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Dick Dale: They've Spent A Fortune

Report by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 23 March 1963

On The Lad They Call "The New Presley" In The US ...

The Beach Boys, The Chantays, Dick Dale, Jan & Dean: Let's Go Surfin'...

Report by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 20 July 1963

Peter Jones takes a close look at the latest U.S. craze to hit the scene ...

Dick Dale, The Surfaris: Two Hits Already: U.S. Surfing Craze Could Easily Catch On Over Here

Report and Interview by June Harris, Disc, 10 August 1963

BEAT BUG... gremlin... hodad... hiway surfer... shooting the curl... stoked... wipe out. This is the jargon used by surf crazy teenagers in California, and throughout ...

Jan & Dean: Hits in a Garage — By Jan and Dean!

Profile by June Harris, Disc, 7 September 1963

JAN AND DEAN, those two all-American boys with the clean-cut college look — both are over six feet tall, boasting blue eyes and blond hair, ...

The Trashmen — What's In A Name?

Profile by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 4 April 1964

A LOOK AT THE CRAZIEST NEW GROUP ON THE U.S. SCENE ...

Jan & Dean: Now Jan & Dean on the Banned Wagon

Profile by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 2 May 1964

THEY SOLD over a million copies of 'Linda' and 'Surf City' in the first six months of 1963. And they produce all their disc sessions ...

The Beach Boys: Mr. Wilson hated rock — but he loved the Beach Boys

Profile and Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 22 August 1964

THE NOISE the Beach Boys make is a wail with a touch of adenoid; the songs, they sing are about surfing and cars. What with ...

The Beach Boys: In The Space Age Will It Be Surf?

Report and Interview by Vicki Wickham, Fabulous, 15 January 1965

Will it be Surf in the Space Age? Well, The Beach Boys are pioneers of this new sound. They combine the satin-smooth feeling of the ...

Jan & Dean: Jan Says He'll Quit Song To Become A Doc

Interview by Eden, KRLA Beat, 2 October 1965

A FEW SHORT weeks ago, a young man named Jan Berry spent a few days in the hospital with a broken leg, the result of ...

The Beach Boys: Beach Boys' Fame Just Grew and Grew!

Interview by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 18 February 1966

THE FIVE Californian Beach Boys – Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, Mike Love and Al Jardine – began their music career with little intention of ...

The Beach Boys: Beach Boys Sensational Visit

Report and Interview by Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 11 November 1966

MY FIRST MISTAKE was trying to escape from London airport on Sunday morning, through approximately a thousand fans, with drummer Dennis Wilson, whom I later ...

The Beach Boys News Special

Report and Interview by Mike Grant, Rave, February 1967

FOR THE Beach Boys, '67 should be the year of new sounds. ...

Sam Cooke, Jan & Dean, The Mamas and The Papas, Barry McGuire, Johnny Rivers: Lou Adler: Producer in the Groove at Picking Hit Records

Profile and Interview by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 19 April 1967

LOU ADLER, one of the best known and most respected record producers, is a defier of stereotypes: ...

The Beach Boys: California!

Review by Geoffrey Cannon, The Listener, 22 November 1967

2012 NOTE: In the third (and last) column below written for The Listener in late 1967, I tried to begin to grope towards construction ...

The Beach Boys: Villains and Heroes: In Defense of the Beach Boys

Essay by Gene Sculatti, Jazz & Pop, September 1968

BRIAN WILSON AND COMPANY are currently at the center of an intense contemporary rock controversy, involving the academic "rock as art" critic-intellectuals, the AM-tuned teenies, ...

The Beach Boys: Beach Boys Pulled Out Of Doldrums

Interview by Keith Altham, New Musical Express Annual, December 1968

WITHER The Beach Boys in 1969? The group that produced 'Good Vibrations' and 'God Only Knows' have never quite recaptured the magic of those halcyon ...

The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Staying Home: Brian Wilson

Report and Interview by Derek Grant, Melody Maker, 21 November 1970

"IT WAS A MISTAKE but I had to try it. After about half an hour I realised I couldn't go on. My ears hurt, I ...

