When did the BBs stop wearing the candy stripped shirts?

[The Song Of The Grange]

For some reason I have been looking at pictures of the BBs on stage in 1967.  I was surprised to see how long they stuck with the old candy stripped shirts, despite the fact that off stage for photo shoots they were all decked out in the mod fashion of the day.  There is this huge disconnect between their music and photoshoots and their on stage appearance, both visually and in the set that they played.  I thought after Monterey happened they might have ditched the stripped shirts, but I see this picture here of the August Hawaii show and there they all are on stage with their early 60's throw back look (the shots of the sound check look a lot cooler, with most of them in their regular clothes).  To me the candy stripped shirts are kind of symbolic of the band's whole situation around that time, having internal struggles with how to react to the changing times and tastes.  Not that this all matters much to me, but I think it must have mattered at the time, knowing how visually oriented pop music was (and still is).

It surprises me that with BW being so sensitive in 1966 about the group's sound and image that he wouldn't have tried to do away with the old stage costume.  They came under a lot of criticism in Britain during their fall '66 tour and their mid '67 tour, both for not sounding good live and looking old fashioned.  I guess they were really set on not changing their stage image with the times.  All I can figure it that BW was ok with their image, contrary to what I think he might have thought.  That, or the touring band just wouldn't change (which could easily be the case).

When did they finally ditch the stripped shirts costume?  I am guessing in '68, from the pictures I have seen.  I'd love to learn a little more on this topic.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Certainly by the 1969 UK tour they were wearing the probably-just-as-bad white suits... though come to think of it, they were wearing those on the Ed Sullivan Show 10/13/68.

[Alex]

Then came their early '70s "hippie-cowboy" getup!

[Jon Stebbins]

For some reason I have been looking at pictures of the BBs on stage in 1967.  I was surprised to see how long they stuck with the old candy stripped shirts, despite the fact that off stage for photo shoots they were all decked out in the mod fashion of the day.  There is this huge disconnect between their music and photoshoots and their on stage appearance, both visually and in the set that they played.  I thought after Monterey happened they might have ditched the stripped shirts, but I see this picture here of the August Hawaii show and there they all are on stage with their early 60's throw back look (the shots of the sound check look a lot cooler, with most of them in their regular clothes).  To me the candy stripped shirts are kind of symbolic of the band's whole situation around that time, having internal struggles with how to react to the changing times and tastes.  Not that this all matters much to me, but I think it must have mattered at the time, knowing how visually oriented pop music was (and still is).

It surprises me that with BW being so sensitive in 1966 about the group's sound and image that he wouldn't have tried to do away with the old stage costume.  They came under a lot of criticism in Britain during their fall '66 tour and their mid '67 tour, both for not sounding good live and looking old fashioned.  I guess they were really set on not changing their stage image with the times.  All I can figure it that BW was ok with their image, contrary to what I think he might have thought.  That, or the touring band just wouldn't change (which could easily be the case).

When did they finally ditch the stripped shirts costume?  I am guessing in '68, from the pictures I have seen.  I'd love to learn a little more on this topic.

You are looking at the end of the striped shirt phase in late '67...over two years too late if you ask me. Remember the Beatles were still wearing matching suits when they did their last tour in Aug. '66, but like the BB's they wore the latest mod fashions off stage. The Stones were ahead of the game by ditching matching stage outfits in '63! From what i know i'd say the BB's switched to the white suits starting at the outset of '68, they definitely had them during the Maharishi tour. They finally went to non-matching gear sometime in '69.

[A Million Units In Jan!]

However, The Beatles matching suits were alot hipper than candy striped shirts, IMO....

[oldsurferdude]

Saw them in Johnstown, Pa. with the striped shirts, white Levis, tennis shoes-believe it was 1967. After that, the stripes were history.

[Andrew G. Doe]

April 16th. 

[SG7]

Am I weird to say I kind of dug the shirts as corny as they were? I got plenty of them in my closet haha.

[Ian]

BBs wore the striped shirts as late as Oct 8 1967 in Chicago.  The next photo I have is from the February 1968 Pacific NW shows and they had switched to the white suits.  If I had to guess-i bet they had them made for their app on the UNICEF show from Paris in Dec 1967.  

