This Week in BB History-July 1 to 12

July 3, 1962-The BBs appeared at Dykstra Hall on the UCLA campus at a Dance hosted by Roger Christian, with Chris Montez and Dante and Evergreen. This may have been the night that Brian met future roommate Bob Norberg. July 5, 6 1963-the Marks’ diary states that the BBs were in Phoenix, AZ on these days-though I have never been able to find any mention in newspapers. July 11, 1963-The BBs appeared at the Retail Clerks Auditorium in Buena Park with the Astronauts. The next day they played the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa with Adrian and the Sunsets

July 3-5 1964-The BBs were in Hawaii with Bruce and Terry, Jan and Dean, The Kingsmen, Freddy Cannon, Jimmy Griffin, The Rivingtons, Ray Peterson, Jody Miller, Jimmy Clanton and Peter and Gordon. They all appeared at the (HIC) International Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii on July 3 and 4 and at Bloch Arena, Pearl Harbor and at Schofield Barracks on July 5. Wayne Harada of the Honolulu Star Bulletin wrote that “the Beach Boys, who originated the surfing and hot rod trends in music last year, offered 13 hit tunes, including ‘Hawaii,’ ‘409,’ ‘Surfin’ Safari,’ and ‘I Get Around.’ The headliners showed they were capable of handling ballads, singing ‘Surfer Girl,’ ‘In My Room’ and ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ a la Four Freshmen.”

On July 6 1964 the BBs began the Summer Safari tour with The Kingsmen, Freddie Cannon, Jimmy Griffin and Lynn Easton at the University of Arizona. The reviewer gave them a back-handed sort of compliment, “When the guitars and drums weren’t drowning out the voices, the Beach Boys exhibited an eerie sort of harmony that is not unpleasing to the ear.” They played in Albuquerque on July 7, Amarillo, Texas on July 8 and at Springlake Amusement Park in Oklahoma City on July 9. They were in Tulsa on July 10 and in Omaha the next day. The show at the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City on July 12 was disrupted when Dennis was hit by something thrown by a fan and had to leave the stage. The Kingsmen drummer Dick Peterson filled in.

July 2 1965 the BBs played the Concourse Arena in San Diego with Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs, Sonny & Cher and Ian Whitcomb. It’s possible that Brian played this show instead of Bruce. He certainly replaced him the next night at the Hollywood Bowl. Indeed, this would be the last full show Brian played with the BBs until the two Hawaii appearances in 1967. The Hollywood Bowl show was an unbelievable bill-that also featured the Righteous Brothers, Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs, The Byrds, Donna Loren, The Sir Douglas Quintet, Sonny and Cher, Dino, Desi and Billy, The Kinks, Ian Whitcomb and The Liverpool Five. Bruce was back in the lineup on July 4 for the show at the Cow Palace, San Francisco with Sonny and Cher, The Ronettes, Donna Loren, The Kinks, Ian Whitcomb, Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs, Drusalee and the Dead, the Emeralds with Linda Dawn, the Westwinds, the Decibels and the Coachmen. The show was poorly advertised and had lousy attendance. The mercurial Kinks refused to play due to a feud with the promoter.

July 6 1965 The BBs played at Canobie Lake Park in Salem NH. They then appeared at Hampton Beach Casino, NH on July 7 and the Municipal Auditorium in Bangor, Maine on July 8 and Portland Exposition Center on July 9. On July 10 they played the Convention Hall in Asbury Park, NJ. The reviewer was not impressed but noted, “Love is the one to watch. The other guys play and sing but they’re just there. He’s the one whose upfront making audience contact, dancing a bit and gesticulating madly. In a less permissive time some of his body language and gestures would be considered on the border of being obscene…Then too, he wears his shirt over his pants so his tails go flapping behind him, giving him the overall appearance of a beach bum rather than boy-at his age he should be ashamed to be called a boy anyway.” The next day the BBs played the Reading Fairgrounds in Pennsylvania and then flew to Raleigh, NC to play the Dorton Arena on July 12. That same day Brian and the Wrecking Crew worked on the Sloop John B track at Western.

