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Interesting read!

https://valeriesimadis.wordpress.com/2023/11/19/endless-harmony-an-interview-with-bruce-johnston/

That's a great interview!

I like this: "I’ve been called one of the great all-around schlockmeisters in terms of songwriting." LOL!

I guess I kinda hate to ruin a thread about a great interview with Bruce, but after reading the interview I decided to check out a Youtube version of Manilow's version of I Write The Songs, and I learned by reading the comments in the video ... that it looks like there are people out there who think the song was written by Satan, about Satan!  >:(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHIdHIWfnl4

It's very interesting how dialed into with the movers-and-shakers of the L.A. pop music scene he was even in the '50s.  I never knew until now that he had backed up Ritchie Valens.  He certainly had an amazing resume by the time the BBs brought him on board.

BTW I know that "military school" was kind of a thing for wealthy families of that cold-war era, but, yikes, Bruce almost looks like a junior member of the SS in that uniform.

I agree, that is a very interesting and great interview with Bruce! It's great to see him more open, and in a less constrained type of conversation if that makes sense - he's not promoting a concert or anything else, and is just talking music with someone. I've been saying for years that Bruce needs to put pen to paper and write his memoir, even if it's focusing on just that late 50's into the 60's era. He was smack dab in the middle of the beginnings of the LA rock/pop scene with a lot of the players who would both create the LA pop scene and take it national into the 60's. His stories about how all of that happened could literally fill a book and I'd love to read it.

Worth noting too what he says about Brian Wilson, nothing but the highest praise from one musician to another. And it's too bad Beach Boys audiences of the past 50 years never got to hear Bruce cut loose on the Hammond B3 organ as he would do in concert with the band in the late 60's into the early 70's. A great player who we unfortunately haven't heard play like that in decades on stage with the various Beach Boys incarnations.

I'm surprised he didn't mention two influences from his formative years: Nelson Riddle, and the song "I Only Have Eyes For You" by The Flamingos (https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/classic-tracks-flamingos-only-have-eyes-you (https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/classic-tracks-flamingos-only-have-eyes-you) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhQkDX-hnaw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhQkDX-hnaw). In a few online conversations back in the day, Bruce mentioned both of those as big influences, and especially in the Flamingos record (which is a stone-cold classic, in my opinion one of the greatest and most haunting records ever made) you hear where Bruce's more sophisticated writing and arranging style in pop records came from, aside from his classical background. And Nelson Riddle is self explanatory, his arrangements are as good as it gets in terms of sophisticated 50's jazz with pop leanings.  

Maybe he'll put that in the book!

“*Also, that weekend I went to a department store and bought some corduroy pants, blue Top-Sider deck shoes, and a nice button-down short sleeve shirt that I promptly shrunk in hot water. I put powder on my face and some perfume, and drove down for my interview.

Since I was late, I was the only guy there, and they were starting to give me crap. They asked me all kinds of questions and eventually sent me up to the psychologist. He started interviewing me and was actually very cool. During the interview, he said “And ah, Bruce, what business would you like to be in?” and I replied “Well, I’d like to be a dancer on the Shindig! show.” The psychologist said “Okay. I don’t think we need you, but thank you for coming by. Follow the red line out.”*”



So he camped it up to get out of the draft. Not going to lie, he lost a bit of respect there. Not being political but just saying.

I tend to wonder how detailed and accurate that draft-dodging story is. I'm not saying the general crux isn't true, and Bruce seems to be pretty sharp still, so I don't think he's having trouble remembering as such. But I also know tons of people from that era (and much later) who tell these types of stories for decades and decades, and it kind of gets muddled and/or embellished. It becomes a sort of party piece to tell people over the years.

I have a number of family members that fit into this exact era, and so I've heard a lot of stories about being drafted, avoiding being drafted, *trying* to avoid being drafted, etc. Plenty of crazy true stories, lots of urban legend stuff too.

Also interesting to hear Bruce re-tell starting on the road with the band, this time with a little more detail than the usual "An American Band" story. Though it's interesting that the excellent "Beach Boys In Concert" book actually was able to determine the timeline of Bruce coming and going during the first few runs of shows. I'm curious if those details would surprise Bruce now.

Carl's struggles with the draft, of course, were widely reported.  And Bruce alleges that he was declared 4-F.  W
hat about the other guys?  I can't recall, has this been covered in the various biographies? Brian's partial deafness would likely have been a legit "out."   But what about Mike, Dennis and Al?  How'd they manage to avoid Uncle Sam?

As you suspected, Brian was ineligible due to his partial deafness. Dennis, like Bruce, told his draft board he was gay. Around 1965 they started the policy of not drafting men who had children, so that exempted Mike. Al apparently just wasn't called, and in 1967 he became exempt with the birth of Matt.