DEFINITIVE BEACH BOYS CONCERT BOOK SALUTES 50 YEARS ON THE ROAD

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DEFINITIVE BEACH BOYS CONCERT BOOK SALUTES 50 YEARS ON THE ROAD
By Howie Edelson

Out now is the book that Beach Boys fans have waited decades for -- Ian Rusten and Jon Stebbins' massive 407-page tome, The Beach Boys In Concert: The Ultimate History Of America's Band On Tour And Onstage. The book features in-depth listing and descriptions of countless Beach Boys concerts between 1961 and their ill-fated blockbuster 2012 reunion tour featuring surviving co-founders Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, David Marks, and longtime member, Bruce Johnston. Over a decade in the making, the book features numerous concerts including first-hand accounts and reviews of the shows by local press outlets. Rusten and Stebbins have focused most of their attention on the shows played up through 1985, when the band unofficially ceased to be a full-time, ongoing recording outfit.

Jon Stebbins is best known in rock circles for writing such definitive Beach Boys biographies as Dennis Wilson: The Real Beach Boy; the David Marks biography The Lost Beach Boy -- which he wrote with Marks; and most recently, The Beach Boys FAQ - All That's Left To Know About America's Band.

Ian Rusten, a New York history teacher, has been delving into the group's history and sharing his research on the band's live work for years -- to the delight of both casual and die-hard Beach Boys fans. Rusten explained that while using author Keith Badman's 2004 book The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary Of America's Greatest Band On Stage And In The Studio as the starting point for additional research, he uncovered the band's true history on the road: "I would go to the library when I should've been doing research for my thesis and instead, look up some of the shows that Badman had in his book to see if I could find some reviews, things like that. And sometimes, there'd be nothing in the paper. And I'd say, 'Wait a minute, he has this date, October 18th.' And then eventually I figured out, it wasn't October 18th -- so when was it? Y'know, they must've been there at some point on this tour.' And I'd start looking around, and I'd go get the September issues, and eventually, y'know, I'd find it -- 'Oh wow, it was September 12th -- not October 18th, and it wasn't at this venue, it was at this venue.' There you go."

Jon Stebbins explains -- and showcases in the book -- that the actual formation of the performing "band" known as the Beach Boys is hardly as linear as other '60s groups -- like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, or the Who: "There's a lot of separate things going on around Brian, 'cause Brian and Mike had their thing going for a long time, y'know? And Brian and his two brothers had had their thing going for a long time, which was separate from that. And Carl (Wilson) and David had their guitar thing going over there, and Brian and Al had their little singing thing going on over here, and being that it was those five or six guys, that's why it was what it was."

Although much has been written about Brian Wilson loathing the road during the first blush of the Beach Boys' fame, co-founding guitarist David Marks told us that from where he was sitting -- for a while at least -- Brian had a blast being out on the road with him, his brothers, and cousin in the early-'60s: "He wasn't always like that. He had a lot of fun in the beginning. When we first went out on our first gigs around Southern California, it was the most fun any of us had in our entire lives. Brian was right there -- he loved it. It just started regressing. He would get other interests, his passion was to be a record producer, so he started seeking other artists besides the Beach Boys and the Beach Boys was kind of taking away from his time."

We chatted with Brian Wilson about one of his rare early-'70s appearances on November 4th, 1970 when he joined the Beach Boys for their celebrated return to the Sunset Strip at the Whisky A Go Go. We asked him how it felt to be back out on the stage with the band for the first time in three years; and also, after only hearing the group sing within the confines of the recording studio for so long, what they sounded like to him together onstage: "It was quite, quite a kick, 'cause it was in Los Angeles and that's our hometown, y'know? So, we were proud to play for our hometown. I remember how I really looked to Mike to sing a good bass line, 'y'know? And the other guys were with me in the higher register. So, I just remember each guy had his own part, and quite a thrill to hear."

Al Jardine talked to us about the band's live sound evolving around the time of the 1971 Surf's Up album, and credits the band's roadies for turning them on to new guitars -- including his early-'70s favorites, the sunburst Les Paul Jr. and his beloved 1956 Les Paul "black beauty." It was during this era that Carl Wilson began using what would become his signature instrument, the Gibson ES 335: "It didn't really change our style any. We were just trying different instruments. And Carl got a little grungier -- he started playing really grungy, kinda real dirty. Y'know, he got 'dirgy' -- maybe that's a better term. . . He got a little too dirty for me, but that's okay, he felt better -- y'know, it got a little too clean, y'know? And that's good. I mean, you wanna dirty it up a little, and that's good, 'cause the vocals are so clean. So, it made sense. But fundamentally, we were still playing the charts. The songs were still performed authentically. These guitars gave it a little different color."

