A Commemoration of the White Suit Phase

[Dave in KC]

The white suits time period is very important to me as it was the time I started attending concerts(1968-Austin, TX). I watched it all evolve, live, in front of me with a stupendous string of shows that lasted for over one hundred concerts in 15 states. During much this time I worked for the promoter, Chris Fritz, here in KC. So I had total access to everything, just about. I got Al Jardine's family members from Hutchinson, KS into Arrowhead Stadium after they were turned away at the gate. Al and I walked out of the bowels of this mammoth structure to the front gate where they wouldn't let Al in because he didn't have the right colored press pass. I gave him mine and he never forgot it. I have mentioned here before that Al's wife's sister is my vet's secretary. Christmas cards? This was a time I spent 20 minutes with Al all alone walking the distance. The Doobie Brothers were playing at the time and Al remarked to me how good they sounded. I have told this story here before, as well as on Male Ego. God I miss that Board.  I followed that up with having TV credentials that got me into State Fairs and other gigs for years into the late 90's. Even a show in Miami on a barge attached to a stadium. What a night. Been a "patron" ever since 2000. Sunday night ramblings from a long-time fan who got lucky with his profession and enabled me to "get close." Long ago though. I have been solo with all members, even Matt Jardine. Strange thing is though, I never met Brian Wilson. But I was there, front and center, at the Hard Rock 1999 when it was important!

[NHC]

There was a pale blue one in the Beach Boys display at the Guam Hard Rock on Tumon Bay when it opened in 1998.  Looked like it had to have been Al's.  (Gary Usher Jr., who managed Tempo Music in the Micronesia Mall and was a pretty good friend, amazed to find someone on Guam who knew who his dad was, played lead guitar in a semi-punk rock/alt band, "John's 5th Wheel", that opened for Sammy Hagar at the grand opening.  He was great.)

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Am I totally wrong or was Dennis actually the first one to start wearing Hawiian shirts?

There are pics from the 73/74 era, where he's bustin that look...... and of course looking cool in the process.. Then again Dennis was an authentic Beach-Type-Person.

[The Cincinnati Kid]

I love the white suites.  Their best dressed period IMO.

[Cabinessenceking]

the white suits were utterly lame

the big problem was that they went for 'unity' which by default was lame by 1967. had they used their personal tastes (whcih weren't that bad) they would be suffering less of the image issue. losing the striped shirts was neccessary, but I believe if just one band member wore such a shirt with jeans, then it would be cool and a 'casual throwback' without being lame. So striped shirts did not mean lame, but white suits are a no-go for anyone wishing to retain any property which is 'cool'.

generally bearing a white suit means you're a bit of a poofter anyway...

[metal flake paint]

generally bearing a white suit means you're a bit of a poofter anyway...

Was this remark really necessary?

[Cabinessenceking]

generally bearing a white suit means you're a bit of a poofter anyway...

Was this remark really necessary?

nah superfluous to the extreme! (not meant to be taken literally either)
white suits are at the top of tacky though.

[halblaineisgood]

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[halblaineisgood]

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[Lowbacca]

My contribution regarding white suits and variations thereof (I don't have any strong opinion on them anyway):

[Generation42]

I haven't the foggiest as to what the "White Suite" entails (another one of those lost masterpieces, I suppose).

But that said, if Brian Wilson had a hand in writing it, I'm definitely all ears! 

[Rocker]

I think the striped shirts were fine. They just wore them for too long. I guess they probably should have changed in '66 when they achieved new heights and became the biggest band in the world. Plus in retrospect we know that that year was a kinda a turnaround point in music business.

[Ian]

As I discussed in the Concert book-the BBs were fairly naive about the importance of image and publicity.  In the entries for the May 67 tour I included an excerpt from a lengthy interview in HitWeek Magazine (translated for me from the Dutch by SmileHolland) in which they were grilled by a reporter about why they still wore striped shirts and took so little interest in their album covers-Carl got kind of testy at first but eventually calmed down and admitted that they'd always left that to the record company and maybe they should get more involved.  But clearly they really were not "cool" in that sense-unlike the Beatles and the Stones-there were no art students in the BBs and not much interest in fashion or design-they were about music period.  But I do think that the switch to the white suits and a bit  longer hair was a calculated decision and showed that they had no clue what "hip" was in 1968.  As we know this was part of the problem for them at that time. But even if they looked square as hell and squeaky clean compared to the Stones, nevertheless they put out killer albums during that whole white suit period that surely were COOL. 

