Exclusive Q&A: Original Beach Boy David Marks on the Band's Anniversary Tour Re

[ohthosegirls]

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-q-a-original-beach-boy-david-marks-on-the-bands-anniversary-tour-20120316

[Roger Ryan]

Good interview!

I wasn't aware that Al appeared on "In My Room" or "Catch A Wave".

[Rocker]

Good one.

[ohthosegirls]

It's pretty good. RS asked pretty much everything I would have wanted to know. I still can't believe he was only 13 years old! Today, I would probably hate a 13 year old pop star!

[Andrew G. Doe]

Good interview!

I wasn't aware that Al appeared on "In My Room" or "Catch A Wave".

Maybe you weren't, but nonetheless, he did. Check out the 1963 page in the Gigs & sessions wing of 10452. 

[Lowbacca]

Awesome interview. Excellent questions. And good for Dave to get a Rolling Stone level of attention.

I also like what he spills about the Boys being together again, the musical atmosphere and how everything is going fine. Damn, some year this is going to be... 

[Jon Stebbins]

Good interview!

I wasn't aware that Al appeared on "In My Room" or "Catch A Wave".

Al plays bass on "Catch A Wave" "Boogie Woodie" and "Hawaii"...and he sings a bit on "In My Room". As Dave mentioned a few tracks on the Surfer Girl LP and some on the Little Deuce Coupe LP feature six Beach Boys.

[GoodToMyBaby]

It really is strange how everyone assumed Carl would beat the cancer.

[Roger Ryan]

Good interview!

I wasn't aware that Al appeared on "In My Room" or "Catch A Wave".

Al plays bass on "Catch A Wave" "Boogie Woodie" and "Hawaii"...and he sings a bit on "In My Room". As Dave mentioned a few tracks on the Surfer Girl LP and some on the Little Deuce Coupe LP feature six Beach Boys.

Thanks - I knew Al was on the LDC album, but not the others. I've only committed to memory session dates and personnel from '66 - '67 via Andrew's site 

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

It really is strange how everyone assumed Carl would beat the cancer.

I remember about two or three months before he died a poster on the old Wheeler board posted that Carl wasn't doing too well, and that Audree was also near the end. Person got flamed by just about everyone on the board (including me).  I've often wondered who that person was.

[Shady]

I really doubt all that David did after he left The Beach Boys was anywhere near as good as actually being in The Beach Boys

[Sound of Free]

Good interview!

I wasn't aware that Al appeared on "In My Room" or "Catch A Wave".

Al plays bass on "Catch A Wave" "Boogie Woodie" and "Hawaii"...and he sings a bit on "In My Room". As Dave mentioned a few tracks on the Surfer Girl LP and some on the Little Deuce Coupe LP feature six Beach Boys.

It's interesting that Dave said Mike asked him to come back and play bass, and Dave declined. It seemed like it would have made more sense to have Dave come back on guitar and shift Al to bass. It would have been interesting to see how the Beach Boys story would have changed if Dave had come back in 1972.

[SBonilla]

I really doubt all that David did after he left The Beach Boys was anywhere near as good as actually being in The Beach Boys

Has he said that? He may have done some fine things that go beyond just being in the that band.

[Andrew G. Doe]

It really is strange how everyone assumed Carl would beat the cancer.

I remember about two or three months before he died a poster on the old Wheeler board posted that Carl wasn't doing too well, and that Audree was also near the end. Person got flamed by just about everyone on the board (including me).  I've often wondered who that person was.

Not 'everyone' - if you've ever experienced cancer at close quarters, you'll know that when someone's diagnosed with secondaries, that's pretty much it. When I was told of Carl's condition, I started readying an obituary.

[Shady]

I really doubt all that David did after he left The Beach Boys was anywhere near as good as actually being in The Beach Boys

Has he said that? He may have done some fine things that go beyond just being in the that band.

Well he said he didn't "regret" leaving The Beach Boys..

Come on, he missed out on being on the greatest album of all time, he had to kick himself a few times.

