The Smiley Smile Message Board

Some questions I've wondered:

Did Dennis meet any of the Fab Four during his lifetime?
Did any BBs except Mike meet George?
Did any BBs except Brian and Mike meet John?
How about David?

Off the top of my head, that I’m aware of:

-Mike hung with all members in India in 1968
-Carl, Mike, Al, Bruce, Brian worked with Ringo during the 1984 concert, and/or during recording BB 1985
-Brian met John Lennon at a party (or the Troubadour?) in the 70s
-Al and Brian hung out with Paul McCartney at the 2012 Grammys
-Brian collaborated with Paul for GIOMH, plus Paul has attended SMiLE show(s)

I'm sure there are many more examples...

Bruce bringing over Pet Sounds to london , to play to the press and some guys from Liverpool

I remember reading somewhere that Dennis was in a restaurant or something and John was there, but John didn't recognize him and he was offended by it.

D'uh, I should have included that obvious one in my original post.

Carl and mike flew to Oregon to meet the Beatles on their 1965 tour. Mike and Bruce flew to Chicago in 1966 to meet them again. In my book i said Carl accompanied them but I have since learned that he didn't.

Was Paul not at the 'studio' during the initial recording of "Vegetables'?  Did he not munch on something vegetative?  A carrot?  Celery?  He must have met the other rabbits at THAT time?  No?  Rob's right...Paul and John were there for that Pet Sounds listening session, among others....that's the 'story' I know. :3d

Right Paul met Brian and Carl in the fall of 1966 and visited the studio in April 1967. Also George and John met the bbs in Paris in December 1968. And George was at one of the central park shows in 1971

Hey Ian...Nice to 'see' you.  Was there not something...I can see it in my mind...with Ringo playing drums at something which involved at least a couple of Beach Boys participating out front?  Or am I simply having a [nother] bad trip flashback?

Yes he played with the bbs at the July 4 show in 1984 that was filmed

Please take a look at this thread from 2012, it ties in with this topic:

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php?PHPSESSID=3fc3bf0e759c5230e69c602da988d04c&topic=12096.msg397670 (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php?PHPSESSID=3fc3bf0e759c5230e69c602da988d04c&topic=12096.msg397670)

The first lines I wrote there are: In the Smile box set packaging, there is a little news item reproduced that reported a meeting between Brian, Carl, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison at Derek Taylor's home. When did this happen?

Ian cites a date of Fall 1966, but doesn't mention George's involvement as the original clipping does - Obviously the Fall '66 date would match the article's mention of the meeting being at Derek Taylor's house since Taylor was associated directly with both bands. But wouldn't the date of the Beatles being in LA from earlier that summer line up better? Or was this just a one-off trip by Paul and or George on their own since in Fall '66 the Beatles were scattered around on "hiatus" after their final show in August: Has new info come out?

Also in the 2012 thread Jon Stebbins mentions Dennis being at the Hollywood Bowl (August 23 '64), backstage, has anything new turned up on those details? And a poster says he read about the meeting at Taylor's house in a Byrds bio written by Johnny Rogan, but no follow-ups have been posted...anyone here have the Rogan book who could update the info?

I have some more specifics from other meetings but since this is a new topic I thought perhaps some new updates and answers could be added from the old discussion, if anything new has been found since 2012.

Dennis (plus the rest of the group of course) and Paul at a little over the 2min mark. Brians 34th birthday, 1976.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC2gZMNkyJo

Anyone know what Harrison did in L.A. while renting a house there in August 1967, other than famously waiting for Derek Taylor late one evening?

I think to see Pattie Boyd's sister. While they were there, they visited Haight/Ashbury, expecting it to be some sort of creative mecca. Instead, it was a bunch of 'spotty dropout kids'; after seeing this, George began to think twice about using LSD, and when he got home he looked at it under a microscope and it looked like 'old rope'. 

Or something to that effect.

1988 Hall of Fame induction ceremony: George & Ringo were there.

So this should have gone here, instead of the old thread?

For what it is worth, I found notes of a Tiger Beat article in a December 1966 issue on page 38 about the Beatles most recent US tour which claimed  Bruce partied with the Beatles during their U.S. tour and on the  first night, after a pre-dawn arrival, in LA and after a late afternoon visit to Capitol Tower for a press conference; The Beatles staying at 7655 Curson Terrace. Was that Taylor's address?

