Over six decades, the Beach Boys have endured more than their share of ups and downs in the world of pop music, but one presence has remained constant: lead singer Mike Love has always been there, and wrote the lyrics for most of the band's biggest hits. Love tells the stories behind the lyrics for "Good Vibrations," "California Girls," "Surfin' USA," and "Kokomo," and offers vivid portraits of his three gifted cousins Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson. We also see America's changing cultural mores over the past half century, while Love's own experiences range from Charles Manson's "family" threatening his life to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi instilling it with peace.

"In the battle of the Beach Boys memoirs, [this is] the better read: lively, informative, thumbtacked with crazy specifics…. It's all here and then some."—Vanity Fair