BEACH BOYS ACOUSTIC CELEBRATE 50 YRS

So I will gladly admit that I'm a huge Beach Boys fan. PET SOUNDS is Top Ten LPS for me. In my hard core Beatlemania years (aged 8-10, '64-66) I used to tear out the pages in the Beatles mags that had the Stones or the Beach Boys or The Dave Clark Five pictured and toss them away. But when I heard Pet Sounds all of those earlier records by the Beach Boys sounded better some how. I understood instantly how advanced that harmony was, how interesting the musical arrangements and choices were.

Even during the years where Carl Wilson was steering things and Al Jardine and Mike Love were finding more room for their artistic choices, albums like Holland and Surf's Up were a wonderful bridge between the early, pop kitsch, the psychedelic leaps and the coming country/rock sound started by the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and the Flying Burrito Brothers which led way to CSNY, The Eagles, Jackson Browne, Poco, and all of the heavily harmony based bands of the early 70s.

Brian's love of the Four Freshman and doowop and Phil Spector's layered production style, Carl's Chuck Berry fixation and rock n roll heart, their friendly competition with the Beatles for cultural and musical significance, Dennis' California lifestyle of surfing and cars and girls, Mike's incredible range and vocal leaps from low to high, and Al's rhythm guitar and warm vocal bed in the middle of the pack all melded in to something bigger than any one point of view. For people in the middle of the country who never got near an ocean the Beach Boys exemplified California. To musicians their earlier roughness gave way to a studio prowess based on Brian's genius for putting sound together and the flawless blend of vocals that only family could blend. And don't forget Mike Love (Wilson family cousin), Al Jardine (childhood friend) and David Marks (who left the band after the first wave of hits on but who grew up living across the street and learning music alongside the Wilson boys and who is back in the fold for this 50th anniversary) are really all family.

Speaking of musician's reaction to the Beach Boys, a handful of years agao, I had picked up the great jazz vocalist Kurt Elling from his hotel in Philly for a trip to a radio interview and en route I had been listening to the Pet Sounds boxed set. I'd turned it down to chat with Kurt and when we came to a stop at an intersection there was a quiet moment and he said, "Could you turn that up...what is that?" It was a stack-o-tracks mix of the vocals only from one of the tunes on the album. I wish I could recall which. "That's the Beach Boys." "Wow. It sounds like the Four Freshman doing Bach," he keenly observed. "Now that's hip!" 

Forget the years of in-fighting, the drugs, the deaths, the illness and the misguided business and musical decisions of the last couple of decades. This is your chance to see what the buzz was truly about. Picture them 50 years ago, fresh faced and taking the music world by storm. Go back and listen to not just the hits packages but the B sides, the forgotten albums, and the classics. Give 'em some props.

By the way, it is fascinating to me to hear Fleet Foxes along with a 21 year old friend of mine and point out the tremendous amount of Beach Boys references from bass lines, vibes, rhythm patterns to vocal layers to multiple instruments playing in unison to specific melodic cues and phrases. I adore the Fleet Foxes and while their vocals generally have a rougher edge and the density of the instrumentation is a bit more rootsy, their use of echo and some of the structure and instrument choices are so instantly recognizable. I can't recommend them highly enough although the videos don't do their records justice either. She said, "I just think of "Surfin USA" and "California Girls" when I think of the Beach Boys." Well, dig deeper girl because your favorite new band sure has.

Here's a treat from ROLLINGSTONE.COM. I wish they would've played some of the more obscure and magnificent tunes but it sounds like the set lists have been remarkable for the shows. I'm sad I missed the California shows. hope I can catch a show somewhere down the line. I'd hate to miss this. The vocals live are always a tad iffy compared to studio but that is par for the course with practically every band who isn't using pitch-shifters and pre-recorded vocals but boy, the vocals on this Rolling Stone link are spot on!

