Last known pictures of Dennis and Carl

[Jay]

Well, that's part of the story, but nothing was ever that simple with Dennis...
He was at Carl's house in Malibu, with Carl & Pop Hinsche, during the time when Carl had his back injury.  He was changing a Sparklets water bottle, the old glass kind, with the really thick glass bottom.  When it smashed, the curved bottom was sticking straight up in the air; he cut the bone on his foot almost all the way through! 
Being up in Malibu, they felt it quicker to rush him to the hospital in Santa Monica, rather than wait for an ambulance.  Pop & Carl, (with his bad back), got him into Carl's Bentley for the drive.  Carl later told me that all Dennis was concerned about was getting blood on the car's interior...

Damn....it sounds to me that he was lucky to have even lived through it. Imagine how much blood he probably lost.

[TdHabib]

Actually, it would be more honest to say that was his look that week.  The man was such a chameleon, that at times it seemed he could change his look almost overnight!  Seriously, he could shave, and have a full-face beard the next week.  Ditto with the way his hair grew.  Heck, it was even somewhat true with his injuries; I remember him first struggling to play the piano after he had cut his hand so bad.  That led to him getting back behind the drums.  And, when he practically cut of his foot changing a water bottle at Carl's, they told him he'd never be able to move his toes again.  A couple of months later, he said "Look at that!"  and I watched him wiggle his toes...  Quite a unique individual, that man. 

Hey Ed, I always wanted to ask you something and I hope this is the revelant place: was Dennis pleased with POB, the mix and the songs when he released it?

[Steve Mayo]

thanks to a kind friend, here is the article i was remembering about from my above post.
published in circus magazine, issue 142 october 26th 1976. clint eastwood on front cover.
"surfer boy
beach boy: the dennis wilson interview" scott cohen

i had it a little wrong. no motorcycle pic...dennis was talking about his motorcycles and said maybe in a year he could start one when his foot is better. the following is from the article...
cohen: what happened to your foot?
wilson: i go out to carl's house and i smoke a little grass and carl's father-in-law's there and carl's back is out so he asks me to help him with the water sparklers. so pop and i go around back and i'm barefoot and so loaded and i'm trying to maintain because pop is saying, "don't ever get loaded--it's bad for you. i've been in manila and i was in a concentration camp and you just don't get loaded---life is too dear." he goes on and on and i'm going, (sings) "everything is beautiful," just having a great time. so, in the middle of this great dream, i pick up the bottle of water and it slips out of my hand and it's going to the ground in slow motion, and as the bottle's going down i say, "ah f.uck, what do i do?" so i jumed up and came down on the broken glass. the cut was from the big toe to the little toe. i'd like to show you ... i used to be able to wiggle each toe individually, but since the tendons on the little toe were so small, the surgeon had to sew them all together, so now they all move together.

[Ed Roach]

Wow, fantastic; I don't remember ever having read or seen this article before. 
Now I feel a little guilty, but I'd like to 'clear up' Dennis' version, just a little bit:

A brief explanation first, as to why I feel o.k. editing Dennis here; first off, when Gregg Jakobson and I first saw each other after years, (and this was years ago), we almost instantly were laughing at how much easier & better life has become since each of us excepted, (in my own case finally accepted), being diagnosed with ADHD.  We then had a good laugh at how obvious it was that all three of us, Dennis included, were obviously extreme cases, and probably many of our close friends, relatives & lovers were/are, too.  Then I couldn't help but wonder; if Dennis had been diagnosed way back when, and, equally important, could have stopped self medicating, well...  Lord knows what might have been.

