Week Seven: Early Sixties

Kingston Trio:

In 1957, with six notes rolling melodically off a banjo and the spoken words of "Throughout history, there have been many songs written about the eternal triangle. This next one tells the story of a Mr. Grayson, a beautiful woman, and a condemned man named Tom Dooley," The Kingston Trio began to take the world by storm.

With their smooth three part harmonies, collegiate appeal, and trademark striped shirts The Kingston Trio single-handedly revolutionized folk and pop music in America. Between the years of 1957-1967, Bob Shane, Nick Reynolds, and Dave Guard (who in 1961 was replaced by John Stewart), created a musical legacy that no other folk group has equaled or surpassed. The Kingston Trio has never failed to leave audiences energized and begging for more.

Until the advent of the Beatles in 1964, The Kingston Trio ruled the pop charts. They were the first act to sell more LP records than singles, placing 14 of their LP records in the "Top 10." One of those top ten made it to #1, redefining the group forever. The song that earned the Trio their first Grammy and catapulted them into the spotlight, was the legendary folk tune, "Tom Dooley". With the American public's desire to hear more music of the same kind, the folk era had been ushered into the limelight, leaving label exec's scrambling to imitate the Trio's distinct sound. Before long, the world was itching to hear the Trio live and be a part of their unparalled success.

Despite the Trio's immense popularity, today most of the Kingston Trio albums available on CD are compilations of the group's greatest hits. However, Folk Era Records has released one never before heard Kingston Trio album -"An Evening With The Kingston Trio," and re-issued two of the Trio's last three studio albums, "Stay Awhile" and "Children Of The Morning," to which eight of the twelve songs found on the third original LP "Something Else" have been added.

In 1967, after ten glorious years, the "original" Kingston Trio of Bob Shane, Nick Reynolds, and John Stewart (who had replaced Dave Guard in 1961), retired. But Bob Shane, who had been the heart and soul, to say nothing of the voice, of the Trio wasn't ready to hang it up. Music was his love and his life and, despite a couple of solo records, Bob was a group singer and his group was the Kingston Trio. He couldn't just walk away from it. As he put it, "I was doing a solo about nine months in 1968. I didn't like it. I realized I enjoyed singing with a group."

But Bob was also astute enough to know that the times had changed. Although the Kingston Trio had still been packing the clubs and concert halls, folk music was no longer topping the charts. There were new groups and new sounds-the Association, the Mamas and Papas and Simon & Garfunkel to name but three. And, although their songs and their sounds had folk roots, there was something new, refreshing and different about them. The Kingston Trio sound may not have been dead, but it wasn't the sound that the public was clamoring to hear. Bob knew that he'd have to come up with something "new" in order to have a shot at achieving the stardom that the Kingston Trio had enjoyed.

Bob tried a number of things, including a duo (called Shane & Travis) with Travis Edmonson of Bud & Travis, but wasn't happy with any of them. Despite knowing that a new sound was needed, Bob also knew that he was inextricably linked with the Kingston Trio name and would have to use it in order to build a new act. Negotiations with his former partners Nick Reynolds and Frank Werber resulted in an agreement for Bob to use the name, provided that it was preceded with a "New", both because two-thirds of the group would be new, and because a substantial part of the group's repertoire would be of material not previously done by the Kingston Trio.

After auditioning, and even working for awhile with a number of talented musicians, Bob finally settled on Jim Connor, one of the country's outstanding banjoists, and Pat Horine, a fine guitarist who was a regular on the Atlanta (Georgia) club scene both as a solo act and with a female partner in an act known as Pat & Barbara.

This New Kingston Trio learned enough old Kingston Trio songs to give audiences enough of the old Trio sound to satisfy those who came to shows to hear the songs and sounds they had come to expect from an act bearing the Kingston Trio name, even with a "new" preceding it. The arrangements were reasonably faithful to the original ones, but the maturity of Bob's voice and phrasing, together with the talents of his new partners, gave the old songs a quality not previously heard. Even such shop-worn Trio standards as "Tom Dooley" had a unique aura of freshness and vitality. Although there were distinct differences in sound and style, all the elements that had made the Kingston Trio so special remained.

Similarly, their new material had freshness and vitality, and by adroitly blending both old and new songs into their shows, the New Kingston Trio enthralled audiences in their many club appearances. They also spent a fair amount of time in the recording studio and, as best anyone can recall, recorded some twenty to thirty new songs. Several recording contracts came tantalizingly close, but only twelve songs were ever released -- two on a 45 r.p.m. single from Capitol and ten on a Longines LP record album that was used as a promotional piece for a six record set of earlier Kingston Trio material.

But recording success is dependent on radio air play, and the New Kingston Trio just couldn't get their fair share. Only the one 45 r.p.m. single was ever made available to the DJs, but it wasn't what they expected from the Kingston Trio, old or new, so it received little air play and the great majority of the listening public never even knew that the act existed. Consequently the material languished in the vaults and, when the act broke up in 1972, it was quickly forgotten.

Bob Shane subsequently teamed up with other new partners and reverted to performing only "old" Kingston Trio material. Although the "New" remained part of the name for a few more years, Bob ultimately bought out his former partners and the Kingston Trio continues to perform to this day. Jim Connor resumed performing as a solo act and achieved some measure of success and fame when John Denver recorded and had a hit with his song, "Grandma's Feather Bed." Pat Horine returned to Atlanta to resume his partnership in Pat & Barbara, an act he had left in order to join the Trio some years earlier. Although the act attained quite a following in Atlanta, Pat was restive to capitalize upon the national exposure he had gained as a member of the New Kingston Trio, and later left Atlanta. Ultimately he arrived in Indianapolis, Indiana where he lives now and from where he travels for performances throughout the nation. Among his other performing endeavors is an act called "The Legends Tour -- A Tribute To The Kingston Trio" in which he, Curt Walters and Pat Brunner perform songs of the Kingston Trio and other top folk acts of the sixties.

In the course of several moves, Pat sometimes didn't even finish unpacking everything before he was moving again. Among the unpacked boxes was one non-descript cardboard carton with nary a label or any other mark of identification. Pat came upon it in the course of his last move and curiosity caused him to open it and look inside where he found a couple of reels of tape labeled simply, "New KT." Not knowing whether they were tapes of live concert appearances or what, at the first opportunity Pat lugged them into a recording studio to listen to them. They turned out to be some, but not all, of the New Kingston Trio's studio recordings. With the exception of one song, "Nellie," which had appeared on the Longines album, none had been released. With some friends Pat carefully listened to every cut and chose eleven as being the best songs and most representative of the group. With the agreement of Bob Shane and Jim Connor, he began looking for a label, eventually bringing the Lost Masters to Folk Era Records.

Listen-and enjoy, and as you do keep in mind what Bob Shane once said about this act, "That's the NEW Kingston Trio-it's not the Kingston Trio. They aren't the same thing!"

