A great deep dive into the music scene in L.A. in the 1960s - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) provided by the Author and Publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an fair and honest review.

I grew up in Southern California during the Surf Craze of the 50's and 60's. This is my backyard, my music, my childhood. Of course, I knew nothing about the sex and drugs. All I cared about was the rock and roll. William McKeen takes a "Helter-Skelter" look at the music industry in California in the 1960's.

He starts with the Beach Boys and Dennis Wilson's relationship with Charlie Manson, then briefly recounts the scandal plagued history of the Hollywood movie industry before he heads into the history of Rock and Roll with the movers and shakers and their sometimes stab you in the back tactics. Recounting stories and scandals along the way, McKeen writes a dry narrative of the era weaving the life and times of Brian Wilson throughout. But very much like a train wreck about to happen, you just can't look away.

Everybody Had an Ocean

Everybody Had an Ocean, William McKeen, is a fun, extremely well documented book about the progression of the music explosion in America in the 1960’s. This was a time when music evolved as it never has before and this story shows the players, not only in the studios and on stage but behind the scenes. The west coast became the Mecca for musicians wanting to make a name for themselves. The interconnections between these artists is very interesting. Some were neighbors, friends or even adversaries but all were interested in making the 60’s, a revolution in american music.

There is a very dark figure lingering in the background throughout the 60’s. Charles Manson, woven into this story, plays a disturbing role in this 60’s revolution which makes this book reminiscent of Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.

I would highly recommend this book.

A terrific book!
A detailed and engrossing portrayal of the intersection of popular music, California and the 60's. This is a sweeping overview, using the history of The Beach Boys as the focus, but reaching out and capturing everything from Surf music to the Doors. The book leads inevitably to Charles Manson and the end of a remarkable decade

The music of the 60s - I grew up with it. What started out as good clean, fun, enjoyable times, turned to dark issues, like drugs, alcohol, violence and murder. The author goes through the decade, talking a lot about the Beach Boys and their downward trip through the 60s, including the period about Charles Manson. The author does talk about Charlie and how he and his "family" ended the music world of the 60s. The book was very good, well-researched and written. I really enjoyed the stories that were included about the different musicians. A really fun book to read.

I really enjoyed this book. A detailed history of California ( and New YorK as well) rock and roll music and social history during the sixties. Who was in what group, who,slept with who, who did which drugs, why some groups succeeded and some failed, and what Charles Manson had to do with all this is detailed in McKeen' comprehensive and fascinating book. Highly reccommended.

With Everybody Had An Ocean, we get all the good and none of the bad that can plague the nonfiction historical genre: the writing is clean, precise, and friendly, the book stays on topic and rarely veers off on tangents, and the material is highly researched and very well disseminated. Imagine a large venn diagram of the 1960s Southern California music scene and you'll get an idea of how author McKeen has chosen to present the information. It's a very twisting but fascinating story of a somewhat insular scene that was just starting to grow, mature, and then stagnate in the pivotal 1960s.

The book has two anchors: a chronological account of how the music changed in the Los Angeles scene from the early 1960s to the end of the decade and the people involved in that change. At the epicenter of the change is the Beach Boys; from their nexus we get the stories of how they interacted with, helped grow or develop, hindered, or just hung out with so many of the big musicians of the time (or in the near future). From the musicians themselves (Mamas and Papas, Jan and Dean, Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young, Jim Messina, etc.) to the studio bands, record company owners, producers, hanger-ons, wives, and more. More interestingly, much of the beginning of the book is a breakdown of the various musical styles as they developed, from surf music to folk, psychedelic rock to rhythm and blues. If it sounds pedantic, it isn't. McKeen carefully and smartly interweaves all the stories so that the reader is never left wondering how they are all connected.

As the title suggests, this isn't about the Beach Boys and isn't their biography even though we are given quite a bit of information about them. Where most biographies focus on the subject, this book focuses on the impact of our subjects on others; e.g., how Brian Wilson's search for self actualization would lead him to try to work on other bands only to be reigned in by Mike Love and how Dennis Wilson would unwittingly begin the series of events leading to the Helter Skelter murders.

The first half of the book is very fact heavy to establish the backgrounds and perspective of the music and why it all ended up in Los Angeles. Artists big at the time like the Beatles are briefly mentioned but did not have a great effect on the LA scene. But other artists such as Elvis will have left a bigger legacy and so gets a bit more time in the book. As the book goes on, it becomes solely focused on the people and their interactions. The writing changes from factual to subjective in a way that makes complete sense but does oddly feel like a catharsis for the writer.

Although Los Angeles is the heart of the book, it really isn't the reason to read Everybody Had An Ocean. And indeed, not much time is spent on the city at all. It's all about the many different musicians/producers/music industry insiders who moved to LA in the 1960s in order to make their fortune. Some thrived, some died, and some just faded away. But their stories all made for excellent reading.

As noted early, the author is friendly, brief, concise, and does a very good job of editing himself to stay on topic and not get too distracted. Because the tone is conversational, the wording is never stiff or 'non-fiction dry' that can plague the genre. Indeed the author intersperses quite a bit of his opinions throughout and this is, as a result, a very subjective book. I may not have always agreed with his opinions of what music was good or who was a genius but I always respected the reasoning he gave for his assertions.

