Interests:Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, Elvis Presley, Lady Gaga and much more! Also love movies and TV shows, especially The IT Crowd and The Big Bang Theory.
Posted 02 May 2012 - 01:40 PM
I picked up my Special Edition Beach Boys Mojo Magazine today, and along with a free CD and some great write-ups, there is a special compiled "The 50 Greatest Beach Boys Songs". I have typed them out for you all here...
50. Forever
49. Wind Chimes
48. Help Me, Rhonda
47. Vega-Tables
46. Do It Again
45. Wild Honey
44. That's Not Me
43. Little Deuce Coupe
42. Let Him Run Wild
41. Long Promised Road
40. Cuddle Up
39. When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)
38. Cool, Cool Water
37. Sloop John B
36. Tears In The Morning
35. All Summer Long
34. Barbara Ann
33. Break Away
32. YOu're So Good To Me
31. I Can Hear Music
30. Here Today
29. Darlin'
28. Disney Girls
27. Surfin' USA
26. The Warmth Of The Sun
25. Fun Fun Fun
24. Pet Sounds
23. I'm Waiting For The Day
22. Our Prayer
21. Do You Like Worms
20. I Know There's An Answer
19. In My Room
18. Surfer Girl
17. Let's Go Away For A While
16. Sail On Sailor
15. Don't Worry Baby
14. You Still Believe In Me
13. I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
12. Feel Flows
11. Cabinessence
10. I Get Around
09. Wouldn't It Be Nice
08. Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)
07. Heroes And Villains
06. Caroline, No
05. 'Til I Die
04. California Girls
03. God Only Knows
02. Good Vibrations
01. Surf's Up.
Phew! What a list. Each entry has a nice write-up by with it too. I think it's a great list. What do you lot think?
Phew! What a list. Each entry has a nice write-up by with it too. I think it's a great list. What do you lot think?
Mark
Its a very good list although its far from the order I'd have on my personal list.
MOJO and UNCUT are two of my favorite magazines. Unfortunately, very few places here carry them as they are import mags and they're expensive. At $15.00 each, I only buy them when they feature my favorite musicians (which is often enough).
Here's the cover and MOJO's interview with The Beach Boys' David Marks...
David Marks, “Lost” Beach Boy, Is Found
Asked to name the constituent Beach Boys, most music fans could reel off Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, the departed Wilson brothers Dennis and Carl - Bruce Johnston if they're acquainted with their onions. MOJO-reading wags might add, with a twinkle, Glenn Campbell, Blondie Chaplin or Ricky "Stig O'Hara" Fataar.
How many would mention David Marks (pictured, second from left)? And yet it was the Wilsons' Hawthorne, CA neighbour who brought electric guitar to the nascent Beach Boys' folksome harmony mix. Between 1963 and 1964, he appeared on four Beach Boys albums before a dispute between his parents and notorious Beach Boy dad/manager Murry Wilson hastened his departure. But that was not the end of their mutually entwined tale, and Marks has regularly returned to the fold, as a friend and observer, and a fixture over the last decade in various touring line-ups.
MOJO's latest issue interviews the reunited group - all surviving members, including Marks - but we felt a "bonus track" with the often overlooked singer-guitarist was in order. So here's Marks, on the Beach Boys' birth, the role of a Walker Brother, the genius of Carl, and more...
MOJO: First of all, let's go back to the birth of The Beach Boys... You were neighbours with the Wilsons, weren't you?
David Marks: Yes, we lived right across the street from one another. We moved in when I was about 7 years old and I spent all of my time at the Wilsons'. My first recollection, of Brian, was him recruiting the neighbourhood children to play football. He was a leader even then.
And you were already a guitar player?
When I was 10 my parents bought me a guitar and I started learning with Carl [Wilson], who was 12. We spent every day after school playing guitar and studying different styles. When we started doing the rock'n'roll, Chuck Berry stuff, Brian got interested and wanted to incorporate it. There was a guy who lived in our neighbourhood - John Maus, who was later John Walker of the Walker Brothers, and he showed us quite a bit of guitar technique that he had learned from Richie Valens. It was the strumming technique that Brian really liked and used it on Surfer Girl.