Peter Paul & Mary: The first amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which went into effect in 1789, denies Congress the authority to make any law abridging "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances," and since the incorporation in 1802 of the capital city of Washington, D.C. with it's broad vistas and large expanses of land, designed by Pierre L'Enfant and laid out by Andrew Ellicott, American citizens have been attracted to the seat of government to make their wishes known to the legislators and government officials who work there. From the 1932 gathering of World War I veterans demanding early payment of a war bonus to the 1995 Million Man March proclaiming the personal responsibilities of African-American males, U.S. citizens have gathered in Washington D.C., by the tens and hundreds of thousands for social and political purposes.

But only one gathering has become known as the "March on Washington," and that was the assembly of an estimated quarter of a million blacks and blacks on the Mall between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument on August 28th, 1963. Formally known as the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," "It was the biggest, and surely the most diverse, demonstration in history for human rights," wrote Milton Viorst. (Fire in the Streets: America In The 1960's, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979) It was also a march that was 22 years in coming, a march that began as a threat and ended as a triumphant restatement of the goal of human freedom embodied in the Constitution.

The idea for the march was first conceived by A. (Asa) Philip Randolph (1889-1979), the most important civil rights leader of his generation, who was the president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the major black labor union of it's time, which he founded in 1925. In 1941, with American business gearing up for World War II, Randolph met with President Franklin Roosevelt to demand that blacks receive better treatment in the growing defense industry and that they be integrated within the armed forces. If not, he threatened to organize a march on Washington.

The threat worked. On June 25, 1941, six days before the proposed march, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, which banned discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government, though military segregation did not end. The march was called off, but the idea had taken root. A March on Washington Committee continued to exist, and Randolph confronted a second president, Harry Truman, on the military issue, with the result that Truman agreed to integrate the armed forces in 1948.

In the 1950's, the civil rights movement accelerated, starting with the Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which began the desegregation of public schools, and continuing with the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott of 1955-1956, which introduced the country to a young minister named Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968). The movement quickened in the early 1960s, turning to more active protests, such as the sit-ins intended to integrate public facilities of 1960 and the Freedom Rides to integrate interstate buses in 1961, among other efforts.

But by the end of 1962, despite a comparatively sympathetic Kennedy Administration in Washington and a series of isolated victories, it was apparent that "only sweeping federal legislation could transform the terms of the struggle," according to Viorst, and that "the movement had its best chance of succeeding if it devised a unified strategy and concentrated its forces on big, dramatic ventures." Thus, the idea for a massive march on Washington was reborn.

The march of 1963 was organized in Randolph's name by his deputy, anti-war and civil rights activist Bayard Rustin (1910-1987). Today, the march is best-remembered for King's speech, for his repeated declaration, "I have a dream," that brought the event to its conclusion. But as an event, the march was more the culmination of the early, progressive phase of the civil rights movement, though it featured King's development of it into non-violent protest and even elements of the later, more radical phase of the movement.

President John Kennedy had submitted a civil rights bill to Congress the day before the march was announced in June, and like Roosevelt and Truman before him, he tried to persuade Randolph and the others to call off the march, in this case on the grounds that it would endanger passage of the bill. But when Kennedy found he couldn't beat the march, he arranged to join it, endorsing it during a press conference on July 17. The Administration entered into the planning of the march, which was scheduled for Wednesday, August 28. Special trains and buses were chartered up and down the Eastern seaboard and throughout the South, with the intention of getting a crowd into the center of Washington by early in the morning, and getting them out before sundown.

CBS-TV provided live, continuous, nationwide coverage of the march from late morning to the end at five p.m. (the other two networks, ABC and NBC, began broadcasting in time for King's speech), and it displayed appearances by a series of speakers (limited to seven minutes, except King, who ignored the restriction and spoke for 19 minutes) and entertainers: actors such as Marlon Brando, Charlton Heston and Paul Newman, black performers such as Harry Belafonte, Marian Anderson, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Diahann Carroll, and the cream of the folk music community, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary.

As they stood before the Lincoln Memorial singing Pete Seeger and Lee Hayes's "The Hammer Song" (If I Had a Hammer)," with its stirring final verse about "the hammer of justice," "the bell of freedom" and "the song about love between my brothers and my sisters, all over this land," Peter Yarrow, Noel "Paul" Stookey and Mary Travers, all in their mid-20's, were not only the most politically committed, but also the most popular singing group in the United States. Their single, "Blowin' In The Wind" (which they also sang at the march), stood at #5 in its 10th week on Billboard magazine's Hot 100, its sixth week in the Top 10, heading back up the chart after already peaking at #2 two weeks before. Their second album, (Moving), released the previous January, had been certified as a gold record the day before, following their first, Peter, Paul and Mary. That week, (Moving), stood at #4 on Billboard's Top LP's chart; Peter, Paul and Mary, in its 71st consecutive week on the chart, was at #7.

In demand for performances around the world, the trio was doing close to 200 concerts a year, as well as scores of benefit performances of which the March on Washington was only the most prominent.

It was a heady time for the group, due to both the progress of its career and the promise of its politics. "I was very, very happy, because I loved singing," said Yarrow, recalling that period 32 summers later. "I was very committed. I'd seen the form rather than the shadow. I knew that the world could be a better place. I knew that folk music could and should have a role in making all that work,' I mean articulating the vision and expressing creatively the sense of consensus by the activist community, by the dreamers, by the organizers. I really entered folk music more because I saw its capacity to be an actual expression of commonality than I did because the music is so extraordinary. Yeah, the music is wonderful. I studied the violin, and so are the violin concerti. But what really got to me was the way in which folk music communicated and allowed one to live the sense of commonality and how that sense could then be translated into any number of forms: spiritual connection, political activism, formation of a community of one sort or another in a geographical sense or in the sense of people united with a particular sense of their direction."

"So I was motivated by two things, by a really powerful vision of what might be in the world and an absolute belief that there was something that was achievable, and number two, by a very clear sense that I was in a position to be a player, along with Paul and Mary, and to try to articulate that vision and lobby for its actualization." (Unless otherwise noted, direct quotations from Yarrow, Stookey and Travers are drawn from interviews with the author conducted in July and August 1995).

Yarrow and his fellow group members, as well as the larger communities of folk musicians and fans and political advocates and supporters, would have more trouble actualizing their vision than he thought in the summer of 1963. By November, President Kennedy was dead, and the following august, incidents real or imagined in the Tonkin Gulf of Vietnam provided the new president, Lyndon Johnson, with his excuse to escalate what became the country's longest and least successful war. In February 1964, the Beatles invaded America, and the following year Dylan began playing rock 'n roll on an electric guitar, events that effectively marginalized folk from the mainstream of popular music.

Yet Peter, Paul and Mary, together, apart, and together again, continued to seek inspiration from their music and to provide it to an audience decades after their initial emergence. There were gradual changes in the songs and the issues and the listeners, but the underlying commitment and the overarching vision remained, as they do do today.