[Zander]

Uniformity works, looks a lot cooler. Both the Beatles and the Beach Boys arguably had their most succesful periods when in uniform...

[grillo]

Uniformity works, looks a lot cooler. Both the Beatles and the Beach Boys arguably had their most succesful periods when in uniform...

I agree. These days you can't tell who's in a band and who's in the audience with everybody looking about the same. But then that's been happening since Woodstock. The striped shirts and white pants are iconic, the white suits are terrible, but at least they tried.

[Aegir]

I loved the white suits. I also like their matching New Year's Eve 1974 outfits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxJbymqdMSg

[donald]

Uh...am I the only one here who remembers that PIN-STRIPED shirts were ubuquitous and widely accepted as cool or the norm in the mid sixties.....these weren't costumes.........but more like uniform dress of the time,  just as the pendleton shirts had been a couple of years earlier.  These were not so nearly ridiculous as what those silly british guys showed up in and what other american bands were sporting as costumes that could be worn for halloween..

Those pants and shirts were way cool all over the USA.

[punkinhead]

lookin at the footage shot in Hawaii in 67, i'd say they still looked hip

[mrski]

On the Vocal Elements discs, which from memory feature soundboards of concerts from November/December 1967, Bruce comes out with a classic... He clearly says into the mic,

"Our stripes got arrested!" 


So I understand by that time they were history. On the same disc I think I vaguely remember Mike commenting on their 'new stage outfits'... Without listening again, I could be wrong on that, but either way, Bruce's comment is definately there!

[Rocker]

BBs wore the striped shirts as late as Oct 8 1967 in Chicago.  The next photo I have is from the February 1968 Pacific NW shows and they had switched to the white suits.  If I had to guess-i bet they had them made for their app on the UNICEF show from Paris in Dec 1967.  

On one of the late '67 shows released on bootleg, someone (Mike?) mentions that the striped shirts have gone IIRC.


While we're at it. What were these shirts about?

[MBE]

That picture was taken in 1965 obviously though I never could get the exact date. It may be a rehearsal shot as I have pics from 1965 shows with Brian in the stripes. He also swept back his hair in those shots. One was from the Hollywood Bowl show and a few were pre Bruce post Houston.

[Ian]

in terms of uniforms.  In 1962 BBs usually wore the red plaid pendleton shirt -as seen on singles covers, photos, etc. In 1963 they began to wear a v neck sweater with a tie underneath-as seen in many shots- or a dress shirt and slacks. By 1964 they had switched to wearing the striped shirts or the yellow shirts (as seen in that photo and mentioned in many reviews-including Davenport July 14 1964).  They had both red and white striped shirts and blue and white.  In early 65 they still sometimes wore the yellow shirt (mentioned in reviews-such as Buffalo Feb 22) but by late 65 pretty much always the striped shirts.  Same in 66 and 67. I have been looking for proof of when they switched to all white. I have photos of them in Aug 1967 and October 1967 so I knew it was after the Oct 67 midwest tour.  Crazy as it sounds-I have reviews of Nov 67 shows-but none have photos.  So if what you say is true-then the November Thanksgiving tour with Buffalo Springfield was the debut of the white suits.  They were still wearing the white suits in early 1970 and they wore a variation of the white suits at the Milwaukee Pop Fest in the summer of 1970-but by the Nov-Dec European tour they were no longer wearing uniforms (undoubtedly at Jack Reilley's request)

[filledeplage]

BBs wore the striped shirts as late as Oct 8 1967 in Chicago.  The next photo I have is from the February 1968 Pacific NW shows and they had switched to the white suits.  If I had to guess-i bet they had them made for their app on the UNICEF show from Paris in Dec 1967.  

Ian - My first Beach Boys Concert was  April 28, 1967 at the long-gone Back Bay Theatre in Boston; and of course I was 5 years old!  I went with a bunch of kids from school and there was a collective "gasp" right through the third row as we exclaimed,  "Where are their striped shirts?" Again in the same theatre in November of 1967, and in the white suits.  It is kind of tricky to use a 2009 "lens" on what happened in 1967.  At the time, they looked great.  People were mopre excited about seeing the Theremin, than anything else and as I remember the crowd was "older" and less of the "arena" or football stadium crowd;  more reserved, I guess.     


