The Smiley Smile Message Board

I found this letter printed in an old issue of Goldmine, and with the reunion concerts being discussed heavily I thought it would be interesting to read about the concert experiences from a bygone era. This is a scan from the magazine, you should be able to click on it to enlarge if the words appear too small.

Now if we could only find someone who was at this post-concert frat party with the band and is willing to talk openly... ;D

(http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n295/guitarfool2002/bbletterfull.jpg)

Ahh, the print is a bit small: Save it to your hard drive and whichever image reader you have should enlarge it so it's easier to read. Sorry about that.

Thanks for posting! Fantastic story.

White concert suits in '74?

I had to mention as well - in light of the white suits - that I think the only period concert in Madison in the summer on the concert list was 1973. And if the captions are correct, the photos I saw of them on stage at that show in '73 show them wearing the casual look, no outfits or matching clothes. There was another summer 1974 show in Wisconsin, but not Madison.

Maybe we can better pinpoint a date of this show? I noticed the white suits comment as well, I didn't think they were wearing them at that time.

Hmmm... :)

Is there not a video of them with Chicago in 74/75 where they're wearing sort of sailor kinda clothes, navy blue jacket type things? Maybe they dipped back into the matching clothes thing for a while.

That was fabulous!  Thanks for posting that.  Bet there are lots of stories like that! Un-sung (I could not resist!) heroes!

You can "stretch" the article on an iPad!  

Thanks again; it made my day!   ;)

That was a one off TV show - Dick Clark's New Years Rockin' Eve...no other evidence of them wearing matching stage clothing in that period...and the last time they wore the white suits was very early '70.

Thanks for that Jon, it always stuck in my mind as I thought it looked a bit silly. Were any other bands wearing matching clothes as late as 70? I never understood the white suits personally.

Maybe it wasn't all of the BB...just Mike and Al. Wasn't '74 a time when they would ride in a few station wagons to shows etc. Even if the others weren't wearing white suits, Mike and Al could have been. They both have white suit type things (albeit Mike with a glittery gold vest) on 7/2/76?

When I saw them in 1974 at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium they had on the striped shirts.  :)

Actually, that's one of the things I like the most about that show, the matching outfits.

There was indeed a Madison WI show... in August 1968 (white suit era)... November 1972... and December 1973... but not 1974.

OK, in addition to the white suits being long gone for over four years and the fact that there was no 1974 concert in Madison on a sweltering, humid summer night ...

The National Guard was still tear gassing student protestors more than a year after the US pulled out of Vietnam?

The Beach Boys all fit in the front seat?  Or it was just Al and Mike, who asked their hitchhiking passengers what drugs they liked?

I bet you it was 1968.

where does the time go......i actually remember reading this article when it came out.
my vote is 1968 also.....

Another thing that struck me is the fact if it had been all of the Beach Boys then Dennis would have been driving. There is little historical evidence of anyone other than Dennis driving when the band was traveling together. The thought of Al driving the entire band seems off. So maybe it was just he and Mike, maybe it was '68...maybe it was a hallucination.

This is a tough one. It sounds like 1968 would be more in line with some of the details in the letter. I dug out the issue again and to add some context, this was Goldmine's "20th Anniversary" special issue from 1994. They solicited people to write in memories of things that happened around musical experiences in 1974, so you got pages of letters about seeing certain artists in concert, hearing things on the radio, playing 8-tracks in the car, etc.

It should be noted that the author of this letter was and is a successful published author with NY Times bestsellers and plenty of other credits. I had reservations about reprinting this letter with the signature but it had already been published in an international magazine, so...

This issue was before the internet was a major presence, before a list of concert dates was a click away, and before such information was an instant find. I'm thinking of all the times I try to remember concerts I have seen and realize I'm a few years off when trying to remember the date, where in contrast, the little details like the setlists or other experiences can be vivid as hell.

If it was indeed a humid summer night and they wore white suits, then it had to be 1968. Fact.

Just because she's a respected author doesn't mean her memory can't be faulty. Carol Kaye is a respected musician.  >:D

some things never change, regardless of what year it may have been.

Those girls in the gift suite at the Grammys were like putty in Mike's hand gestures! "And you know Paul came down with his guitar and I said to him, hey Paul you know what would be cool..."  :hat

Having managed the BB Setlist Archive for 14 years now, I've received hundreds of e-mails from fans around the world, many of whom get their memories of different shows mixed up, get dates and years wrong, venues, etc.  Many of them are absolutely sure about certain details, only to be proved wrong later by undeniable evidence.  No one is immune to getting details wrong.  I started the archive in 1998, but I did go to a show in 1993 or 94 at Jack Murphy Stadium...I wrote what I thought was the setlist down after the show, only to be proved almost completely wrong by a recording of the same show that I later heard.  (The corrected setlist is now on the archive.)

For instance I know I saw an unplugged show in Chicago in October 1993 a full month before any other boxset shows are documented so you never know what was completely done.

You guys get different things out of this than I do.  What struck me the most was how a fish escaped from Mike's Jaws at just the last second, lol.  We might have another Ex Wife running around if this had turned out a little different. 

I'll just say: I've been to probably 100 concerts.  I couldn't tell you the year of many, many, many of them.  And I don't do drugs or drink; so I was completely sober at all of them.  I just don't remember the dates, or even the years.  I'm sure many people are the same. 

