I Know There´s An Answer

last updated 03.09.2003

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First presented March 1, 1973
"Another major feature of the ballet is the setting--a background of three high strips of translucent paper (at first they look like windows we can't see out of) that a group of young people gradually fill with graffiti. As they inscribe the long sheets of paper, the paper is rolled up until the full height of the stage reflects their handiwork. "What happens on stage can be simply suggested but inadequately described. While a ballet dancer performs an alphabetical but not-so-straightforward rendition of the steps from the classical ballet dictionary, the rest of the dancers, in various combinations and permutations, perform dances both ancient and modern." The order of songs/dances are as follows (with number of dancers for each; solo means the lone classical ballerina)
Matrix I (the text refers to several of these, but doesn't say exactly what music they consist of!) (solo, 1 couple)
Little Deuce Coupe (solo, 18 dancers)
Honda I (solo, 3 dancers)
Honda II (solo, 1 couple)
Devoted to You (solo, 2 couples)
How She Boogalooed It (solo, large ensemble)
Matrix II (solo, 6 dancers)
Alley Oop (solo, 8 dancers)
Take a Load Off Your Feet (3 girls, 2 boys)
Long Tall Texan (3 girls)
Papa ooh Mau Mau (6 dancers)
Catch a Wave (5 dancers)
Got to Know the Woman (2 girls)
Matrix III (solo)
Don't Go Near the Water (6 girls)
Matrix IV (1 couple)
Mama Says (5 boys, 1 girl)
Wouldn't It Be Nice (10 dancers)
Cuddle Up (finale - entire company)

Fans are always slamming Capitol for the way they treated the Beach Boys, but the truth is that they treated the Beach Boys pretty damn well. During the group's tenure there, Capitol NEVER refused to release anything the group turned in. Capitol released SMILEY SMILE and even put out "Gettin' Hungry" as a single credited to Brian & Mike when the group wanted it that way. Capitol released WILD HONEY and got the group a Top 20 and a Top 40 hit from the record. Capitol released FRIENDS and got the title track into the Top 50. Capitol released 20/20 and scored the group a Top 20 single and a Top 30 single. All in all, that's not a bad record for a group you're saying they were trying to take out of circulation.

Now let's look at how the group fared on Warner Bros., supposedly a much more artist-friendly company than Capitol. The Beach Boys turned in ADD SOME MUSIC, which Warner Bros. rejected, forcing it to be reworked into SUNFLOWER. The group had LANDLOCKED, which got shelved when Warner Bros. insisted they get the song "Surf's Up." The group turned in SO TOUGH, which Warners released paired with PET SOUNDS. The Beach Boys turned in HOLLAND, which was rejected because it didn't have a hit single (resulting in the recording and inclusion of "Sail On Sailor"). The Beach Boys turned in IN CONCERT as a single album, which Warners rejected, resulting in the group having to spend another year recording concerts to produce a satisfactory double album. Several years later, the group submitted ADULT CHILD, which was rejected. They then submitted the 1977 Christmas album, which was rejected. Finally, Warners accepted M.I.U. Let's see ... in nine years with Warners, the Beach Boys released eight albums of new material ... and had SIX albums rejected! Now that's a great track record!

Then let's look at CBS. The Beach Boys only did three albums of new material there, but in the course of that short relationship, they shot down Brian's original vision of L.A. (LIGHT ALBUM), rejected a live album (Knebworth 1980) and forced the group to use an outside producer for the first time in their career.

Matt actually stayed with Mike's group after his dad left. Several months later, he decided on his own to leave, without any definite plans for the future. It was only AFTER that occurrence that Alan, brainstorming with Matt and Adam, came up with the idea of first The Jardines and then later BBF&F.
The reason why Matt was still there in 1998 was that his contract bound him to the band after his father left. He saw his contract out with grace but bailed out as soon as he legally was free to.

