Review: The Beach Boys Documentary on Disney+

You know I love a good classic rock documentary, especially when it’s talking about a band I love. Everyone knows I prefer British rock and roll to American rock and roll, but if I had to pick my favourite band from the USA, it would easily be The Beach Boys, or as I like to call them The Lagoon Lads, that would make a great name for an Irish tribute to The Beach Boys. What do I love about The Beach Boys? What makes them special to me? I think it’s that optimistic sound of the 60s and the “California Myth”. It’s a form of escapism for people around the world.

For many people around the world, they were their introduction to California and surf culture. Musically, I love the harmonising they do, Brian Wilson’s production skills, and there’s really something magical about sibling groups and the way that brothers’ or sisters’ voices blend together. There are many great sibling groups of rock and roll: The Everly Brothers, The Beach Boys, The Ronettes, The Kinks, The Bee Gees, CCR, Sly & The Family Stone, The Jackson Five, The Allan Brothers, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Gentle Giant, Sparks, AC/DC, Heart, Van Halen, Dire Straits, and DEVO. In many of these cases, there’s family drama and oh boy do The Beach Boys have a lot of drama. I’ll just sum it up, most Beach Boys fans are team Brian Wilson and hate his cousin Mike Love. For starters, I’m very much a Team Brian Wilson person so keep that in mind as you read this review.

I love The Beach Boys’ 60s music and I was really looking forward to this documentary because I read a lot about them for my book Crime of the Century and had high expectations for it because it was being released on Disney+ and was described as a definitive documentary but I ended up being left a bit confused and disappointed. Appearance wise, I liked the visuals, editing, and great archival footage. I especially loved the editing of the documentary when they talk about Beatlemania and how The Beach Boys didn’t just survive it but thrived and had a healthy competition going with the Fab Four.

However, the narrative and the story left me a bit disappointed with the abrupt ending. Most of the documentary understandably talks about the band’s peak years in the 60s and their incredible output from 1961-1966, but it doesn’t talk about Wild Honey. Friends and 20/20 were barely talked about. Surf’s Up got very little time and I didn’t see much discussion of Sunflower. Admittedly, I don’t know as much about the post-Brian era of the band and I wanted to get an education on it in this documentary, and I didn’t really get that, which is a shame. A wasted opportunity to talk about the deep cuts and give those albums some more appreciation. Guess I’ll have to explore on my own.

I felt like I got whiplash at the end of the documentary because we go from talking about The Flames members Ricky Fataar and Blondie Chaplin joining The Beach Boys one second and then the next second we see the surviving Beach Boys “reuniting” at Paradise Cove. It looks like an awkward meeting with the members walking over to Brian. I know about The Beach Boys relatively recent drama where Mike uses The Beach Boys name and tours as them and plays for conservative politicians and Brian is really against that being done under his band’s name and he has made statements saying that he does not endorse Mike Love playing at a Trump fundraiser (Al Jardine also did not approve of the gig). Sure, Mike Love played a part in the band’s success with his vocals and some songwriting contributions, but why is he dismissing his cousin’s feelings? Why doesn’t he tour as Mike Love of The Beach Boys and friends?

The deaths of Dennis Wilson in 1983 and Carl Wilson in 1998 are merely relegated to text at the end of the documentary and it’s a real shame they didn’t really do much to memorialise them and do a proper tribute to them. Their hit single “Kokomo” was only played during the credits and there wasn’t any in depth discussion about it. The Beach Boys’ 50th anniversary reunion in 2012 was not covered either.

There are a lot of elephants in the room with the Beach Boys and maybe hindsight is 20/20 but I think this documentary was really Disneyfied with the documentary not talking about Murry’s abuse until 40 minutes in, no discussion of Eugene Landy abusing Brian Wilson and him being treated a lot like Britney Spears (I’m also aware that in recent years Brian Wilson has been put under a conservatorship). I got really tired of Mike Love incessantly talking about how his uncle Murry “cheated” him out of royalties (I really can’t stand him, sorry!). However, I do appreciate that early band member and close friend/neighbour of Brian’s David Marks was given a voice and I really liked hearing his story. In a way, he feels like the lost member of the band. For more reading about him, here’s a great article from Forward about the Jewish history of The Beach Boys. I also really liked listening to Al Jardine talk.

It’s obvious that this documentary’s narrative is about the teamwork of the band, but after watching it, I’m still team Brian Wilson and I think he was the true genius and standout of the band. Sure, the rest of the members were talented vocalists and musicians, but Brian Wilson is leagues ahead.

