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Love play The Hollywood Bowl, Summer 1966. Other L.A. bands on the bill include The Byrds, The Leaves, Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band, The Beach Boys. Photo by Chuck Boyd. |
Thursday, June 26, 7 p.m., Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, California - (323) 660-1175
Domenic Priore and Brian Chidester will host their newly revised Beatnik L.A. slide show, this time with emphasis on locations in downtown Hollywood and on Sunset Strip. Based on the book "Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock 'n' Roll's Last Stand in Hollywood," you will be able to see how things evolved from Miles Davis at The Renaissance, Slim Gallaird at Billy Bergs, Les McCann at The Bit and George Shearing at The Crescendo to The Byrds with Bob Dylan at Ciro's Le Disc, Love at Bido Litos, The Doors at London Fog and '60s Garage Punk at Pandora's Box. Free admission.
Sunday, June 29, 7 p.m., Mods & Rockers Festival at The American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theater, 6712 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, California (323) 466-FILM
Domenic Priore will host screenings of U.K. director Chris Hall's documentary about the quintessential L.A. band of the '60s, LOVE, titled Love Story, and Seattle director Kristian St. Clair's documentary about native Angeleno/vibraphonist and arranger Gary McFarland. Written about in the Dumb Angel #4: All Summer Long article "Dear One... the World (is still) Waiting for the Sunrise," This is Gary McFarland covers his brilliant Modern Jazz/Bossa Nova recording career in New York City, that prospered and expanded until his mysterious death in 1971. In Love Story, group leader Arthur Lee gives a guided tour of the Los Feliz house the band lived in during the mid-'60s, known as "The Castle." Bryan MacLean, Johnny Echols, Ken Forssi, Michael Stuart and Alban "Snoopy" Pfisterer from the original Love/Da Capo/Forever Changes lineups of the band are also interviewed, making Love Story thee definitive statement.
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Roger Corman on the set of "The Trip," with Susan Strasberg, left |
Riot on Sunset Strip Film Series, IFC Center, 323 Avenue of the Americas @ West 3rd Street, Greenwich Village, New York (212) 924-7771 www.ifccenter.com Midnite Movies every week at what had previously been The Waverly Theater
“RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP: ROCK, REBELLION AND HOLLYWOOD HIPPIES”
Weekends at midnight, July 25-September 27
July 25-26: WILD IN THE STREETS (1968, Barry Shear)
August 1-2: RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP (1967, Arthur Dreifuss)
August 8-9: LORD LOVE A DUCK (1966, George Axelrod)
August 15-16: PSYCH-OUT (1968, Richard Rush)
August 22-23: MARYJANE (1968, Maury Dexter)
August 29-31: MONDO HOLLYWOOD (1967, Robert Carl Cohen)
September 5-6: YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT (1968, Barry Feinstein)
September 12-13: THE LOVE-INS (1967, Arthur Dreifuss)
September 19-20: THE COOL ONES (1967, Gene Nelson)
September 26-27: THE TRIP (1967, Roger Corman)
Riot on Sunset Strip Weekend, Red Vic Movie House, Haight Street, San Francisco
Thursday, August 28: You Are What You Eat Shot in both Los Angeles and San Francisco during 1966, this non-narrative documentary (carried only by folk rock and psychedelic sounds) features color footage of The Teen Age Fair at Hollywood Palladium, Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention playing the September 1966 Freak Out at Shrine Auditorium, the body painting session that went on beforehand at Vito's Studio (Von Dutch paints one of the bodies), David Crosby looking like he just stepped off the cover of Younger Than Yesterday at a Love In, The Beatles driving away from their final concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, and shots of their screaming audience "reacting" to Tiny Tim and Elanor Baruchian (from The Cake) singing "I Got You Babe". Hot Rods cruise Sunset Strip, early psychedelic happenings are filmed in San Francisco's Haight- Ashbury district and Golden Gate Park -- You Are What You Eat really captures the West Coast scene before anything crashed and burned.