The year was 1969, and Billy was asked to join the band as a replacement for Bruce! At the time, Billy had just finished high school and was preparing to go off to college. One day, he gets a call from Carl that the group would like to come over and talk with him. So when they arrive and he opens the door, it's the entire group -- Brian, Carl, Dennis, Mike and Alan -- except Bruce. They then proceed to tell him that they've decided to fire Bruce and want Billy to join as a full-fledged Beach Boy (i.e., not a member of the backing band). Needless to say, this causes quite some consternation in young Billy. Eventually, however, he decides to go on to college and declines the offer to join the group, but is promised that there will be a place for him with (but not "in") the group when he graduates.
After their meeting with Billy, the group apparently thought better of their intention to oust Bruce and they kept him around for another three years. To this day, Billy doesn't think that Bruce ever knew of their actions.

According to Bruce, he has been on every BB album since Summer Days (and In Concert). I think that the front cover of the "In Concert" LP was taken at a 1973 concert at the Hollywood Palladium. Bruce was backstage during the show, and joined the band with an electric bass for the encore. Brian Wilson and David Sandler (who had worked with Brian on the Spring LP) were in the Palladium lounge before the show. Brian did not appear onstage.

An original contract dated Aug. 24, 1964 for the BB to play at MacArthur Stadium in Syracuse, N.Y. It's from the William Morris Agency, and lists Carl as the leader of the group. The show was scheduled for Sept. 3, and was rained out. Carl signed the contract. What's really interesting is that on the back, it lists the BB names and social sercurity numbers. (Carl/Dennis/Mike/Al and David Marks. Marks' name is crossed out in ink, and Brian Wilson's name and SS No. are handwritten underneath. If you're wondering, there was no guaranteed money except a minimum AFM scale amount. The Boys agreed to play for 75 percent of the gross admission receipts.

All the original US albums released by the Beach Boys (Surfin' Safari- Summer in Paradise) and tabulated the composition/production/lead vocal/instrumental credits. Some songs appeared on more than one album. I did not include anycompilation albums or live albums. These credits do not include the composition credits Mike was awarded in court.

Here are the overall rankings for the Beach Boys for album credits:

1. Brian Wilson total- 591 = 36%
2. Mike Love total- 280 = 17%
3. Carl Wilson total- 244 = 15%
4. Alan Jardine total- 202 = 13%
5. Dennis Wilson total- 188 = 12%
6. Bruce Johnston total- 119 = 7%

1. Brian- 192 = 55%
2. Mike- 72 = 21%
3. Alan- 28 = 9%
4. Carl- 25 = 7%
5. Dennis- 23 = 6%
6. Bruce- 9 = 2%

1. Brian- 224 = 38%
2. Carl- 80 = 15%
3. Alan- 78 = 14%
4. Dennis- 72 = 12%
5. Bruce- 69 = 11%
6. Mike- 65 = 10%

1. Mike- 139 = 30%
2. Brian- 123 = 26%
3. Carl- 87 = 19%
4. Alan- 57 = 12%
5. Dennis- 42 = 9%
6. Bruce- 19 = 4%

Here are the rankings for instrumental contributions (only where credit is given).

1. Brian- 52 = 24%
2. Carl- 52 = 24%
3. Dennis- 51 = 23%
4. Alan- 39 = 18%
5. Bruce- 22 = 10%
6. Mike- 1 = 1%

Reference:
Surf's Up: The Beach Boys On Record 1961- 1981 by Brad Elliott
The Complete Guide to the Music of the Beach boys by Andrew Doe and John Tobler

If we're going to be correct about this, however, we need to understand exactly what his contributions actually amounted to. I hope I'm not bursting any bubbles, but Mike in no way wrote ALL the lyrics for those 64 songs! All a songwriting credit means is that he contributed lyrics to a song; it's not an indication of how much he contributed. In Mike's case, the amount of contribution to each song varied greatly, and it was a rare occasion where he wrote all the lyrics.

