The Beach Boys is Fun, Fun, Fun Nostaglic Look Into Music History

Who knew when I was watching John Stamos play drums that he was one of many in the revolving door of historic Beach Boys. Or, when we witnessed the amazingly brilliant Paul Dano take on Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy, that this was just scratching the surface of a story that had yet to be revealed…until now.

In the all-new Disney Plus documentary, audiences are treated to a celebration of a legendary band who revolutionized pop music, and the iconic, harmonious sound created personifying the California dream. Tracing from their humble family beginnings, this doc features never-before-seen footage and all-new interviews with shared perspectives by The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, singer-guitarist Carl Wilson (who died from cancer in 1998 ),  singer-drummer Dennis Wilson (who drowned in a Los Angeles-area harbor), Mike Love, Al Jardine, David Marks, Bruce Johnston, plus Lindsey Buckingham and Janelle Monáe to name a few.

Beginning as a family band, the Wilson brothers (Brian, Carl and Dennis) alongside cousin Mike Love, experienced a rise to  stardom was meteoric and unexpected.  What was even more unexpected was their healthy creative rivalry with another band across the pond – The Beatles and their unhealthy relationship with the one person they trusted the most – father Murray Wilson.  Murray’s  discipline and love created one the most successful groups of all time.   Yet, a skism would never be healed  when he sold the groups song catalog for $700,000 without consulting the band and leaving Love’s name off as a contributor.

The surreptitious song rights sale kept director Frank Marshall (responsible for  documentaries on the Bee Gees, Carole King and James Taylor) from moving forward with the film until the recent purchase of the rights by his friend Irving Azoff giving him a green light to proceed.  Can you imagine your own flesh and blood being so bitter to not have the foresight and recognize what keeping the rights would have meant to his sons, grandchildren and nephew’s future?  It is beyond disappointing to say the least.

One of the great things about Marshall’s doc is that it never pulls away from the tense and uncomfortable aforementioned subject nor shy away from speaking on Brian’s drug use while simultaneously applauding his musical genius.  However, none of this takes away from the upbeat, wholesome feeling theri music invokes taking us back to a time when life was not as vitriolic or complicated.

At the Hollywood premiere, despite all the angst and disarray between Brian and Mike over the decades, Love choked up while communicating if he could say anything to Brian he would tell him that he “loved him.”

In spite of it all and the fact that a tad bit of time could have been trimmed, this doc is an enjoyable, toe-tapping  blast to the past with some of the best to ever do it.