Hello I'm DAV National Agent Mark Burgess. Hopefully by now you're aware that DAV is continuing its vitally important work as we navigate these uncharted waters. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly touched all of our lives. As with nearly every other organization in the country, DAV has had to make some tough choices. We've had to shift to accommodate the safety of our employees, the veterans we serve, and their families. You should know that DAV is doing everything possible to maintain our full range of operations and to provide service to all of our Veterans nationwide. But we are changing some things we do to adapt in the face of COVID-19. I encourage you to visit DAV.org slash COVID for up-to-date information about Veterans benefits, the impact of the pandemic, and our response. Remember, we will get through this, but we have to do it together. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all who've been impacted by this disease. May the Lord be with our nation in these unprecedented times. May his mercy shine upon those who've sacrificed for our freedom. And may each of you stay safe so we can help our fellow Veterans and family members when it's time to rebuild.


The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by their vocal harmonies and early surf songs, they are one of the most influential acts of the rock era. The group, led by their principal songwriter and producer Brian, pioneered novel approaches to popular music form and production, combining their affinities for jazz-based vocal groups, 1950s rock and roll, and black rand B to create their unique sound. He later arranged his compositions for studio orchestras and explored a variety of other styles, often incorporating classical or jazz elements and unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways. The Beach Boys began as a garage band managed by the Wilson's father Murray, with Brian's increasingly sophisticated songwriter and recording abilities dominating their creative direction. Emerging at the vanguard of the California sound, they performed original material that reflected a southern California youth culture of surfing, cars and romance. After 1964, they abandoned the surfing aesthetic for more personal lyrics and multi-layered sounds. In 1966, the Pet Sounds album and Good Vibrations single vaulted the group to the top level of rock innovators and established the band as symbols of the nascent counterculture era. Following Smile Us dissolution, Brian gradually ceded production and songwriter duties to the rest of the band, reducing his input because of mental health and substance abuse issues. The group's public image subsequently faltered, and despite efforts to continue their psychedelic avant-garde phase and reclaim their hippie audiences, they were dismissed as an embodiment of the values and outlooks shared by early 1960s white, suburban teenagers. The continued success of their greatest hits albums during the mid-1970s precipitated the band's transition into an oldies act, a move that was denigrated by critics and many fans. Since the 1980s, much publicized legal wrangling over royalties, songwriter credits and use of the band's name transpired. Dennis Drowned in 1983 and Carl died of lung cancer in 1998. After Carl's death, many live configurations of the band fronted by Mike Love and Bruce Johnston continued to tour into the 20s while other members pursued solo projects. Even though Wilson and Jardine have not performed with Love and Johnston's band since their one-off 2012 reunion tour, they remain a part of the Beach Boys Corporation, Brother Records Inc. The Beach Boys are one of the most critically acclaimed, commercially successful, and widely influential bands of all time. The group had over 80 songs chart worldwide, 36 of them U.S. top 40 hits, the most by an American rock band, four reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The Beach Boys have sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide, making them one of the world's best-selling bands of all time and are listed at number 12 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 list of the 100 greatest artists of all time. They received their only Grammy Award for the Smile Sessions, 2011. The core quintet of the three Wilson's, Love and Jardine were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. 1958-1966, Brian Wilson era. Formation At the time of his 16th birthday on June 20, 1958, Brian Wilson shared a bedroom with his brothers, Dennis and Carl aged 13 and 11, respectively in their family home in Hawthorne. He had watched his father, Murray Wilson, play piano and had listened intently to the harmonies of vocal groups such as the Four Freshmen. After dissecting songs such as Ivory Tower and Good News, Brian would teach family members how to sing the background harmonies. For his birthday that year, Brian received a reel-to-reel tape recorder. He learned how to overdub, using his vocals and those of Carl and their mother. Brian played piano with Carl and David Marks, an 11-year-old longtime neighbor, playing guitars they had each received as Christmas presents. Soon Brian and Carl were avidly listening to Johnny Otis KFOX radio show. Inspired by the simple structure and vocals of the rhythm and blues songs he heard, Brian changed his piano playing style and started writing songs. His enthusiasm interfered with his music studies at school. Family gatherings brought the Wilson's in contact with cousin Mike Love. Brian taught Love's sister Maureen and a friend