Bob Dylan: Robert Allen Zimmerman was born 24 May 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota; his father Abe worked for the Standard Oil Co. Six years later the family moved to Hibbing, often the coldest place in the US, where he taught himself piano and guitar and formed several high school rock bands. In 1959 he entered the University of Minnesota and began performing as Bob Dylan at clubs in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The following year he went to New York, performed in Greenwich Village folk clubs, and spent much time in the hospital room of his hero Woody Guthrie. Late in 1961 Columbia signed him to a contract and the following year released his first album, containing two original songs. Next year "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" appeared, with all original songs including the 1960s anthem "Blowin' in the Wind." After several more important acoustic/folk albums, and tours with Joan Baez, he launched into a new electric/acoustic format with 1965's "Bringing It All Back Home" which, with The Byrds' cover of his "Mr. Tambourine Man," launched folk-rock. The documentary _Don't Look Back (1967)_ was filmed at this time; he broke off his relationship with Baez and by the end of the year had married Sara Dylan (born Sara Lowndes). Nearly killed in a motorcycle accident 29 July 1966, he withdrew for a time of introspection. After more hard rock performances, his next albums were mostly country. With his career wandering (and critics condemning the fact), Sam Peckinpah asked him to compose the score for, and appear in, his Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) - more memorable as a soundtrack than a film. In 1974 he and The Band went on tour, releasing his first #1 album, "Planet Waves". It was followed a year later by another first-place album, "Blood on the Tracks". After several Rolling Thunder tours, the unsuccessful film Renaldo and Clara (1978) and a divorce, he stunned the music world again by his release of the fundamentalist Christrian album "Slow Train Coming," a cut from which won him his first Grammy. Many tours and albums later, on the eve of a European tour May 1997, he was stricken with histoplasmosis (a possibly fatal infection of the heart sac); he recovered and appeared in Rome that September at the request of the

He was in a serious motorcycle accident in July of 1966, and in seclusion until late 1969.

Awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammies in 1991.

Admitted to hospital, for treatment of a "potentially life threatening infection." [27 May 1997]

Father of the singer/songwriter Jokob Dylan of The Wallflowers.

In February 1964 Dylan and three friends drove south from New York to see some of the US heartland. Dylan insisted they stop unannounced to see poet Carl Sandburg in North Carolina. To his lasting disappointment, Dylan left after some ten minutes when he sadly realized he couldn't get the venerable man of letters to take him seriously as a fellow poet.

Awarded the Polar Music Prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Music Award, in 2000.

Received France's highest cultural award, the Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, January 30, 1990.

Awarded honorary doctorate by Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, June 9, 1970.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Bruce Springsteen at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York, New York, January 18, 1988.

Has a daughter named Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan (born 1985) from his secret marriage to gospel-rock vocalist Carol Dennis, a former backup singer with him.

At the famous "Johnny Cash at San Quentin" concert, Johnny Cash introduced a song co-written by Dylan, describing him as "...the greatest writer of our time".

Is a vegetarian.

Son Jesse Dylan is a director.

Early in his career used the stage name 'Elston Gunn'.

His two most recent albums to date, 1997's 'Time out of Mind' and 2001's 'Love and Theft' were both voted Album of the Year in the Village Voice's annual critics' poll.

Appears on sleeve of The Beatles' "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".

Borrowed lines from a Japanese book "Confessions of a Yakuza" for lyrics in the songs of his latest Album "Love and Theft" - the author was apparently flattered by this.

Attended the University of Minnesota briefly after graduating high school; flunked out by non-participation ("refusin' to see a rabbit die" in a Science class, and reading Kant instead of a required textbook), and cutting classes to frequent the local Dinkytown coffeehouses.

Hitchhiked from Minnesota to New York after leaving college, paying his way with odd jobs and sleeping wherever he could find space. Stopped at a courthouse along the way, and legally changed his name from Zimmerman to Dylan. (When asked later if his name was spelled like Dylan Thomas, he answered "No, like Bob Dylan.")

Introduced the Beatles to pot-smoking in 1964, during their first meeting in New York; each told the press later "We just laughed all night."

Dylan's father owned a furniture store when young "Bobby" was in high school, and sent him once on rounds, to collect from installment-plan customers late on their bills. When Dylan returned and told his father "Dad, those people don't have any money," his father replied "Some of those people make as much money as I do; they just don't know how to manage it." The lesson stuck with Dylan.

According to the stage manager at Hibbing High School, and a local documentary, the piano that he played on stage is currently the same one that the school uses during their drama performances.

He graduated from Hibbing High School in 1959.

The town of Hibbing, Minnesota where he went to high school still acknowledges him. On Howard Street, there is a restaurant called Zimmy's taken after his real last name (Zimmerman).

Awarded an honorary degree at the University of St Andrews (Scotland). [June 2004]

Dylan once visited artist and filmmaker Andy Warhol when he came to pick up actress/model Edie Sedgwick, whom he was dating at the time, and found himself the subject of Warhol's movie camera. Dylan responded by picking up an original Warhol painting and taking it with him "for payment" for being filmed, which he used first as a dartboard, then traded for a sofa. (Dylan apologized to Warhol in a press interview years later, for his attitude.)

Visited Israel in the early 1980s on what was supposed to be a private trip; this was spoiled when he was photographed at Jerusalem's Wailing Wall, and the picture made headlines around the world.

Said that when he performs "All Along the Watchtower," he thinks of it as a tribute to Jimi Hendrix. Although Dylan was the song's original writer, Hendrix's cover is the best known version of the song.

Although raised Jewish, he converted to a born-again version of Christianity in the late 70s. Today he is very private about his religious belief, although he has been known to practice during Jewish holidays.

Renounced his faith in his born-again Christianity in 1983.

Besides his self-titled first album and a few albums in the early 70s, he has been the writer of almost everything he has recorded.

Although he is often thought of as just playing guitar, harmonica, and singing, Dylan is equally skilled on the piano, and he has played most instruments at one point or another in his 40+ years in music. On the album "John Wesley Harding," for example, he played all the instruments but drums and bass on most of the tracks.

Dylan turned down an offer to headline the legendary Woodstock Festival in 1969 (Jimi Hendrix ultimately headlined), even though he had been living on a farm in Woodstock, NY for many years at that point.

Although he continues to influence musicians today, perhaps Dylan's most significant influence was on other musicians of his own generation in the 60s. Among the musicians he influenced to start writing deeper, more introspective material were The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Beach Boys, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding and Paul Simon among many, many others. Ironically, when those he influenced were at their creative peaks in the late 60s, Dylan himself was in seclusion (after a motorcycle accident) and he really had nothing to do with the "hippie counterculture."

He was voted the 2nd Greatest Rock 'n' Rock Artist of all time by Rolling Stone.

Was a member of the Travelling Willburys with Beatle George Harrison.

Always something of a Casanova, he had his first steady girlfriend at 14 and was seeing as many as five girls at once by the time he was in college.

By the time he was ten, Bob began to get piano lessons and he was beginning to listen to the country, blues, and (a little later) the rock 'n' roll played on radio late at night in Hibbing. In his teens, Bob's father bought him an electric guitar and he started a series of rock 'n' roll cover bands with friends from school and summer camp called The Jokers, The Shadow Blasters, and, lastly, The Golden Chords. Once in college, he became so excited by the folk music of Woody Guthrie that he traded his electric guitar for an acoustic one.

There is much myth surrounding his changing his last name. In his "Chronicles," he said that he didn't think Zimmerman would be catchy enough as a stage name and that he first considered making his last name to his middle name, Allen. He then noted that a "D" would be stronger than an "A". But rather than spell it Dillion and in tribute to one of his favorite poets, Dylan Thomas, he choose to spell it Dylan. By late in college as many people called him "Dylan" as they did "Zimmerman" or "Zimmy" and, by the time he made it to New York City, everybody called him "Dylan."

