“Good Vibrations” is the inevitable feel-good title for an autobiography by Mike Love, who has spent 55 of his 75 years as the frontman of the Beach Boys. But it runs counter to the competitive, score-settling spirit of this frequently bilious book. If Mr. Love’s public persona is that of a peace-loving perpetuator of summer fun, his private side is much angrier. And although he writes extensively about the role that Transcendental Meditation has played in his life, it hasn’t kept him from remembering all the bitterness of the Beach Boys’ history. It has kept him, he says, from killing people.

This fall will bring a gold rush of books by and about musicians, with Bruce Springsteen’s memoir as the big kahuna. But the ripe Americana of surf music will be well represented too, as it was in the superb indie film “Love and Mercy.” Mr. Love’s book ranks high in gossip and readability, even if it’s stuffed with tedious chart positions for Beach Boys records. Brian Wilson has “I Am Brian Wilson” coming out in October. (Mr. Wilson, with his brothers Carl and Dennis, their cousin Mr. Love and their friend Al Jardine, constitute the core group of Beach Boys; there have been many personnel changes.)

Dean Torrence’s “Surf City: The Jan & Dean Story” arrives next week. And last year “Long Promised Road,” a full biography of the enormously talented and most overlooked Wilson brother, Carl, was published. Mr. Love goes out of his way to diss Carl and ignore his contributions to the group, both musical and diplomatic, whenever he can.

But his biggest beef is with Brian Wilson, who has been called a genius for most of Mr. Love’s lifetime. In “Good Vibrations,” Mr. Love would like to correct that impression, although in a peace-loving, roundabout way. Though he writes, “I’ve never been competitive with Brian,” he also tosses in zingers like, “I’m a Pisces, and Brian, a Gemini; and it is said that a Pisces writes out of inspiration while a Gemini writes out of desperation.” The biggest bone of contention in the book is Mr. Love’s claim that he wrote many of the lyrics credited to Mr. Wilson and was knowingly cheated out of credit and royalties by him and by Murry Wilson, the Wilson boys’ famously abusive father.