I explain this to point out why I feel entitled to edit Dennis here, even though this was one fiasco I missed first hand.  Reading the article reminds me of reading some of my posts the next day, or of things I've said or written in publications, then later regretting that I wasn't clear, or was hard to follow.  My brain just works a little different than 'regular' ones do, and Dennis' did, too; he in his own totally unique, pedal-to-the-medal (thanks, Jon!) way!  I'm sure this had a lot to do with how we often seemed to 'fill in the blanks' for each other; and with why our friendship last so many years, through thick & thin.  O.K.,sorry, the story:

thanks to a kind friend, here is the article i was remembering about from my above post.
published in circus magazine, issue 142 october 26th 1976. clint eastwood on front cover.
"surfer boy
beach boy: the dennis wilson interview" scott cohen

i had it a little wrong. no motorcycle pic...dennis was talking about his motorcycles and said maybe in a year he could start one when his foot is better. the following is from the article...

cohen: what happened to your foot?

wilson: i go out to carl's house and i smoke a little grass and carl's father-in-law's there and carl's back is out so he asks me to help him with the water sparklers. (ed. "He went to change a Sparklett's 5 gallon water bottle, back when those babies were solid glass.  And, true to form for Dennis, he didn't just flip it over; he tossed it in the air - I've always pictured somewhat like Tom Cruise, mixing drinks in"Cocktails", (coincidentally), then he leaped in the air a few feet") so pop and i go around back and i'm barefoot and so loaded and i'm trying to maintain... and i'm going, (sings) "everything is beautiful," just having a great time. so, in the middle of this great dream, i pick up the bottle of water and it slips out of my hand and it's going to the ground in slow motion, and as the bottle's going down i say, "ah f.uck, what do i do?" so i jumped up and came down on the broken glass. the cut was from the big toe to the little toe. (ed.  "He's using that analogy for distance; where he cut was more like at the ball of the foot, straight across.  As I had said before, almost straight through the bone!) i'd like to show you ... i used to be able to wiggle each toe individually, but since the tendons on the little toe were so small, the surgeon had to sew them all together, so now they all move together.

[Steve Mayo]

thanks for the inside story on that incident ed. i was going by memory and for me 33 years is a long time. so when i had the whole article emailed to me (lost my magazine in the fire) i thought i would post what i was remembering from.

edit anything you see. i always welcome fuller versions of stories i remember having or what i read here.

thanks again! 

[Rocker]

Years ago I was told that this was the last picture of Dennis....

[Jay]

Could anybody post some more concert pictures of Dennis from around 1982-83? I don't think I've seen to many.

[Aegir]

He wasn't at too many.

[Jay]

True. I forgot about that.

[Nicko1234]

My impression was that Carl wasn't that bowled over by the Paley sessions songs. While you can debate the merits of some of the other stuff Carl sang on in the early 90s (SIP, for example), I don't know if he was entirely wrong.

Going back to this very old post...

Bruce has commented that he felt that working on the Paley Sessions was underwhelming in every way and that indicates to me that it wasn`t just the quality of the material that was a problem for the band. Brian`s involvement may have been limited (isn`t it widely considered that Soul Searchin` was mostly written by Paley?) and who knows how much production Brian was capable of.

When talking about a possible re-union album, Bruce still says that he wouldn`t want Brian producing so perhaps he`s aware that he couldn`t do it on his own after all he`s been through...

[TdHabib]

While Brian indeed is not all over the writing of "Soul Searchin'," according to Paley he got so jazzed up about it after he heard it in semi-completion, he flew over to London to work on the song in a hotel with Paley (who was working on another project in London).

I've never heard that Brian was antyhing less than enthusiastic during the Paley sessions.

[Jay]

I read that Brian was in complete control, production wise, on the aborted reunion album. I'd love to go back in time as a fly on the wall for those sessions.

[Beckgtr09]

Years ago I was told that this was the last picture of Dennis....

Somewhere in my collection, I have a picture of Dennis holding Gage at the Jamaica concert they did in I believe 1982. It's kinda strange to see Mike in the background giving Dennis the look of " that's my grandson and son in law who is also my cousin " vibes. If I can find it I'll ask the person who took the picture if I can post it.

Ted

[Rocker]

Years ago I was told that this was the last picture of Dennis....

Somewhere in my collection, I have a picture of Dennis holding Gage at the Jamaica concert they did in I believe 1982. It's kinda strange to see Mike in the background giving Dennis the look of " that's my grandson and son in law who is also my cousin " vibes. If I can find it I'll ask the person who took the picture if I can post it.

