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1974. Like Philadelphia Freedom and skyrockets in flight, America was already
congratulating itself on its upcoming bicentennial celebration. It was helped immeasurably by
Richard Nixon having his executive ass kicked to San Clemente, California. The country
wanted to be cheered up and found its own spirit in the music of The Beach Boys. When the
public turned and looked at the group, they were delighted to find Brian, Dennis, Carl, Mike
and Al. Just those five: the classic line-up. Not many knew or really cared what they had been
doing since 1966. Oh, there were differences now to be sure. They were older men now;
shaggy, sun-crested, brown bearded smiles on an album cover. But America knew them.
They were sure that they did. And they knew the music. It was all a lie, of course: the brothers,
cousins, and friends spending their time making harmonious music together and hanging out
at the beach. But it was a beautiful lie, and powerful too because America wanted to believe it
so badly.
There had been rumblings and premonitions of the explosion that was about to happen. The
Beach Boys In Concert album in 1973 had sold pretty well. And their live act was being
sharpened; they were drawing again. And they didn’t have to fly to Eastern Europe to do it
either. Blondie had been let go, allegedly for on-stage drunkenness. Quite a charge for a
Wilson brother to make! Whatever the real story, Ricky was gone now too. Dennis’s horribly
sliced hand was gaining strength and he was back drumming again. No one, not even Dennis
thought that was possible. His family and friends noticed a new fierceness in his drumming;
as he would hit the skins even harder than before. He made it his business to hit them harder.
Mike Love, in one of the shrewdest marketing moves in recording history, convinced Capitol
Records not to name their latest repackage Best of The Beach Boys Volume 3 (or was it
Volume 4?) and instead suggested the name Endless Summer. The usual sort of television
commercials advertised Endless Summer heavily. But as Capitol Records and The Beach
Boys watched gaped-jawed, Endless Summer skyrocketed to the top of the charts. Incredibly,
The Beach Boys had the number one album in America; with no song recorded after 1965.
Endless Summer was a monster. It spent an astonishing 155 weeks on charts. Soon it
seemed that every high school and college kid in the country had it. It was the soundtrack of
summer. Some LP’s became standard issue for the seventies: Rumours,, Frampton Comes
Alive! and, of course, Endless Summer. It didn’t matter that Capitol used the wrong version of
Help Me Rhonda.. You needed this album. Amazingly, it wasn’t regarded as an oldies album.
No, this was something more, like classics. Keith McConnell’s cover design removed the
curse of five goofy guys smiling for the camera, even though it was hard to tell who was who.
(That’s Dennis on the inside selling balloons. Carl is reading Sgt. Rock. Brian is under the
red flower, Alan is in the giant, green leaves, and Mike is wearing the sea foam toupee.)
Suddenly flush with success, The Beach Boys were uneasily riding the wave. They were
suddenly booked into large venues and sold them out. They were booked into stadiums and
sold that out too and then had to add another night. Alan Jardine said, “People asked, where
were you guys? Where did you go? We were always here!” The Beach Boys were suddenly
made for this time. But where was Brian Wilson?
Brian was a skittish shell of a man; way overweight and long out of commission. His drug use
and untreated schizophrenia had left him in his room on Bellagio Road like a cloistered
Buddha, with stringy hair, a round belly and a green robe. When The Beach Boys could no
longer hide him, they decided to embrace him. The “Brian is Back!” campaign was already in
the works. The Beach Boys hoisted Brian out and propped him up on a piano bench. The
crowds came to see the man that they had missed. He was, after all, a genius. But Brian
looked out at the crowds from an unplugged keyboard; banging it in rhythm and trying, truly
trying, to be “back.”
The other band members reacted to stardom in their own way. Dennis back flipped into even
wilder antics than before and Carl, always the band’s musical conscience had to concede that
the times and the music had changed. Mike had long promoted TM. Only now, people were
actually listening to him. Alan boosted ecology and Democratic Party politics from his home in
Big Sur, California. The group that could only attract two hundred customers per concert some
years ago, now looked out from the stage of Anaheim Stadium into a horizon of swaying,
screaming hands and arms; paying hands and arms. For The Beach Boys things would never
be the same. The Beach Boys performed with Elton John, The Eagles, Jackson Browne and,
incredibly, blew them all away. In the late seventies, B-B-B-Benie and The Jetsss was no
match for Surfin’ USA.
As 1974 began, the Beach Boys were an over- and- out touring unit, playing at the Air Force
Academy Gymnasium. Now, they were headlining at the Los Angeles Forum. They still clung to
their credibility, and including “Feel Flows” and “California Saga: California” and other current
work in their set list. When the Endless Summer tsunami hit, the group found themselves
contractually obligated to be the opening act for a nine day stand of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and
Young.