In all, I greatly enjoyed Everybody Had An Ocean. Perhaps better than any individual biographies of musicians from the era, this gives a much needed big picture perspective that make so much of the period much more understandable and defined. As such, this is highly recommended. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

(This review will appear at www.theviewfromthephlipside.com on March 8, 2017)

Everybody Had An Ocean - Music and Mayhem in 1960's Los Angeles - by William McKeen, (2017), Chicago Review Press - An enthralling look at rock and roll growing up. Anchored by the story of the Beach Boys, McKeen covers everyone from Jan and Dean to Charles Manson. The history cover is sprawling and it would be easy to get lost in the story. Instead, he leads the read along each strand of the web that formed among the legends, near-legends, and hangers-on of the day.

While many of the stories, and virtually of the music is familiar, "Everybody Had An Ocean" offers new understanding for the music and the musicians who made it. I will never be able to listen to the music of the Beach Boys the same way again.

There may be no musical group that seems more clean and pure than the Beach Boys. They are, to many people, the standard of clean cut, All-Americanism at the beginning of the Sixties, and their music provides most of the soundtrack for summer. Close harmonies of bright melodies are their trademark. But the familial hell out of which that grew is a startling contrast. Too often we forget that they were the Kings of Rock and Roll until the Beatles grabbed that crown. It's also easy to brush their music off as auditory fluff. McKeen will make you go back and reassess. That polished sound is the result of intense work by all involved, lead for many years by the genius of Brian Wilson. The pressure of expectation, both from within himself and the world around him, would take their toll on Wilson and all the members of the band.

The book's examination of those heady, and occasionally out of control, years is a careful weaving back and forth, from the Beach Boys to Jan and Dean, to the Buffalo Springfield, to the Byrds and Crosby, Stills Nash and Young. There is Joni Mitchell, the Mamas and the Papas, the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra, Jr, surf music and rock music and folk music. And Charles Manson. At the center of it all, in many surprising ways, were the Beach Boys.

It's a fascinating story and well told. There was one "authorial tic" that marred my enjoyment of the book. Periodically, McKeen steps out of his casual but clean storytelling style to insert a convoluted phrase or an unneeded piece of obscenity. It happened most often, but not exclusively, when the subject of sex came up. Being that the topic of the book is rock and roll, the Sixties and Los Angeles, sex comes up quite a bit. It's inconsistent with the overall storytelling style and really adds nothing to the reading experience.

The overall quality of the writing, and the excellence of the storytelling, easily sweeps away any small objections I may have. For fans of the music and students of the era, this has the feel of a "go-to" book. It is the best kind of history. The kind that both teaches and enthralls.

"Everybody Had Ocean" hits the bookshelves April 1.

Why You Should Read This Book - A great story, well told about the influential music of the second half of the Twentieth Century. Fascinating stories about the very human creators of beloved music.

Rating - **** Recommended

EVERYBODY HAD AN OCEAN by William McKeen chronicles the popular music progression in Los Angeles in the 1960's from catchy surf music, to easy going folk music, to drug addled rock and roll. Using the Beach Boys as a launching point and paralleling their evolution to the music of the 1960s, McKeen walks the reader through a time in music that was full of not just talent and potential, but also full of alcohol, drugs, adultery, and murder. By finishing the book by telling the story of Charles Manson, McKeen alludes to the Manson murders as the culmination of all the sins of excess that the musicians and artists in Los Angeles in 1960s.
Tethering the entire book to the Beach Boys, I found McKeen used their devolution to mirror the evolution of pop music. McKeen spends a lot of time in the beginning of the book telling the story of the Beach Boys and I found myself rereading the name and subtitle of the book to make sure it wasn't a biography of the Beach Boys. Eventually, though, the book jumps into the entire rock and roll scene and the stories McKeen tells are fascinating and eye opening. McKeen ties together so many musicians and groups that my head was spinning, but in good way, because I had no idea how much all of these artists worked and partied together. McKeen writes in a concise, informative way, where few words are wasted and yet as the reader, you feel like you've gotten the whole story.
I think music lovers will devour this book as I did. EVERYBODY HAS AN OCEAN was a pleasure to read and made me wish I was old enough to have enjoyed that time in Los Angeles myself.

I grew up on the beach in Southern California in the 60s (San Clemente High, Class of ’65!!) so I LEAPT at the chance to have an advance copy of Everybody Had an Ocean: Music and Mayhem in 1960s Los Angeles by William McKeen (thanks to Chicago Review Press and NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review.

For starters, I wanted to LOVE this book. Music was one of my best friends in my teenage years, and I retain vivid memories of artists, radio stations, TV shows, and all just hanging on the beach with transistor radios blaring music (unless the Dodgers were playing, in which case it was like a battle of the bands between the music and Vin Scully). Spoiler alert: I DID love it!

