Pet Reads - The Beach Boys Books Podcast
Oct 1, 2026 · 52 min · 10 segments
Jon returns to Pet Reads to discuss his excellent and wide-ranging FAQs publication from 2011. Subtitled 'All that's left to know about America's Band', it is a fantastic resource in the Beach Boys…
Jon StebbinsGuestEd MayHost
Well, let me focus on a few things that maybe were pet peeves or just things that I, again, kind of like the Dennis book and the David book, you know, were, were things that I wanted to maybe educate people on a little bit.
Um, and this allowed me to do more of that just with generally with the full band.
So there, there are a couple of aspects to it that I was very, I was very excited and happy about being able to express in there.
So that really does shine the light on some names that people may have been aware of or not even at all and giving them their due and their huge contribution to the band that hadn't been before.
So a lot of the touring acts and the touring band, sorry, was a huge part of that as well.
Did you learn anything new during this process or was it simply everything you knew onto the page?
Um, but, but again, you know, there were, there were a few things that I, that I kind of, um, had in my quiver, um, arrows in my quiver that I, I, I wanted to definitely take a shot with, um, just things like talking about the absurdity of smile.
you know, talking about All Summer Long as the initial introduction of nostalgia, because the Beach Boys, you know, there's a nostalgic element to them that goes all the way back to there, you know, where they're, you know, All Summer Long has a nostalgic element to it.
And then also things like one of my just massive pet peeves that just keeps me up at night is the fact that they don't get credit for being musicians on their tracks because since the Wrecking Crew has sort of, the knowledge about the wrecking crew, which was something that was unknown for a long time, and then was brought into the press and brought into the fan base.
The sort of general consensus was that, oh, well, the Beach Boys barely played on their records except for the early days, but Brian had these guys playing on all their records.
But this book allowed me to express the fact that the Beach Boys actually were a band that played on a lot of their hit records.
They played probably, I think, Dennis Wilson, not as great a drummer as Hal Blaine.
My problem is giving Hal Blaine credit for playing on things that he didn't play on, that are Dennis.
If I had played the drums on I Get Around, or if I had played the drums on When I Grow Up to Be a Man, I would want to have the world know that.
Well, let me focus on a few things that maybe were pet peeves or just things that I, again, kind of like the Dennis book and the David book, you know, were, were things that I wanted to maybe educate people on a little bit.
Um, and this allowed me to do more of that just with generally with the full band.
So there, there are a couple of aspects to it that I was very, I was very excited and happy about being able to express in there.
So that really does shine the light on some names that people may have been aware of or not even at all and giving them their due and their huge contribution to the band that hadn't been before.
So a lot of the touring acts and the touring band, sorry, was a huge part of that as well.
Did you learn anything new during this process or was it simply everything you knew onto the page?
Um, but, but again, you know, there were, there were a few things that I, that I kind of, um, had in my quiver, um, arrows in my quiver that I, I, I wanted to definitely take a shot with, um, just things like talking about the absurdity of smile.
you know, talking about All Summer Long as the initial introduction of nostalgia, because the Beach Boys, you know, there's a nostalgic element to them that goes all the way back to there, you know, where they're, you know, All Summer Long has a nostalgic element to it.
And then also things like one of my just massive pet peeves that just keeps me up at night is the fact that they don't get credit for being musicians on their tracks because since the Wrecking Crew has sort of, the knowledge about the wrecking crew, which was something that was unknown for a long time, and then was brought into the press and brought into the fan base.
The sort of general consensus was that, oh, well, the Beach Boys barely played on their records except for the early days, but Brian had these guys playing on all their records.
But this book allowed me to express the fact that the Beach Boys actually were a band that played on a lot of their hit records.
They played probably, I think, Dennis Wilson, not as great a drummer as Hal Blaine.
My problem is giving Hal Blaine credit for playing on things that he didn't play on, that are Dennis.
If I had played the drums on I Get Around, or if I had played the drums on When I Grow Up to Be a Man, I would want to have the world know that.
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