In memoriam: Ed Roach. Sincere condolences to all who love him.
In honor of Ed and some of the many incredible images and memories he shared so graciously online over the years, I tried to compile a selection into a post; please swipe for all images and quotes.
The Beach Boys with Annie, and... after thinking this particular lady in photo 1 looked familiar from a post by anotherbeachboysfanaccount last year, a recent columnatedruinsdomino post sent me on a quick research deep dive...
“Rediscovered a great photo of Carl Wilson taken around 1974. Super lovely!” - Ruth Elliott-Hilsdon, Facebook (December 11, 2015)
Ruth noted elsewhere on Facebook that she and her late husband, David Elliott, worked for Mike Love in Santa Barbara from 1972-1978, with her husband managing the property and occasionally touring with The Beach Boys, while Ruth helped run the estate and entertained the guests.
You can find out more about Ruth, a mother of seven whose career included being an Emmy award-winning animation artist (working on shows like The Simpsons and Scooby Doo) on her website.
* * *
“Mike, Al and Carl were as warm and delightful as usual [to interview].
[…] Music is truly the only sure way of getting people together.” - L.I. Journal (September 4, 1975)
“Music’s a curious thing. You really can’t say what’s going to do well and what won’t. We’ve been at it longer than anyone recording now, I guess, and I still don’t understand it. It’s just a feeling.” - Carl Wilson, Fort Lauderdale News (March 28, 1975)
Photo credits as known: Rich Zimmermann, Larry Hulst, Leo Gozbekian, Anwar Hussein, Henry Diltz.
“Carl’s Nudie cowboy outfit — Nudie [Cohn] was the gentleman that made all the beautiful rhinestone cowboy suits for all the country western artists at the time, and my sister [Annie] developed and designed several for Carl, and he wore them regularly on this tour [1974] and many of the other tours.” - Billy Hinsche, On The Road With The Beach Boys
Pictured below with Dennis (caption: Dennis and I at The Roxy for the premiere solo performance of Carl Wilson. Dennis dressed a whole crew in tuxedos, but I chose a more gangster look)
@xenichz I have done the deed. Sources and ramblings undercut
I volunteered my services to illustrate Bruce pretending to be gay to avoid the draft, so we have a version for each of the differing descriptions given by Bruce and Mike (quoted below) as well as a little comic panel squeezed onto the page and an impeccable photoshop job demonstrating Bruce as a tv show dancer, because the Shindig! bit is the funniest part.
Here is Bruce's description of events, sourced from here:
I went down to the draft board two weeks and two hours late. You were supposed to be there at seven. I got there at nine. Also, that weekend I went to a department store and bought some corduroy pants, blue Top-Sider deck shoes, and a nice button-down short sleeve shirt that I promptly shrunk in hot water. I put powder on my face and some perfume, and drove down for my interview.
Since I was late, I was the only guy there, and they were starting to give me crap. They asked me all kinds of questions and eventually sent me up to the psychologist. He started interviewing me and was actually very cool. During the interview, he said “And ah, Bruce, what business would you like to be in?” and I replied “Well, I’d like to be a dancer on the Shindig! show.” The psychologist said “Okay. I don’t think we need you, but thank you for coming by. Follow the red line out.” [...]
And here's what Mike wrote in his autobiography:
[Bruce] too strongly opposed the war, though he took a more creative path to avoid service. He had a slender surfer's body, and he bought a pair of jeans, washed and dried them several times so they were extremely tight, and wore them when he went to his draft board for induction. He also borrowed a girlfriend's blouse, applied a touch of makeup, and found opportune times to bat his eyes and shake his hips.
Even if Bruce really did borrow a girlfriend's blouse I know we don't live in the blessed timeline where he went with pink + a bow, but how could I resist 🎀
And also for completion's sake, here is the full impeccably photoshopped image (link to og photo) with the circa-1970 pic I got his face from (because look at what he's wearing, I mean yeah obvsly):
And I may as well drop some (pre-Bruce) BB performances on Shindig! to wrap this up, featuring the dancers on some of the songs and more tight pants on all of the Boys:
Ok but which one though lol, he has/had like three lead voices at the very minimum without counting his bass. I like everything he did until he started shoving his voice alllll the way up the back of his nose and putting on that schmoozy sound in the '80s and '90s (why did they let him do that 😂)
The Beach Boys onstage at Detroit's Cobo Arena on May 23, 1965. Photos by Jack Jenkins.
“[Carl is] ‘the worrier.’ Says he, ‘I guess I just like to worry.’ About what? ‘Oh, nothin’ in particular; just everything.’” - article by Hamilton B. Allen, The Times Union (September 3, 1965)
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