Fantastic memories!

You never know what can turn up. This guy popped up ten years ago with the master tapes for the Shut Down volume 2 LP ….so fingers crossed for more.

I know what you mean but let’s wait and see-this could be great.  Obviously-it can’t be Get Back because that was a crazy revelatory experience using hours of footage no one suspected would ever surface….the equivalent would only occur in Beach Boys land if 12 unseen hours of the Boys working on Smile surfaced! So obviously you have to lower your expectations

I agree with you.  Good points!

Right...the book is designed to enhance the brand not wallow in the mire....Hence you have to end in 1980....but truth be told 1976-1980 was not a fun time to be a Beach Boy for the most part

Finished the book-as I said before, very handsome book-packed with photos. It really goes for the positive though-many, many pages on Pet Sounds but Smile is covered in a much shorter time. No discussion of the tense 1967 European tour and the decision to not appear at Monterey is not discussed (though Mike mentions it in passing when discussing 1970 Big Sur Festival there). Every album gets a mention but more in depth conversation about some would have been cool.  Bruce leaving in 72-is covered only by a very positive quote from Bruce and comments from Mike from a 1972 interview (so nothing new to reveal there), Very little on Blondie and Ricky-though they are mentioned of course.   Nothing on the 72 European tour or the TV special with Elton John but the Holland album and stay is covered.  It air brushes the rough patches....the decline of Dennis in 78-80 is more hinted at then discussed, no mention of the 77 tarmac fight, the disastrous 78 Australia-New Zealand tour, Brian's second decline in 78-79, and only hints that Carl was so dissatisfied with the BBs by 1980 that he'd go solo the next year.  So not as comprehensive as it could have been and punches are very much pulled.  Still, probably the most lavishly illustrated and handsomely presented book on them that we are likely to see.

So, I finally finished 1976 on my little website Beachboysgigs.com.  Here is the link https://www.beachboysgigs.com/1976-2/
You can of course view any year between 1962 and 1976.  I also have a little blog under the heading "Additions" that lists shows I've found (with a lot of help from my friends) since the Beach Boys in Concert Book.

Yeah....in the late 1970s and early 1980s no thought when into placing anything in context....photos from 1972 were identified as 1978 and pics from 1968 were labeled 1964....Like in American Band...every old clip was labeled 1964-which left me thinking that Carl's weight really fluctuated wildly....In fact the Shindig Clip of Fun, Fun, Fun was 1965...etc, etc.  And like I said-they showed home movies with David Marks in the band and no Brian....but never mentioned David by name......and never even mentioned Blondie and Ricky......so books like this are a big improvement on that era!!!

Yeah-you will note that this is the most detail I've ever seen as to why he pulled his songs (such as Wouldn't It Be Nice to Live Again) from Surf's Up and his hand problems...It also illustrates the tension within him-like Brian he was not a big fan of touring (though for different reasons) and like Brian he had a yin-yang/love-hate relationship with being a BB-he clearly wanted a side solo career by 1970-71 and felt too confined in his role...This period also caught him at loose ends-he couldn't drum, so what exactly was his role in the group=as it turned out, he would just play a bit of piano and sing a bit-so kind of superfluous and yet still an essential member

Did a cursory look through my copy (I contributed to the book a little by the way) and it is a very handsome coffee table book.  A lot of great photos..they are mostly familiar to me but are well presented.  Also memorabilia, such as handwritten lyrics, tape boxes. There are a lot of interview quotes with all the survivors, as well as famous "talking heads" such as Roger McGuinn, Wanye Coyne, Rufus Wainwright, etc. There are also a lot of archival quotes from Carl and Dennis.  Don't know if I will learn anything I don't already know....but it looks like every album is discussed, as well as many tours, fellow musicians, etc.....So I think it will be a fun read.