July 1 1966 The BBs played the Convention Center in Las Vegas with The Association and Sir Douglas Quintet. The same bill played at the County Bowl, Santa Barbara the next night and then at the Memorial Auditorium, Fresno on July 3 and the Community Concourse in San Diego on July 4. Despite the fact that Pet Sounds had been released months earlier, they only played “Sloop John B”. Steve Vivona of the San Diego Evening Tribune noted, “Instead it was a rehash of their ‘golden goodies’-‘Little Deuce Coupe,’ ‘Hawaii,’ ‘Barbara Ann,’ and a half a dozen others, all performed in a listless manner…The main ingredient lacking in the quintet is an attitude of professionalism; no matter how successful, they need to prove themselves again and again to back up the high demands of their salary.” While the BBs were on the road a taped appearance on the Lloyd Thaxton TV Show aired. It was probably taped in June and undoubtedly has been erased.

July 5-12 1967 the BBs returned to work on the Smiley Smile LP with sessions for She’s Going Bald, Wonderful and Wind Chimes. July 2-12 1968 the BBs were on the road with Gary Puckett and Union Gap and the Human Beinz. This was probably the first tour with Mike Kowalski-2nd percussionist and Ed Carter-bassist. The BBs played the RKO Orpheum, Davenport, IA on July 2, Sioux Falls, SD on July 3 and Majestic Hills, Lake Geneva, WI (then home of Hefner’s Playboy Club) on July 4. They played Chicago Auditorium on July 5.

The Human Beinz (“Nobody but Me,”) opened for the group and I interviewed lead vocalist/guitarist Ting Markulin for my book. He recalled that he and drummer Mike Tatman were asked to find Dennis before the show as he didn’t show up for a sound check. They drove around for a few hours in their motorhome till they located him. “He wasn’t that hard to spot because he always wore a white suit with no shirt and he was always barefoot. He recognized us as we were shouting his name and got in the motor home. He thanked us for finding him and taking him back to the hall. He invited us to meet at his room after the concert for a little party. Dennis loved pink champagne in frosted glasses and when we showed up that night, he had cases of pink champagne and a cooler full of frosted glasses. Well I guess you can imagine how trashed we got. The worst part was that we had to leave and drive all night while the Beach Boys had their own plane to fly to the next city in the morning. But we didn’t care because Dennis was a cool guy and a lot of fun.”

The BBs then played in Anderson, IN on July 6 and Duluth on July 7, they then played in Fargo, St Paul, Waterloo, Iowa, Des Moines and the Memorial Hall in Salina, KS on July 12. Eric Stein Jr. reviewed the concert that night and commented, “I really must give them every credit they deserve for superb harmony. ‘Hearts are Full of Spring’ was sung entirely acapella. The audience raved about the Beach Boys and the whole show in general.” The Chicago, Fargo and Waterloo shows were taped by Desper and are available to hear on that live box released last year.

July 1969-The BBs continued to work on what would become Sunflower. They held a session for “Slip on Through” on July 9 and 14. At the second session they also worked on the officially unreleased (probably till this December) “California Slide.” July 7 1970-The BBs worked on Cool, Cool Water and then spent the next few days mixing the Sunflower album. July 1 1971 the BBs played the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx as part of a Youth Expo Festival that ran June 29-July 6 and included Chuck Berry, 30 Days Out and Powerhouse). The next two days they were at Wolman Rink in Central Park, NY filming the Good Vibrations from Central Park TV Special with Ike and Tina Turner, Boz Scaggs, Kate Taylor and Carly Simon. The film crew insisted on two concerts to insure they had good footage. Director John Moffitt had the musicians wear the same outfits both days to create the illusion that they had only filmed one show. The performances of “Good Vibrations,” “Heroes and Villains,” “Okie from Muskogee,” “Forever,” and “It’s About Time” aired on the show. July 7 and 8 1971 the BBs worked on the unreleased “It’s a New Day.” July 1972 the BBs were in Holland working on the album of the same name. The following July 1973 found them off the road in the wake of Murry’s untimely death.

