The nearest faraway place - Timothy White

An amazing feat of in-depth reporting, The Nearest Faraway Place is simultaneously a social history of Southern California in the 1960s and an intimate portrait of the quintessential Californian band - the Beach Boys. Intertwined with the personal stories of the Beach Boys themselves is the story of the Los Angeles basin and its unlikely development from the desert to the nation's playground. Here, too, is the growth of Califoria's music industry to a prominence rivalling the most powerful Hollywood studios. More than just the story of a band, this remarkable book reveals the influences that formed the Beach Boys and the golden music they created. 'It's the impressive scope and overview, as much as the compendious details that make White's the best book so far on the Beach Boys.' Andy Gill, Q 'Scrupulously researched . . . lucidly written and instructive.' New York Times Book Review
'The finest reading for the sunny season. Timothy White's exhaustive The Nearest Faraway Place focuses on the history of the California myth, of which Wilson & Co were simply the latest and most elequent publicists. He fills in the gaps in our comprehension of the Beach Boys, the better to gauge the musical and social climate of the times.' Mojo