HERE'S A SAMPLE SETLIST FROM THE TOUR:  It's what they played at The Beacon in NYC on 5/9/12. Some are surprised to see John Stamos listed but he has been a member of the band on and off (and/or one of the members' spin-off bands) for years.

setlist:
Do It Again
Catch a Wave
Hawaii
Don't Back Down
Surfin' Safari
Surfer Girl
Please Let Me Wonder
You're So Good to Me
Wendy
Then I Kissed Her
The Little Girl I Once Knew
Why Do Fools Fall in Love (Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers cover)
When I Grow Up (to Be a Man)
Cotton Fields (Lead Belly cover)
Disney Girls
Don't Worry Baby (with John Stamos on drums)
Little Honda (with John Stamos on drums)
Be True to Your School (with John Stamos on drums)
Little Deuce Coupe (with John Stamos on drums)
409  (with John Stamos on drums)
Shut Down (with John Stamos on drums)
I Get Around (with John Stamos on drums)
Second Set
California Dreamin' (The Mamas & the Papas cover)
Sloop John B
Wouldn't It Be Nice
Forever (with John Stamos on vocals)
Sail on, Sailor
Heroes and Villains
In My Room
All This Is That
This Whole World
I Just Wasn't Made for These Times
God Only Knows
That's Why God Made the Radio
California Girls
All Summer Long
Help Me, Rhonda
Rock and Roll Music (Chuck Berry cover) (with John Stamos on drums)
Do You Wanna Dance? (Bobby Freeman cover) (with John Stamos on drums)
Barbara Ann (The Regents cover) (with John Stamos on guitar - Brian plays bass)
Surfin' USA (with John Stamos on guitar - Brian plays bass)
Encore:
Kokomo (with John Stamos on congas)
Good Vibrations
Fun, Fun, Fun (with John Stamos on guitar) 

Click on the link below to hear 3 live acoustic tunes and an interview. The "IN MY ROOM" is just so cool.

BEACH BOYS LIVE ACOUSTIC 2012 at ROLLING STONE.COM

Listen to the entire PET SOUNDS album here

but if you are interested in just a couple of tunes...hard to pick but I will randomly pick a couple beauties...or I could've picked "Caroline No" (what a vocal from Carl), or "Don't Talk"...

MIKE WATT / TOYS THAT KILL @ PEDRO BALLET SCHOOL

As my regular readers know, I'm a big fan of bassist Mike Watt. I won't regurgitate his history yet again but check out my past blogs for more on that or better yet tune into THE WATT FROM PEDRO SHOW.

Before I sling some visuals at ya from the first fIREHOSE shows in 18 years got to give the END FREEWAY scene some props...I must like to mention another great WATT + THE MISSINGMEN show in his hometown of San Pedro this past April 26th. He headlined a gig featuring a handful of cool punk bands at the San Pedro School of Ballet. Not that I saw any ballet being done that evening but it is a nice space for a low-key, homegrown show with a nice large room for the music and a similar sized "lounge" for 21-and-over fans. We missed most of the first two bands due to taco wagon muzzle loading and long stumble for chugs down Pacific.

photos by Skipper Jeff

The show was put on under the auspices of being a release party for the new CD release by TOYS THAT KILL, Fambly 42. They hit just before Watt's set with great energy and ferocious spirit. The drummer was incendiary. Tunes were all high speed, buzz-saw rave-ups. Check these guys out on the road now.

Watt, Tom Kidd Watson and Raul Morales performed Watt's HYPHENATED-MAN, his 2011 punk opera (his 3rd) in it's entirety. The piece gets tighter and tighter due in part to their having played it over 51 times in 52 days back in late 2011. On this night, Watson in particular was on fire. His guitar work shredded the air around home even as one particualrly out-of-it fan took a long cat nap on the floor right in front of the monitors. Watt wasn't happy with the vocals feeding back which seemed due in part, unbeknownest to the bassist, of a fan leaning against the speaker and having it slip around a bit due to the fact that a fan was drunkenly leaning on it and pushing it off its axis and pointing in to the vocal mics. Oops.  Sounded great out front though.

Watt was heading out early in the morning to kayak around the bay with a reporter from the L.A. Times and would play Coachella Festival with fIREHOSE within the week.

Peeped: ed fROMOHIO bopping in the hat behind Watt's rig during the set. The fIREHOSE reunion gigs were big news in the crowd. Some various bits from the tour..

 
Watt sets the fashion pace at Coachella

Unfortunately, there seems to be no decent Coachella video but you can snag most of Harlow's and Belly Up on YouTube.


Watt's appearance at the Hollywood Palladium on December 1 as bassist in The Stooges was also very well received by Watt fans. Here's a taste from the crowd.

Don't know where this pic came from. Anyone have  credit please let me know. I will delete if necessary. What a great shot, though.