Won an Academy Award for the song "Things Have Changed" from the "Wonder Boys" soundtrack. Dylan performed the song and accepted the Oscar via satellite due to the fact that he was on tour through Germany at the time.

Although he had several stalkers over the years, perhaps the most dogged was the self-titled Dylanologist, A.J. Weberman. This obsessed fan started the "Dylan Liberation Front," protesting that Dylan had sold out and has abandoned his political causes (in reality, Dylan was never very political). Weberman staged several "protests" in front of Dylan's home, rooted through Dylan's garbage repeatedly, and accused Dylan of heroin use. After Weberman pushed aside Dylan's wife, Sara, and broke into Dylan's home, Dylan lost his patience and defeated his considerably beefier stalker in a fight.

Despite his reputation as a "protest singer", he was never very active politically and very rarely rallied for causes. Although he did some work in support of the civil right movements and often fought individual injustices (most famously, that of Ruben "Hurricane" Carter), many of his peers in the folk community found his apparently indifference to politics frustrating.

For the recording of the famous, rambling song "Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35" (with its chorus of "everybody must get stoned!"), Dylan took the group of mostly straight-laced, professional session musicians he was recording with, got them very drunk and had them smoke pot. When they returned, he had each man play a different instrument to what they usually played. After this went on, somebody asked Dylan when they were actually going to record the song, Dylan countered, "That was it."

His favorite movie is Tirez sur le pianiste (1960) by François Truffaut.

Other bands Dylan preformed in are The Satin Stones, The Rockets and Elston Gunn and the Rock Boppers.

At the 40th annually Grammy Awards in 1998 he won a Grammy for best male rock-singer (on 'Cold irons bound'), best contemporary folksinger and album of the year (Time out of mind).

In May 1997 he was diagnosed with pericarditis, which can be lethal if it's not discovered in time.

Holds the impressive distinction of having had his songs covered by nearly 3,000 artists.

His song "Like a Rolling Stone" was named # 1 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2004). Other songs listed include: "Blowin' in the Wind" (# 14), "The Times Are A-Changin'" (# 59), "Tangled Up In Blue" (# 68), "Mr. Tambourine Man" (# 106), "Desolation Row" (# 185), "Knocking on Heaven's Door" (# 190), "Positively 4th Street" (# 203), "Just Like a Woman" # (230), "Subterranean Homesick Blues" (# 332), "Highway 61 Revisited" (# 364), and "Visions of Johanna" (# 403).

Despite rumors that he hates rap music, Dylan cites several rappers as having "brilliant minds" and, in his "Chronicles" states that he is a big fan of several Old School rappers, particularly Public Enemy, who were one of his favorite artists. Many see an early connection to rap in Dylan's music, particularly the song "Subterranean Homesick Blues". However, Dylan apparently dislikes the commercialism of much modern hip-hop and warns that "sometimes less is more".

Some notable covers of his songs: "Quinn the Eskimo" - Manfred Mann, "Mr. Tambourine Man" - the Byrds, "All Along the Watchtower" - Jimi Hendrix, "It Ain't Me, Babe" - Johnny Cash, "Knockin' on Heaven's Doors" - Eric Clapton, as well as Guns 'n Roses, "Maggie's Farm" - Rage Against the Machine, and there are over 100 covers of "Blowin' in the Wind."

Rode a 500cc T100S/R Triumph Tiger motorcycle upon which he famously crashed

1959: Played piano for Bobby Vee in a make-up band booked for show left vacant by the airplane-crash death of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson, Sr., alias The Big Bopper.

He has nine grandchildren - four from his step-daughter, Maria, one each from Jesse and Samuel, and three from Jakob. He also has a "World's Greatest Grandpa" bumper sticker that he proudly displays on his car.

A father of six children. His children are: Maria Lowndes Dylan (born 21 October 1961; married to Peter Himmelman and a mother of four), Jesse Byron Dylan (born 6 January 1966; married to Susan Traylor and father of William), Anna Leigh Dylan (born 11 July 1967; she is married, but has no children), Samuel Abraham Dylan (born 30 July 1968; married to Stacy Hochheiser and father of Jonah), Jakob Luke Dylan (born 9 December 1969; married to Nicole Denny and a father of three), Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan (born 31 January 1985). His eldest child, Maria, became his step-daughter when he married Sara Lowndes, and he later adopted her as his own. His youngest daughter, Desiree, was born to his second wife, Carolyn Dennis. His other four children were all with his first wife, Sara.

Simon & Garfunkel: Paul Simon and Arthur Garfunkel, born only 3 weeks apart in 1941, were best friends all through their childhood as they grew up in Queens, NY. They both shared a great love for music, although Paul Simon proved much more talented when it came to songwriting. They started practicing their guitars and making tapes in each other's basements and later teamed up as Tom And Jerry, taking the names of the cartoon characters. In the winter of 1957-58, they scored a chart hit with "Hey Schoolgirl"; both were 16 years old.

Simon continued to try to record hits in the late '50s and early '60s, reaching the charts briefly in 1962 in the group Tico And The Triumphs with "Motorcycle" and under the name Jerry Landis in 1963 with "The Lone Teen Ranger." He and Garfunkel teamed up again as a folk duo in Greenwich Village, signed to Columbia Records, and released "Wednesday Morning 3 A.M." (October 1964). The album flopped initially, but Simon, who had been spending a lot of time in England, was picked up as a solo artist by CBS and recorded "The Paul Simon Songbook", released only in Great Britain in the spring of 1965.

In 1966, Paul was performing as a solo act in Europe when word reached him that "The Sounds Of Silence" had reached number one in the US. Paul was stunned. He had no idea that the record had even been released. He soon found out that Columbia Records producer Tom Wilson had lifted the song from the album "Wednesday Morning, 3 AM" and added electric guitars, bass and drums to the original track of just Paul and Art singing along with Paul's guitar.

Such a sudden burst of fame would have taken most artists by surprise and Simon and Garfunkel were no exception. They quickly reunited, recorded another album and appropriately labelled it "Sounds Of Silence". The next year brought hit songs like "I Am A Rock", a song about self-pity written in almost a sarcastic way, that rose to #3 on the charts. There was also "Homeword Bound", the story of a wanderer who longs to return home. It was written almost sloppily, but rose to #5 on the charts.

Paul's reputation as a song writer grew when a group called Harper's Bazar took his "The 59th Street Bridge Song",("Feelin' Groovy") to the Top Ten. He and Art continued their own success streak in 1966 and 1967 with "Scarborough Fair", "A Hazy Shade Of Winter", "At The Zoo", "Fakin It" and "America".

Another Paul Simon composition, "Red Rubber Ball", sold over 800,000 copies for a band called "The Cyrkle" in 1966.

In 1968, Simon and Garfunkel scored yet another hit with the theme for the movie The Graduate, called "Mrs. Robinson". The Dustin Hoffman film was a smash and the song rose to the top spot on the Billboard chart, and won two Grammys.