Ted

That would be great.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

Years ago I was told that this was the last picture of Dennis....

Somewhere in my collection, I have a picture of Dennis holding Gage at the Jamaica concert they did in I believe 1982. It's kinda strange to see Mike in the background giving Dennis the look of " that's my grandson and son in law who is also my cousin " vibes. If I can find it I'll ask the person who took the picture if I can post it.

Ted

That would be great.

I thought that Mike never believed she was his daughter.

[Jay]

I wonder how Mike treated Gage? I mean, at least when Dennis was still alive. Did Mike accept him as a grandson?

[Jay]

Years ago I was told that this was the last picture of Dennis....

Even with the picture being fairly small and taken at a weird angle, you can still see how old he looked by then.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I wonder how Mike treated Gage? I mean, at least when Dennis was still alive. Did Mike accept him as a grandson?

Still doesn't, officially. During her life, Mike never publicly accepted that Shawn was his daughter: I believe the closest he came was in the early 80s when she was backstage with Dennis, and he remarked "no daughter of mine takes drugs".

[TdHabib]

Just as an aside, I remember an interview where Al was asked about Shawn and he just broke out in a big grin and said "Shawn was Mike's daughter" as if he had no doubt on the subject at all.

[Jay]

I wonder how Mike treated Gage? I mean, at least when Dennis was still alive. Did Mike accept him as a grandson?

Still doesn't, officially. During her life, Mike never publicly accepted that Shawn was his daughter: I believe the closest he came was in the early 80s when she was backstage with Dennis, and he remarked "no daughter of mine takes drugs".

That's cold. The absolute least he could have done was treated Shawn and Gage as family. For Gage's sake.
 
Was it Shawn that died, or her mother? I've heard conflicting stories. I remember in the Steven Gaines book it was mentioned that Shawn was pretty sick with cancer. That was way back in, what, 1983?

[Jay]

Just as an aside, I remember an interview where Al was asked about Shawn and he just broke out in a big grin and said "Shawn was Mike's daughter" as if he had no doubt on the subject at all.

I wonder if that's what caused the falling out between him and Mike? 

[XY]

Even with the picture being fairly small and taken at a weird angle, you can still see how old he looked by then.

Dennnis old I've never seen a single picture of Dennis looking old. You've got to be kidding! Even with all the drugs and drinks, he looked pretty good for a almost 40 years old I think. The only pics I know where he looked kinda strange are the ones from 83 with his sons.

[Jay]

Even with the picture being fairly small and taken at a weird angle, you can still see how old he looked by then.

Dennnis old I've never seen a single picture of Dennis looking old. You've got to be kidding! Even with all the drugs and drinks, he looked pretty good for a almost 40 years old I think. The only pics I know where he looked kinda strange are the ones from 83 with his sons.

Somebody a few months ago on here posted some pictures of the group at some kind of press conference with Dennis that seems to have been sometime in 1983. Dennis looked like he was in his 60's.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I wonder how Mike treated Gage? I mean, at least when Dennis was still alive. Did Mike accept him as a grandson?

Still doesn't, officially. During her life, Mike never publicly accepted that Shawn was his daughter: I believe the closest he came was in the early 80s when she was backstage with Dennis, and he remarked "no daughter of mine takes drugs".

That's cold. The absolute least he could have done was treated Shawn and Gage as family. For Gage's sake.
 
Was it Shawn that died, or her mother? I've heard conflicting stories. I remember in the Steven Gaines book it was mentioned that Shawn was pretty sick with cancer. That was way back in, what, 1983?

Shawn died in LA, September 2003, aged 38, of liver cancer. No idea if Shannon Harris is still alive: I would imagine so.

[Amy B.]

Shawn died in LA, September 2003, aged 38, of liver cancer. No idea if Shannon Harris is still alive: I would imagine so.

How tragic for Gage to have never known his father and lost his mother so early.