July 9 1974-The BBs opened for CSNY at the Coliseum in Seattle. Some fans swear that the BBs stole the show, though clearly, they were not the main event. July 1 1975 the BBs played the Spectrum in Philadelphia with Michael Murphy. Matt Damsker of the Evening Bulletin reported that the “concert hit a soaring pace, on its collective feet from the first notes, as the Beach Boys delivered strongly and euphoniously-the simple favorites, ‘Surfer Girl’, ‘Little Deuce Coupe’, ‘Sloop John B’, ‘California Girls’ balanced against the later, more sophisticated ones, ‘Sail On Sailor’, ‘Heroes and Villains’, ‘Good Vibrations.’” The BBs then played two shows at Milwaukee Summer Fest on July 3 before heading to Colorado to appear at Colorado State University in Fort Collins with Chicago on July 6. The last Beachago show of 1975. Elton John walked on stage during the BBs set to play with them on Barbara Ann. The reviewer noted “Encore brought both groups back on along with the entire ‘New’ Elton John Band. ‘Jumping Jack Flash’ never sounded so good!”

July 2 1976 the BBs played Oakland Coliseum with Elvin Bishop, America and John Sebastian. The show was legendary because Brian played with the band for the first time (other than a cameo in 1973) since 1971. The BBs were backed by a five-piece horn section called the Hornettes. In my book Ron Altbach commented, “Those were my guys. I put that together for the Beach Boys. They wanted to have horns. I thought it was stupid. I mean it didn’t really add anything. But they wanted it, so they did it.” The next night Brian again joined the BBs at Anaheim Stadium- with America, Gerard and Santana. This show was filmed for the TV special (with Mike in a gold lamé vest and white cap).
During this period Carl was producing an album for Ricci Martin, while Dennis was working on Pacific Ocean Blue.

July 4 1978- a proposed concert by the BBs, Joan Baez and Santana in Leningrad fell apart. The show would have featured Western and Soviet artists to foster greater cultural exchange between the super-powers. The BBs were pretty psyched up about it and on June 14 Carl, Mike and Al had even joined Bill Graham, Santana and Joan Baez at Graham’s San Francisco office to hold a press conference. The concert was to be documented by filmmaker Dmitri Gruenwald. Unfortunately, it never happened. By late June plans had run aground because officials from the Soviet Film Agency found historical inaccuracies in the script. Baez said the Russians panicked because they realized the show might attract over a quarter million people.

July 1-12 1979 the BBs were on tour without Dennis. They played Midway Stadium in St Paul, MN on July 1-with the British Climax Blues Band, the Atlanta Rhythm Section, Ironhorse and Jay Ferguson and then at Rosenblatt Stadium, Omaha (July 2) and Milwaukee Summer Fest (July 3) before a four-day residency at Pine Knob near Detroit. The reviewer noted, “Although Love persisted in flapping his arms and jaws in a distracting, cornball fashion, his vocals were exceptionally intact for a balding, pushing 40 rock and roller. The musical highlight had to be Carl Wilson, who displayed an understanding of several guitars and the talented songwriter Brian Wilson on piano and bass. He’s a no pick purist, using nothing but a calloused index finger to work the thick strings.” Back home in California Dennis, estranged from the band, attended a Bee Gees concert. The BBs were at St John’s Hollow, Tiffin, OH on July 8 with Brian in a typical outfit of the period-a Blue track suit and T shirt. The BBs then played two nights at Blossom Music Center outside Cleveland. One of these shows was partially filmed for a piece on PM Magazine. As I mentioned in my book the crowd was eager for oldies and grew restless when Bruce played “I Write the Songs.” Mike pleaded with the crowd to listen, but the Cleveland Plains Dealer reported, “It didn’t work, no matter how thick he laid it on. Songs like ‘Sumahama’ weren’t what the people came to hear and they weren’t buying any. It took tunes like ‘California Girls’ and ‘I Get Around’ to command their attention.” They then played Rockland Community College and were at the Forum in Montreal with Long John Baldry on July 12.