“That night about 30 party guests were greeted at the garden gate….Paul, the perfect host, mixed most, Ringo talked with his family on the phone.  George and John sometimes played pool, Beach Boys albums played continuously. Among those present…John, Michelle, Cass … Jim McGuinn…David Crosby… Bruce Johnston, the sixth Beach Boy,…. Mr. And Mrs. Derek Taylor, Mr. And Mrs. Bill Medley, Mr. And Mrs. Bobby Hatfield. Priscilla and Elvis Presley were invited . They didn’t show…Rodney Biggenheimer, 19, …Chris Hillman…and a girl named Tracy”  and about 15 others.

Thanks to bgas for help with the street address.

On the next page 39 of the same issue of Tiger Beat is “After dark Paul and George popped in on the Derek Taylors, had long talkathon with Brian Wilson and Carl Wilson, and their wives. David Crosby ambled in. Dave may pick up George in London for a quick trip to India to buy new Indian musical instruments and take a few lessons.”

I may still have the magazine, I'll look if I remember.

Isn't there a Derek Taylor story about Paul meeting Brian at his house and Brian plays a tape or acetate of GV or H&V and Paul asks if he can have a copy and Brian declines?

I don't recall Jon mentioning Dennis attending the 64 Hollywood bowl show but if he did I am pretty sure it is incorrect. Bbs played in Pittsburgh on August 22 1964 and in Allentown on August 24. I don't think Dennis flew back to California in between

This was in the other thread:


It seems unlikely but if multiple press reported it, they all must have thought they saw Dennis or some guy who looked like Dennis at the Bowl!  ;D  I agree, in summer '64 flying from a gig in PA to California for one day to catch a Beatles show, then flying back to PA to play another show the next day seems absurd if not impossible, I wonder what the reports (or reporter) were thinking by writing that.

I have a few more, but one to consider is Brian and John and possibly Ringo in the early-mid 70's when Lennon was in LA on the "Lost Weekend" with May Pang. Remember I had posted a bunch of photos from Keith Moon's birthday, the one where they gifted Moon the suit Redford wore in The Sting, and where Brian was pictured wearing a robe. This ties in to some other cliques and groups of friends running around LA at this time.

They were called the "Hollywood Vampires", I think it was started as a softball team or something but it became the name for a group of musicians and other celebs who would hold court in a private room in an LA tavern. I have all the info, but this isn't the place to post a huge info-dump of names and dates.

But it was centered around Alice Cooper, Keith Moon, Micky Dolenz, Harry Nilsson, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, and those friends and mutual friends of theirs like Van Dyke Parks, Mark Volman, and other familiar but lesser known names like Jesse Ed Davis, Lori Maddox, Micky was involved in making a film starring Linda Lovelace, so you see any number of people in various photos.

Point being, you can see the names involved, put them into the same city and at the same hangouts, and there was ample opportunity for any number of them to run into each other along with mutual friends at any time, any night of the year before the lifestyle and real life in general ended their run of partying.

So where did Brian fit in? Look at the mutual friends in the above names, consider where and how at any time they would have crossed paths. Micky Dolenz tells the one story of hanging out with Brian during a trip which saw Lennon staring into a swimming pool and Brian playing the same note on a piano...so there was one time when Brian and Lennon were together.

There is that photo of Brian holding a drink with Harry Nilsson and Van Dyke, who were very close. There is the Keith Moon birthday event where many of these people were in attendance, except Lennon...who happened to be in New York that night and who also claims to have seen a UFO over New York that night, which is why he wasn't partying with Moon.

There was Alice Cooper, who I think was the unofficial "leader" of the Vampires crew, taking Iggy Pop with him to hang with Brian, which led to the Shortnin Bread story we've all heard many times.

There is Micky Dolenz saying in an interview how he has reels of tape recorded at his home studio, where these same musicians would drop in to hang out and record. Harry and Ringo were regular visitors, and Micky has the tapes of Brian at his studio too. Among many that again were part of this crew of partying musicians pub-crawling and bar-hopping every night around LA.

I guess I'm trying to point out just how interconnected a lot of these musicians were socially through mutual friends, and also how many unreported "meetings" and hangouts there may have been. Or maybe it was only random and infrequent occasions where John or Ringo might be in the same company as Brian, or even Dennis, with or without interacting much. But from Dolenz and a few select photos you get a sense Brian was at least on occasion in the same company of friends.