The Beach Boys: Beach Boys: A Reappraisal

Retrospective by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 22 May 1971

IT'S PROBABLY pouring with rain by now, but the sunny days we were vouchsafed by the Almighty last week prompted me – and almost certainly ...

The Beach Boys, The Rip Chords: Beach Boys Hang Ten in Hotel Lobby

Interview by Toby Mamis, Creem, October 1971

IT'S BEEN nine and a half years since the Beach Boys started out, singing 'Surfin' Safari' in Southern California, on New Year's Eve, 1961. At ...

The Beach Boys, Van Dyke Parks, Brian Wilson: The Beach Boys: A California Saga

Special Feature by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 28 October 1971

Part One: Mr. Everything ...

The Beach Boys: Surf's Up

Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 6 November 1971

COULD THE BEACH BOYS actually be doing a Moody Blues? The whole theme of this is: the world might be in a pretty dismal state ...

The Beach Boys, Charles Manson, Brian Wilson: The Beach Boys: A California Saga — Part Two: Tales of Hawthorne

Special Feature by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1971

There is the tale, told by an anonymous Beach Boy, about an outrageous instance of Brian Wilson's creative humor. Brian was about 18. The family ...

Jan & Dean: Legendary Masters Series

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 30 March 1972

JAN AND DEAN were real clowns. I saw 'em on the TAMI Show back in 1965 and they were the only downer part in the ...

The Beach Boys #1: The Perfect Wave

Discography by Jonh Ingham, New Musical Express, 24 March 1973

"I love to make records that my friends like to hear." – BRIAN WILSON ...

The Beach Boys #2: The Exiles Return

Discography by Jonh Ingham, New Musical Express, 31 March 1973

THE SECOND and concluding part of Jonh Ingham's retrospective look at the Beach Boys covers the '66 to '73 period. ...

The Beach Boys, Jan & Dean: Surfin' USA

Retrospective by Gene Sculatti, Let It Rock, August 1973

THOUGH it’s hard to believe, there actually was a time when youth simply signified non-adult status. Adults and youth each held to their own preferences, ...

Jan & Dean: Dean Torrence (1973)

Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, 12 November 1973

From high school in the late '50s to Kittyhawk Graphics in the '70s, Dean Torrence looks back at his partnership with Jan Berry: early hits such as 'Baby Talk'; being managed by Lou Adler, with Herb Alpert; the L.A. indie labels Dore and Challenge; the evolution of surf music, and collaborations with the Beach Boys from 'Surf City' to 'Barbara Ann'; surf boards, cars and fashions; Jan's accident, and going back to school to become a graphic designer; recording Brian Wilson's 'Vegetables', and the Legendary Masked Surfers album with Terry Melcher and Bruce Johnston.

File format: mp3; file size: 81mb, interview length: 1h 24' 22" sound quality: ****

Terry Melcher: Surf's Up! Terry Melcher's Nightmare Is Over

Interview by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 9 May 1974

LOS ANGELES – Terry Melcher, a consistent professional, has participated in scores of hits with artists as diverse as Frankie Laine and the Byrds. Seven ...

Terry Melcher: A Beach Veteran Looks Back

Interview by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, September 1974

ONE OF THE most influential and talented Californians to prosper during the '60s sun-speed-surf period in pop was Terry Melcher. As producer and (teamed with ...

The Beach Boys: Endless Summer (Capitol)

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 September 1974

NO SUMMER WOULD BE complete without a Beach Boys reissue. These last couple of years, with Warner Bros. working on the post-Pet Sounds material and ...

Jan & Dean Ride The Wild Surf

Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 2 November 1974

ABOUT ONE year ago this week Dick Clark, in his infinite wisdom, decided to host a ten year anniversary edition of his TV rock show ...

The Beach Boys: Wild Honey and Friends

Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 7 June 1975

IN THE GRAND old tradition of milking every last drop from The Beach Boys' catalogue comes this double coupling of the '67-'68 albums Wild Honey ...

The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson: The Last Beach Movie part 1

Retrospective and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 21 June 1975

THE INCIDENT MUST HAVE occured a little over a year ago. Paul McCartney, complete with the inevitable Linda, had just flown into Los Angeles – ...

The Beach Boys, Chicago: Spirit Of America: A Beach Boys Retrospective

Retrospective by Michael Gross, Circus, August 1975

Never have two monster groups been so united as the Beach Boys/Chicago tandem which is touring America like blood brothers. ...

The Beach Boys' Mike Love (1976)

Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 1976

Mr. Love talks about his love of oriental girls; on David Marks and Al Jardine; Murry Wilson's harshness; the "indentured servitude" of their Capitol Records contract, and Capitol's hit compilations Endless Summer and Spirit of America; the reception of 'Good Vibrations'; Brother Records... and Brian producing Three Dog Night.

File format: mp3; file size: 16.5mb, interview length: 17' 10" sound quality: ****

The Beach Boys Are Back in Town

Report and Interview by Michael Gross, Swank, 1977

BRIAN WILSON SAT behind a grand piano, nervously eyeing the camera pointed at his face. "When I was a little boy," he said, "my mother ...

The Beach Boys: Forum, Inglewood

Live Review by Bill Wasserzieher, Southland Magazine, 30 December 1977

BRIAN WILSON back on stage with the Beach Boys – it should have been a wonderful Christmas gift for loyal fans. It wasn't. ...

The Beach Boys, Jan & Dean: The Beach Boys: Four Girls For Every Boy

Report and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 17 June 1978

IMPORTANT DATES in the history of surfing music: ...

The Beach Boys: Summer Days (And Summer Nights)

Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 2 September 1978

LATER SHE realised she'd really been attracted to him because he looked sad. All the other boys on the beach were so cheerful, and the ...

Jan & Dean: Jan and Dean: Starwood Club, Los Angeles

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 7 October 1978

THEY'VE RENAMED LA's Starwood club the Surfwood for the night. ...

The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: David Leaf: The Beach Boys and the California Myth (Grossett & Dunlap, 192 pp., illus, $7.95 paper)

Book Review by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 October 1978

Beach Boys' Brian — A Classic American Tragedy ...

The Raybeats: Danceteria, New York NY

Live Review by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 11 October 1980

Smooth surfers of the dance floor ...

The Beach Boys, Charles Manson: Surfin' Death Valley USA

Essay by David Toop, Collusion, February 1982

"WE'LL GET THE ROUGHEST AND THE TOUGHEST INITIATION WE CAN FIND."from Our Car Club (Brian Wilson/Mile Love) Beach Boys, 1963 What were the connections between Beach ...

Mike Love & Dean Torrence: Rock City Here We Come

Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, May 1983

Mike Love and Dean Torrence Are Making Oldies Sound New ...

The Beach Boys, Dennis Wilson: Ironic Loss In Saga Of Beach Boys

Report by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 30 December 1983

THE IRONY IS heavy and inescapable: Dennis Wilson, who introduced the Beach Boys to surfing, died in the Pacific Ocean, the ultimate source of the ...

The Beach Boys, Dennis Wilson: Dennis Wilson

Obituary by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 7 January 1984

THE OFTEN tempestuous career of Dennis Wilson ended last Wednesday, when the Beach Boys drummer drowned in the waters of LA's Marina del Rey. ...

Dennis Wilson: The Beach Boy Who Went Overboard

Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 7 June 1984

He was the wild one. He could never get enough of anything: drugs, women or booze. But in the end, he had nothing. ...

The Beach Boys: Capitol reissues

Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 12 July 1986

NOW IS this poetry, or what? ...

The Beach Boys: Re-issues

Review by Andy Gill, Q, August 1990

AFTER LEAVING THE Beach Boys mid-tour in 1964 thanks to a nervous breakdown, Brian Wilson passed most of his time in the studio, one of ...

The Ventures: Surf: On Screen On Canvas, on the Radio

Report by Deanne Stillman, The New York Times, 2 September 1990

OVER 20 YEARS ago, Tom Wolfe hung around with a group of California surfers and described them in "The Pump House Gang", an essay frequently ...

The Beach Boys: Re-issues

Review by Andy Gill, Q, August 1991

SUNFLOWER (1970), THE FIRST ALBUM of a new contract with Warner Bros following their disaffection with Capitol, was on a par with later '60s albums. ...

The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson: Wouldn't It Be Nice - My Own Story

Book Review by Tom Hibbert, Q, August 1992

IT IS HARD TO IMAGINE Brian Wilson, inspired composer of surfing symphonies and divine pop, writing anything as tabloidesque as: "I was a zonked-out zombie, ...

Dick Dale: Pulp Dick Shone

Interview by Cathi Unsworth, Melody Maker, 25 March 1995

DICK DALE, man. Dick f***ing Dale. He's the King Of Surf Guitar. He taught Hendrix everything he knew. He breeds lions. They played his music ...

Dick Dale: Garage, London

Live Review by Nick Coleman, The Independent, 31 March 1995

Totem recall ...

Surf and Destroy

Comment by Lindsay Hutton, MOJO, April 1995

BEFORE THE RELEASE OF Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Dick Dale was simply "the man who invented surf music" and his craft remained generally unknown outside ...

Surf Pop: The New Wave

Retrospective by Carol Cooper, The Village Voice, 17 September 1996

WAS ANY underground music more quickly and thoroughly mediated by outside forces than surf music? On the cusp of the ‘60s, California’s coastal teen subculture ...

Sagittarius, The Millennium: Sagittarius: Present Tense; The Millennium: Begin

Review by Max Bell, Uncut, March 1998

TO GET THE full scope of these groundbreaking recordings, released within weeks of each other in the summer of '68, it's vital to know that ...

Carl Wilson

Obituary by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, April 1998

CARL WILSON didn't get to record his first lead vocal for the Beach Boys until April 30, 1965, almost four years into the group's career. ...

The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks: The Beach Boys: An American Family: Heroes and Villains

Report and Interview by Bill Holdship, LA New Times, 4 June 2000

Brian Wilson's back, recording a live album at the Roxy this week and preparing for a summer tour with symphony orchestras throughout the U.S. So ...

The Beach Boys: Beach Boys: Reissues

Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, May 2001

Choral unevensong from the waywardly wondrous Wilson clan ...

The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson: 'Help Me, Rhonda' indeed!

Comment by David Dalton, Gadfly, 9 July 2001

HEY, ALL YOU surfin' dudes and hardbody wahinis, check out this thing on TNT. It's a tribute to the surf god, Brian Wilson! An American ...

The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, March 2002

Brian Wilson and 10-piece band perform, from start to finish, the album that topped MOJO's 100 Greatest Albums Of All Time poll, plus career-encompassing opening ...

The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Hello Goodbye: Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys

Retrospective and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, April 2004

Hello: September 1961 ...

Jan & Dean: Jan Berry

Obituary by Dave Laing, The Guardian, 2 April 2004

Teen dream and surf-pop star ...

The Chantays, Dick Dale, Kathy Marshall, Social Distortion, T.S.O.L.: Orange County: Upon this rock, a scene was built

Retrospective and Interview by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 17 February 2005

O.C. was the birthplace of surf music and the fabled, amped-up Fender guitar. So take that, L.A. ...

Jan & Dean: Wipeout!

Retrospective by Bill Holdship, MOJO, April 2005

Mean, lean and handsome, '60s surf pop duo Jan & Dean could have been gibber than The Beach Boys but kidnappings, car-crashes and cocaine soon ...

The Malibooz: John Zambetti's Endless Summer: The Malibooz

Retrospective and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Senior Life, August 2005

MOST OF US HAVE keepsakes from our youth. A toy, a doll, a baseball glove – some 'Rosebud' object that once meant the world to ...