Perhaps Paul Simon's most personal song, "The Boxer" tells a story that only a great writer could express. Even though its chorus is illegible, the song rose to #7 on the charts, and is a great example of Simon's talent as a writer, not to mention Simon and Garfunkel the singers.

Success continued as "Cecilia" peaked at the #4 position on the charts, but Paul Simon's best was yet to come. His song, "Bridge Over Troubled Water", is truly a magnificent piece of work. The song won a Grammy, and was seated at the top position on the charts for 10 weeks, showcasing Art's magnificent voice.

Even though the two had been friends since childhood, personal differences were tearing Simon and Garfunkel apart and the two decided to pursue solo careers in 1970.

Paul returned to solo work with "Paul Simon", in January, 1972, which could not hope to match the success of Bridge, but which did sell a million copies and feature the reggae-tinged Top Ten single "Mother and Child Reunion." The album "There Goes Rhymin' Simon", in May 1973, was another million-seller, containing the hits "Kodachrome" and "Loves Me like a Rock." After a 1974 live album, Simon released "Still Crazy After All These Years" in October of 1975, which topped the charts, won the Grammy for Album of the Year, and included the #1 hit "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover."

Meanwhile, Art Garfunkel didn't begin a solo singing career until 1973. Between 1970 and 1973, he acted, appearing in two Mike Nichols films, Catch 22 and Carnal Knowledge. "Angel Clare", his first solo record, was co-produced with Simon & Garfunkel producer Roy Halee and released in the fall of 1973. It established the style - a light, carefully arranged and constructed melodic soft-rock that he would follow throughout his solo career. The album became a Top Ten hit on the strength of the single "All I Know", which peaked at number nine. Two years later, he returned with the Richard Perry-produced "Breakaway", the most successful album of his solo career. The record peaked at number seven, with a version of The Flamingos' "I Only Have Eyes for You" reaching number 18 on the U.S. charts; in Britain, the single topped the charts. That same fall, he reunited with Paul Simon for the first time, performing on Saturday Night Live. In December, Simon's "My Little Town," featuring Garfunkel on backing vocals, became a Top Ten hit.

Simon took his time following this success, though he did release a greatest hits album featuring a new tune, "Slip Slidin' Away", and contributed to a remake of "What a Wonderful World" with Garfunkel and James Taylor. Moving to Warner Brothers Records, he wrote and starred in the film "One Trick Pony" (August 1980), the soundtrack of which contained the Top Ten hit "Late in the Evening."

In 1979, Art recorded an album titled, "Fate For Breakfast". Although it performed well in Britain, reaching number two, the album signalled that his American audience was beginning to shrink: None of the singles made the Top 40 and the album only reached number 67. In the fall of 1979, he filmed two movies, Bad Timing and Illusions. Another album called "Scissors Cut", a reunion with producer Roy Halee released in 1981, did nothing to reverse Art's sliding commercial potential - it didn't even break into the Top 100 albums.

After the release of "Scissors Cut", Simon & Garfunkel reunited for a concert in New York's Central Park. The concert was so successful, the duo decided to embark on a year-long world tour. During the tour, tensions mounted between the pair and they split again after it was completed.

Another two years passed before Simon returned with "Hearts and Bones" in October 1983, which did not match his usual level of commercial success. Simon experimented with songwriting styles and became interested in South African music, resulting in "Graceland" in August 1986, which became his biggest selling solo album and won him still another Album of the Year Grammy.

After a lengthy quiet period, Garfunkel re-emerged in 1988 with "Lefty", which spent a mere eight weeks in the American charts and failed to make the British charts at all.

After a four year break, Paul released, "The Rhythm Of The Saints" in October 1990, which did for Brazilian music what Graceland had done for South African music and was another multi-platinum seller. Simon played a free concert in Central Park in August 1991 (ten years after Simon And Garfunkel had done one) and released a live album from the show. In 1993, Warner Bros. released a boxed set retrospective on Simon's career, and he undertook a tour that featured Garfunkel on their old hits, as well as covering other aspects of his career

Art did not release another album until 1993's rarities compilation "Up 'til Now". Following its release, Garfunkel took another extended break, returning in 1997 with the live album "Across America". In early 2000, Art was seen doing public service commercials for the American Red Cross. The curly haired boy that appeared with him, is Art's son.

In the September of 2003, it was announced that Simon & Garfunkel would appear together at several concerts from October to December, as well as maintaining their solo tours.

Surfer Music

Jan & Dean: Jan Berry 9 (born April 3,1941) and Dean Torrence (born March 10, 1941) attended Jefferson Junior High School and University High School in West Los Angeles. They became friends while playing football (Jan -Tight End and Dean -Wide Receiver) during their senior year when their football lockers were next to each other. They first began singing together, along with some of their teammates, in the shower after practice. After football season, they moved to Jan's home in Bel Air where the family had a music room with piano and two Ampex reel to reel tape recorders. They were also members of the Barons, an informal all male club at University High. The Barons consisted of Chuck Steele (lead singer), Arnie Ginsberg (first tenor), Wally Agi (second tenor), John Saliman (second tenor), Jan (bass), and Dean (falsetto). Added to the group were Jan's neighbor Bruce Johnston because he could play the piano and Dean's neighbor Sandy Nelson on the drums. The Baron's first and only appearance was at their high school's talent show. After that all the members went to other interests leaving just Jan, Dean and Arnie.

One night Berry, Torrence, and fellow Baron Arnie Ginsberg drove to downtown Los Angeles to the New Follies Burlesque. The star of the show that night was a well endowed stripper Jennie "The Bazoom Girl" Lee. As Jennie Lee went through her act the men in the audience were chanting bomp, bomp, bomp. While driving home after the show the boys began the bomp bomp chant, then added some lyrics and the result would later become a song called "Jennie Lee".

After working on "Jennie Lee" for a few weeks, with Ginsberg writing the melody and two-thirds of the words, Berry decided he'd like to record it for a Baron's party at his house. With Torrence in the Army Reserve, Berry and Ginsberg took the finished tape to a recording studio in Hollywood. While at the studio Joe Lubin, a producer for Arwin Records, heard Berry and Ginsberg recording. Lubin offered to take the the tape, add instrumentation, and put it out on the Arwin label. Two months later "Jennie Lee" was a number one record.

Upon completing active duty Torrence returned home. In the late fall 1958 he was invited to play football and it is there that he ran into Berry. After the game Berry invited him to his house to work on some music.

Unable to find or write anything, Berry decided to call friends Herb Alpert and Lou Adler. One of the songs they suggested was "Baby Talk." The four of them worked on " Baby Talk " for about a month. With both singing into a microphone and Berry playing the piano they would record several more versions with Berry picking out the parts he liked and then splicing them together until he had a master version. Alpert would write the arrangement for the rest of the instruments and then pick the session musicians to play the instrumental tracks. In recording studio, the studio musicians would put on earphones and the studio engineer would play the vocal track to them and the session men would play along. The original vocal track and the new instrumental track were then combined on to a new tape. This procedure was totally opposite of the way rock and roll records had been made.