I don't know if they ever wore the striped shirts elsewhere, but I never saw them, and with Pet Sounds having been released a year or so earlier, there might have been some kind of wardrobe "reformation" consistent with the progression of the music...

[donald]

"I don't know if they ever wore the striped shirts elsewhere, but I never saw them, and with Pet Sounds having been released a year or so earlier, there might have been some kind of wardrobe "reformation" consistent with the progression of the music... "


wardrobe reformation................that could go right up there with wardrobe malfunction....

....I can use that term to explain why I'm dressed in casual Friday on a Wednesday........

[filledeplage]

"I don't know if they ever wore the striped shirts elsewhere, but I never saw them, and with Pet Sounds having been released a year or so earlier, there might have been some kind of wardrobe "reformation" consistent with the progression of the music... "


wardrobe reformation................that could go right up there with wardrobe malfunction....

....I can use that term to explain why I'm dressed in casual Friday on a Wednesday........

Aegir "brought back" those jackets from the New Year's Eve special...awesome!


Styles come and go...Thank God they never wore (that  I remember)  polyester leisure suits !!!

I am holding my ground on the white suits! 

[Ian]

In terms of what you said-they wore striped shirts at all the shows on the May 1967 European tour-there are tons of photos. They wore striped shirts in Hawaii in Aug 67-you can see the film. They wore striped shirts in October 1967-I have photos of the shows and reviews from 1967 papers.  So-I really think, with all due respect, that your memory of April 1967 is skewed-unless they wore white suits for that one show and then went back to stripes...They wore striped shirts for many of the other shows on the April 67 tour-I have photos from about 5 shows. 

[Ian]

As I said there is overwhelming evidence that they continued to wear the striped shirts till Oct 67. They played the Back Bay Theatre in Nov 1967 as well, are you sure that wasn't the time you saw them?  That would solve everything. The only other explanation is that they experimented with the suits but then went back to stripes for 6 more months-but that seems hard to believe.  I have no photos of April 28-as far as I can tell the show wasn't reviewed, though I have ads from the Herald and the Globe...but I do have pics from April 19 and 21 and 29-all striped shirts. As well as May 67-for example NME Poll Winners-in stripes

[filledeplage]

As I said there is overwhelming evidence that they continued to wear the striped shirts till Oct 67. They played the Back Bay Theatre in Nov 1967 as well, are you sure that wasn't the time you saw them?  That would solve everything. The only other explanation is that they experimented with the suits but then went back to stripes for 6 more months-but that seems hard to believe.  I have no photos of April 28-as far as I can tell the show wasn't reviewed, though I have ads from the Herald and the Globe...but I do have pics from April 19 and 21 and 29-all striped shirts. As well as May 67-for example NME Poll Winners-in stripes

They toured in April of 1967 with the Strawberry Alarm Clock and it was about 6 months post Good Vibrations.  I have my Spring 1967 Program (I think the Fall 1967 was a different program book; I have both.) 

November 1967 was with Buffalo Springfield (Go Steve Stills!!!) - It may be that they were dressing for the "audience" as Americans in Europe, where the climate, politically, musically and socially were a little different because of the Vietnam War, and people were very excited about the Thermin.  Mike did not play that in Boston with a striped shirt on, in April of 1967.  He may have had "street clothing on" but I am sure of November 1967 because I still have a picture of one of the guys in the white suit.   And, they may have travelled with more than one "stage uniform," depending on where they were playing.

I probably remember those shows better because they were among the first, and much to my parents' chagrin,
I paid more attention to the Beach Boys, than Algebra and Geometry. 

[Andrew G. Doe]

The April '67 shows weren't with the SAC - that was November of that year, when they toured with both the SAC and the Springfield. Also in April 1968 for the tour that was mildly disrupted by King's assassination. I think your recollection is out by a year.