harmonies. Later, Brian, Mike Love and two friends performed at Hawthorne High School. Brian also knew Al Jardine, a high school classmate. Brian suggested to Jardine that they team up with his cousin and brother Carl. Love gave the fledgling band its name, the Pendletons, a portmanteau of Pendleton, a style of woolen shirt popular at the time and tone, the musical term. Though surfing motifs were prominent in their early songs, Dennis was the only avid surfer in the group.He suggested that the group compose songs that celebrated the sport and the lifestyle that it had inspired in Southern California. Jardine and a singer friend, Gary Winfrey, went to Brian to see if he could help out with a version of a folk song they wanted to record Sloup John B. In Brian's absence, the two spoke with their father, a music industry veteran of modest success. Murray arranged for the Pendletons to meet his publisher, Height Morgan.The group performed a slower ballad, their hearts were full of spring, but failed to impress Morgan. After an awkward pause, Dennis mentioned they had an original song, Siphon. Brian finished the song, and together with Mike Love, wrote Siphon Safari. The group rented guitars, drums, amplifiers and microphones, and practiced for three days while the Wilson's parents were on a short vacation. In October 1961, the Pendletons recorded the two surfing song demos in 12 takes at Keen Recording Studio. Murray brought the demos to Herb Newman, owner of Candix Records and Air Records, and he signed the group on December 8, 1961. When the boys eagerly unpacked the first box of singles released both under the Candix label, and also as a promo issue under X Records, Morgan's label, they were shocked to see their band had been renamed as the Beach Boys. Murray Wilson learned that Candix wanted to name the group the surfers to directly associate them with the increasingly popular teen sport. But Russ Reagan, a young promoter with Air Records who later became president of 20th Century Fox Records noted that there already existed a group by that name, and he suggested calling them the Beach Boys. Beach-themed period. Released in December 1961, Siphon soon aired on KFWB and KRLA, two of Los Angeles' most influential teen radio stations. It was a hit on the West Coast, going to No. 3 in Southern California, and peaked at No. 75 on the national pop charts. By the final weeks of 1961 Siphon had sold more than 40,000 copies. By this time the de facto manager of the Beach Boys, Murray Wilson landed the group's first paying gig, for which they earned $300, on New Year's Eve, 1961, at the Richie Valens Memorial Dance in Long Beach, headlined by Ike and Tina Turner. In their earliest public appearances, the band wore heavy wool jacket-like shirts that local surfers favored before switching to their trademark striped shirts and white pants. Murray effectively seized managerial control of the band, and Brian acknowledged that he deserves credit for getting us off the ground, he hounded us mercilessly. But also worked hard himself. In the first half of February 1962, Jardine left the band and was replaced by Marx. The band recorded two more originals on April 19 at Western Studios, Los Angeles, Lonely Sea and 409. They also re-recorded Siphon Safari. During early 1962, Morgan requested that some of the members add vocals to a couple of instrumental tracks that he had recorded with other musicians. This led to the creation of the short-lived group Kenny and the Cadets, which Brian led under the pseudonym Kenny. The other members were Carl, Jardine and the Wilson's mother Audrey. On June 4, the Beach Boys released their second single Siphon Safari backed with 409. The release prompted national coverage in the June 9 issue of Billboard. The magazine praised Love's lead vocal and said the song had strong hit potential. On July 16, 1962 after being turned down by Dot and Liberty the Beach Boys signed a seven-year contract with Capitol Records, based on the strength of the June demo session. This was at the urging of Capitol exec Nick Venet who signed the group, seeing them as the teenage gold he had been scouting for. By November, their first album was ready Siphon Safari, which reached 32 on the US Billboard charts. Their song output continued along the same commercial line, focusing on California youth lifestyle. In January 1963, three months after the release of their debut album, the band began recording their sophomore effort, Siphon U.S.A., a breakthrough for Brian, who began asserting himself as songwriter and arranger. The LP was the start of Brian's penchant for double-tracking vocals, a pioneering innovation. Released on March 25, 1963, Siphon U.S.A., met a more enthusiastic reception, reaching number two on the Billboard charts. This propelled the band into a nationwide spotlight, and was vital to launching surf music as a national craze. Five days prior to the release of Siphon U.S.A., Brian produced Surf City, a song he had written for Jan and Dean. Surf City hit number one on the Billboard charts in July 1963, a development that pleased Brian but angered Murray, who felt his son had given away what should have been the Beach Boys first chart topper. At the beginning of a tour of the Midwest in April 1963, Jardine rejoined the Beach Boys at Brian's request. As he began playing live gigs again, Brian left the road to focus on writing and recording. The result of this arrangement produced the album Surfer Girl, released on September 16, 1963 and Little Deuce Coupe, released less than a month later on