October, 1959 they reached the Top Ten with "Baby Talk" and appeared on American Bandstand. They followed with "Heart and Soul," "A Sunday Kind of Love," "There's a Girl," "We Go Together," and a album Jan and Dean on Dore Records over the next three years

They then left Dore Records and signed a two record deal with Gene Autry's Challenge Records. Jan & Dean's first record on Challenge label was the old standard Heart and Soul which hit number one on KFWB in L.A. On July 8, 1961 and peaked at number 25 on the Billboard charts later that summer. One more record was cut to fulfill their contract.

Jan and Dean now signed with Liberty Records. It took five records before they had a hit with " Linda." This song had been popular in the fifties and contrary to the rumor it was not written about Linda McCartney although there was a connection. The Linda that the song was written about had no interest in posing for a picture to be used for the cover of the sheet music, so a lawyer that was involved with the song suggested that his young daughters name was Linda, Linda Eastman and he thought it would be neat to have her picture on the sheet music, so her photo was featured on the final product. Linda Eastman went on to become Linda McCartney, Paul's wife.

In late 1962, Jan and Dean became surf music converts after performing at Hermosa Beach High School not far from the City of Hawthorne. Since they didn't have their own band the promoter hired a local group who just had their own hit record "Surfin' Safari" the Beach Boys. At one show the Beach Boys played a few songs and Jan and Dean followed with three or four. Seeing the enthusiastic crowd reaction they asked the Beach Boys if they'd like to do their set again and have them sing with them. They backed the Beach Boys on two songs and the crowd went wild and a life long friendship was started on that stage on a warm California spring evening in 1963.

The collaboration convinced Jan and Dean to include a surf song in their upcoming album, featured the song "Linda." Lou Adler, their record producer and manager suggested that the album be called Jan and Dean Take Linda Surfing. Not knowing any surfing songs, except the two the Beach Boys had done, Dean called Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, and asked if the group would play the instrumental parts to "Surfin'" and "Surfin' Surfari" on the album. At the session, Wilson sang the opening line of a new song, which he offer to Jan and Dean. The duo added lyrics and recorded it as "Surf City," a song that in 1963 went to the top of the charts. The next year, they followed with "Ride the Wild Surf" and "Sidewalk Surfin'

While they lacked the Beach Boys' depth and capacity for artistic growth, Jan and Dean's hits from 1963 and 1964 -- which also included "The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)," "Drag City," "Honolulu Lulu," and the mini-soap opera "Dead Man's Curve" -- are in the same class as the Beach Boys' early work in their infectious, energetic invocation of good times and California sunshine. They added an irresistibly reckless humor to the genre, and were well cast as the fun-loving hosts of the classic 1964 rock and roll hootenanny film The T.A.M.I. Show (for which they performed the rip-roaring theme, "(Here They Come) From All over the World".

All the while that Jan and Dean were recording stars and were flying around the country playing concerts on the weekends, they were both full-time college students, Dean in the school of architecture at the University of Southern California where he earned a bachelor degree in fine arts, and Jan at U.C.L.A. where he was pre-med and upon graduation he was accepted in medical school.

In 1964 Jan and Dean started Majic Lamp Records. Over two years they released fourteen singles, with some of them being by Karen Carpenter and Davy Jones of the Monkees. Dean also founded J&D Records in 1966, but it folded after two releases

The duo's success, already on the wane a bit, was tragically cut short by Jan Berry's near-fatal auto accident in April1966, which had been eerily foreshadowed by the lyrics of "Dead Man's Curve." April 12, 1966 on Whittier Drive in Beverly Hills, Berry pulled out to pass a slow-moving vehicle and slammed full-speed into a truck that was unexpectedly parked at the curb. The Paramedics that arrived on the scene thought Berry was dead. Checking his vital signs, they found he was alive, and rushed him to the UCLA Hospital. There they found Jan's brain had been severely damaged and even numerous major brain surgeries could not completely repair the damage.. Not expected to live, Berry was in a coma for months and awoke unable walk, speak and was paralyzed on the right side. The name Jan & Dean remained only in the memories and record collections of their many fans for 10 years.

The Beach Boys: Their classic songs epitomize the spirit of the California lifestyle and The Beach Boys have become an American icon to a worldwide audience. The Beach Boys' first hit "Surfin'" (1961) launched a string of chart-topping songs that spans nearly forty years and includes eternal anthems of American youth: "Surfin' USA," "Surfer Girl," "Fun, Fun, Fun," "I Get Around," "California Girls," "Help Me Rhonda," "Barbara Ann," "Good Vibrations," "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "Rock and Roll Music," "Kokomo" and more.

Their chart success alone would have earned The Beach Boys their spot in The Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame (they were inducted in 1988), not to mention 32 RIAA Platinum and Gold record awards and worldwide sales estimated at over 100 million. But The Beach Boys' story is one of not only commercial but also artistic success. Their unique blend of harmonies, musical arrangements and timeless lyrics still place the music of The Beach Boys among the All-Time Favorites of today's music critics. As an example, Rolling Stone magazine recently named Pet Sounds as the #2 best album of All-Time. The Beach Boys were honored at the 2001 Grammy® Awards, receiving The Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy.

In the 1960's, there were two groups on Capitol Records - one American, the other British - whose name began with the letters "B-E-A-." Each of these groups featured a bass playing songwriter born in June of 1942, and each group made records that have withstood the test of time to become classics of popular culture.

The Beatles, of course, broke up in 1970. But the American band, The Beach Boys, continued on, recording new material and selling out concert tours. To this day, generations of fans are still falling in love with the golden harmonies of California's musical ambassadors to the world.

For The Beach Boys, it all began in the modest home of Murry and Audree Wilson in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne. In the bedroom shared by their sons, oldest brother Brian taught his younger siblings to sing. In late-night sessions, middle brother Dennis and baby brother Carl learned the harmonies that Brian had absorbed from countless listenings to Four Freshmen and Hi-Los records.

Joining in on Christmas carols at holiday gatherings was Mike Love, the Wilson brothers' first cousin. Mike and Brian also spent many nights together in the late '50's listening to the car radio and singing along to their favorite hits of the day.

However, until 1961, singing was just something the Wilson/Love clan did for fun. It was when that familial foursome became five in 1961, with the addition of Al Jardine (Brian's Hawthorne High football teammate and El Camino Junior College classmate) that the self-named "Pendletones" began to take their vocalizing a little more seriously. Al had a love of folk music and his voice was the fourth part to fill out the harmony blend. When Murry and Audree returned from a trip to Mexico, they found that Brian and Mike had penned "Surfin'," which would become The Beach Boys first single release on the Candix label. Thanks to a remarkable chain of events, they made their first recording and miraculously scored their first chart record.

The formula? Their California garage band sound and an original song about a local fad had immediate teen appeal, and "Surfin'" reached the Top 3 on L.A. radio hit-lists. But as each of the newly-named "Beach Boys" earned only about $200 from that moment of fame, in early '62 (even though the group had made their live performing debut on December 31, 1961 at a Ritchie Valens memorial concert), the record business probably felt more like a hobby than a job. After all, Carl and Dennis were still in high school, Al and Brian were in college and Mike was 20 and working a full-time job.

