160822 August 22, 2016

        It was The Beach Boys' first #1 hit in the United States since Good Vibrations in 1966, making it the longest time span between two number one hits in America for a band (22 years). It is also their only #1 hit not written or produced by Brian Wilson.

        On the hot, humid night of August 12, 1989, they had a concert in the amphitheater on Mud Island on the banks of the Mississippi at Memphis. This was a smaller venue that previous concerts I had attended in Memphis, but it was a great outdoor concert. John Stamos was sitting in on the drums for this concert. My wife and I had tickets on the floor, on about the 25th or so row from the stage and had a good view of the stage. I don’t know if it was the heat or the lack of interest, but late in the concert people started leaving. As one row in front of us would clear, we would move up. Eventually, we ended up on the very front row and enjoyed the ending set of songs from that vantage point. It was the first (and only) time I had ever sat on the front row of any concert, and it was great.

        With the popularity of Kokomo and the tours which followed, it appeared the Beach Boys finally realized what their fans wanted. They didn’t want to hear the new stuff, they wanted the vintage cars, beach, and sun songs, and every concert I have attended since the 1989 one has historically been a “greatest hits” type concert.

        I was divorced in 1994 and later started dating Sue. At the time she was not as big of a Beach Boy fan as my ex-wife had been, but she enjoyed them. I took her to her first Beach Boy concert on September 13, 1999, at an outdoor event sponsored by the Germantown Charity Horse Show in Germantown. It was a sold out event, but we were able to buy some tickets from someone outside the gate who had extras. Two years later we were sitting in the audience at the Mid-South Fair enjoying Mike Love and the Beach Boys performing on stage. This was the time when many of the vintage groups found a following in smaller events like casinos and state fairs.

        A couple of years later we saw them again at Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, and again it was sold out but we went anyway. We were lucky enough to have someone who had been compted tickets and would rather gamble than watch a concert give us some free tickets in a very nice area.

        And so, with the “Pet Sounds” tour which started this rant, in the same Horseshoe Casino, I come to a stopping place for this reflection. Even though the concerts I have attended since 1989 have had substitutions for members of the original group, today the music is still true to the original styles. Two members of the original group have died. Dennis Wilson drown on December 28, 1983 and Carl Wilson died of lung cancer February 6, 1998.

        Still, their music lives on.

My brother Don (back), my mother, and me and our TV on East Clinton Street.

The Vintage Television

Tommy Towery

LHS '64

The Roy Rogers Show

        The Roy Rogers Show is an American Western television series that broadcast 100 episodes on NBC for six seasons between December 30, 1951 and June 9, 1957. The show starred Roy Rogers as a ranch owner, Dale Evans as the proprietress of the Eureka Cafe in fictional Mineral City, and Pat Brady as Roy’s sidekick and Dale's cook. Brady's jeep Nellybelle had a mind of her own and often sped away driverless with Brady in frantic pursuit on foot. The Jeep was first called LuLubelle in the 1952 series. Animal stars were Roy's Palomino horse, Trigger, and his German Shepherd wonder dog, Bullet.

        (Editor's Note: Personally the thing I remember most about watching this show was not the plots or the acting. I do remember "Whooa Nellybelle!" but the thing I will never forget is the song sung during the ending credits - shown below.)

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