Ricky Fataar finally left the group in November to join Joe Walsh: “Joe Walsh offered me a gig
to go play with him and it just seemed an appropriate time to do it. I called up Carl and said I
want to leave the band and go play with Joe Walsh, and that’s what I did.” At the Philadelphia
Spectrum, Ricky and Dennis took turns on the drum stool. After that, it would be “Denny’s
Drums” once again. At a show on December 19 in Bakersfield, California, he was the official
drummer.
Brian’s state of mind was slipping fast. But he could still appreciate platinum albums. “It’s a
little freaky for me to see that,” he said of Endless Summer, “but nevertheless, I can accept it.”
One full moon in March of 1975, Brian Wilson met Elvis Presley at RCA Studios in Hollywood.
It was not a storied encounter. As Jerry Schilling relates:
Brian walked straight in and said, “Hey man, its great to see ya.” I don’t think he introduced
himself and I don’t think Elvis recognized him because he’d put on a lot of weight and had this
big beard. Brian said, “I’ve been recording some songs for a new album. Do you wanna come
and hear them?” And Elvis said, “Yeah.” The entourages followed as they moved into another
studio room where Brian starts playing his new songs to Elvis. After a few tracks, Brian says,
“Well? Do you think they’re any good?” Elvis looks up and replies, “Nah,” before leaving. … I
don’t think he had any idea that the guy was Brian Wilson.
Soon after, Mike Love’s brother Stan, a former pro-basketball player, was brought in to help
keep Brian in a state of forced equilibrium.
As for Dennis, his drug use was growing. One night, doped up on stage, he fell over his drum
set. “The rest of the band got together and propped me up on the drums. I laughed at Carl and
said, ‘How am I doing? Ha Ha.’ I embarrassed the band. I took Quaaludes because I wanted
to. Just because there’s a drug rule, that doesn’t mean I have to follow it.”
In April of 1975, Capitol released, “Spirit of America,” another greatest hits compilation that
rose to number eight. The Beach Boys were now superstars solely on the strength of their early
material. For the summer of 1975, the Beach Boys teamed up with Chicago in one of the
most successful tours in rock history. The twelve-city, twenty-one date tour grossed 7.5 million,
(at a time when concert ticket prices were $5.50/$6.50). They mounted a challenge that only
the Rolling Stones Tour that summer could better (beginning Mike’s eternal rivalry with Mick
Jagger). Manager James Guercio, who now played bass on stage with the Beach Boys,
brought the two groups together and the Beachago Tour was born. Carl, Dennis, and Al had
previously added the gorgeous background harmonies on the Chicago single “Wishing You
Were Here.” At Anaheim Stadium, on May 23rd, the enthusiastic crowd was so entranced,
that in their foot-stomping glee, they caused the upper levels to rock dangerously. A frantic
announcement on the message board begged the crowd to sit down. The frantic crowd told
the message board something else entirely and continued stomping. However, Dennis had a
way of keeping things in perspective: “We’re not trying. The Beach Boys haven’t made a big
statement. We’re just five horny guys on the road doing our thing.”
Brian’s problems were now so severe that not even his caretakers could keep him from
walking into traffic. He desperately needed the care that only medical professionals could
provide. In September of 1975, Brian’s wife, Marilyn Wilson hired Dr. Eugene Landy to work
with Brian and lead him back to health.
Riding the crest of Endless Summer and enjoying their touring money machine, the group felt
no need to produce new product. Yet, they still had a contract to fulfill. So in July of 1976, 15
Big Ones was released. It was a schizophrenic mix of oldies and new songs. But, it was a
success. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music” peaked at number five. The song seemed to only cement the
group’s niche as good-time troubadors. Carl noted, “We just surrendered to it. We’d gone
through so many changes over the idea of oldies over the years, and now it was obvious what
the people wanted us to play. Really obvious.”
Suddenly, the Beach Boys were everywhere. They stared out from the cover of People
magazine. They got their own T.V. special. They embraced their status as summer time icons;
though in reality, they had little choice. They became the biggest touring band in the world, but
for the band themselves, it was too much.
By the end of the seventies, the spotlight was beginning to flicker once again. Artistic growth,
solo projects, public fighting, and drug-taking left the public wondering if the Beach Boys had
been in the sun too long. A series of forgettable albums that still contained moments of magic
failed to excite the public. But, the death of Dennis Wilson on December 28, 1983, tragedy
reminded the world they were flawed giants; but giants nonetheless. Record sales or not, the
Beach Boys were past superstardom. They were now legends. - - Timothy Lefler