October 7, 1963. This sextet incarnation of the Beach Boys did not extend beyond these two albums, as Marx officially left the band in early October because of conflict with manager Murray, pulling Brian back into touring. Around this time, Brian began using members of the wrecking crew to augment his increasingly demanding studio arrangements. Session musicians that participated on Wilson's productions were said to have been awestruck by his musical abilities. The band released a standalone Christmas-themed single, Little St. Nick, in December 1963, backed with an acapella rendition of the scriptural song The Lord's Prayer. The A-side peaked at number three on the US Billboard Christmas chart. Following a successful Australasian tour in January and February 1964, the band returned home to face the British invasion through the Beatles appearances on the Ed Sullivan show. Also representing the Beatles, capital support for the Beach Boys immediately began waning. This caused Murray to fight for the band at the label more than before, often visiting their offices without warning to twist executive arms. The band finished the sessions on February 20, 1964 and titled the album Shutdown Volume 2. Fun, Fun, Fun was released as a single from the album, backed with Why Do Fools Fall in Love, and was a major hit. The LP, while containing several filler tracks, was propelled by other songs such as the melancholic The Warmth of the Sun and the advanced production style of Don't Worry Baby. Brian soon wrote his last surf song in April 1964. That month, during recording of the single I Get Around, Murray was relieved of his duties as manager. Brian reflected, we love the family thing you know, three brothers, a cousin and a friend is a really beautiful way to have a group but the extra generation can become a hang up. When the single was released in May of that year, it would climb to number one, their first single to do so, proving that the Beach Boys could compete with contemporaneous British pop groups. Two months later, the album that the song appeared on, All Summer Long, reached number four on the Billboard 200 charts. All Summer Long introduced exotic textures to the Beach Boys' sound exemplified by the piccolo's and xylophones of its title track. The album was a swan song to the surf and car music the Beach Boys built their commercial standing upon. Later albums took a different stylistic and lyrical path. Before this, a live album, Beach Boys Concert, was released in October to a four week charts day at number one, containing a set list of previously recorded hits and covers that they had not yet recorded. It was the first live album that ever topped pop music record charts. Today, and summer days. In June 1964, Brian began recording the bulk of the Beach Boys Christmas album with the 41 piece studio orchestra in collaboration with four freshman arranger Dick Reynolds. Released in December, it was divided between five new, original Christmas themed songs, and seven reinterpretations of traditional Christmas songs. It would be regarded as one of the finest holiday albums of the rock era. One single from the album, The Man with All the Toys, was released, peaking at number six on the US Billboard Christmas chart. On October 29, the Beach Boys performed for the T.A.M.I show, a concert film intended to bring together a wide range of hit-making musicians for a one-off performance. The result was released to movie theaters one month later. By the end of the year, the stress of road travel, composing, producing and maintaining a high level of creativity became too much for Brian. On December 23, while on a flight from Los Angeles to Houston, he suffered a panic attack only hours after performing with the Beach Boys on the musical variety series Schindig. In January 1965, he announced his withdrawal from touring to concentrate entirely on songwriter and record production. For the rest of 1964 and into 1965, Glenn Campbell served as Wilson's temporary replacement in concert, until his own career success pulled him from the group in April 1965. Bruce Johnston was asked to locate a replacement for Campbell, having failed to find one, Johnston himself became a full-time member of the band on May 19, 1965, first replacing Brian on the road and later contributing in the studio, beginning with the vocal sessions for California Girls on June 4, 1965. After Brian stopped touring in 1965, he became a full-time studio artist, showcasing a great leap forward with the Beach Boys today, an album containing a sweet-like structure divided by songs and ballads, and portended the album era with its cohesive artistic statement. During the recording sessions for today, Love told Melody Maker that he and the band wanted to look beyond surf rock and to avoid living in the past or resting on their laurels. The resulting LP had largely guitar-oriented pop songs such as dance, dance, dance and Good to My Baby on side A with B-side ballads such as Please Let Me Wonder and She Knows Me Too Well. Today, established the Beach Boys as album artists and marked a maturation in their lyric content by abandoning themes related to surfing, cars or teenage love. Some love songs remained, but with a marked increase in depth, along with introspective tracks accompanied by adventurous and distinct arrangements. While the band's contemporaries grew more intellectually aware, Capitol continued to bill them as America's top soffin group, expecting Brian to write more surfing material for the yearly summer markets despite his disinterest. In