Saturday, August 29: The Trip Roger Corman goes where no man has gone before on film; the heart of 1966, on acid, on Sunset Strip. Peter Fonda stars, first walking in to a set that is actually Arthur Lee's psychedelic house, dropping L.S.D., then going on a series of mind-flashes that include a detailed, stunning run through the neon neverland the Mod set called home. A truly beautiful cinematic experience. Gram Parsons makes a couple of cameos with his group at the time, The International Submarine Band. Dennis Hopper , Susan Strasberg and Bruce Dern appear in supporting roles.
Friday, August 30: Riot on Sunset Strip Filmed by the master of Alan Freed's '50s Rock 'n' Roll movies Sam Katzman (Rock Around The Clock, Don't Knock the Rock, Rock Rock Rock, Mr. Rock 'n' Roll, Go Johnny Go), the ball picks up here in late 1966 at Pandora's Box, where kids go down to hear The Chocolate Watchband, The Standells and The Enemys crank out bruising '60s Garage Punk. Newspaper headlines about police conflict with teenagers and curfew lead to an acid-drenched dance sequence, busts, etc. A highlight of seeing this one on the big screen is watching the extras pass by in their incredible 1966 Mod gear, along with the incredible soundtrack.
Sunday, August 31: Love Story See above Egyptian Theater listing for a full description of this documentary about the band Love, by UK director Chris Hall.
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Love backstage at The Hollywood Bowl, Summer 1966. Chuck Boyd photo from "Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock 'n' Roll's Last Stand in Hollywood" |
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Brian Wilson w/ Gene Estes "Love to Say Dada" session, May 1967. From the book Pop Surf Culture: Music Design Film and Fashion from the Bohemian Surf Era |
edited by Domenic Priore for Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece (Bobcat Books, 2007, London, England. Forewords by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks). Uncut from original manuscript.
Smile is the most famous unheard record in Pop. And tonight Brian Wilson is at last going to set the record straight. - David Brennan, The Daily Mail
It sounds like a riddle or a short story by Jorge Luis Borges: a musician performs an album that doesn't even exist before an audience that has spent years dreaming of its songs. But that is what Brian Wilson, the former member of the Beach Boys, did on Friday at London's Royal Festival Hall when he played his famed lost album Smile for the first time in public since he abandoned making it in 1967. - Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times
What is fascinating is that Smile is utterly unlike any other music, either by the Beach Boys or anyone else has ever produced. - Chris Heard, BBC News
Smile has since become one of art-rock's mythic documents. - John Lewis, Time Out
Wilson had even been back in touch with the lyricist Van Dyke Parks, his collaborator on the original album project, and in an effort to tidy up the loose ends and keep the integrity of the original vision. So things boded well. - Keith Shadwick, Deputy Political
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Brian Wilson Van Dyke Parks write "Surf's Up," November 1966 |
Ten years ago we wouldn't have ever believed Wilson would become a sell-out, acclaimed live act, let alone dared to imagine he would be performing a complete version of Smile in concert. - Duglas T. Stewart, News.scotsman.com
If Pet Sounds was his David, this was to be his Sistine Chapel. - Marianne Taylor, Daily Record
This is not merely a Pop concert. It is a tragedy mitigated. It is the comeback of King Lear. - Tim Lott, Evening Standard
But for Wilson, the idea of simply making an album's worth of tunes was inadequate: he wanted to present a unified LP that interwove all its themes and ideas in a continual renewal of idea and melody. - Keith Shadwick, The Independent Review
The album gained a reputation as Wilson's thwarted masterpiece, whose collapse harmed the Beach Boys' popularity and its creator's emotional well being. - Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times
Wilson never mentioned the project again until October 2003, when his wife of nine years, Melinda, suggested that he finish the job... for Britain. ' The people in England appreciate my music more,' Wilson argues. - Chris Goodman, Sunday Express
The Beach Boys' unreleased 1967 masterpiece Smile is the most bootlegged, most sought-after, most mythologised album in the history of Rock 'n' Roll. - Simon Price, The Independent