In retrospect it's hard to imagine the Beach Boys sound not existing: it's such a rock'n'roll paradigm.
Well, when The Beach Boys initially started it was more of an acoustic, folk kind of sound, like maybe The Kingston Trio. So, my introduction to John Walker and the electric guitar made the band electric and more rocking. Combined with Brian's brilliant vocal arrangements it was a sound that never had been heard before.
You were on four Beach Boys album and played over 100 shows during your initial period in the group. Is it frustrating to you that you're not always seen as integral?
Well, we did an incredible amount of material in a very short period of time. So the material I participated in extended into the 5th and 6th albums. Early on, we worked a lot touring and working on promoting the record so my involvement was very important in the beginning. And I've played with the band constantly here and there throughout the years. And then for the last 15 years I've been really close to all of the members. I've played with Mike all over the world, so I was never really that far away. I know that I missed out on Pet Sounds, but I feel part of it because we perform those songs every night.
You signed... well, your parents would have signed your Capitol contract for you in 1962. You were 13 years old. Did it feel real?
It was an exciting time. We realized as children what was happening and we were very excited. But it did become a big business after a few years. It became the adult's world. We were young and we were having fun playing music and travelling around the world but the conflicts were all about the business, and the contracts and things between the parents is really what upset the cart.
Was that the prompt for you to leave? A money dispute between Murry Wilson and your parents?
Yeah, that was basically it.
And yet, wasn't Murry quite keen to manage your post-Beach Boys group, The Marksmen?
That seems quite weird after the previous differences of opinion. I think that Murry and Brian were in a competition after Murry left The Beach Boys. He sought out another group and mine was the first group he wanted to manage. He had heard us practising - we still lived across the street so he couldn't help but hear us. He offered to manage us. But, um, due to the previous dispute, I declined... My parents, actually, declined.
In most versions of the Beach Boys story, Murry gets a bad rap. What was he like as a manager?
Well he was very responsible for our early success. He got us the deal at Capitol and he promoted the heck out of us.
It's often the same when a parent manages the band: there's always a crisis. You have to get away from your parents eventually... You have to leave the nest. But if you're a minor your parents have to be involved. Now, a wise parent would hire a manager, but some parents think they can handle it on their own.
What would you say is your proudest achievement in the Beach Boys, in terms of the material you were on initially? What song, or part you were on, or responsible for...?
I would say, in general, introducing the electric guitar to the band was the big thing. But I'm just really proud to have been involved in all of those early hits: Surfer Girl, In My Room, Don't Worry Baby, all those songs I'm on.
You made a lot of music after The Beach Boys. The Marksmen had a great, garagey feel and Food Fair is still a really fresh-sounding track.
...And after The Marksmen there was The Moon, and Colours, which have been re-released on CD, and I'm actually working on a new one - The Circle Continues, is the name of it. And actually it's going to be a double - making up for lost time - and that's going to be out soon... I guess what you could do is go to davidleemarks.com to check for a release date on that. And I've also been playing with my own group The Summertime Blues, all around, and we also did a live album out here on the West Coast...
Have you finished recording the Beach Boys reunion record yet?
We're wrapping that up now. Mike and Brian have written some great songs... Mike has written some lyrics and Brian's contributed some great music.
You haven't recorded as this unit before: with Bruce Johnston, Al Jardine and yourself...
Exactly, this is the first time that this particular configuration has been together, and recording, and touring.
How's the chemistry?
The chemistry is wonderful. And we're all happy and we all seem to love each other, and that reflects in the music.
Can you tell me something about the single, That's Why God Made The Radio?
It's about falling in love, and listening to the car radio. It's a nostalgic moment, not quite doo-wop... It's kind of unique. I couldn't really put a tag on it.
You mentioned Pet Sounds earlier, and how much you enjoy singing those songs now. But was it tough at the time to be on the outside of that?
