BEACH BOYS in early 1983 .....

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by GoodKitty, Jul 18, 2020.

  1. Craig Slowinski

    Craig Slowinski Forum Resident

    Location:
    Omaha
    I do have a black and white photo of Brian at the piano from the Maui show that February. It accompanied a newspaper article extolling Landy's progress with Brian. It was published in my local paper the day before Dennis died, IIRC. The footage of Dennis in the "American Band" documentary is from Costa Mesa that August - last show with all six principles, including Brian.
     
  2. Daniel Plainview

    Daniel Plainview God's Lonely Man

    [​IMG]

    It looks like Dennis flips someone off as the band returns to the stage.
     
    Cool hand luke likes this.
  3. O Don Piano

    O Don Piano Senior Member

    I saw them at the Pacific Amphitheater in Orange County CA in 1983. All five of them were there. Dennis was indeed noticeably drunk. Brian had a lot of energy, but seemed like he couldn’t concentrate on anything. If I recall correctly, Brian sang about 20 seconds of a new song he was working on. It was rather bizarre, but it was a great show!
     
  4. Craig Slowinski

    Craig Slowinski Forum Resident

    Location:
    Omaha
    Yep, that was the last show with all three Wilson brothers, Mike. Al, and Bruce. Plus the sidemen I mentioned and Bobby Figueroa, another longtimer with the band. The new Brian song you refer to was "It's Just A Matter Of Time", and a short clip of him singing that from this concert appears in "An American Band". The full song was recorded and included on their 1985 self-titled album.
     
  5. GoodKitty

    GoodKitty FloydM Thread Starter

    Location:
    Pacific
    Thanks for all the responses and info so far !

    found this : "Feb. 25, 1983 - the BBs played the NBC Arena in Honolulu. An already vastly slimmed down Brian was there for his first gig since hooking up with Eugene Landy. He also joined them at the War Memorial Football Stadium on Maui on February 27."

    So it seems that Brian might really have been here at the Maui show (and I'm sure there was just one show) ...... That is really blowing my mind right now. All six were there ?!? I so want to go back there and pay some real attention ! :laugh: Too bad Brian's not in those pics above to confirm it.

    I'm thinking I might put an ad on Craigslist here and see if I can stir some memories from folks who were there.

    >>> would Dennis have normally played some drums and/or sung a song at that time ?
    did he sometimes do neither, just be there ?

    I'd be thrilled if you can please find that photo and post it here. :targettiphat:
     
    Last edited: Jul 18, 2020
  6. O Don Piano

    O Don Piano Senior Member

    Whoops, I missed your post at the top of this page!
    I'm a pretty knowledgable BB5 fan, but I gotta say, I didn't know that was the last time they performed all together.
     
  7. Craig Slowinski

    Craig Slowinski Forum Resident

    Location:
    Omaha
    From reviews I've read of 1983 shows, sometimes Dennis drummed, and sometimes he stood at the mic, danced the funky chicken, and barely drummed a beat. When he did drum that year, it was in tandem with Mike Kowalski. Except at their White House command performance that June...at that gig, he was the only one on a drum kit, and Kowalski played tamborines or timbales or something. High quality footage of that performance was posted to YouTube last year - maybe it's still there. They did a short but pretty good set.
     
  8. GoodKitty

    GoodKitty FloydM Thread Starter

    Location:
    Pacific
    Got it, thanks !


    "Hear that, Dennis? slow down a little bit .... That drummer is super-charged." :laugh:

    so they didn't do the 4th of July in D.C., but instead went to the White House on June 12th immediately after their gig at RFK Stadium (which ran late.)

    [​IMG]
     
  9. Craig Slowinski

    Craig Slowinski Forum Resident

    Location:
    Omaha
    You gotta wonder what Dennis was so emphatically saying to Ronnie. Also, dig the way Brian insisted they do "Rock And Roll Music" for the encore - clearly a fave of his!
     
  10. wiseblood

    wiseblood Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston, MA, USA
    This made me laugh because this was going to be my comment as well. They created the "dad rock" look, but let's be honest - they were NEVER the most hip in the style department, especially between 1962 and 1966. Even then they were very clean cut and "proper".

    But this late 70s/early 80s look they were sporting...damn...

    I can't get on board with this on any level. I also absolutely hate that logo they started using in the mid 70s...that Mike STILL uses. It's hideous.

    I love the Beach Boys, but with conditions. Different conversation for a different thread.
     
  11. Ryan Lux

    Ryan Lux Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, ON, CA
    You can hear Carl say off mic, “this is the world’s longest introduction”. It’s cool to see Dennis, even in his awful state, still on those drums.
     
  12. MarkTheShark

    MarkTheShark Senior Member

    Very cool that you got to see them! I saw them in similar circumstances a year later when they played at my high school, also on the football field. They shared the bill with Three Dog Night (which I believe was more or less the original band, and a few years before Chuck Negron was kicked out). I went with my friend Steve and his dad, and we joked that the guitar player looked like Steve's dad.

    As for the Beach Boys, I remember Carl singing a song called "Heaven" and dedicating it in memory of Dennis, who had died several months earlier. I was going to say the Beach Boys at this show consisted of Mike, Carl, Al and Bruce, but I may be conflating the memory with another occasion when I saw them with Chicago at (IIRC) the Rosemont Horizon circa 1989. At that show, John Stamos was their drummer and at one point Stamos went into some crazy drum solo and Mike stopped him and asked, "Who do you think you are, Danny Seraphine?" Seraphine was drumming with Chicago and this may have been a short time before he left/was kicked out.