Now, however, Brian Wilson decided it was time to confront the past and complete Smile. - Keith Shadwick, The Independent Review
One of the most remarkable things about Wilson's self-styled 'teenage symphonies to God' is the way they chime with a listener of any age, not as nostalgia, but with ever changeable meaning. - David Bennum, The Daily Mail
It was as if we had all become participants in his private vision of how the music worked. And boy, how it worked: each old hit was meticulously reinvoked (down to the smallest tambourine stroke). - Keith Shadwick, The Independent Review
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Brian Wilson debuts Smile at Royal Festival Hall, London, 2004 |
Wilson wore his customary cat-caught-in-the-headlights expression, but he and his ten-piece band - augmented by strings and horns - had little to fret about. They capably delivered music that was both complex and epic; better still, Wilson's battle-scarred voice held up admirably well. - Rolling Stone
The second hour brings us, for the first time anywhere, ever, the definitive Smile. Strung cat's cradle-style between the twin miracles of 'Heroes and Villains' and 'Good Vibrations,' it is a mesmerizing work. The squiggles, doodles and frayed loose ends on those frustrating bootlegs are given shape, sequence and fluency. - David Bennun, The Daily Mail
When Smile was finally revealed to the world, it caught even the most assiduous fan unawares, for Smile was much bigger than the sum of its parts - a collection of songs and fragments fitted together to give a huge musical panorama. - Keith Shadwick, The Independent Review
Wilson's voice isn't the thing of beauty it once was. As the show gathers momentum, the old vocal chords warm up and he hits some impressively high notes. - Angus Hoy, Newcastle Evening Gazette
In his grainy, sometimes quavering voice, his listeners could hear a poignant reflection of everything that has happened to him. - CNN.com
Audiences reacted as if they had seen a ghost. It was as though Syd Barrett had suddenly toured the world with Thomas Pynchon. Grown men were moved to tears. Audiences clapped and cheered his unlikely return as if they were saving Tinkerbell: if you believe, he will live. - Paul Morley, Inquire
Beginning with the close-harmony singing of 'Our Prayer,' the excitement built with an epic, multi-section take of 'Heroes and Villains' - a mini-symphony in itself distilling Wilson's musical vision of the old Wild West, complete with saloon bar pianos, horses' hooves and native American chants. - Chris Heard, BBC News
The songs were played in three suites, loosely grouped round the themes of Americana, childhood and the elements, much as if the album were a musical rather than a set of Pop songs - Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times.
Inspired by the young Wilson's growing fascinations with astrology, numerology and the occult, and bearing more in common with the artistic movements than with the prevailing currents of Pop, it remains, 37 years later, the most ambitious exploration of the boundaries of Pop music. You feel as though your brain is about to explode with wonder at the possibilities of music. It's a feeling akin to a religious epiphany. - Simon Price, The Independent
Songs segued into each other, the portrait of the Wild West that was 'Heroes and Villains' melting into the extraordinary 'Do You Like Worms,' with its poetic allusion to the Pilgrim fathers; then on, via 'Barnyard' and 'The Old Master Painter' to Cabin Essence'. - Llewellyn Smith, The Observer Review
The most touching part arriving when 'Surf's Up' was revealed to be preceded by 'Child is Father to the Man,' anticipating its miraculous recapitulation at the song's end. - Keith Shadwick, Deputy Political
The scribbled notes of this reviewer, accounting for the rest of the performance as it encompassed 'Surf'sUp' and tracks known to bootleggers as 'The Elements Suite,' contain umpteen exclamation marks, relating both to the oddities in the expected sequencing of the show, and finally, the brilliance of the band. - Llewellyn Smith, The Observer
There are fragile choral sections, farmyard animal noises, woodworking tools, Hawaiian war chants, and one part (called 'Mrs. O'Leary's Cow') where the string section put on fireman's helmets. - John Mulvey, NME
It was followed by songs that varied from childlike xylophone tunes to the sinister atonality of 'Mrs. O'Leary's Cow,' with the joyful symphony of 'Good Vibrations' closing the album on a high (Wilson had intended it to be about the healing power of laughter). - Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times
But Smile was never a song-based suite in the traditional sense. Skittish and episodic, the experience is like watching an orchestra performing a film score. There are sections lifted from Sinatra's 'I Wanna Be Around,' 'You are My Sunshine,' 'Barnyard,' and 'Vega-Tables,' both of which corroborate the theory that Smile was intended partly as comedy. - Simon Price, The Independent
The set ended with a storming run-through 'Good Vibrations'. - NME
Followed immediately by 'Good Vibrations,' which wound up the concert with a new and dramatic staccato rhythmic pattern, voices and instruments in climactic unison. The crowd was instantly on its feet giving a standing ovation replete with ecstatic cheers and whistles. A visibly dazed Wilson eventually stood up from behind his keyboards, bent over to his microphone and said in a distracted whisper: 'Good night everybody, drive safely,' - Keith Shadwick, The Independent Review
'Our Prayer,' a haunting a cappella dreamscape, is followed by full versions of 'Heroes and Villains,' 'Cabin Essence,' 'Vega-Tables,' 'Wonderful,' and 'Surf's Up,' the dense fragments and strands brought together with the help of original collaborator Van Dyke Parks, performed magnificently as one seamless whole at last. The result is beautiful, riveting, bizarre, almost overwhelming and as it ends, the auditorium explodes with admiration. - Marianne Taylor, Daily Record
Wilson once more bent to the microphone, this time asking Van Dyke Parks to join the group onstage. The crowd went nuts, and the diminutive, bow-tied Parks emerged from the wings looking as if he was walking on air. He probably was. Everyone else in the RFH certainly was; we knew we'd witnessed a miracle of sorts. - Keith Shadwick, The Independent Review
As the opus ends, Van Dyke Parks smiles a smiley smile, points at Brian Wilson's heart, then at his own. They slap hands, and they're gone. - Simon Price, The Independent
This was a huge panorama that can only be compared to Bach in the way intricacies interwove in the wondrous counterpoint, spinning a web that embraced an entire vision. - Keith Shadwick, Deputy Political
It's rare that you an honestly say you were present at a moment of genuine historic significance. And it's rarer still that the reality of these occasions measures up to the hype. Smile, though, is sensational: about 45 minutes of the most head-spinningly odd and beautiful music you're ever likely to hear. - John Mulvey, NME
It sounded impressively coherent and uncluttered. Wilson's voice, ragged earlier in the concert, sounded similarly refreshed and he conducted along to the music with evident pride. - Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times
It might be said straight away that it was an evening that validated claims made on behalf of Wilson's genius, and went as far as it could have, perhaps to standing up to the legend of the record. - Llewellyn Smith, The Observer Review
The 61-year-old American who worked for months on the album in the late 1960s but never released it, brought the house down at London's Royal Festival Hall Friday as the forgotten work received its world premiere. - CNN.com
Wilson's music has a special place in the hearts of so many Scottish musicians. It effects us not because it's so technically groundbreaking or musically sophisticated, but because of its purity. The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon are albums that are conceptually and sonically revolutionary, but Wilson's music was more than just clever, it was also beautiful. - Duglas T. Stewart, News.scotsman.com
As a concept album, Smile is certainly more coherent than Pepper, weaving its twin themes of Americana and the elements through lengthy suites of dizzying ambitious music. - David Smyth, Evening Standard
Worth the wait? How can you even ask... - Keith Shadwick, Deputy Political
This week's unveiling of Smile will be a bit like seeing the Hanging Gardens of Babylon being rebuilt in Waterloo or uncovering the apocryphal books of the Bible. It also presents us with an alternative universe... This should still be a revelation, proof that Brian Wilson is indeed the George Gershwin of Psychedelia. - John Lewis, Time Out
Fans flocked from around the world to hear the first-ever performance of Smile, which Wilson played in its entirety in the second half, displaying his trademark combination of lush harmonies and creative percussion. - Rachel Williams London, The Sunday Tribune
Wearing their newly-bought L24 Smile T-Shirts and clutching programmes (a snip at a tenner), the generation-spanning audience filed - smiling, mostly - into the auditorium. - Chris Heard, BBC News
Wilson's guests, including Van Dyke Parks himself, were given a standing ovation as they made their way to their seats. -Keith Shadwick, The Independent Review
Ambling nonchalantly onto the stage as if he was about to prune some brushes, a la Marlon Brando in The Godfather, he proceeded to lead his virtuoso band through a stunning 'unplugged' hits session. - Richard Ord, The Evening Chronicle
The curtain lifted to reveal a pallid figure clad in black who resembled no one so much as Tony Soprano, surrounded by 10 hentchmen dedicated to his protection. - Llewellyn Smith, The Observer Review
The musical assembly began to josh and banter, in a pre-rehearsed manner evoking those archaic Variety shows in which square people like Val Doonican would attempt to be cool with, say, Donovan or Twiggy. - Tim Lott, Evening Standard
(Wilson) returned to action at the head of a band of younger musicians devoted to recreating his music. Unlike the Beach Boys, who nowadays perform their early hymns to cars, girls and surfboards under the leadership of fellow-founder Mike Love, Wilson and his new colleagues chose to explore the most difficult and adventurous of his compositions. - Richard Williams, The Guardian
Flanked by his 10-piece touring band led by the versatile Darian Sahanaja, it quickly became evident that this benevolent troupe are no ordinary musicians. From the beautiful Taylor Mills, to the multi-instrumental talents of Nick Walusco, Scotty Bennett, Jeff Foskett, and Probyn Gregory, this gifted ensemble somehow manage to recreate Wilson's Pop needlepoint note for note. The Wondermints dashed about on a quest to reproduce this inventive slice of art; from glockenspiels, ukuleles and saxophones to saws, power drills and carrots, no potential music-making device was taboo. - Simon Barber, BBC
This was no nostalgia show; rather, a relevant contemporary reading of a Rock opus, performed by a much-loved figure recognised by generations of fans as one of the finest musicians of his time. - Chris Heard, BBC News
His mind-blowing opus is still years beyond any artist on the contemporary scene. - Simon Barber, BBC Liverpool Music
It gripped from beginning to end to create one of those historical concerts that people will talk about for years to come. - Phillip Key, Liverpool Daily Post
For Smile's 45-odd minutes, Brian Wilson made the audience believe in something greater than humanity. - Leon McDermott, Sunday Herald
The grandest of American symphonies. Groundbreaking complexity and sophistication. - The Guardian
Leonard Bernstein once proclaimed Brian Wilson one of the greatest composers of the 20th Century: he was not wrong. - Joe Muggs, arts.telegraph.co.uk
It may be a late chapter in Wilson's story, but this is far more than a postscript. - Paul Sexton, Billboard.com
Nearly 40 years after being pilloried by fellow musicians and rejected by record label bosses, Wilson and Smile have re-emerged triumphant. - Chris Heard, BBC News
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Van Dyke and Sally Parks outside Carnegie Hall, New York, where a splendid live recording of Smile took place in 2004 |
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Lloyd Bridges drives Bill Cushenbery's "The Silhouette" for a TV special produced by Petersen Publications — Here is a link to the YouTube appearance of this Lloyd Bridges special, driving the Silhouette: |
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Lloyd Bridges, seeming an influence on Dick Dale manliness, enjoys the interioir of The Silhouette. It was later made as a Mattel Hot Wheel, and the car can be seen today at The Petersen Automotive Museum, corner of Wilshire and La Brea, Los Angeles — Here is a link to the YouTube appearance of this Lloyd Bridges special, driving the Silhouette: |
Recurring Balboa Theme
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Newport Dunes was just behind Balboa, a little vacationers beach w/ no waves, but boats. More manliness. |
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The Rolls Royce and... The Surfboard? Balboa fancy at the Stuft Shirt, from SoCal Surfing News, January 1963 |
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Parting shot: Remember, it is the 1931-1934 Ford wagons that were the stock Woody (as verified by Revell, and Jan & Dean's "Surf City"). |
