Is there any value at all to the Wouldnt It Be Nice bio?

There is plenty of truth in the early sections (and doubtless plenty of falsehoods as well) as the writer obviously took his info from many sources. 

The wikipedia page for the book is actually quite interesting reading:


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wouldn%27t_It_Be_Nice:_My_Own_Story

It was after getting WIBN as a birthday present in 2002 (I was hoping for a book about Joe Meek!) that my appetite for the Boys was whetted (so to speak). Its mention of Sunflower (which I'd never heard of!) and Surf's Up led me to buy the 2fer and then fall in love with their music on hearing "All I Wanna Do".

So yes, it has great personal value for me. And it reads like a dream--in fact, it's the only BB-related book I've ever read twice.  

Some of this book’s problems:

1. It shows Brian’s family in the worst possible light, while it portrays Landy as a faultless savior. 

2. It steals from other texts

3. Such stolen texts are edited to comply with point 1 (e.g. the account about Brian quitting the road in 1965 is lifted verbatim from another source, but the part in the original where Carl is praised for his balance and strentgth of character is edited out).

4. Carl is depicted as an overweight alcoholic.

5. Audree is portrayed as an alcoholic.

6. Mike is vilified and scorned. 

7. Carl is blamed for Dennis’ death.

8. The style and tone of the writing doesn’t match Brian’s way of speaking (particularly when he speaks about himself) nor his humor.

9. The book attempts to show that thanks to Landy Brian is completey cured and independent, but if Landy were to be removed from Brian’s life then he (Brian) would turn into his obese, mentally-ill self again. 

i don't remember that, Cam, but it certainly could've been legit. Alexandra Morgan told me that she sold most of Landy's collection after he died.

My first thought was would Brian hand write notes? JMO he probably would not. I suppose that leaves the possibility of being Brian's thoughts written by another's hand but if the manuscript were in any way authentic my first suspect would be Landy writing his own notes/thoughts in his own hand. But that is just me.

One thing that is slightly valuable in the book is basically the before/after photos of Brian, really...like from 1982, and then from a few years later. But the thing is...a good portion of the book seems to be Landy advertising himself.

Outside of the second half of the book reading like a transcript from a testimonial dinner for Eugene Landy, I think there's some entertainment value in the first half of the book even if it's cribbed from other sources.

The other big problem with this book is the total and utter absence of any input from Brian Wilson himself which for an autobiography is, y'know, like I said...a pretty big problem.

I had my book autographed by Brian, too. His hands were shaking and his aide, Kevin Leslie, had to literally spell EVERY word for Brian. It was shocking and sad to see.

The value of the book lies in the smoking gun video that set in motion the events that led to Brian being freed from Landy's clutches.