Elvis Costello was plotting the Beach Boys' progress throughout the late-'60s and early-'70s, a period which he told us remains a favorite of his: "There was. . . I think they were seen as a bit old hat in England and they came over kinda lookin' -- they had a hipper look to the way. . . they had Ricky Fataar on drums and Blondie Chaplin in the band, it gave them another dimension. And it wasn't, it wasn't so much that they had to apologize for any of those records -- that would be nonsensical. They're fantastic records, they're right in the same tradition as Chuck Berry's, y'know, driving songs and they did 'em great. But the musicality of those records that they made around the turn of the decade, that opens the door to a whole other way of singing. I mean, I never even approached that until much later on. I never even thought about writing anything with that scope."

Costello recalled to us his first Beach Boys concert on May 20th, 1972 -- just across the Mersey River from his then-hometown of Birkenhead, England: "I saw the Beach Boys in Liverpool at the Liverpool Empire. That was a very different experience. They were in that. . . although Dennis and Carl were singing in the band, Brian wasn't with them, but the Surf's Up album and beautiful Carl And The Passions album were out -- and Holland. Those records were out. Dennis sang an extraordinary version of 'Cuddle Up' at that gig, which I'll never forget. That was an incredible thing to see, because although the main writer wasn't present, you realized that they had reclaimed themselves as a creative band away from the cliched idea of these guys that sing these car songs and dress in stripey shirts."

Guitarist Blondie Chaplin, the voice of "Sail On Sailor" will be joining Brian Wilson out on the road later this month for select dates. Chaplin played his final show with the group at New York's legendary Madison Square Garden on December 19th, 1973. Although Chaplin has been back to the Garden multiple times as part of the Rolling Stones' touring band over the years, for him and drummer Ricky Fataar, the show was a dream come true: ["The first time was like cloud nine, man. Playing in there for the first time was just fantastic, electric and God! That was a while ago, so everybody's energy was up and just ready to take the hall down. So, I love playing in that place, man. I think, Ricky would say the same thing, or close to it, because the first time we played there was just complete electricity; in fact, some of those people that saw me then are coming to those (Brian Wilson) gigs in Montclair (New Jersey) and (the) Beacon (Theater)."

Beach Boys photographer and Dennis Wilson's closest confidante Ed Roach contributed many previously unseen shots to the new book. Back in the day, he traveled to numerous shows to shoot the band, but it really wasn't until the 1972-1973 concerts that he hunkered down to film stills and 16 millimeter footage, which was used for the TV ads for the 1973 The Beach Boys In Concert album: "Y'know, when I first started doing it was before the In Concert album. It was mainly doing driving tours then. It was mainly. . . y'know, they were driving themselves. They would rent a car and drive, like, five dates forward and fly forward. So, at that point, I was just along for the ride. I was just, like, traveling with Dennis and was shooting them with the goal of getting the In Concert album."

Billy Hinsche, the longtime Beach Boys multi-instrumentalist -- and member of Dino, Desi, & Billy -- was also Carl Wilson's brother-in-law, being the younger brother of Carl's first wife Annie. He explained that many times the Beach Boys' most legendary concerts were important for reasons beyond music. Although the band's April 20th, 1973 Hollywood Palladium show featured a then-reclusive Brian Wilson popping out onstage -- it also marked Wilson patriarch Murry Wilson's final time seeing his sons perform live. Hinsche recalled connecting with Murry that night, which led to him being among the few people to hear possibly Murry's final song, "Lazzaloo": "I had just seen him at the Hollywood Palladium show, where we were still doing recordings for the live album, and he had withered away. And he was wearing a suit, as he always did at such events. Y'know, he always got dressed up nicely -- business-type (attire). But I was telling (Carl's son) little Jonah, that 'This is your grandfather and he's a great man' -- and I think Murry was moved by that, my praises of him. He was a decent guy. He was good to my parents, respected them, and he was just a cool guy to me. And so, I was singing his praises to Jonah, and Murry remembered that and he thought enough of that to ask my opinion on 'Lazzaloo.'"

Longtime Beach Boys and Brian Wilson touring member Jeff Foskett -- who performed with the band at 1985's Live Aid concert -- recalled that as far back as the early-'80s, Carl Wilson has wanted the band to pull back on smaller and secondary markets and stay an in-demand arena and stadium act: "Yeah, that was Carl's main trip. Two things that made a lot of sense; 'One -- we need to rehearse (laughs) and Number Two, we need to play a lot less shows and we need to do this, y'know, in bigger venues. So if we didn't play every summer to the 10,000 people at the State Fair in Iowa, we could come back and play the stadium every two years. And make tons more money and have tons more time off.' And that would've given us a lot more time to rehearse and think about things, rather than just plow through it. But unfortunately, y'know, the other way won out."

We asked Mike Love about the life that he's missed over the past 50 years by having a day job far away from home out on the road: "Well, you do miss out on some things that way. You'll miss out on a graduation, sometimes, or a prom night (laughs), or, y'know, somebody's got a dance recital. Or, if you happened to be married, y'know, if you're away, then your wife will make sure that everything's okay with the children and stuff like that. That's kind of how it works, it's kind of a partnership that way."

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