June 1965, the band released Summer Days, and Summer Nights. The album included a reworked arrangement of Help Me, Ronda which became the band's second number one single in the spring of 1965, displacing the Beatles ticket to ride. Let Him Run Wild tapped into the youthful angst that later pervaded their music. In November 1965, the group followed their US number three charting California girls from Summer Days, and Summer Nights, with another top 20 single, The Little Girl I Once Knew. It was considered the band's most experimental statement thus far, using silence as a pre-chorus, clashing keyboards, moody brass and vocal tics. The single continued Brian's ambitions for daring arrangements, featuring unexpected tempo changes and numerous false endings. Perhaps too extreme an arrangement to go much higher than its number 20 peak, it was the band's second single not to reach the top ten since their 1962 breakthrough. Capital demanded a Beach Boys LP for the 1965 Christmas season, and to appease them, Brian conceived Beach Boys Party, a live-in-the-studio album consisting mostly of acoustic covers of 1950s rock and rand B songs, in addition to covers of three Beatles songs, Bob Dylan's The Times They Are a Change in, and a deosyncratic rare courtings of the group's earlier hits. In December they scored an unexpected number two hit, number three in the UK, with Barbara Ann, which capital released as a single with no band input. Originally by the regents, it became one of the Beach Boys' most recognized hits. Pet Sounds In 1966, the Beach Boys formally established their use of unconventional instruments and elaborate layers of vocal harmonies on their album Pet Sounds. It is considered Brian's most concise demonstration of his production and songwriter expertise. With songs such as Wouldn't It Be Nice and Sloop John B, the album's innovative soundscape incorporates elements of jazz, classical, pop, exotica, and the avant-garde. The instrumentation combines found sounds such as bicycle bells and dog whistles with classically inspired orchestrations and the usual rock set up of drums and guitars, among others, silverware, accordions, plucked piano strings, barking dogs, and plastic water jugs. For the basic rhythmic feel for God only knows, harpsichord, piano with slapback echo, sleigh bells, and strings spilled into each other to create a rich blanket of sound. Released in May, Pet Sounds peaked at number 10 in the US and number 2 in the UK. This helped the Beach Boys become the strongest selling album group in the UK for the final quarter of 1966, dethroning the three-year reign of native bands such as The Beatles. Met with a lukewarm critical reception in the US, Pet Sounds was indifferently promoted by capital and failed to become the major hit Wilson had hoped it would be. Its failure to gain a wider recognition in the US combined with capital's decision to issue Best of the Beach Boys in July dispirited Brian, who considered Pet Sounds an extremely personal work. Some assumed that the label considered the album a risk, appealing more to an older demographic than the younger, female audience The Beach Boys built their commercial standing on. Pet Sounds sales numbered approximately 500,000 units, a significant drop-off from the chain of million-selling albums that immediately preceded it. Best of the Beach Boys was quickly certified gold by the RIAA. Pet Sounds is considered by some as a Brian Wilson solo album in all but name, as other members contributed relatively little to the compositions or recordings. Influenced by psychedelic drugs, Brian turned inward and probed his deep-seated self-doubts and emotional longings, the piece did not address the problems in the world around them, unlike other psychedelic rock groups. As Jim Miller wrote of the album's tone, it vented Wilson's obsession with isolation cataloguing a forlorn quest for security. The whole enterprise, which smacked of song-cycle pretensions, was streaked with regret and romantic linger. According to Brian, the album was designed as a collection of art pieces that belong together yet could stand alone.In a 1972 retrospective review of the album, music journalist Stephen Davis wrote, From first cut to last we were treated to an intense, linear personal vision of the vagaries of a love affair and the painful, introverted anxieties that are the wrenching precipitates of the unstable chemistry of any love relationship. This trenchant cycle of love songs has the emotional impact of a shatteringly evocative novel, nobody was prepared for anything so soulful, so lovely, something one had to think about so much. Pet Sounds was massively influential upon its release, vaunting the band to the top level of rock innovators. It is one of the earliest rock concept albums, one of the earliest concept albums of the counterculture era, and an early album in the emerging psychedelic rock style, signaling a turning point wherein rock, which previously had been considered dance music, became music that was made for listening to. In 2016, The Guardian's Barbara Ellen reflected that the album was hailed as a revolution in harmonies and production techniques. Wilson single-handedly reinvented the album as the in-depth illumination of an artist's soul, kicking open a creative fire door, liberating the album to exist as a self-contained art form on a par with literature, theater, art, cinema, dance, anything the artist desired. Reflecting on the album on its 50th anniversary, pop matters Danilo Castro added. In the album, a guide to pop music's most provocative, influential and important creations, author James Perron championed the album for its complex orchestrations, sophisticated compositions and varied tone colors, calling it a remove from just about anything else that was going on in 1966 pop music. In 1976, journalist Robin Denslow wrote, with the 1966 Pet Sounds album, Wilson had become America's equivalent of the Beatles with his ability to expand the limits of popular taste. Paul McCartney named it one of his favorite albums of all time on multiple occasions, calling it the primary impetus for the Beatles album S.G.T. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967. In 2003, Pet Sounds was ranked second in the 500 greatest albums of all time list selected by Rolling Stone, behind only S.G.T. Pepper. In 2004, the album was acknowledged as an important historical and cultural work by the Library of Congress. Good Vibrations and Smile Seeking to expand on Pet Sounds advances, Wilson began an even more ambitious project, Good Vibrations. Like Pet Sounds, Brian opted for an eclectic array of instruments rarely heard in pop music. Described by Brian as a pocket symphony, it contains a mixture of classical, rock, and exotic instruments structured around a cut-up mosaic of musical sections represented by several discordant key and modal shifts. It became the Beach Boys' biggest hit to date, and a U.S. and U.K. number one single in 1966. Coming at a time when pop singles were usually made in under two hours, it was one of the most complex pop productions ever undertaken, and the most expensive single ever recorded to that point. The production costs were estimated between $50,000 and $75,000, $1 and $1 today, with sessions for the song stretching over several months in at least four major studios. According to Dominic Priori, the making of Good Vibrations was unlike anything previous in the realms of classical, jazz, international, soundtrack, or any other kind of recording. The single was an unequivocal milestone in studio productions, and continued in establishing Brian as an extender of popular tastes.To the counterculture of the 1960s, Good Vibrations served as an anthem. Rock critic Gene Sculity prophesied in 1968, it may yet prove to be the most significantly revolutionary piece of the current rock renaissance. Its instrumentation included Paul Tanner's electrotheramin, a manually operated oscillator with a sound similar to a theramin, which helped the Beach Boys claim a new hippie audience. Upon release, the single prompted an unexpected revival in theramans while increasing awareness of analogue synthesizers, leading MOOC music to produce their own brand of ribbon-controlled instruments. Reflecting on this period in 1971, Q magazine wrote, �In the year and a half that followed pet sounds, the Beach Boys were among the vanguard in practically every aspect of the counterculture psychedelia, art rock, a return to roots, ecology, organic food, the cooled-out sound anticipating changes that rock didn�t accomplish until 1969-1970.� The group established a short-lived film production company, called Home Movies, during this time. It was supposed to have created live-action film and television properties starring the Beach Boys. However, the company completed only one music video, four Good Vibrations, though various other psychedelic sequences and segments exist. Brian met lyricist and musician Van Dyke Parks while working on pet sounds. A year later, while in the midst of recording Good Vibrations, the duo began an intense collaboration that resulted in a suite of challenging new songs for the Beach Boys� forthcoming album Smile, intended to surpass pet sounds. Recording for the album spanned about a year, from 1966 to 1967. Wilson and Parks intended Smile to be a continuous suite of songs that were linked both thematically and musically, with the main songs being linked together by small vocal pieces and instrumental segments that elaborated upon the musical themes of the major songs. Surviving recordings have shown that the music incorporated chanting, cowboy songs, explorations in Indian and Hawaiian music, jazz, tone poems with classical elements, cartoon sound effects, music concrete, and yodeling. In October 1966 interviews, Brian touted the album a teenage symphony to God. His spiritual aims were made explicit in the album�s musical contents and lyrics, which also included existential angst, the exploration of human innocence, and the philosophy of childlikeness. Parks has stated, �He and Brian were conscious of the counterculture, and the two had felt estranged from it, but it was necessary to adhere to because of a willingness to get out of the Eisenhower mindset.� Parks stresses, at the same time, he didn�t want to lose that kind of gauche sensibility that he had. He was doing stuff that nobody would dream of doing, citing an instance when Brian instructed a banjo player to play only one string, a gauche style of playing the �just wasn�t done.� Smile would go on to become the most legendary unreleased album in the history of popular music. In the decades following its non-release, it became the subject of intense speculation and mystique. Many believe that, had the album been released, it would have substantially altered the group�s direction and established them at the vanguard of rock innovators. Writing about the album for the 33½ book series, Luis Sanchez stated, �If Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys were going to survive as the defining force of American pop music they were, Smile was a conscious attempt to rediscover the impulses and ideas that power American consciousness from the inside out.