[SBonilla]

I really doubt all that David did after he left The Beach Boys was anywhere near as good as actually being in The Beach Boys

Has he said that? He may have done some fine things that go beyond just being in the that band.

Well he said he didn't "regret" leaving The Beach Boys..

Come on, he missed out on being on the greatest album of all time, he had to kick himself a few times.

Maybe he did; many of us beat ourselves up from time to time.  I think having a successful marriage, rasing kids, or working out your life issues and sometimes just surviving might be as good as being in the Beach Boys. Quien sabe? That's just me.

[Heysaboda]

I really doubt all that David did after he left The Beach Boys was anywhere near as good as actually being in The Beach Boys

Has he said that? He may have done some fine things that go beyond just being in the that band.

Well he said he didn't "regret" leaving The Beach Boys..

Come on, he missed out on being on the greatest album of all time, he had to kick himself a few times.

Maybe he did; many of us beat ourselves up from time to time.  I think having a successful marriage, raising kids, or working out your life issues and sometimes just surviving might be as good as being in the Beach Boys. Quien sabe? That's just me.

But at this stage of the game, he is probably done w/ "kicking himself" and is happy about a role in the 50 Celebration.

[Shady]

I really doubt all that David did after he left The Beach Boys was anywhere near as good as actually being in The Beach Boys

Has he said that? He may have done some fine things that go beyond just being in the that band.

Well he said he didn't "regret" leaving The Beach Boys..

Come on, he missed out on being on the greatest album of all time, he had to kick himself a few times.

Maybe he did; many of us beat ourselves up from time to time.  I think having a successful marriage, raising kids, or working out your life issues and sometimes just surviving might be as good as being in the Beach Boys. Quien sabe? That's just me.

But at this stage of the game, he is probably done w/ "kicking himself" and is happy about a role in the 50 Celebration.

Definitely, I'm really happy for David this is long overdue 

[SBonilla]

I really doubt all that David did after he left The Beach Boys was anywhere near as good as actually being in The Beach Boys

Has he said that? He may have done some fine things that go beyond just being in the that band.

Well he said he didn't "regret" leaving The Beach Boys..

Come on, he missed out on being on the greatest album of all time, he had to kick himself a few times.

Maybe he did; many of us beat ourselves up from time to time.  I think having a successful marriage, raising kids, or working out your life issues and sometimes just surviving might be as good as being in the Beach Boys. Quien sabe? That's just me.

But at this stage of the game, he is probably done w/ "kicking himself" and is happy about a role in the 50 Celebration.

I'd be clickin' my heels.

[Jon Stebbins]

I really doubt all that David did after he left The Beach Boys was anywhere near as good as actually being in The Beach Boys

Has he said that? He may have done some fine things that go beyond just being in the that band.

Well he said he didn't "regret" leaving The Beach Boys..

Come on, he missed out on being on the greatest album of all time, he had to kick himself a few times.

First, he had no idea that was the greatest album of all-time until the '90's. I think it was in 64 when he heard Fun Fun Fun that he had a twinge of whoops, I'll never be that good. And yeah (according to his book) he heard some early pet Sounds tracks at Brian's house and thought maybe he'd made a mistake. But by then he was truly committed to making his own music, developing his own bands and dealing with his own life issues. Second, he was a guitar player...if he was in the BB's he probably would have been touring in Japan while that LP was being recorded and probably would barely be on it. Moving along... and aside from that kind of "what if?' scenario...The reason he looks back with no regret is because he was following his muse, writing and producing records for his Marksmen group, studying music at the Berkley School Of Music and the Boston Conservatory, making two albums on Imperial with the Moon, and one on Dot with Colours, playing in Teddy Jack Eddy with Gary Busey, hanging out in Tuscon with Leon Russell, playing with Delaney and Bonnie, doing sessions for T-Bone Burnett, Buzz Clifford and Delbert McClinton, writing songs and recording with Warren Zevon etc... Its not like he was waiting around for the Beach Boys to call. Sure, he wishes he'd made millions of dollars and had participated in all those later hits...but he was a busy musician, and one with serious substance issues, while still managing to be a successful single parent. The Beach Boys were more on his mind because he missed them like you miss brothers, and he felt disconnected from his family because in a sense they were his family. He doesn't think of those guys as "the Beach Boys", but as his closest friends from childhood that he became famous with. His point is as a "musician" he has no regrets. He badly wanted to do his own thing, and he did.