This is true - adding to that, I can remember a lot of small details about the first time I saw Brian Wilson in a solo concert, it was at Symphony Hall in Boston. I remember the morning I got on the phone to score the tickets, I remember what I ate before I went to the show and where I got the sandwich, I remember having my CD cover of the DCC gold Pet Sounds in my sport coat's pocket to score an autograph...yet I have to check either Eric Anniversario's or AGD'd website to confirm the year of that show. The mind works in very strange ways...I remember the sandwich, the coat, but can't remember the year without help. ;D

I think one of the more interesting points of a story like this, aside from the dates and historical stuff, is how much the concert experience has changed in the last 40 years. In 2012, there are VIP packages available if you have the money where you can have an arranged backstage meeting with the band. In the 70's, both the story printed in Goldmine and a few personal stories I've heard had fans randomly driving or walking to and from the BB's concert and meeting up with members of the band. And those band members actually talked and interacted with the fans!

Imagine the experience of this girl and her friends being picked up by several Beach Boys in a station wagon after the show. Imagine the experience of the fraternity house who hosted the Beach Boys after this show. Imagine the experience of my former co-worker whose friends saw Al Jardine walking near the venue before a show and offered him a ride in their wagon...it's almost an unwritten rule that most semi-successful bands today do not put themselves that close to the fans.

In a world where Lennon was killed outside his apartment by a fan, and Dimebag Darrell was killed on stage during a show by a fan, it's not surprising at all. But it's still amazing to read these stories of a bygone era.

A few days ago I emailed the author of the letter posted by Guitarfool, explaining that her 1994 letter to Goldmine had been posted on a Beach Boys message board, and many of the BB mega-fans reading it, including myself, were wondering if perhaps she was thinking of a concert in 1968 rather than 1974.  She quickly sent a very nice reply.  I wrote back saying that I'd like to post the text of the email she sent me on the board, but didn't want to copy and post the exact contents of her email without her permission.  She never responded to that request, so I'll summarize the key points as they pertain to this discussion.

First, she said the concert was definitely not 1968, and the more she thought about where she was at the time, it definitely was not 1974 either, guessing that it may have been 1972 or 73.   Also, she and her friends had hitchhiked to the concert, so it may not have even been in Madison, Wisconsin, but elsewhere in that general vicinity.  At least one Beach Boy was wearing a white suit.  It was three seater station wagon, with two Beach Boys in the front, two in the middle seat, and the author and her two friends in the back.  The Beach Boy in the white suit was the one who got out of the car and was totally checking out and ogling the author's roommate when they were being dropped off, and continued to suggest that she and her friends accompany them to the frat party.

In her email this time the author did not identify any of the Beach Boys by name, and I think it's important to remember that for many people, including many of those who identify themselves as fans, the knowledge of exactly who's who in the band is absolutely nothing like it is for members of this board.  For example, a few years ago I was taking to a woman who identified herself as a "huge fan of The Beach boys" and in recounting the Mike and Bruce Beach Boys concert she had seen the night before, which I had also attended, she made a couple of references to Brian Wilson and the comments he had made on stage.  Confused, I advised her that Brian was touring on his own, and perhaps she was thinking of Mike Love.  She responded, "Brian Wilson, Mike Love, yeah, I guess it was Mike Love then, it was whoever that main Beach Boy is who does all the talking!"  Many years before, in the summer of 67, my girlfriend, who had just turned 16, went to Hawaii with her parents and came back telling me about a party with the Beach Boys which she and another girl had been invited to.  She said one of the Beach Boys came over and was really hitting on her.  I asked her which one, and she said, "He told me his name, but I can't remember."  From her description it sounded like either Dennis or Bruce, but back in those pre-internet days I not only did not know the Beach Boys had been in concert in Hawaii, but was also unaware that Bruce had not even been there, and even more surprisingly, that Brian had.

And, we all know that memories can fade with time, as evidenced by the video of  Brain telling Mike, when they were discussing where, I think it was 'Salt Lake City' was written, and each had a totally different recollection, with Brian finally remarking, "Mike, your memory is getting senile!" 

If she's sure about the seventies bit, it wasn't August... and if she's sure about the August bit, it wasn't the 70s. The station wagon indicates to me that it was the 60s, as by the early 70s they were doing smaller rental cars for two or three. White suit could be Mike's Maharishi robes, I guess, but that would still place it later than 1968... and it's instructive that her email is more detailed than her letter some decades earlier. Said letter states they were all wearing concert suits. I think we've an example here of someone not wanting to admit that their memory is faulty.

So is yours - it was "Fun, Fun, Fun".  ;D

Well, I guess I proved my point!  I shoulda checked Bellagio 10452 first!  At least there is a strong Salt Lake City component concerning the writing of the song.  So who was correct, Brian or Mike?

Brian was wrong, I think.

The 'real story' takes place in Salt Lake City where the girl's Dad was the manager of a radio station. The father liked the Beach Boys and promoted them. The Beach Boys happened to be at the station the the day that the daughter was complaining that the T-Bird had been taken away because she hadn't really gone to the library the night before, as she had told her Dad. Instead, the girl and her friend snuck off to a hamburger stand and got caught. Brian and the band were being driven to the airport after overhearing the conversation, and wrote the song while in route.

I've seen this same version of the story in a newspaper years later and they interviewed the girl. Supposedly she's been on various TV programs and recounted the same story.

Also, listen to the lyrics of "Brian's Back".

Fred Vail says he was with Brian when he wrote "Fun, Fun, Fun" in late 1963; The Beach Boys were in Salt Lake City on December 27 & 28. Vail was with Brian again when they recorded the song at Western on Jan 1, 1964. Brian says they wrote Fun, Fun, Fun in Australia. The Beach Boys didn't go to Australia until the middle of January, '64. The record was released on February 3 - I can see where Brian got mixed up a little bit.