Nonetheless, they were determined to have a career, and they cut a demo tape that would turn out to be their first major label record. With that tape and the help of the Wilson brothers' father, Murry, the group secured a record contract with Capitol Records in mid-1962. Their first single, "Surfin' Safari" b/w "409" was virtually an overnight hit, and almost right out of the box, The Beach Boys became Capitol's hottest act.

In the late summer of '62, the group recorded their first long-player, Surfin' Safari, and that release triggered an avalanche of music. From 1962-1969, Capitol released 20 Beach Boys albums, many of which went "Gold" and hit the Top 20, as The Beach Boys became first the most popular group in American and ultimately one of the most popular in the world.

In another milestone, The Beach Boys pioneered the concept of the self-contained band, and in the process, revolutionized the recording business. In an unparalleled act of rock 'n' roll rebellion, The Beach Boys, with Murry Wilson running interference, turned the system upside down, demanding and winning the right to control their records. The Beach Boys' declaration of independence smashed all precedents. Brian Wilson won his creative freedom, and The Beach Boys became the first, and for a long time, the only rock artists to completely control the musical output of their career.

From the beginning, the group featured Carl Wilson (Brian's studio sidekick, the musical director of the touring band and a truly pacific soul) on lead guitar; Dennis (the inspiration for The Beach Boys' first song, the group's sex symbol and a real surfing beach boy) bashed on drums; Mike Love (Brian's first lyrical collaborator and the co-writer of many of The Beach Boys' biggest hits) sang lead and became the extroverted emcee of the live shows; Al Jardine (briefly replaced by Wilson neighbor David Marks in 1962 and 1963) strummed rhythm guitar and added his voice to the family blend; and Brian played bass, wrote the songs, arranged the instruments and the vocals, and produced the records. When Brian quit touring in late 1964, to spend more time in the studio, his spot was filled temporarily by then-studio musician Glen Campbell and permanently by songwriter/record producer Bruce Johnston.

The Beach Boys' biggest hits read like a soundtrack of the 1960s, from their early surf and car songs like "Surfin' USA" and "Little Deuce Coupe" to the fun in the sun smashes like "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "California Girls"... from the psychedelic beauty of "Good Vibrations" to the nostalgic "Do It Again." From 1962-1965, The Beach Boys scored 16 Top 40 hits including "I Get Around" b/w "Don't Worry Baby," one of the greatest singles of all time, and a #1 smash for the group at the very height of Beatlemania.

In 1966, The Beach Boys' one-two punch of the Pet Sounds album and the "Good Vibrations" single, earned the group international acclaim, and established group leader Brian Wilson as the influential genius of modern pop music. As Paul McCartney recently remarked, "Pet Sounds was my inspiration for making Sgt. Pepper's...the big influence. That was the big thing for me (in 1966). I just thought, 'Oh, dear me. This is the album of all-time. What are we going to do?'" At the end of 1966, a year-end poll in one of England's music papers found The Beach Boys topping The Beatles as the #1 vocal group in the world.

In 1967-1969, the last years of their first Capitol association, The Beach Boys had five more Top 40 hits and released a number of albums, such as Brian's personal favorite, Friends, which The Beach Boys fans and critics regard fondly and 20/20 with the Top 20 hit "Do It Again." In 1969, The Beach Boys recorded their final Capitol single, appropriately titled "Breakaway" to indicate that it was the end of the relationship.

The next era for The Beach Boys, which coincidentally began as The Beatles called it quits, is affectionately known as the "Brother Years," in reference to Brother Records, the new family-owned record label and home to The Beach Boys. The new arrangement brought the boys a new level of freedom and control of their music. The broader dimension of the Brother releases showcased the songwriting and production of Dennis, Carl, Al and Bruce in addition to a number of songs penned by Brian and Mike. In the Nineties, the two eras were united when Capitol Records became the licensee of the Brother Records catalog.

The first two Brother releases, 1970's Sunflower and 1971's Surf's Up, are now recognized, by critics and fans, as two overlooked masterpieces. As a group, The Beach Boys were at their prime but rock guitars and feedback eclipsed the brilliant pop music. With 1972's Carl and the Passions - So Tough and 1973's Holland, The Beach Boys wrestled with different music styles. Even with their new sonic adventures, their harmonies, the taproot of The Beach Boys sounds, always shined through.

Around this time, with much thanks to Carl and Mike, The Beach Boys transformed themselves into one of the world's premiere live acts, a title their former labelmates, The Beatles, never could claim. With Carl's musical direction and Mike's role as lead singer and frontman, The Beach Boys took all the hits and the studio gems and converted them into arena-rock anthems. Seeing The Beach Boys summer concert tour became a truly American experience. A new generation of fans made the music of The Beach Boys their soundtrack to summer. The Beach Boys in Concert, an album that came out in 1973, offers an excellent aural snapshot of this burgeoning entity. On the heels of their touring success, Capitol Records released a 2-record "best of" collection, Endless Summer, in 1974. It went straight to #1 on the album chart and remained on the chart for 3 years. Rolling Stone went on to name The Beach Boys the band of the year in 1974.

The band took the momentum back into the studio and recorded 15 Big Ones, their first studio record in 3 years. Brian Wilson was back on board and contributed 5 tracks. The band had a chance to pay tribute to their favorite 50s tunes while reinterpreting their signature sound. 15 Big Ones went Top 10 on the album chart. It was followed in 1977 with The Beach Boys Love You.

The late 70's brought the releases M.I.U. (1978), L.A. Album (1979), and Keepin' The Summer Alive (1980). Brothers Carl and Dennis each released their own solo albums. Dennis released his solo album, Pacific Ocean Blue in 1977. Carl released his solo album, Carl Wilson in 1981 and a second record, Youngblood followed in 1984. In 1985 the band released the self-titled album The Beach Boys that featured the Top 20 hit "Getcha Back". Dennis remained a member of The Beach Boys until his drowning death in 1983. Carl Wilson passed away in 1998.

In 1988, The Beach Boys were at the top of the pop charts with the #1 single "Kokomo" from the Cocktail Motion Picture Soundtrack. The multi-platinum "Kokomo" is The Beach Boys biggest selling hit, climbing to #1 on the pop music and video charts of Billboard, Cashbox, Radio & Records and Hits magazines in 1988.

The 1980's and 90's found The Beach Boys performing at milestone events including: the Live Aid Concert, Farm Aid concerts, the Statue of Liberty's 100th Anniversary Salute and the Super Bowl. In 1980, they played to over 500,000 people in the first of four Independence Day concerts on the Washington Monument Grounds. On July 4, 1985 they played to an afternoon crowd of an estimated one million in Philadelphia and that evening they performed for over 750,000 people on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Former U.S. Secretary of Interior James Watt's efforts to ban The Beach Boys from the Washington Monument Grounds in 1983 created an international furor that VH-1 has termed one of the most important moments in rock.

Brian also returned to the studio in 1988 and released his first solo album, Brian Wilson, that was met with critical acclaim. In 1998 he released Imagination also to rave reviews and launched his first solo tour and has been actively touring ever since.

