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They get
around: Beach Boys monument unveiled in California
By Bob Pool, Los Angeles Times
May 22, 2005
LOS
ANGELES — Don't blame the 18-wheelers on the freeway for shaking
the ground in one Hawthorne neighborhood.
The good vibrations Friday were coming from 1,500 rock 'n' roll
fans from as far away as Great Britain and Australia who spilled
into two streets of a working-class community of tract houses to
memorialize the birthplace of the Beach Boys' surfer music.
The childhood home of musicians
Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson was bulldozed in the mid-1980s to
make way for the Century Freeway. |
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Brian Wilson, an
original member of the Beach Boys, attended the unveiling of a
15-foot monument to the band in Hawthorne, Calif. Wilson took
the stage to sing "Surfer Girl" and "In My Room." |
Ever since, devoted fans have come away confused and frustrated when
they have tried to find 3701 W. 119th St. — where Brian Wilson wrote
such hits as 1962's "Surfin' USA" and his brothers and cousins
practiced singing until their romantic salutes to sun and sand were
in perfect harmony.
Fans made up for the freeway's intrusion Friday by inviting Wilson
and former band members Al Jardine and David Marks to unveil a
15-foot monument to the Beach Boys at the freeway's edge.
City officials in landlocked Hawthorne have been working for years
to create a fitting monument to the musicians who came to symbolize
California beach culture. And the fans who showed up Friday didn't
seem to mind that the marker was a good 6 miles from the ocean.
The beige brick wall bears a plaque that proclaims the site
California historic landmark No. 1041 and includes a sculpture
depicting the six band members carrying a surfboard, reminiscent of
their 1963 "Surfer Girl" album cover. Fittingly, the Beach Boys seem
to be walking west, toward the sea.
"The house's front door was straight back in the hill here," Jardine
told the crowd as he gestured past the marker toward a 15-foot
embankment beneath the freeway's eastbound lanes.
It was in the pink, palm-shaded, single-story tract home that the
Beach Boys recorded their first hit, "Surfin'," and Brian Wilson
wrote such tunes as "In My Room."
Fans roared their approval when Brian Wilson took the stage and sang
"Surfer Girl" and "In My Room."
"We love you Brian!" screamed Kevin Witts, a 41-year-old pet-store
executive who drove from Phoenix for the ceremony.
Stu Levinson and his wife, Sue, spent $4,000 to fly from London to
watch the unveiling.
"Brian Wilson's music does fit the soul," said Levinson, 57.
Linda Ranger, a music teacher from a village 30 miles outside
London, said 50 British Beach Boys fans traveled to Hawthorne for
the ceremony.
Beach Boys parents Murry and Audree Wilson died in 1973 and 1997,
respectively. Son Dennis drowned in 1983, and son Carl died of
cancer in 1998.
Beach Boys music was woven throughout the two-hour ceremony, during
which friends of the band members paid tribute. A medley of surfer
music was sung by the Hawthorne High School choir, and the school's
band played "I Get Around."
"It's been gone a number of years, but the music that came out of
this home will live on," said Fred Vail, the Beach Boys' longtime
promoter.
Debbe Moore, who lives across the street from the monument, said
she's more into hip-hop.
"But I guess I'm going to be a fan," she said. "I'm going to wake up
every morning with the Beach Boys."
Copyright © 2005 The Seattle
Times Company
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