The Beach Boys’ story gets more tangled by the minute

The Beach Boys’ story gets more tangled by the minute

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold November 18, 2025 Duration: 36:29

“All bands are sad stories,” Peter Doggett points out, but is there a more woven, moving and, at times, farcical tale than that of the Beach Boys? It gives the sound of them a greater melancholy and resonance with every passing year. As his fascinating new book Surf’s Up reveals, nothing that happened is straightforward and very little as simple as it sounds. We talk here about …

 

… Dennis Wilson and the Beach Boys’ creation myth

 

… what started their revival

 

… why they’d never have survived beyond 1962 without Mike Love

 

… was Derek Taylor’s ‘Brian is a genius’ campaign partly to explain his procrastination and eccentricity?

 

… the chaos of SMiLE and the long shadow of the Beatles

 

… Murry Wilson’s “superstar” ambitions and original plan for the group

 

… the days when they looked like Old Testament prophets or hippies from Central Casting

 

… Dennis and Manson, Carl v the draft, Mike Love’s arrest … scandals that would have sunk them in the days of social media

 

… the “Brian as victim trope” and his extraordinary appearance on “The Tension Behind the Music”

 

… when Bart Simpson turned them down

 

… can anyone name a good Beach Boys album cover?

 

… and the band’s future, a controlled touring franchise with no original members

 

Order Peter Doggett’s ‘Surf’s Up: Brian Wilson & the Beach Boys’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Surfs-Up-Brian-Wilson-Beach/dp/1917923341


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There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Word In Your Ear
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