The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hoping this won't die a swift death but just wondering,


Are there any stories of The Beach Boys relating to New Year's Eve / New Year's Day?  Seems like that would be the perfect time for a shenanigan or two, especially involving Dennis.

Also, did the BB perform many New Year's Eve shows?

[koff] Shows & sessions 1961-2000 (http://www.esquarterly.com/bellagio/gigs.html)

I have some great memories of holidays spent on the road with The Boys - a Thanksgiving in Atlanta instantly comes to mind.  However, I also have two great memories of New Year's Eves here at home in L.A., or at least the L.A. area, as the first one was in Long Beach.
There's some footage of mine that was used in Endless Harmony of the Long Beach 1973 New Year's Eve show, where there is confetti raining down on the band.  There's a shot of a real clean-cut looking Dennis pouring Champagne from the stage for some audience members.  Unfortunately, someone started lighting fireworks, and the band departed the stage for awhile until things calmed down.
A wilder memory was the fifteenth anniversary show, at The Forum in '76.  A great show, with Brian really enjoying himself on stage, followed by an insane afterparty at a club housed in a swimming pool on Sunset Blvd.  Some guys approached Dennis backstage after the show, telling him about their souped up hot rods out in the parking lot.  Somehow, Dennis convinced them to let he & I drive their cars up to the party, and we proceeded to race each other the entire way from Inglewood to Hollywood, barely even pausing for things like lights & stop signs!  Still can't believe we survived crazy nights like that one...  (By the way, there's a photo of Dennis & Mike Meros with a lady friend of ours on page 88 in the book "Denny Remembered")

I hope they didn't hurt my little sister.

Ed,

I appreciate those memories.  I was hoping you'd find this thread.  By the way, would you be willing to talk about that Thanksgiving in Atlanta with the boys?  What's stuck in your memory from that show?

Not only are you very welcome, but I appreciate you folks stoking my memories. Also had a presumption, when reading  "especially involving Dennis", that you were hoping someone like me would respond.

Now, regarding "Thanksgiving in Atlanta", I have to express gratitude to Andrew's Shows & sessions 1961-2000, for helping me to unravel the mysteries of my memories...  Turns out it wasn't Atlanta, it was Alabama where we spent Thanksgiving, back in '75.  (O.K., look, I know one is a city, the other a state, but they do both start with the letter A, and they're both in the south!)

I wish I could be of more help with memories of the show, but my story will explain why the show itself is a little foggy; (although I do have some video of the show, but I'd have to hook up an old 3/4" video machine to review it.)  What I do have such a vivid recollection of is the pre-show, and the love I began having for the south.  We'd been in Memphis the day before, and I was discovering that I could finally put my images of "Easy Rider" behind me.  The afternoon of the show in Birmingham, Carl decided to treat Dennis, Carly, Bobby & I to a lavish meal.  We all ate like there was no tomorrow, and consumed several bottles of very expensive wine.  After dinner everyone felt like napping, but it was time to head to the gig.
Imagine our surprise when we entered backstage and saw this enormous turkey feast laid out for us, and this giant table surrounded by these sweet, rather rotund, deep-south black ladies, with the biggest, proudest smiles on their faces...  Four of us wanted to run for the nearest exit, until we looked at Carl, who was staring at all us with a look saying we'd better forget that last meal & sit down & dig in! Best part for me was tasting ambrosia for the first time ever.  Can't figure out how they ever managed to play a concert after that, but maybe now you'll understand why the show is a bit hazy for me...

Maybe if we keep hitting on you here, you'll find your way back into those days( in your mind) and bea ble to bring back more of the memories for us to hear! 
ya kknow, it's ALWAYS good to hear stuff like this, from those like you ED, who were really on the inside.  Lord knows we get enough of the other from the wanna-bes.
how WAS the ambrosia anyway? Do tell more!

I've often wondered about those pre show meals ...whether they fueled the band/s for the shows or acted as sedatives.  Like drugs, I guess it all depends on careful consumption and self control.

Thanks so much!  (And thanks for coming up with that demo of 'my boys from Brooklyn', recorded at the old studio at Bellagio!  Amazing, the things that happen on these boards...)
The ambrosia was fantastic, by the way, as was the entire meal.  Of course, I've never had a problem eating back-to-back meals...  Dennis got a real hoot out of the fact that I'd never even heard of ambrosia before, too.


You know, in my memory that was a rarity, although there was always a meal required in the bands rider: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/beach-boys-rider?page=1  For the most part, I think most of The Boys would maybe pick at the food pre-show; it was the roadies & set-up crew that needed and deserved a meal before the show started.  Now the alcohol, that was a different story...

I love the part where it says the Beach boys are environmentally conscious...but put the carton of smokes in the hospitality room please  :lol

Amazing how those riders changed & evolved over the years to what they are today...  The group's requirements were so modest when I first started touring with them, but man did they go through a metamorphosis after "Endless Summer", when the stadium shows started! 
I remembered having seen this rider on the 'net once before, so thought to link it here.  However, I actually promoted a show with some colleagues in Florida back in the late seventies. I'll dig the rider for that out & scan & post it someday, to show what the beer & liquor requirements were like back then.  It was no wonder that Dennis, (as well as some of the other Boys), had more than a few before some shows, what with the cases and cases of Heineken...

Huh!  I drank one of those Heinekens myself in 1973, though I felt really weird doing it!  ( I think it was a heiny; could it have been in 1973?  )
I met a guy hitching home from work one day about 2 years prior; BBs come on the radio, he says he knows them, if they come to town.... 
Well, sure enough, he did know Carl! ( I never really believed him, prior)
we were backstage, there was all that beer, why not? 
Wish I'd been a better photographer, tho. 
Thanxx again ED!