    Anyway, at the Rosemont show, the program pictured Brian as well as Carl, Mike, Al and Bruce, but Brian definitely was not there.
     
    Lost In The Flood likes this.
  13. Craig Slowinski

    Craig Slowinski Forum Resident

    Location:
    Omaha
    Yeah, that sounds like the right lineup for '84 (and for a LONG time after that). "Heaven" is a song from Carl's first solo album (released 1981). He did often dedicate to Dennis at shows in '84 and '85.
     
  14. CriticalMaasCollectibles

    CriticalMaasCollectibles Singularity Watcher

    Location:
    Earth
    I got to see the Beach Boys in late 1982 (Thanksgiving weekend) in Montego Bay, Jamaica, as part of the World Music Festival, held... in a gravel lot west of the town. Carl in particular was in rare form, playing lead guitar parts more reminiscent of Johnny Thunders that afternoon/early evening. It was a good show, but I ran short of film, so I don't have any photos of their set. Not sure if Dennis was with them or not.
     
  15. Craig Slowinski

    Craig Slowinski Forum Resident

    Location:
    Omaha
    He was. There's a backstage photo of a shirtless, shorthaired Dennis with a Red Stripe beer in hand, accompanied by Shawn Love carrying their almost three month old baby boy Gage. There's an excellent quality soundboard recording of this show out there, too.
     
  16. pseudopod

    pseudopod Dig Yourself

    Location:
    Winnipeg, Manitoba
    Hey man, hats off to you! You got to see Dennis! My first Beach Boys concert was 1987. I got to see Carl. Brian wasn't there (I saw him solo, years later) and Dennis was long gone. :tiphat:
     
    GoodKitty likes this.
  17. PB62

    PB62 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Wisconsin
    Many reasons it’s glossed over. A couple of key reasons....no new output between ‘80 and ‘85 ( not counting solo stuff by Carl and Mike) and Dennis was married to and fathered I think two kids with a woman named Shawn that was allegedly a daughter of Mikes from basically a one night stand. Pretty sure conventional wisdom is that she was indeed Mikes daughter.

    I saw them in 80, 81, 82, 83 and 85 in Milwaukee.

    Carl left for about a year during the ‘81 tour as he was fed up with the same old stuff and cut a solo album. Brian hit his worst ever vocal condition and peak weight of well over 300 pounds in ‘82. Dennis and Mike would often openly show disdain for each other on stage fueled in no small part by Dennis hooking up with Shawn. At the ‘82 show even Mike was drinking beer on stage. All five Beach Boys were there in Milwaukee in 82 ...although Brian would pop on and off stage and barely even attempted to sing. His mic was often not live during the shows as he would often start singing a different song than was being played.

    In ‘83 all five Beach Boys again showed up to play summerfest in Milwaukee...this was when I first saw the slimed down healthy looking Brian for the first time in years and I was shocked. I also saw Dennis right behind the chain link fence prior to the show, shirtless and barefoot and already obviously in no condition to play the drums, pushing his son Gage around in a stroller and Shawn was there as well and I’m nearly positive pregnant with their second child. My self and others called out “Denny” but he didn’t stop to talk. Kowalski handled the drums that night while Dennis slopped around on a second kit.

    Less than two months later that same summer of ‘83 The Beach Boys were booked again to fill a void at the Wisconsin state fair. No Brian and no Dennis. I had a camera with me and got a few good shots of the rest of the guys and before the show started took a shot of what I thought would be Dennis’ drum kit as there was only one kit this time. But it was Kowalski that took the stage. After the film was developed I joked to my brother that the print of the empty drum kit was the ghost of Denny.....four months later he was gone.

    For those like myself that were at the shows regularly in those days you really did witness Dennis falling into the abyss. But it was not all bad... even with all the bs in the band, fans would pack in and sing along ‘cause it was hard to kill the greatness of so many of Brian’s songs no matter how well or poorly they performed.
     
  18. PB62

    PB62 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Wisconsin
    Actually is was ‘80-‘84 in Milwaukee...the ‘84 show was in December and it felt like ‘85. Just prior to the ‘85 album. Just remembered.....and yes as others have mentioned Carl dedicated the song Heaven to Denny.
     
    Billy_Sunday likes this.
  19. Craig Slowinski

    Craig Slowinski Forum Resident

    Location:
    Omaha
    Yeah, I saw them twice while Dennis was alive, but sadly he wasn't with them either time. :(
     
  20. WLL

    WLL Popery Of Mopery

    ..Did Dean Torrance cone on stage with them?
     
  21. Celebrated Summer

    Celebrated Summer Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Wait, where did you get info that Carl was forced out for a year?

    From what I knew, he voluntarily left to do two solo album because he felt the band was stagnating musically and wanted to chart a course for himself. Here is a link to a page scan of an interview he did in the July 1981 issue of Trouser Press which gave me that impression:

    Carl.rar
     
    Boom Operator and Billy_Sunday like this.
  22. William Abely

    William Abely Forum Resident

    Carl left voluntarily. As evidenced by the 1981 July 4th Queen Mary Concert he was sorely missed.
     
    Boom Operator, agundy and PB62 like this.
  23. jwb1231970

    jwb1231970 Ordinary Guy

    Location:
    USA
    I appreciate these recollections and the detail
     
    PB62 likes this.
  24. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    T
    Thank God they didn't go through a big hair and lycra phase, though Al's ponytail comes close.
     
    HILO, Ryan Lux, PB62 and 2 others like this.
  25. bRETT

    bRETT Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    I was assuming that Rocky Pamplin regularly punching him in the face had something to do with it.
     
    oldsurferdude and smilin ed like this.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine