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Jules Siegel (October 21, 1935 – November 17, 2012) was a novelist, journalist, and graphic designer who is best known as one of the earliest writers to treat rock music as a serious art form, although his writings about rock constituted only a small part of his total output. His work appeared over the years in Playboy, Best American Short Stories, Library of America's Writing Los Angeles, and many other publications. He occasionally contributed to the San Francisco Chronicle, and he administered newsroom-l, an email discussion list for journalists.
His articles about Brian Wilson, Bob Dylan, Thomas Pynchon and other prominent Americans were primary sources of information based on his personal acquaintance and extensive direct interviews with the subjects. "Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!" has been anthologized several times and is used as a primary source in every book about Brian Wilson's struggle to complete Smile, his "teenage symphony to God."
By early 1967, Wilson had run into issues completing Smile and had grown suspicious of his surrounding associates, including Siegel. Siegel said that Wilson "had forgotten that I was a journalist, and the reason he got rid of me was because Anderle reminded him of that – because of a disagreement that David and I had about what I would and wouldn't write... After that my, I and Pynchon went to Studio A and [Michael Vosse]] was there, and he said, 'No, you're barred.'"
The Saturday Evening Post ultimately rejected his story due to his enthusiastic praise of Wilson's work, according to Siegel. The article was instead published in October 1967 within the first issue of the magazine Cheetah. It subsequently propelled the mythology of Smile and the Beach Boys, popularizing many anecdotes associated with the album. (2025). 9781770410718, ECW Press. ISBN 9781770410718 Writing in his 33⅓ book about the album, Luis Sanchez commented: "Siegel probably had no idea that in writing this story he was also laying the foundation for a mythology that would eventually curl back on to itself and become a snare."
Brian disliked the article, according to Siegel, for portraying his "flip-out" during the sessions. In a 1971 interview, Carl supported that Siegel's writings "and a lot of that stuff that went around before really turned Brian off." Anderle later alleged that Siegel had inflated the myth through writing falsehoods so that he could appear more "important". (1997). 9780711961975, Omnibus Press. ISBN 9780711961975 Siegel rebuked Anderle's allegation: "If it weren't so stupid, it would be libelous.... I admired Brian a lot and I also liked him.... I wasn't aware of him as a myth. I just wrote down what I saw and heard.... It was fun hanging out with Brian and getting stoned but it was hardly important in the sense that David means."
Siegel lived and worked in Mexico, beginning in 1981 (moving to Cancún in 1983), where he was a witness of the Hurricane Gilbert landfall. He was also active in the field of book art. Three of his works are in the Artists Books Collection of the Museum of Modern Art. His books and calligraphic journals were exhibited at Franklin Furnace in 1978.
On November 17, 2012, Siegel died of a heart attack at age 77.
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