The Smiley Smile Message Board

Most of the boots I have from the era may have a song or two from the Friends L.P. but thats about all I've seen. Did the band play many songs live from the album? Just curious.

I don't think they ever supported any album with more than a song or two with the rest of the set list oldies or covers; with the exception being Pet Sounds.

I think the tour of the south in '68 that was cancelled due to MLK's assassination and the tour where they had the Maharishi as the opening act were the Friends supporting tours...and maybe the tour that the Live in London album is from.

What about Holland? They did a whole slew of songs from that album on tour in '73.

Does anyone know if they performed the title track to the album?

I really don't know, you'd probably have to check on Eric's setlist site. I think Brian's done it as a medley with "Meant for You".

They did it at least once on TV, a capella and probably not the whole song.

First off-the MLK tour wasn't canceled-they played almost every show in April 1968 and they were playing songs from Friends-including "Friends". I quote from the April 15 1968 Sarasota Journal "They held the whole audience spellbound from the first notes of 'Darlin' through older numbers such as 'California Girls and 'Rhonda' to their latest hit, 'Friends.'"  Also-mentioned in Memphis Commercial Appeal review of April 25 1968 "the west coast group played through a program of old and new favorites like 'Let's Be Friends'".  Review of the May 1968 Iona College show with Maharishi-"They also performed a few new songs from their forthcoming Friends album...One of the new songs by Brian Wilson was 'Transcendental Meditation."  Aug 5 1968 review of the Montreal show states that 'When a Man Needs A Woman' was played.  Aug 19 1968 review of the Madison show states that 'Friends' and "Wake the World' were played.  According to Keith Badman they did "Friends" on Mike Douglas and also on the Happening TV show.  They also did 'Friends' during their app on Twien in Amsterdam-when they lip-synched to many songs in their white suits (portions of the show-though not this song-are in American Band). They also apparently taped a version of 'Friends" for Top of the Pops-that was not aired-in Dec 1968

I was at the Memphis show in 1968 and can confirm that they did perform the song "Friends."

dear god, do any bootlegs exist?
was Brian on any of these shows?
i would kill to hear "When a Man Needs a Woman"

Wow, great information everyone. I've learned the parts on guitar and bass for most of the album and they arent easy ones to play by any means. I was curious if they gave these a shot live. I'll keep my eyes open.

I bet TM was a good rocker in concert (like All I want To Do!) I could just imagine....

Did the band tour when Mike went to Rishikesh? I'm guessing they just recorded Friends (with him on half the album) with no tour.


speaking of supporting albums vs. oldies.....what's with the early 70's setlists having mid 60s rarities like vegetables, country air, etc.?

Seems like I remember hearing that the vox for  "Meant for You" were the first thing Mike worked on when he returned from India.

The band didn't tour while Mike was gone.  Keith Badman's book implies that Mike was back by March 18, but this is an error.  NME's and Melody Makers from that month show that after leaving India, he went to London and stayed awhile.  He was trying to set up a giant concert with Maharishi in London. In the end-the ill fated tour happened only in the states-in May.  It appears that he didn't get back till the end March.  That being said-the Friends album was released in the summer of 1968 and the group did a lot of promotion. A July tour with the Union Gap, an August tour with the Box Tops, an October tour with 1910 Fruitgum Company and a November tour with the Grassroots. Plus a European tour in Dec 1968.  A busy year-but still couldn't make the album sell better.

Thats really sweet that you got to see the band during that era. What all can you tell me about the show?
My mother in law got to see the band when she was at Ohio State in '72 or '73 (she cant remember what year exactly, apparently she was really into qualudes at the time  :lol)

They supported almost every album with at least 3, 4 songs, sometimes even 5.

Maybe someone has some stats but I would say 3 songs from any album [save PS] in any given show was extremely rare and 4 or 5 [save PS] was non-existant. Glad to be proven wrong. Album meaning new music release because they have always done several songs in a given show from retrospective albums even before they had any retrospective albums.

On second thought that probably couldn't be true of shows while they only had out albums 1 through 3 or so either....so....aw, nevermind.

I remember seeing a tiny ad for an Oakland Coliseum show in a Sacramento newspaper. I was a sophomore in high school and was out of touch with what the band was doing in 1968. There was competition for my ticket money but I was able to attend some very exciting shows that year (Cream/Grateful Dead, Hendrix/Soft Machine, Mothers of Invention...) so, the Oakland show just wasn't appealing to me (honestly, it seemed lame);I wouldn't have gone. I thought it crazy that the Beach Boys and The Maharishi had been booked into such a huge venue . There was no buzz and there seemed to be no promotion. The ads ran for a few weeks and were gone; the show never took place. Who was the promoter? That tour's viablity was hugely miscalculated.

I know they did "Little Bird" live at least once.

Just off the top of my head, without going back to the setlist archive to verify, these albums come to mind as ones where shows included 3 or more songs, albeit sometimes just for a brief period:

Surf's Up, Carl & The Passions - So Tough, Holland, 15 Big Ones, Love You, LA Light Album, Keepin the Summer Alive, The Beach Boys 1985, Still Cruisin', Summer In Paradise, 20/20, Wild Honey, Surfer Girl, Shut Down Vol. 2, Today!, Stars & Stripes Vol. 1.

I don't think it was at all rare for the band to perform 3 or more songs from a current album, especially in the first couple months after release.

Dennis sang Little Bird quite a bit in 1968 even on TV. Stephen Desper and Eddy Medora both confirmed it with  me in 2003.