I don't have songwriting percentage breakdowns on all the songs Mike contributed to, but I do have those figures for the songs from the last half of the 1960s, and I think that gives us a good picture of the size and scope of Mike's contributions. So, without further ado, here's the full picture for some of the songs Karen listed:

Here Comes the Night -- Brian 70%, Mike 30%
50 of Brian's percentage points are for the music, so the lyrical breakdown only is Brian 40%, Mike 60%

I'd Love Just Once to See You -- Brian 70%, Mike 30%
lyrics: Brian 40%, Mike 60%

How She Boogalooed It -- Mike, Alan, Bruce and Carl: 25% each
lyrics: Mike 50%, others 50%

The "LandyLocked" cd has a version of "Back Home" that has Brian singing. It was recorded at Gold Star on June, 14, 1963. Brian always said he had written a version with Bob Norberg; it was long thought to be lost. It was possibly taped the same day as "Black Wednesday" by Sharon Marie (Esparza) which was retitled "Run Around Lover" (which leads me to believe it was to have been something else before it became RAL. The original 3 track tape has the instrumental runs of "Back Home." Then there is a count-off and ID of "Black Wednesday," an instrumental-- which is the instrumental track of "Run Around Lover" (no vocal).. Then there are takes of "Back Home" with Brian's vocals.

I heard not too long ago that David Marks had been offered a long-term contract by Mike. Apparently, that's quite an unusual offer, as none of the backing players have such a deal, only Bruce. However, I was told that the amount of the offer was quite low, in fact working out to less on a "per gig" basis than the backing players get. Reportedly, Mike felt that guaranteed long-term employment was enough of an incentive without having to offer substantial money. At the time I heard the story, I was told that Marks was quite insulted and was considering quitting. Brad

Beach Boys members and band members years in the family:

Bobby Figueroa: 1974-fall 1977, summer 1978-winter 1981, summer 1983-spring 1988
Mike Kowalski: 1968-1969, 1973-1974, 1977-1978, 1982-current
Bruce Johnston: spring 1965-spring 1972, spring 1979-current
David Marks: spring 1962-fall 1963, fall 1997-fall 1999
Ricky Fataar left in December 1974
Chris Farmer 1996-current
Tim Bonhomme 1996-current
Mike Meros 20 years (1999)
Adrian Baker 1981-1982, then didn't show back up again until Jeff left, but then departed shortly thereafter when Matt took the high parts, only to return about a year ago.
Phil Bardowell: 1998-current
Al Jardine: 1961-1962, 1963-1998
Matt Jardine: 9 years (1999)
Ed Carter: 1968-1981, 1982-1996
Billy Hinsche: 1972-1977, 1982-1995
Richie Cannata: 10 years (1999)

The rehearsal schedule for BBF&F has been pretty intensive and pretty continuous since fall of 1998.

Playing percussion and drums. Figueroa initially was brought onboard in 1973 to replace Carly Munoz on percussion, when Munoz moved over to keyboards. He then alternated on tours with Mike Kowalski on percussion and drums (as backup to Dennis) until 1983. For the next 10 years, he and Kowalski were both regulars in the backing band, sometimes double-drumming, sometimes one doing drums and the other percussion (often swapping several times during a single show). In the 1990s, with the addition of Matt on percussion and John Stamos occasionally touring with the band, he and Kowalski again alternated on tours. When Bobby left the touring band several years ago, Kowalski finally became the full-time drummer.

In the late 1970s and into the mid 1980s, Bobby did the lead vocal on "Sail On Sailor" in concert.

