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30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Here at last, the Beach Boys' "missing link", June 1, 2007
A book about David Marks was long overdue, and I'm glad that Jon Stebbins (who published a fine biography of the late Dennis Wilson in 2000) was the one who took on the job. Most people haven't heard of David Marks. He was a childhood neighbor of the Wilson family. He grew up next door, playing with Carl and Dennis, learned about music from older brother Brian--who also, David notes, "taught me how to throw a football." From the Beach Boys' earliest days as a garage band, David Marks was there. He played on their first six albums, where his pictures remain, yet received no gold records, and was not on the stage when the group was inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
Marks left the Beach Boys when tyrannical manager/father Murry Wilson held him to a threat to quit. He was replaced by Al Jardine, who'd taken a time-out from the band. Barely sixteen years old, Marks returned to the South Bay section of Los Angeles, continued playing music with his own band The Marksmen, studied piano and guitar, and hung around with a dazzling array of LA musicians, including Warren Zevon. By the time he was sixteen, he'd signed recording contracts with no fewer than three companies. In time Marks became a highly accomplished studio musician. Though he toured briefly with the re-formed Beach Boys in 1999, Marks' dependencies, and his disinclination to play the same old things, led him away from the band again.
Unfortunately, this book also has to detail Marks' "lost years" grappling with drug and alcohol dependency. Stebbins doesn't overdramatize, and the reader is fortunate to see Marks sober, healthy, acting as a spokesman for Hepatitis C awareness, and finally receiving some recognition for his accomplishments with the Beach Boys: He recently was honored with the other surviving Beach Boys founders at Capitol Records, for example, and along with Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, Marks appeared at the grand opening of the Beach Boys memorial site in Hawthorne, California, near where both families' houses were torn down to make way for... a freeway. (Sometimes the cliches just write themselves!)
Stebbins also provides some new angles to many subjects passionately debated by Beach Boys fans. Marks' relationship with Mike Love is explored to great advantage, and Stebbins makes a strong argument for the belief that pressure and blackballing by Murry Wilson kept David Marks' post-Beach Boys records from getting the air time they deserved.
A niche book for a niche market. But hey, if it's your niche, you'll like it.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If You Are a Beach Boys Fan Then You Have to Read This., June 26, 2007
After reading Timothy White's "The Nearest Farawar Place" you might think that there is little else to be said about the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson and yet all of these great books keep coming out about the band using White's book as a reference and going into all sorts of various directions.
As other reviewers have noted, this book is long overdue. The "replacement Beach Boy" phenomina helped the band in some ways. David Marks/Al Jardine and then Chapman/Fataar and Bruce Johnston all had a role at one point or another in allowing Brian to stay in the studio and create unparalleled music. But it also hurt in some ways too in that fans do like to see the original lineup as much as possible. For all intents and purposes David Marks was really the original 5th Beach Boy, at least from the fans perspective. He was the one that we saw and heard on the first 4-5 albums before being replaced by Al Jardine- who was there before him but did not appear regulalry on the albums until much later. After that David's role was kind of swept under the rug until he returned to the band in 1997.
Fortunately this book focuses on his relationship with the Beach Boys during and after his tenure and does not spend too much time on his other bands. No offense to David but this would have been boring had they spent too much time talking about The Moon or David and the Marksmen. Although I have to admit that I was curious to hear his post-Beach Boys work after reading this. You end up getting a lot of extra insight and given that he experienced something similar to what Pete Best did it is actually very positive. And he clearly loves and admires Brian Wilson. Even after learning that Brian had the hots for his mom and was calling her at 3 in the morning when Dave and his dad were out of town. That part made me really laugh out loud and want to high five Brian too. Glad to know Denis wasn't the only one causing a little mischief from time to time! :)
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Recognition Long Overdue for David Marks, June 5, 2007
Jon Stebbins has written a great book detailing the life of original Beach Boy David Marks. This is a must for Beach Boy die hards but can also be a great starting point for just casual fans as well. This book strips away the myths about the beginnings of the Beach Boys, the originals members and who exactly played on their albums -- guess what? but the early Beach Boys DID play on their albums contrary to popular myths that has grown up recently. Studio musicians did not come until later after their first 5-6 albums. David Marks finally gets his due for his guitar playing and introducing the other boys to various influences. It is long overdue. And someday hopefully he will take his just earned place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame where he should have been from the start! Jon Stebbins has made a valuable contribution for setting the historical record straight.
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~ David Marks
by Steven Gaines
~ Dennis Wilson
~ Brian Wilson