Dick Dale: Checkered Flag (Sundazed)

Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Sundazed, 2007

I'M A SUCKER for this stuff, there was no way that, as a California teenager in 1963, I wasn't going to buy a copy of ...

Dennis Wilson: The Mayor of Washington Boulevard: Dennis Wilson's California Dream

Retrospective by Bill Bentley, Austin Chronicle, 1 August 2008

The first Beach Boys solo album, Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue, washes back ashore after more than three decades. ...

Jack Johnson: Reluctant Superstar

Interview by Rob Fitzpatrick, The Sunday Times, 23 May 2010

THERE'S A TRACK on the new Jack Johnson album with a chorus that reveals, "I can tell you anything but the truth…" an admission that ...

The Beach Boys: Good Vibrations and Endless Summers: The Beach Boys in Hawthorne

Retrospective by Kirk Silsbee, South Bay, Summer 2011

YOU HAVE TO look for it.  Nothing on 120th Street gives an indication as you drive along the north side of the Hawthorne Airport.  ...

The Beach Boys: Jeffrey Foskett on the Beach Boys

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, February 2012

NOTE: This is a transcript of the phone conversation I had with Jeffrey after interviewing Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David ...

The Beach Boys: Hang On To Your Egos: The Beach Boys at 50

Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, June 2012

NOTE: With a few minor differences, this was the piece that ran as a MOJO cover story. ...

The Beach Boys: Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Orange County

Live Review by Gene Sculatti, Rock's Backpages, June 2012

"THERE'S SOMETHING RIDICULOUS about a 70-year-old man going out there and singing 'Fun, Fun, Fun.'" So said my wife last week when I told her ...

The Beach Boys: For Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, Life's a (Busy) Beach

Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 1 October 2013

HE MAY BE 71 years old, but Head Beach Boy Brian Wilson might be busier today than at any point in his career. Having already ...

The Fireballs

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Vintage Rock, July 2015

THEY WERE acclaimed as pioneers of the surf sound alongside Dick Dale, Link Wray and the Ventures, but the Fireballs, who enjoyed a US chart ...

Jan & Dean & the Rise of L.A. Pop

Retrospective by Mitchell Cohen, Music Aficionado, 2016

AS MUCH AS anyone else, including the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean helped establish the mythology of Los Angeles. When the city was still in ...

Brian Wilson with Ben Greenman: I Am Brian Wilson – A Memoir (Da Capo)

Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Chronicle, 7 October 2016

FOR MOST of his life, Brian Wilson has heard voices in his head. They might be the sweet harmonies of his bandmates in the Beach ...

The Beach Boys: Mike Love: Good Vibrations

Book Review by Bob Stanley, The Guardian, 13 October 2016

Love lacked the sensitivity of his cousin Brian Wilson, but he kept the band going after their fall from grace. He tells his side of ...

Jan & Dean: A Walk on the Wet Side: Gary Pig Gold In Conversation With Mark A. Moore

Interview by Gary Pig Gold, Vulcher, January 2017

ONE THING THAT'S always bugged me – besides the price of Ramones t-shirts at the Newark Airport CBGB, that is: Why the name Jan Berry ...

Jan & Dean: Riding The Wild Surf: Jan Berry and the Birth of West Coast Rock

Retrospective by Gary Pig Gold, earcandymag.com, April 2017

THERE'S BRIAN and his Beach Boys, most obviously. Then there were Crosby, Stills, Nash and sometimes Young, the Eagles, and my own personal favourite Turtles, ...

Dick Dale, 1937-2019

Obituary by Tony Burke, Record Collector, May 2019

THE PIONEER OF "surf rock" guitar, Dick Dale died on March 16th aged 81. Born Richard Anthony Monsour on 4th May, 1937, in Boston, Dale developed a ...

Kim Fowley, Jan & Dean: California Eden: Sun, Surf, Sex, and Some Great Music

Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 22 March 2021

THE OLD ADAGE goes that high school is the place to experience "the best years of your life." And while that's hardly a universal feeling, ...

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