DOC WATSON (1923-2012)

Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson was born in Stoney Fork Township, near Deep Gap, North Carolina, on March 3, 1923 and when he passed away yesterday from complications from colon surgery the 89 year-old master guitarist had influenced generations of acoustic guitar players and folk music fans like.

Many folks of my generation first heard Doc Watson on the groundbreaking 1972 album, Will The Circle Be Unbroken which gathered together some of the early superstars of country, folk and bluegrass music along side the younger Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in a three-record set of essential songs from the pantheon of American Roots Music. Watson's signature performances of "Way Downtown" and "Tennessee Stud" sent pickers to their instruments to try and figure out his tasteful and lightning fast guitar lines.

 

Losing his sight to an eye infection before his first birthday, Watson was given a banjo by his father who insisted he learn to play an instrument. His father saw music as a way for him to make his way in life. Watson told NPR'S Terry Gross in 1988 what his father said as he put him on his path as a musician, "It might help you get through the world."

He started playing on street corners in North Carolina at a young age with his brother Linny. They loved the music and close harmonies of the Delmore Brothers, The Monroe Brothers, and the Louvin Brothers. Doc would soon be picking up the electric guitar as well to play in the Tennessee-based Jack Williams Swing Band where Watson picked up fiddle tunes on the electric from the influence of the seminal swinging country sounds of Hank Garland and Grady Martin. But by 1960 as the folk music revival took hold Watson switched permanently back to acoustic guitar, banjo and harmonica.

Soon his masterful flat picking style began to turn heads not only in Nashville but in the burgeoning urban folk communities of the mid-60s. His big break came in an acclaimed performance at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival. He toured nationwide on college campuses and in folk clubs of the day and in 1964 recorded his first solo album. By the time of the ...Circle sessions he had released numerous albums and was at the forefront of the bluegrass and folk festival circuits on a level with his occasional collaborators and friends, Earl Scruggs and Bill Monroe.

For the next 40 years Doc Watson would continue to regale audiences world-wide with his homespun stories, open-minded appreciation of contemporary roots music as well as the music that he grew up on and made his own. His clear voice, earthy and neighborly demeanor, consummate flat-picking and fingerstyle guitar and banjo playing made him a consistent draw on the folk music circuit and a huge influence on guitarists and performers for generations. He recorded throughout his career and often would appear on record and stage with the cream of the acoustic music crop such as Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, David Grisman, Tony Rice, Earl Scruggs, Alison Krauss and so many more.

 above Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs, Alison Krauss...

By 1985 when his immensely talented son Merle Watson passed away in a tragic farming accident, the father-son team had been touring touring since 1964 when the younger guitarist joined Doc onstage in front of 12,000 people in the Bay Area and recorded their first album together in November of that year. For the next 21 years they thrilled audiences with their exciting guitar duos,  accompanied by long-time bassist T. Michael Coleman. In later years, Doc was often accompanied by David Holt or Jack Lawrence.

above with Jack Lawrence on 2nd guitar.

Doc honored the legacy of his son with MerleFest, one of the events of the festival season beginning in 1988. The festival has become on of the most popular roots music festivals drawing upwards of 70,000 visitors every year. Watson's final appearances at MerleFest occurred the last weekend of April 2012.

After Merle's death Doc decided to call it quits but the night before the funeral his son came to him in a dark and intense dream and told him to carry on.Among the many honors he would subsequently receive were seven Grammy Awards, a National Medal of Arts from President Clinton in 1997 and in 2004, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

When I first experienced Doc and Merle Watson, we had booked them into San Diego State University's Montezuma Hall and they raised the rafters with their exhilarating showmanship. A couple of semesters later we brought them to the much larger outdoor amphitheater on campus in a double bill with the legendary Pete Seeger which resulted in a long and inspired evening of a treasure trove of some of the greatest indigenous music this country has produced.

Having been blessed to have experienced Mr. Watson many times before and after Merle's death, I can tell you personally that the music world has lost one of it's great showmen and musical masters. Here's to you, Doc.

 

  

 

Here are two appreciations of Doc Watson from CNN yesterday.
Guitar Legend Doc Watson Dies
Watson Leaves Notes Strung Through Musical History

Here is a selected Doc Watson discography. The live albums with Merle are highly recommended as is his debut self-titled album from 1964.