T he 1985 documentary The Beach Boys: An American Band gives you a sense of the group's mainstream cachet at the time.

In the first half of the film, four of the five founding Beach Boys — brothers Carl and Dennis Wilson, their cousin Mike Love and childhood friend Al Jardine — speak directly into the camera in plastic, scripted fashion, from the decks of sailboats and behind the wheels of shiny sports cars.

Brian Wilson, the band's sonic mastermind, is interviewed in bed. He's flat on his back, the covers pulled to his chin. At this point in the band's story, he wasn't touring, he wasn't writing much new material, and he was being overprescribed medication by his manager and personal doctor. Meanwhile, the band he founded had become an in-demand touring oldies act without him, singi

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