[Lowbacca]

As I discussed in the Concert book-the BBs were fairly naive about the importance of image and publicity.  In the entries for the May 67 tour I included an excerpt from a lengthy interview in HitWeek Magazine (translated for me from the Dutch by SmileHolland) in which they were grilled by a reporter about why they still wore striped shirts and took so little interest in their album covers-Carl got kind of testy at first but eventually calmed down and admitted that they'd always left that to the record company and maybe they should get more involved.  But clearly they really were not "cool" in that sense-unlike the Beatles and the Stones-there were no art students in the BBs and not much interest in fashion or design-they were about music period.  But I do think that the switch to the white suits and a bit  longer hair was a calculated decision and showed that they had no clue what "hip" was in 1968.  As we know this was part of the problem for them at that time. But even if they looked square as hell and squeaky clean compared to the Stones, nevertheless they put out killer albums during that whole white suit period that surely were COOL. 

That's a good keynote for a 'white suits' thread. Or just love 'em no matter what - like The Original Jarhead.

[Dudd]

As I discussed in the Concert book-the BBs were fairly naive about the importance of image and publicity.  In the entries for the May 67 tour I included an excerpt from a lengthy interview in HitWeek Magazine (translated for me from the Dutch by SmileHolland) in which they were grilled by a reporter about why they still wore striped shirts and took so little interest in their album covers-Carl got kind of testy at first but eventually calmed down and admitted that they'd always left that to the record company and maybe they should get more involved.  But clearly they really were not "cool" in that sense-unlike the Beatles and the Stones-there were no art students in the BBs and not much interest in fashion or design-they were about music period.  But I do think that the switch to the white suits and a bit  longer hair was a calculated decision and showed that they had no clue what "hip" was in 1968.  As we know this was part of the problem for them at that time. But even if they looked square as hell and squeaky clean compared to the Stones, nevertheless they put out killer albums during that whole white suit period that surely were COOL. 

That's a good keynote for a 'white suits' thread. Or just love 'em no matter what - like The Original Jarhead.

UNEQUIVOCAL TRUTH

[Ian]

By the way that first photo in the thread was in our Concert book and is the BBs on Sullivan in Oct 1968.  Notice that if you watch the actual show-the Sullivan people inserted a whole psychedelic slide in the blank space behind the BBs.  But as the photo shows this was added post performance

[Dudd]

By the way that first photo in the thread was in our Concert book and is the BBs on Sullivan in Oct 1968.  Notice that if you watch the actual show-the Sullivan people inserted a whole psychedelic slide in the blank space behind the BBs.  But as the photo shows this was added post performance

Yes, I found that out soon after posting it. Slightly dodgy performance from Mike, but he makes up for it by succeeding at looking mildly... debonair (?) for once.

[Jon Stebbins]

Striped Shirts were better...

I guess this begs the question: From 1962-autumn '67, what could these guys have worn besides the striped shirts that would've worked with their material? (like, during that era they couldn't have worn suits while singing 'Surfin Safari' imo).

Thoughts?

They didn't start wearing the signature striped shirts until summer 1964...almost three years into their existence. I'm just saying a lot of BB's fans (maybe not you) have a habit of thinking the striped shirts came much earlier than they actually did. Before the stripes they wore Pendeltons with white shirts underneath, they'd often pull off the Pendletons because they got hot,. They also wore suits on occasion, but mostly the Pendleton and white combo... and then transitioned to soft yellow shirts. By mid '63 they wore a variety of solid shirts, soft yellow, or white, or soft blue. By early '64 they continued with the solids and mixed in a very thin striped dress shirt, soft red or soft blue stripe, but these were not the Kingston Trio style shirt which came a half year later. They also wore a yellow radio station promo t-shirt for at least one gig in Portland in early '64. The classic Beach Boys striped shirts finally showed up around July or August of '64.

[donald]

John Lennon wore a white suit around that time.   I've wondered if they weren't going for a bit of that.  Whatever that was.

[Cabinessenceking]

generally bearing a white suit means you're a bit of a poofter anyway...

Was this remark really necessary?

nah superfluous to the extreme! (not meant to be taken literally either)
white suits are at the top of tacky though.

With the hash this fellow slings he doesn't deserve to cast stones on anyone I can't believe this fucking guy's a smiley smile associate!

[sockittome]

By the way that first photo in the thread was in our Concert book and is the BBs on Sullivan in Oct 1968.  Notice that if you watch the actual show-the Sullivan people inserted a whole psychedelic slide in the blank space behind the BBs.  But as the photo shows this was added post performance

Yes, I found that out soon after posting it. Slightly dodgy performance from Mike, but he makes up for it by succeeding at looking mildly... debonair (?) for once.

Aw c'mon!  He was BAKED!!!

[Niko]

I thought the same thing! 

[donald]

Not fried?

[chrs_mrgn]

Isn't Al still in the White Suit Phase?

Probably was his idea back in the day!

[chrs_mrgn]

Am I totally wrong or was Dennis actually the first one to start wearing Hawiian shirts?

There are pics from the 73/74 era, where he's bustin that look...... and of course looking cool in the process.. Then again Dennis was an authentic Beach-Type-Person.

Well the late 60's early 70's was sort of when the whole 'tiki culture' was big, especially in California. People wearing hawaiian shirts and tiki restaurants and tiki bars in the house or whatever. So he was probably just following that trend.