So I found a rare Dennis interview from August 1971-it took place in New York while he was visiting the city with his then wife Barbara. Apparently Dennis was trying to break into making music for commercials and met for some business meetings (not sure that anything came of this)...He stated that he was done touring ("I'm not going on the road anymore") because he couldn't deal with all the travel and plane flights....It's interesting because by the next tour in late Sept 1971 he'd obviously changed his mind.  Dennis said that he enjoyed recording with the BBs but criticized the Surf's Up album that had just been released.  "With 'Riot' we really cracked up in the studio doing it...but Carl and I had a little disagreement...I have a belief in my music and if it sounds nothing like what it should on the album-it should have a flow to it, from one song to another.  Well it didn't have a flow, it didn't sound like the Beach Boys.  They thought it did. I said 'bull' and pulled my music off. Three or four songs...They're not on the album."  When asked if it was a bad argument...he said 'Yeah as far as brothers go. Do you have a brother? Those things can be lousy. It's happened with lots of people.  I've seen fistfights going, like with Steve Stills and Neil Young.  But with Carl, when it was all over, we laughed together 10 minutes later.  But I'll just feel more comfortable making my music on my own."  Dennis also discussed his hand injury and stated that Riot was the last song he played drums on before his accident.  "All the nerves were severed and I can't play drums anymore. I lost all the nerves in my thumb and first fingers. Those are the two fingers that I hold the drumstick with in my right hand. I have no strength or feeling there. I play 30 seconds before the stick slips out. They say it will take three years for the nerves to heal up." He noted that when he played on the televised Central Park show on July 2/3-he could only play piano with his left hand.  He was excited because when he got back to California he was going to start recording with Daryl Dragon. "We're going to work together, aside from what we do with the Beach Boys.  We have almost a full album recorded already."

Not at all but if you do look sometime you’ll see I’ve added more pics to those earlier years 😎

Rocker….have you looked at my site lately? I have all these pics there!

Well…Carl has the reputation of being a saint, so anything that suggests he was an actual human being who occasionally behaved badly or lost his temper seems to shock people. He for the most part kept his emotions tightly hidden so he remains a bit of an enigma. As I stated-in the absence of Brian he became the band leader-Mike was the singer and got the crowd moving but Carl was in control of the music and therefore he was annoyed that Mike crossed into his territory and tried to impose a musician on him. Clearly there was a lot of tension in this period. As far as drinking, Carl liked a drink and dabbled with the other stuff but he seemed to be able to handle it all till the pressure of 1976-77 sent him on a downward spiral that lasted till mid 1978. As far as other musicians, almost all of them that I interviewed, with the exception of Ron A, tended to praise the Wilsons but seem less enamored of Mike. But in Mike’s defense, he had really gotten into TM and vegetarian healthy living and really did not want to be around drugs and alcohol. In the 1970s music business that was not going to make you many friends.

It was on Spirit of America-released that year-so maybe they pulled out for that reason

So you can now look at 1975 on my website beachboysgigs.com -here is the link-  https://www.beachboysgigs.com/1975-2/
You can see reviews, photos, etc-you can also, of course view 1962-1974 as well

This is the best Carl Perkins clip...he literally smokes Clapton-unbelievable:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbQ283J_NkQ

Cool-thanks Mark!  very interesting idea.

Well…obviously many writers simply parrot what past writers stated…so it takes a fresh listen to change minds….as we’ve seen with reevaluation of the BBs 1967-1972 era

I think the reputation of a lot of Elvis’s 1960s and 70s work has improved now that it is taken out of its original context. A song like Love letters may have too mellow to make much of an impact on the 1966 charts but now it is viewed as a classic. Similarly It Hurts Me was overshadowed in the year of the Beatles invasion but now shines more brightly

Well…I listened to it again and it hit me more-obviously it packs some emotional weight….the power of music

I think Mike will keep going till he cannot do it anymore. He’s always loved touring/traveling and he strikes me as the kind of guy who would not enjoy just sitting at home-he loves it

Great….clearly there are a lot of people who look at this board….but actual posting has declined…sometimes days go by with maybe one or two posts

I am not that impressed by the song…..it’s only ok John…clearly unfinished…and while it brings a smile it doesn’t add to the legacy (but is certainly inoffensive)

Re: the CSNY tour-Neil finished that tour -having sort of high jacked it to his own ends (he got CSNY to mostly perform new tunes that he had written including Revolution Blues, which Crosby objected to). The tour you are thinking of is the 1976 Stills-Young tour -Neil and Stills had a dispute and Neil split in the middle of it.  Re: Altbach-he told me in my interview that Carl was really mad at Mike because he had intruded in what Carl saw as his domain-running the band of musicians-Mike was trying to replace partying rockers with fellow teetotaling meditators