(The Beach Boys - all wrapped up in a big package of innocent)
When my friend Gary Schneider ran a link to some previously undiscovered Beach Boys performance photos, I got the idea to drag this tape out of the vault and give it a listen. I figured as long as someone was discovering lost photos of the Beach Boys, I might as well compliment the situation by offering a lost concert, right?
It's the classic concert format so prevalent in the 1950's and early 60's. A dozen acts would perform two or three numbers each and an MC kept things rolling. Nobody ever got bored, but nobody ever really got to hear the band play either.
This concert was organized by local radio station KFWB in conjunction with the YMCA on October 19, 1963. Part of it was televised (although I've never seen any videotape of this show or word that it's survived).
What's on here are the last two acts of the show, The Surfaris and The Beach Boys. The Surfaris jam through four numbers, three as a medley and the Beach Boys get to do an extra number because well . . .they're the headliners.
Like all of the Bowl recordings it's raw and not mixed with any thought of history transpiring on the microphone. It's just a record of an event that happened that luckily escaped the dumpster.
With the exception of the impromptu acapela KFWB jingle at the end, no one else has heard this tape, until now.
Think of it as a nod to mid-summer.
