest Book I Have Ever Read

I must say that this has to be the most brutally honest book that I have ever read. Starting with his birth and going all the way up until age 49 in 1991, Brian Wilson takes us on the harrowing journey that was his life. No stone is left unturned. Nothing was too abusive to leave out. In recovering from addiction, you have to be raw with your feelings and honest with yourself, and I think Brian Wilson has been both. Before reading this book, I had known about the controversy surrounding Dr. Landy and his treatment of Brian, and at the time I was on the side of Brian's family and the other Beach Boys, feeling that he had been brainwashed and was being controlled by Dr. Landy. However, after reading this book, although I still do not agree with the way some things were handled, I can see that it was necessary for someone to take control of Brian. He certainly could not do it himself. He needed to be literally rebuilt from the ground up and from inside out. I think he needed to be shown that he had the power within himself to recover. Dr. Landy did a fabulous job, and at times I'm sure it was a thankless job. Without him and his therapy, I am quite sure that Brian Wilson would no longer be with us. I don't know how Brian is doing today, but hopefully he is still living a clean and sober life. I'm glad that we still have him around.