The recent years have brought a chance for introspection. Fans and critics have now had a chance to re-evaluate the past catalog through reissues and box sets. The world also focused attention on The Beach Boys story. A documentary and DVD release, Endless Harmony, The Beach Boys Story, chronicled the career of the band and was a 2001 Grammy® nominee for "Best Long Form Music Video." The ABC mini-series The Beach Boys: An American Family was nominated for three Emmys® and is one ABC's highest rated mini-series. In 2003, Capitol Records will release three Beach Boys projects: The Sounds of Summer - The Very Best of The Beach Boys featuring 30 of the band's greatest hits on one CD; Pet Sounds on the new DVD-Audio technology in 5.1 Surround Sound and 40 Top 40s collecting chart topping singles from around the world.

Dick Dale: Dick Dale invented surf music in the 1950's not the '60's as is commonly believed. He was given the title "King of the Surf Guitar" by his fellow surfers whom he surfed with from sun-up to sun-down. He met Leo Fender the guitar and amplifier Guru and Leo asked Dale to play his new creation, the Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar. The minute Dale picked up the guitar, Leo Fender broke into uncontrolled laughter and disbelief, as he watched Dale play a right handed guitar upside down and backwards. Dale was playing a right handed guitar left handed and changing the chords in his head then transposing the chords to his hands to create a sound never heard before.

Fender gave the Stratocaster along with a Fender Amp to Dale and tell him what he thought of it. Dale took the guitar and started to play he actually blew up amp and speaker. Dale proceeded to blow up forty nine amps and speakers. They'd actually catch on fire. Fender would say, "Dick, why do you have to play so loud?" Dale would explain that he wanted to create the sound of Gene Krupa, the famous jazz drummer, created the sounds of the native dancers in the jungles along with the roar of mother nature's creature's and the roar of the ocean.

Fender kept giving Dale amps and Dale kept blowing them up! Till one night Leo and his right hand man Freddy T. went down to the Rendezvous Ballroom on the Balboa Peninsula in Balboa, California. Standing in the middle of four thousand screaming dancing Dick Dale fans Fender now knew what Dick Dale was trying to tell him. Back to the drawing board. A special 85 watt output transformer was made that peaked 100 watts when Dale would pump up the volume of his amp. However they now needed a speaker that would handle the power and not burn up from the volume that would come from Dale's guitar.

Leo, Freddy and Dale went to the James B. Lansing speaker company where they explained that they wanted a fifteen inch speaker built to their specifications. It would soon be known as the 15'' JBL -D130F speaker, it made the complete package for Dale to play through being named the Single Showman Amp. When Dale plugged his Stratocaster guitar into the Showman amp and speaker cabinet, Dale became the first to jump from the volume scale of a modest quiet guitar player of a scale of 4 to blasting up through the volume scale to TEN ! That is when Dale became the 'Father of Heavy Metal' quote "Guitar Player Magazine". Dale broke through the electronic barrier limitations of that era!

Dale still wanted to go further, as the crowds increased, Dale's volume increased, but he still wanted a bigger punch with thickness in the sound so that it would pulsate into the audience and leave them breathless. Dale designed a speaker cabinet and had Fender put 2 -15''-JBL-D103's into it which created a new and more powerful output transformer. It was called the Dick Dale Transformer. This 100 watt output transformer peaked 180 watts was known as the Dual-Showman Piggy Back Amp. This is why Dick Dale is called the Father of all the power Players in the world!

Dick Dale called "King of the Surf Guitar," to a large degree invented and defined the form in the early '60s with his pioneering use of Fender reverb, dazzling staccato playing, and thundering instrumentals that incorporated Middle Eastern and Latin melodic influences. This was a musical genre that Beach Boy Brian Wilson and others would later bring to fruition.

His twang, heavily reverbed tone on the 1962 "Miserlou" influenced Beach Boy Carl Wilson and many other California guitarists; his signature staccato slide down the strings was copied by the Chantays to open their classic "Pipeline." Dick Dale to a large degree invented and defined the form in the early '60s with his pioneering use of Fender reverb, dazzling staccato playing, and thundering instrumentals that incorporated Middle Eastern and Latin melodic influences.

Playing guitars strung for right-handers with his left hand (as Hendrix would years later), he had an agreement with Fender instruments to "road test" new amplification equipment before it was manufactured for the general public, and found that its hollow, sustained tones evoked the mood of surfing, then catching on in a big way in his Southern California stomping grounds.

Dale and his Del-tones were so popular in Southern California's Huntington Beach/Balboa area that he felt no need to tour nationally. Dale never reaped the commercial rewards of the surf boom, 1963's Scavenger was his only other record that made the charts. Dale's impact was largely limited to Southern California, but his influence was vast, helping ignite surf music and contributing several of the genre's most enduring classics, especially "Let's Go Trippin'" and "Miserlou" (both of which were covered by the Beach Boys on their early albums). Dale's first album called 'Surfer's Choice' was the first Surfing album to be commercially sold with a picture of Dale surfing by the pier in San Clemente, Ca. with a surfing title on it. This album alone sold over eighty-eight thousand albums in the late 50's and today in the 90's it would be like 4 million.

Disillusioned with the music he retired in 1965. In 1970 he reformed the Del-tones and continued performing around Southern California with different versions of the group through the eighties.

1986 Dale was named Forefather of Rock and Roll by Thirty Years of Rock and Roll, Dale staged a comeback in 1987 that began with a guest appearance in the Frankie Avalon-Annette Funicello movie Back to the Beach, in which he and Stevie Ray Vaughn performed "Pipeline." Their version was nominated for a Best rock Instrumental Grammy. 1993's "Tribal Thunder" prompted the first nationwide tour of his career and brought him to MTV with his first musical video, "Nitro." Dale continues to perform today; he gained more prominence from "Miserlou," which opened the hit film Pulp Fiction.

1989 Dale was inducted into the Surfing Hall of Fame located in the Hall of Champions building in San Diego, CA.

Dick Dale has been called one of the hardest working men in show business. In the past five years he has maintained a heavy concert tour and public appearance schedule throughout the world. Focusing in Europe, Australia, Japan, Canada, South America and the U.S. Dale has also recorded original material for Disneyland's Space Mountain roller coaster ride, and the soundtrack for the History of NASA video shown in Space Mountain. Dale's music is being used in all the Disneyland's throughout the world along with being featured in a Disneyland Music album which is being sold by Disneyland. May 21, 1998 a historical day for Disneyland, Dick Dale was chosen to be the person to highlight the grand opening of Tomorrowland by standing on top of Space Mountain (without the use of a safety harness) with his Gold Fender Stratocaster guitar (the beast) and play for all to hear throughout Disneyland "Ghost Riders"& "Miserlou" - Dale's music has gone down in the annals of Disneyland history.

1996 Dale presented a Platinum Record award for his performance recording of Miserlou, the guitar instrumental that gave Quentin Tarantino the energy force to create the the all time award movie Pulp Fiction. Miserlou was made the Title song.

1996 Dale Inducted into the Hollywood Rock Walk of Fame - Hollywood, California Dale's impact was largely limited to Southern California, but his influence was vast, helping ignite surf music and contributing several of the genre's most enduring classics, especially "Let's Go Trippin'" and "Miserlou" (both of which were covered by the Beach Boys on their early albums).

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