[ohthosegirls]

"I wasn't involved in Pet Sounds, but during that tour I started really appreciating it.  I was unaware up to that point just how much of a genius Brian really was when I started learning those intricate songs."

This kind of surprises me. I haven't read his book yet, but it seems like he must have not been too into The Beach Boys after his departure. I'm probably wrong though!

[ohthosegirls]

I probably should have read Jon's post above mine before posting...

[Wirestone]

I think Dave's answers show a lot of maturity. It's not like Dennis or Carl or Brian made out so well by being in the group, remember. It took a serious toll on all of them, and I'm sure Dave was glad to be spared some of the harms of huge fame.

[HeyJude]

It really is strange how everyone assumed Carl would beat the cancer.

I remember about two or three months before he died a poster on the old Wheeler board posted that Carl wasn't doing too well, and that Audree was also near the end. Person got flamed by just about everyone on the board (including me).  I've often wondered who that person was.

I think that comes from a lot of different things. I don't mean any of this as condescending or dismissive, but people come at that sort of thing will different sorts of levels of knowledge and different types of beliefs. Some people don't know much if anything about cancer, so they don't understand that sometimes some types of cancer diagnoses are not beatable. There are "curable" types of cancers, and some that are "cureable" only in certain stages, and some that, once they've reached a certain stage, are incurable. At that point, it's about getting as much time as you can.

I won't go into my whole story of somebody I knew, but I knew someone who had a relatively similar case as Carl. It never even got a chance to reach the brain, but it was the same basic thing: Lung cancer that had spread elsewhere. Once that happens, and certainly once things are spreading to the brain, it's a case of only having a certain amount of time. It isn't always as quick as what happened to Carl, and obviously sometimes it's even quicker. Sometimes you can have nasty, "incurable" cancer, and get a number of years after that. The person I knew was told they had six weeks to six months, and they got about four years. They got that four years by grueling chemo and radiation. They knew they weren't going to "beat" it, but that didn't mean they couldn't stay positive and get as much quality time as possible.

But it's probably true that people who haven't had some experience of someone close to them (or themselves) dealing with whatever the condition is, they are less likely to be realistic about it. I'm still surprised to go on music discussion forums and there will be a report of some musician who has long been ill who has finally passed, and numerous people just won't believe it until they get numerous confirmations. There are obviously all sorts of hoaxes and false reports out there, but if some famous singer has been on life support in the hospital for weeks with a terminal illness and someone posts an unattributed report of their death, it's not as if there's a 50/50 chance it's wrong.

I don't know why other people in the BB world, including people in the band, really thought until the very end (once it had spread to the brain) that Carl would "beat" it. I don't know if they weren't familiar with lung cancer or cancer in general, or if they were just doing their best to be really positive, or what.

So in the case of Carl, while I would never have advocated for someone to post in late '97 or early '98 something like "Hey guys, game over", it was true that some people rightly took a more sobering, realistic attitude about it because they were able to.

[HeyJude]

I probably should have read Jon's post above mine before posting...

Nah, your point was an interesting one worth noting. I think it's very interesting how David apparently didn't intensely follow the Beach Boys' music after he left. There were, I'm sure, a lot of reasons for that.

Jon and David's book has a lot of great insight into this. I think it's really interesting. There are even times where, as related in the book, David saw the BB's music as overly simplistic and not challenging, almost beneath his musical chops, such as when he considered joining the band circa '71. Granted, asking him to play bass on "Help Me Rhonda" is probably a lot less substantial than, say, having him be a part of "'Til I Die" or "Long Promised Road" or "River Song", etc.