Just glancing at the cover made me happy: there were the 1960s images of some of my favorites: the Mamas and the Papas, Beach Boys, Joni Mitchell, Jan & Dean, Charles Manson – wait, WHAT??? Yep, it’s true: while this book is a detailed history of the 19502 and 19060s and the migration of the music industry to Los Angeles, it also is a fascinating look at the dark side of the time, including Manson, the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra, Jr., the murder of Bobby Fuller, and more. As McKeen notes “Los Angeles was fecund with corruption. As it became the American capital of crazy, it also became a reliable source of ghastly crimes…Los Angeles was the promised land and a pathetic and brutal place.” And there is acknowledgement that the stories about Manson’s rejection by the music industry may have led directly to the Manson Family murder spree are in fact true. In addition to Manson, the book includes juicy stories about personalities including Fatty Arbuckle, Charlie Chaplin, and that very weird Phil Spector.

One of the most interesting aspects of the story of the development of rock music is its relationship to race. “Black America met White America through music…once we were all dancing to the same beat, Jim Crow didn’t have a chance and walls came tumbling down.” Some claim that “rock ‘m roll is just black folks’ music played by white boys,” but the bottom line is that “the musical revolution…led to a social revolution.”

Segregation and bigotry are vividly described, especially in the way “the music industry’s official term for black music was “race” (as in “race records” on the radio)"" ...and for white country music it was “hillbilly”.” The term “rhythm and Blues” gave way to rock ‘n roll. It was Alan Freed who changed things: “Freed liked the way it sounded. “Rhythm and Blues,” the new industry term for black music, still bore the stigma of “race records” and Freed saw it as his sad duty to push his particular boulder uphill, trying to introduce the masses (mostly white kids) to this music he loved.” Once he coined the term “rock ‘n roll” for this new music, it stuck.

This book is absolutely packed with stories about the music and people surrounding the music industry. To be honest, I learned way more about Brian Wilson and Jan & Dean than I needed (or wanted) to know, but nothing in the book feels like it is over the top – the stories about the icons of “surf music” are often wild, but are an essential part of the story McKeen tells. Yes, I did love this book, and I’m pretty sure I won’t listen to Sirius Channel 060 the same way again! Four stars…if the final version has pictures, it would likely be 5.

This is a book that I just enjoyed, from the opening paragraph to the final sentence. It is a somewhat selective history of the rock music, mostly in the 1960’s, and is full of lesser-known stories and anecdotes from rock’s past.

=== The Good Stuff ===

* I consider myself to be reasonably versed in the history of music from this time period, but I constantly found myself being surprised and amazed at what I was reading. The kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr, Charles Manson getting a record deal through the Beach Boys, the darker side of Phil Spector-all of these were fun and enlightening to read.

* William McKeen writes in a fun and easy-to-read style. I could hardly wait to turn the pages and see what was coming next. He tackles the music and creative sides of music, the business of writing songs and producing records, and excellent looks at the personalities involved.

* If you haven’t heard of the “Wrecking Crew”, or seen the movie made about them (you really should), this is an excellent addition to their story. As an example, while the “Beach Boys” were out on tours, Brian Wilson was working with the studio musicians of the “Wrecking Crew” putting together the group’s next album. When the “Beach Boys” came back from their tour, Brian herded them into the studio and had them dub the vocals in to the new album. Their own ideas, and skills as musicians, were not strictly needed.

* The author doesn’t shy away from the darker side of this part of history. Charles Manson crosses paths with several of the groups, mostly the Beach Boys, and while he was the evilest, there was no shortage of rogue characters. Some of the material and language might be disturbing, but it isn’t overly sensationalized.

* There is an amazing variety of musicians who are discussed in this book. They include Phil and Ronnie Spector, The Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, The Beatles, Herb Alpert, Frank Sinatra, The Doors, The Mamas and the Papas, Sonny and Cher, and others. Not all of them are shown at their best, and you should be prepared to have some cherished images damaged. For example, I always enjoyed the Beach Boys song “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”---- until I found out the true subject of the lyrics.


=== The Not-So-Good Stuff ===

* Some of the material can get bit repetitive-with the same story being repeated, and similar tales about different characters. As a result, I found the book a bit of a slow read, and it took me a few days to read it in its entirety, which is somewhat unusual.

* There are not a lot of sources listed, so you can’t check up on the author’s sources. Nothing seems unreasonable or fictional, but I do prefer to spot-check references.

* McKeen is somewhat prone to off-color language, profanity and adult content. While I don’t mind it, some of it does come across as unnecessary and gratuitous, and not important for the plot. I found it somewhat distracting at times, and it may offend some readers…although if you are easily offended, this is probably not your book.


=== Summary ===

If you are at all interested in the history of rock music during the 60’s, this is a must read. It is full of facts and stories that I wasn’t aware of, and I found the reading experience well worth the time. The book is mostly a recitation of facts, and doesn’t attempt to draw any high-level conclusions about society, culture or music. But it was fun to learn some of these incidents.

Good book about music. Lots of information on various musicians, singers, bands, etc. Interesting facts and tidbits about the music industry. If the music industry is something that interests you, this is the book for you. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book in return for my honest review.