July 3 1980-The BBs played at the Hampton Coliseum with Le Roux. The reviewer stated that the openers stole the show and that “while the harmony was at times perfect, the songs were ill-timed and the performance almost lackadaisical.” The reviewer admitted, however, that Dennis got things moving towards the end and revved up the band for the big finish of hits. The next day they played their first big Washington DC show-filmed for HBO. While not the best BBs performance, the show was quite popular and was re-aired for the next few years as The Beach Boys in Concert. The next night they played the Nassau Coliseum. After flying home, Carl played a solo show (his first) on July 7 at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Los Angeles- for the Movement of Inner Spiritual Awareness.

July 1 1981 The BBs, without Carl, played the Civic Center in Huntington, WV. On July 4 they again played in Washington DC, though HBO didn’t film this one. Geoffrey Himes noted with Carl gone, Dennis sticking only to drums and Brian “banging inaudibly on piano and only occasionally singing an off key vocal…this left the show in the hands of Al Jardine, Mike Love and Bruce Johnston, who seemed to have little feel for a great musical legacy. They cloaked around and undermined beautiful songs like 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' with sloppy arrangements. They also passed over a long list of superlative songs to sing such weak selections as 'Long Tall Texan.'" The BBs were filmed performing on the Queen Mary at Long Beach the next night with Three Dog Night and Jan and Dean. Carl saw the very poorly performed show on TV after a gig in Michigan opening for the Doobie Brothers and called it “painful” The very drunk crowd though seemed to enjoy it-though they continually threw bottles at the stage and during commercial breaks Mike had to repeatedly lecture them. July 9 to 15 the BBs were in Tahoe, playing the kind of gigs Carl had vocally complained about to the press while promoting his solo LP.

July 3, 1982-With Carl back in the band (but Brian absent) and a bit more rehearsal, a more professional BBs played the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia and then spent July 4 at the Freedom Festival in St Louis. The BBs were in Winnipeg Arena the next night and the Winnipeg Free Press declared that the Beach Boys showed “a new crew how vibrant its music is now, from the opening number to an encore played to a tidal wave of cheers that almost drowned out the group. The band set the theme with the first song, ‘It’s OK’…and piled on hit after hit, overflowing with uncontrived, endless summers and eternal youth-like ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice,’ ‘Little Deuce Coupe,’ ‘I Get Around,’ ‘God Only Knows,’ ‘Do It Again,’ ‘California Girls’ and ‘Good Vibrations.’”
The BBs then played in Regina, Edmonton, Lethbridge (Lethbridge Herald declared the show “the best to hit Lethbridge in years… The music of the Beach Boys seems just as fresh as the day it first came over a tinny transistor radio.”), Boise and Spokane, WA. On July 11 1982 they played the Grandview Bowl in Nanaimo, BC.

July 2 1983 the BBs played Summerfest in Milwaukee for the umpteenth time and then were at Busch Stadium in St Louis on July 3 with Charlie Daniels and Foghat. July 4 1983 the BBs played in Atlantic City. As Carl noted in American Band “It was the last fourth of July with the original Beach Boys”. The full group was in attendance, including Brian and Dennis, who thrashed away on drums and hoarsely sang a very sad version of “You Are So Beautiful.” The BBs were at Jones Beach on July 7 and 9, with an appearance in Manhattan at Pier 84 squeezed in-between. Gannett Westchester papers reported on the Jones Beach show, “the California based band proved once again why they are masters of four part harmony and America’s premiere party band with rousing renditions of their classic tunes: ‘Sloop John B,’ ‘California Girls,’ ‘I Get Around,’ and ‘Good Vibrations.’...Brian Wilson sat at the keyboards and joined in on vocals much to the joy of the audience.” They played Mount Cranmore Stadium in New Hampshire on July 10.