The Sea of Tunes bootlegs

The identity is known to Capitol and the Beach Boys. It happened during the assembly of the "American Band" video documentary back in 1984. The person working on the documentary was given free rein in both the Beach Boys' and Capitol's tape vaults, which is why there are all the alternate mixes of songs in the documentary. Tapes were taken from the vaults and dubbed down to digital stereo mixes on video tape. Because this was an "official" project, the necessary three-track, four-track and eight-track machines were easily obtained for playback and mixing of the early tapes.
Almost all of the tapes so copied were returned to the tape vault. Easily 99 percent of the stuff that has appeared on the SOT boots is still in the vaults!
The person kept them and when he got out of the record & film business a couple of years ago, he apparently did a deal with the bootleggers. The result is the SOT discs.
The proof that the source of the SOT material is not Linett's stash of tapes is in the next batch of SOT releases, specifically the SUMMER DAYS box. It is well-known that while putting together the GV box, Linett had turned over to him the 8-track tapes of the material Brian recorded at Columbia Studios for the SD album. Those tapes apparently had been sitting in a Columbia warehouse for some years and were returned only when the tapes for the Caribou albums were requested. So, of course, those tapes were not available to the thief in 1984. Therefore, the following sessions (which were done on 8-track at Columbia) will not appear on the SOT box for SUMMER DAYS:
stereo vocals & vocal sessions for "California Girls"
stereo vocals & vocal sessions for "Let Him Run Wild"
stereo vocals & vocal sessions for "You're So Good to Me"
sessions for "I'm Bugged at My Old Man"
sessions for "And Your Dream Comes True"
If they do appear on that box, then it means everything is wrong and the finger will be pointed squarely at Linett's tape stash.

So the vocal session tapes were not in the group's tape vault in the mid-1980s when everything that's ending up on the SOT CDs was copied.

None of the SOT material came out of the Capitol vault. Rather, the repository for the original master tapes for the material that has been released by SOT is the Beach Boys' own vault (they are two different places). And the reason that the pirates have nothing past 1969 is that the Beach Boys moved to 16-track tape in the fall of 1969, and the person who did the copying of tapes (so I'm told) had access only to 3-track, 4-track and 8-track machines. Brad

Beach Boys places of interest in Los Angeles:

Rock-a-way Records; also check out the old Western studio in Santa Monica. Also, drive up and down Mulholland Road in the SF Valley a few times. you might see Brian running! Also Went to the old Brother Studios in Santa Monica. There is a Gold album of "Surfin' USA" set in resin in the loading dock. Check out "Carnies" on Sunset if its still there. An old train car Brian use to own which sells chili dogs and burgers.

United/Western is still on Sunset, now called Ocean Way but there's just a windowless front that you can see from the street if the traffic is stopped (also, the old house on Sunset enlisted by Dean Torrence which housed Kittyhawk Graphics in the 1970's was torn down. It's now-- a strip mall as well). I once used to drive by a street called Mt. Vernon and DUH! Realized that it was likely THE Mt. Vernon. I hunted and found Fairway. It was daylight-- but it was on a hill and at night, I could imagine the view of twinkling lights below which must have inspired one gangly kid from Hawthorne. The 'Wich stand still existed when I used to drive in that area. Don't know if it's still there, though, on Slauson. There is the ex-Purple Palace on Greentree Road in Pacific Palisades. It's the house where BW lived before he was-- er-- convinced to go to Hawaii in 1982. After that, some doctor/psychologist/Svengali moved in (while BW livedin a rented beach house in Malibu) and painted the house purple, garnishing it with a lovely pyramid on the roof. Once he left, the new owners painted it a more seemly color. Don't know if they removed the pyramid, though. Not too far away on Sunset Boulevard (also in the Palisades) is the house Dennis lived in back in the late 1960's. You will hear Beach Boys' hits on KRTH-FM 101 every hour on the hour. Oddly, one day, they played "God Only Knows" from the box with the a capella tag on it. They often play the Love-less "Wouldn't It Be Nice" as well. However, hearing "Dance Dance Dance" while locked in a traffic jam on the freeway is just frustrating. You want to move. You aren't. You can't. However, this phenom DOES generate interesting fantasies of aliens coming to abduct at least three-quarters of the people and cars on the road for dissection (excluding oneself, relatives and dear friends and the people playing the songs at KRTH!).
There are two different sites that once upon a time were Brains & Genius. They've reverted to being normal offices. The one on Pico Boulevard (where Sweet Insanity was recorded) just gives me the willies... a brick, Tudor-style building with dark, heavily paneled doors. Don't know if they removed the razor wire that used to entomb the back parking lot, though. Back in that era, BW could sometimes be spotted at the nearby Del Taco two doors down. Kind of ironic that the man and the messengers responsible for a goodly portion of the population of this city (either directly by the music or indirectly via a spin-off in the "Baywatch" mode) has no official tribute site. But hey, between April and July, you CAN catch them shooting "Baywatch" on location on Will Rogers Beach in Pacific Palisades, California, USA. This hangs up traffic dreadfully. Then you sit in your car with the Pacific Ocean sparkling just yards away and "Surfin' USA comes on the radio. You want to move. You aren't. You can't. However, this phenom DOES generate interesting fantasies of aliens coming to...
Lauri Klobas