Well I was at some of the sessions. I was at the Good Vibrations sessions, observing. And I felt like I was part of it although I wasn't around all that much. At that exact time I was involved in studio work in my own band so I was quite busy. So it wasn't like I was sitting around the house sulking. But of course when I heard that stuff I was really proud of the boys.
Was there ever a point when it was tough to not be a Beach Boy?
Um... I really can't honestly say that because, um, I was always getting Beach Boys royalties. So I was able to do what I wanted. I went to school, I studied music. I studied classical guitar - I wouldn't have been able to do that if I had stayed in the band. So I'm grateful for the opportunity that I had, thanks to the Beach Boys royalties, to pursue my own interests, and I had a very fulfilling life in music outside of The Beach Boys for that period of time, when I wasn't fully involved in them.
The 50th anniversary of The Beach Boys is a celebration but the big sadness is the absence of Carl and Dennis...
That's a bittersweet feeling. All I can say is there will be tributes to them on the tour, and they'll be with us in spirit.
What's your favourite "Carl moment" in the Beach Boys catalogue?
We studied guitar together as children, but his instrument became his voice, most definitely. I pursued guitar, he pursued his voice, and he became one of the best vocalists is the world. When I listen to God Only Knows, it just, y'know... it just warms me all over to hear him.
He's superb on Break Away, and amazing on I Can Hear Music...
Yeah, and Long Promised Road. And Girl Don't Tell Me... His voice is very, very unique. You can hear the soul in it and at the same time you can hear the playfulness in it.
And with Dennis, it was the vulnerability in his voice that was most affecting...
Well, Dennis's voice on his solo records, the soul is gut-wrenching, there's so much soul in his voice. And he just exhibited so much writing prowess. His writing is just really wonderful... He just blossomed into a great writer and singer.
You had a brush with death yourself...
Well, um... I spent the '80s dedicating myself to being with my daughter and making sure that she was alright and happy and had what she needed. Then in the late '90s I started back with concentrating on being a Beach Boy full time. And then, unfortunately, I got sick. I contracted Hepatitis C. Which is a life-threatening, liver-eating disease. It took me a year in chemotherapy and at that time there was only a 50 per cent chance of success. It was like a coin toss, and I won, I beat it. And I went on to campaign for world awareness of Hepatitis C. But I never stopped doing music.
That must bring an extra sweetness to everything that's happening now?
Yeah, everything couldn't be more perfect. The record's great and the tour's going to be fantastic. I just can't wait to get out there.
A "favorites" list is entirely different from a "best" list. A "best" list requires objectivity and less subjectivity. My greatest argument about this "best" list is that "Don't Worry, Baby" is too low. It belongs anywhere from 3-5. Amazing list of songs. Good grief!
I once heard Brian in concert say that "God Only Knows" is "the best song I've ever written." It's probably #2 on my "best" list, with 1-5 being Good Vibrations, God Only Knows, Don't Worry, Baby, Surf's Up, and California Girls.
Interests:Chicago Cubs, music, movies, and camping with my family!
Posted 07 May 2012 - 04:17 PM
Good list of songs, but my order of preference would also be much different! Some of the songs at the tail end would have placed higher on my list. Great interview with David Marks!
This is one of the best music lists I've ever seen. They really knock out the important ones... I love that it's really saturated with Pet Sounds, it really was the best thing they ever did.
I'm especially glad that "Don't Talk" is so high up. That song is so underrated.
Just been reading the article now and while there are some great inclusions, I would not have put Caroline, No at number six. There are far greater songs in The Beach Boys' catalogue. Also some glaring omissions like Add Some Music To Your Day, Time To Get Alone, Slip On Through, Please Let Me Wonder and Kiss Me Baby. Still, it is all very much subjective.
Thanks for sharing. My list would have been much different too. I enjoyed reading David Marks' interview. I am so glad he is doing well and is excited about this tour. I'm glad he is proud (as he should be) of the early hits like Surfer Girl and Don't Worry Baby.
Mark