July 2 1984-the BBs played Six Flags Over Georgia. The next day the BBs (except Carl) attended a party in DC thrown by the corporate sponsors of the next day’s shows. Interviews were filmed for the American Band movie. Mike, Al and Bruce also appeared on ABC TV-Nightline with Ted Koppel. This was all to promote the return to the Washington Memorial with Ringo Starr and Julio Inglesias than flew to Miami for a free show at Lummus Park. The concerts were filmed and recorded. An album called Fourth of July: A Rockin’ Celebration of America, which contained live recordings from this show, as well as the band’s 1985 July 4th shows, received limited release. The film footage was edited into a TV special titled D.C. Beach Party that aired in syndication. On July 6 they were at Riverside-Brookfield High School Stadium near Chicago with Three Dog Night and then in Cedar Rapids on July 7, Duluth, MN- with Three Dog Night and Dakota Crossing on July 8. The BBs then remained in Duluth through July 9 to play a charity softball game against Three Dog Night. Meanwhile Brian flew to London to work on the Beach Boys album with Steve Levine for about two weeks. Brian was filmed and interviewed for a British TV show called Ear Say while there singing “I’m So Lonely”. He worked on California Calling, A Matter of Time, Male Ego, I’m So Lonely. The BBs played in Sioux Falls, SD on July 10. The reviewer noted that fans “didn’t mind the ninety-minute wait before the main show began, the unpolished performance, the predictable absence of Brian Wilson or the fact that Mike Love had to wear a hat to hide encroaching baldness.”

The BBs were at Six Flags Over Texas on July 11 and Oklahoma City on July 12 1984. Bruce was interviewed to promote the Oklahoma show. Asked about Dennis he said, “I think it was unnecessary, a tragedy and really dumb. And it’s been a down year in terms of the way we feel. But Dennis just charged ahead. That’s what he decided to do. I realize there was a side of Dennis that I just barely got a glimpse of. I think I chose to turn my back on Dennis when I came home (from touring) …. Yet we were really supportive of him on the road. We tried to keep him from drinking and killing himself.” He also explained that he rarely saw the others offstage, “It’s kind of impossible because we live so far apart.”

July 1 1985 the BBs played the Oil Palace in Tyler Texas. That July 4 they played in Philadelphia and DC this time with Mr. T of the A-Team, The Neville Brothers, Four Tops, Katrina and the Waves. Brian joined them for the DC show only. Shows followed in Buffalo on July 6 and then two nights at Pine Knob. They then got ready to play Live Aid on July 13 with Brian in Philadelphia.
July 1 1986-The BBs played Roberts Stadium in Sioux City with the Moody Blues. They also played in Kansas on July 2 and Omaha on July 3 with The Moody Blues and The Fixx. They then played at the second Farm Aid in Manor, TX on July 4-this aired on TNN TV. They performed “Help Me Rhonda” (with Willie Nelson), “Lady Liberty” (a version of “Lady Lynda” rewritten for the 4th of July), “Rock and Roll to the Rescue” and “Surfin’ USA”. Then they flew to NYC to play a Statue of Liberty Benefit aboard the USS Iowa, which was also televised. A reviewer in Austin was not happy. He noted, “What don’t I like about the Fourth of July? Every Fourth of July, without fail, they show the Beach Boys on television. I used to like the Beach Boys until they became old and senile…I think they ought to put the Beach Boys on one of those tall ships, sail them over to England and dump them off. Let them celebrate Guy Fawkes Day is what I say!!” Clearly, he was a big fan.

July 1 1987-The BBs played the Garden State Arts Center with Mason Ruffner. The reviewer noted, “The Beach Boys show last night packed little surprises. Predictably the set was made up of greatest hits…The between song-chatter was kind of corny and there was little attempt to rearrange or spice up these songs and the others performed…Most of the concert consisted of early and mid-sixties hits. There was little from the Beach Boys more experimental period that began with the album Per Sounds in 1967 (!) and continued through Surf’s Up and Holland. But the audience didn’t mind.” They were in Parkersburg, WV on July 2 and then played Tampa Stadium on July 4 with Starship and Whitney Houston. Brian was there-and also Roger McGuinn appeared. After that show they played at Zilker Park in Austin, TX again with Brian.

Think I’ll stop here.

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