To sum it up: P.O.P. is gone, Pacific Park is on the Santa Monica Pier and Palisades Park is in Santa Monica, not Pacific Palisades. However, Pacific Palisades is in Pacific Palisades.

Paradise Cove is on Pacific Coast Hwy., approx. 1/2 mile south of Kanan Due Rd., north of Pepperdine College in Malibu. There is a sign for the Paradise Cafe which is the entrance for the private beach. Parking is $20.00 unless your friend has lunch at the cafe.

Barbara Ann
Beach Boys Medley
Be True To Your School
Breakaway
California Girls
California Saga
Caroline, No
Dance, Dance, Dance
Darlin´
Do It Again
Do You Wanna Dance?
Don´t Worry Baby
Fun, Fun, Fun
Getcha Back
God Only Knows
Good Timin´
Good Vibrations
Help Me, Rhonda
Here Comes The Night (Disco Version)
Hereoes And Villains
I Can Hear Music
I Get Around
In My Room
It´s OK
Kokomo
Little Deuce Coupe
Little Honda
Little Saint Nick
Please Let Me Wonder
Peggy Sue
Rock And Roll Music
Rock´n´ Roll To The Rescue
She Knows Me Too Well
Soulful Ol´ MAn Sunshine (Session Charts)
Sloop John B
Still Cruisin´
Surfer Girl
Surfin´ Safari
Surfin´ USA
The Little Girl I Once Knew
Ten Little Indians
The Man With All The Toys
The Wanderer
The Warmth Of The Sun
Wendy
When I Grow Up (to be a man)
Wouldn´t It Be Nice
Related
Almost Summer (Celebration)
Surf City (JAn & Dean)

Lei´d In Hawaii

They did two shows and a film for a live album. The first rehearsal may have taken place prior to the band leaving for Hawaii (probably in a studio). This recording can be found on the CD „Lei´d In Hawaii Rehearsals“. On 25.8. in Honolulu the group recorded a soundcheck prior to their first show, and probably their was another soundcheck the next day, too. Two songs of these rehearsals can be found (Their hearts... on the twofer, and Surfer girl on the box set). From the actual show(s) two songs can be found (H&V on the twofer and The Letter on the Rarities album).

Lei´d In Hawaii was supposed to follow Wild Honey (so it might have been Brother 9004).

Brother 9002 could have been an earlier planned release of LEID IN HAWAII. The problem is there isn't any documentation in Capitol's files for that number. There's also no indication that any other 1967 BB concerts were recorded. The "highlights from a variety of live shows" could simply meant recordings from more than one of the Hawaii shows, NOT organized in such as way as to give the listener the impression of a complete concert from start to finish. But maybe they planned to use some of the material recorded the previous fall in Michigan.