There’s so much material to cover with The Beach Boys and I think instead of a 2 hour documentary, I think a 3-6 episode miniseries would have done their story justice. Because I’ve done a lot of research on The Beach Boys, I knew much of the history covered in the documentary and hardcore fans would absolutely know about that. I still found it an enjoyable watch and I think Beach Boys fans will like it, but it’s a bit glossed over and Disneyfied. Overall I’d give it a B-.

As you can expect, the documentary starts with the band’s beginnings in Hawthorne, California in the 50s, their upbringing. Their influences are talked about: Chuck Berry, The Four Freshmen, doo-wop, The Everly Brothers, The Ventures, Dick Dale and The Del-Tones, Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, and yes even The Beatles. You can really hear the doo-wop influence in “Pamela Jean”, which is “Car Crazy Cutie” with different lyrics, personally I like “Pamela Jean” better. To me, it sounds like a song that Dion and the Belmonts would have recorded. Famous Pet Sounds fan Pete Townshend was so obsessed with “You Really Got Me” that he wrote “I Can’t Explain” as an homage to it and for Brian Wilson that moment was hearing “Be My Baby” on the radio and being blown away by it. That Wall of Sound masterpiece was his Roman Empire – he would play it on repeat much to the annoyance of his then-wife Marilyn – and he wrote his take on it “Don’t Worry Baby” (if you want another Who connection, die-hard Beach Boys fan Keith Moon covered it on his only solo album Two Sides of the Moon). The Ventures and Dick Dale were the acts that influenced them to get into surf rock (they covered “Misirlou” on Surfin’ USA), don those Pendleton shirts – hence their old name The Pendletones, and eventually call themselves The Beach Boys. Only Dennis Wilson knew how to surf though. Al Jardine and Brian Wilson tried, but they almost drowned after wiping out. As you may already know, The Beach Boys and The Beatles had a friendly sort of competition going where they inspired each other. Brian Wilson loved their 1965 album Rubber Soul and then created Pet Sounds as a response to it and then The Beach Boys responded back with Sgt Pepper. It’s like a ping-pong match between American and British rock and roll and I love it! That competition is what drives innovation.

What really made The Beach Boys special is that they were one of the few pre-British Invasion American acts to survive Beatlemania, and they didn’t only do that, but they thrived and competed and felt more motivated than ever. They got their first  #1 with “I Get Around” in 1964, made their first European TV appearance on Ready Steady Go, got another #1 with “Help Me Rhonda” in 1965, and they released their masterpiece Pet Sounds in 1966. All of that during the height of Beatlemania. Funnily enough, Brian Wilson believed that “I Want To Hold Your Hand” wasn’t that great of a record.

One of the main ideas of the documentary is the Beach Boys’ evolution. In the abbreviated form of 60s music history, The Beach Boys are often portrayed as a surf rock band, but they were really more than that. Brian Wilson is a visionary. He can play music, sing, write songs, compose music, and produce. He really can do it all. However with that genius came a dark side and he struggled a lot with his mental health throughout his life. His father was abusive and controlling and no doubt did that have an impact on him. Murry’s controlling ways made David Marks quit the band and The Beach Boys eventually fired him as manager and he later retaliated by selling the publishing rights, which led to a lot of drama and a beef between Brian and Mike. He had a mental breakdown at just 22 years old and abandoned touring, he was Syd Barrett before Syd Barrett, but unlike Syd he kept working in the studio and coming up with brilliant ideas for the band while they were on tour. However, like Syd, he took LSD and that really led to his mental health spiralling even though there were some creative ideas that came with it like “Good Vibrations”, which was a record setting epic that took months of time to record and they spent about half a million dollars in today’s money on recording it. You could say it was the “Bohemian Rhapsody” of the 1960s.

By the end of the 60s Brian took a step back and his brother Carl became a leader of sorts and other band members contributed songs. The lineup of the band changed a lot with Brian’s departure. Glen Campbell was a replacement, and then Bruce Johnston came in, and later you had Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar. Brian was also collaborating with Van Dyke Parks and some of these co-written songs ended up on Smiley Smile, which was The Beach Boys’ Lifehouse/Who’s Next moment, but it was not a success. From there, it was disaster after disaster for the band mentally and commercially.

Things started to bounce back in the 70s when Endless Summer came out and it reinvigorated interest in the band. They were playing to big crowds again and people of all ages were in the audience enjoying the music. In general, there’s a revival in interest after some time passes because something goes from being old news to being retro and retro is cool because of the nostalgia and memories associated with it and those who were too young to appreciate the music the first go around get a chance to enjoy it.

The Beach Boys are a legendary band with a lot of ups and downs, like waves – how fitting. There’s a lot of happy songs that unite people, but a lot of darkness, disaster, and drama. They’re a band that will always fascinate and captivate me.

What are your thoughts on the documentary? Is it something you want to watch or do you want to skip it? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! 🙂

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