How about Dennis? Not much reporting of him being in this particular group with Micky, Alice, Ringo, and Harry, but who knows unless people who do know report anything new or unheard. But it's tough because for the very few reported and published hangouts we can read about, how many nights were they all together and no one thought anything of it, and those nights are long forgotten. Except maybe on Micky Dolenz's tape reels and photo collections.

Think about it as well, if that one photo of Brian at Moon's birthday bash didn't surface, who would have known he was there?

1. According to May Pang, Brian asked John for some Reds at a party around L.A. in '74 or '75.
2. According to Mickey Dolenz (or somebody) Brian and John stood next to one another looking out of a back window at the ocean at a party and didn't speak. Might or might not have been at the same party as above. I'd like to see this one cooberated.
3. John talked to Brian through a DJ on the radio in 1964 about haircuts (Youtube).

Man I wish I had grown up back then.Pills were good. And there were so few of them too. You could just refer to them by color. Whereas nowadays there's probably a bunch of shitty pills in that color. Prozac is probably one of them.

I'd be surprised if any of them (except David maybe) didn't meet at some time. It was a small world.

Ricky met George doing the Rutles show. Though they maybe didn't say anything, being the quiet ones.

If the Beatles and Beach Boys ever had a "summit', a 'meeting', like when the Fab Four went to meet Elvis in '65, I imagine the melody men, Brian and Paul, clicking instantly; the rebels, John and Dennis, finding some kind of connection;  Carl and George, the spiritual men, becoming friends. And Al befriending Ringo, the two short guys in their respective groups. And Mike hitting on the Beatle wives.

You sure that wasn't Brian? At least I think it was him instead of Dennis...

In the Sean Lennon interview to promote Imagination, Sean asked Brian if he ever met John and Brian said no.

I'm going on a dim memory here, but didn't someone once post about a time Brian kept repeatedly walking up to John in a club and introducing himself as if they'd never met before - over and over again?

Here is the Brian Wilson/John Lennon story as told by Alice Cooper:

“I was sitting backstage after the 1974 Grammys with Bernie Taupin (Elton John’s lyricist) and John Lennon.  This was when Brian was really having some mental issues.  During the course of the conversation, I kept seeing Brian out of the corner of my eye, just kind of staring at us from different angles.  Finally, he came up to the table, bent down and whispered in my ear ‘Hey Alice, introduce me to John Lennon.’  I couldn’t BELIEVE that these two men had never met!  They were virtually neck and neck in the 60’s as the greatest bands on the planet, and I’m SURE they must have crossed paths at some point.  But then I thought to myself, ‘Wow, if they REALLY have never met, I’m going to be the one to introduce them and become a part of rock history!’  So I merely said, ‘Brian Wilson, this is John Lennon.  John Lennon, this is Brian Wilson.’  Lennon was very cordial and polite, saying things like ‘Hello Brian, I’ve always wanted to meet you.  I’ve always admired your work, and Paul and I considered Pet Sounds one of the best albums ever made.’  Brian thanked him and walked away, at which point Lennon went right back to his conversation like nothing had happened.  About ten minutes later, Brian came by our table again, leaned down and whispered something to Bernie, and all of a sudden, Bernie was saying ‘Brian Wilson, this is John Lennon.  John Lennon, Brian Wilson.’  Lennon was just as cordial and polite as the first time, saying essentially the same thing about always wanting to meet him.  As soon as Brian walked away, John looked at both of us and casually said in his typical Liverpudlian accent, ‘I’ve met him hundreds of times.  He’s not well, you know.’”

Alice went on to say that he loves Brian, and later that night went with a group of people to Brian’s house and went into his studio to add and subtract instruments and passages from Beach Boys songs.  

Also, Brian said he met George Harrison at a nightclub in L.A. and Ringo in 1985.

Thanks Mikie, that's the story I was thinking of. Love how John just takes the whole thing in his stride.

Could've been, but I could of sworn they were talking about Dennis

You're correct. This story pops up in Beatles/Lennon books. Dennis ran into John at a bar in LA and said hello. Unfortunately, there was a local tv commercial airing at the time featuring another Dennis Wilson selling used cars. When Dennis went over and introduced himself. A drunken John made jokes about him selling used cars. Dennis was allegedly hurt by this.