Lei´d In Hawaii Bootleg CD
What everybody has assumed was a pre-concert studio rehearsal (as heard on the LEI'D bootleg) actually was a post-concert attempt to fake a concert recording! When the actual Hawaii tapes were determined to be unusable, the group (with Bruce) went over to Wally Heider's and laid down an album's worth of live in-studio performances, intending to overdub audience noises and pass the result off as a concert album. Since the recordings turned out fairly decent, there's no obvious reason why the project was abandoned.
Part of the reason that you've never heard this before is that Beach Boys perpetrated a fraud when it came to the session sheets. The 9/11/67 session at Wally Heider's is logged as an overdub session for the Hawaii recordings. It's not until you actually pull that tape and listen to it that you realize it is the supposed studio rehearsal with Bruce.
The other recording that has surfaced from that session is the version of "The Letter" that Brad Elliott included on RARITIES back in 1983. The documentation with the mono master tape we found clearly indicated it was a studio recording -- the master number on the tape matched to a 10/25/67 studio recording of the song, but the instruments used for that session don't fit what's heard on the song. Over the years, this discrepancy and the spontaneous feel of the performance has lead some people to speculate that it was a live version from the Hawaii shows, with the audience noise mixed out. As it turns out, it is from that same 9/11/67 live-in-the-studio session. More interestingly, there's documentation for a version of "The Letter" that the Beach Boys turned over to Capitol on 9/22, but that documentation indicates the song was recorded live in Hawaii. Again, that's a fraud perpetrated by the Beach Boys - the recording turned over to Capitol obviously is the 9/11/67 recording and it wasn't done in Hawaii!

Leid in Hawaii set list
Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring was a soundcheck, (some soundcheck !!) and wasn't sung at the concerts themselves.
1st concert, Friday 25th August;
The Letter, Hawaii, Good To Me, Surfer Girl, Surfin, Gettin' Hungry, Sloop, Cal Girls, WIB Nice, H&V, GOK, Good Vibes , Hawthorne Boulevard and Barbara Ann
2nd concert, Saturday 26th August;
Hawaii, Good To Me, Help ME Rhonda, Cal Girls, WIB Nice, Gettin Hungry, Sufer Girl, Surfin', Sloop, Letter, GOK, Good Vibes, H&V and Barbara Ann

"Rhonda", like EH's version of "God Only Knows", was recorded in September of 1967 at Wally Heider's Studio in LA. The session involved all six BB's and was done AFTER the August Hawaii concerts. The "Lei'd in Hawaii" boot falsely states that this was a pre-concert rehearsal when it was actually recorded two weeks later. Yes, that is Al singing the lead as on the record. The arrangements of all the songs are sparse, and somewhat modernized (CG's tag is real groovy!) in 1967 terms. Also, the take of "The Letter" on the "Lei'd" bootleg is the same version as released on his Rarities album (w/ compression and reverb added ).

Copy of Mike Love's speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony from 1988:

(Mike was cut off when Paul Schaffer led the house band into a song).
"And I think it's wonderful to be here tonight, but I also think it's sad that there are other people who aren't here tonight. And, uh, those are the people who have passed away, those are the obvious ones. But the other not-so-obvious ones are people like Paul McCartney, who couldn't be here tonight because he's in a lawsuit with Ringo and Yoko. That's what he sent a telegram to some, uh, high priced attorney in this room, you know. And that's a bummer, because we're talking about harmony, right, and the world. If we can't get it together in America and in England, and harmony within our groups. I mean, beleive it, you can beleive it the Beach Boys have their own "interstescene" (not sure what Mike is trying to say here, and neither does Mike) or whatever you call it, squabbles. But that's a bummer when Ms. Ross can't make it, you know?" "The Beach Boys have continued to do, about, we did about 180 performances last year. I'd like to see the Mop-Tops match that! I'd like to see Mick Jagger get out on this stage and do I Get Around versus Jumpin' Jack Flash, any day now. And I'd like to see some people kick out the jams, and I challenge the Boss to get up on stage and jam. (during Mike's pause, someone in the house band plays the theremin line of "Good Vibrations" during the crowds tepid response) I wanna see Billy Joel, see if he can still tickle ivories, lemmee see. I know Mick Jagger won't be here tonight, he's gonna have to stay in England. But I'd like to see us in the Coliseum and he at Wembley Stadium because he's always been chickenshit to get on stage with the Beach Boys."