� It was a collaboration that led to some incredible music, which, if it had been completed as an album and delivered to the public in 1966, might have had an incredible impact. If released when intended, composer Franco Terry believes the album would have been the first piece of album-oriented rock. Its cover artwork, now considered iconic, depicted an illustration of a store selling smiles, also would have been among the earliest covers by a popular music group to feature original, specifically commissioned artwork rather than a photograph of the performers. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, bootlegs from its recording sessions leaked, inspiring many attempts to reassemble the album, and ultimately becoming a progenitor for indie rock. Many factors combined to put intense pressure on Brian Wilson as Smile neared completion, his mental instability, the pressure to create despite fierce internal opposition to his new music, the relatively unenthusiastic response to pet sounds in the United States, and Carl Wilson�s draft resistance. Furthermore, Wilson�s reliance on both prescription drugs and amphetamines exacerbated his underlying mental health problems. Comparable to Brian Jones and Sid Barrett, Brian Wilson�s use of psychedelic drugs led to a nervous breakdown in the late 1960s. As his legend grew, the Smile period came to be seen as the pivotal episode in his decline, and he became tagged as a drug casualty. 1967-1977, Fluctuating Leadership Smiley Smile and Wild Honey Some Smile tracks were salvaged and re-recorded in scaled-down versions at Brian�s new home studio. Along with the single version of Good Vibrations, these tracks were released on the September 1967 album Smiley Smile, which elicited positive critical and commercial response abroad, but was the first real commercial failure for the group in the US compounding the group�s recent setbacks, Their public image took a cataclysmic hit following their withdrawal from the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival for the reason that they had no new material to play while their forthcoming single and album. Lay in Limbo Their cancellation was seen as, a damning admission that they were washed up and unable to compete with the new music. This notion was exacerbated by Rolling Stone writer Jan Winner, who in contemporary publications criticized Brian Wilson for his oft-repeated genius label, which he called a �promotional shuck� and an attempt to compare him with the Beatles. While being interviewed in August 1967 for the aborted live album Lady in Hawaii, Brian stated, �I think rock and roll the pop scene is happening. It�s great. But I think basically, the Beach Boys are squares. We�re not happening.� Former band publicist Derek Taylor later recalled a conversation with Brian and Dennis where they denied that the group had ever written surf music or songs about cars, and that the Beach Boys had never been involved with the surf and hot rod fads, as Taylor claimed, they would not concede. As a result of their initial target demographic and subsequent failures to blend with the hippie movement, the group was viewed as unhipprelics, even though they had once been, as biographer Peter Ames-Carlin wrote, �the absolute center of the American rock and roll scene, a time when they had ushered the psychedelic era.� In early 1969, Brian proposed that the group change their name from the Beach Boys to the Beach, reasoning that the band members were now grown men. Going to the effort of acquiring a contract that would declare a five-way agreement to officially rename the group, Stephen Desper reported, �They all just kind of shrugged and said, �Ah, come on, Brian, we don�t want to do that.� That�s how the public knows us, man. And that was it. He put the paper on the piano and it stayed there until I picked it up and took it away. In 1966, the group had filed a lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court against Capitol Records for over $2 million, which briefly severed their relationship with the label. At this time the Beach Boys management, Nick Grillo and David Anderel, created the band�s own record label, �Brother.� One of the first labels owned by a rock group the initial output of the label, however, was limited to Smiley Smile and two resulting singles from the album. After the cancellation of Smile, some of its tracks continued to trickle out in later albums often as filler songs to offset Brian�s unwillingness to contribute. Smiley Smile was followed up three months later with Wild Honey, featuring mostly new songs written by Wilson and Love, including the number 19 single �Darlin.� The album fared better than its predecessor, reaching number 24 in the U.S. winner responded to the new album with more optimism, remarking two months later that �in any case it�s good to see that the Beach Boys are getting their heads straight once again.� Friends end 2020. After meeting Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at a UNICEF variety gala in Paris, France on December 15, 1967, Love, along with other high-profile celebrities such as Donovan and the Beatles traveled to Rishikesh in India during February and March 1968. The following Beach Boys album Friends, 1968, had songs influenced by the transcendental meditation taught by the Maharishi. The album reached number 13 in the U.K. and 126 in the U.S., the title track placing at number 25 in the U.K. and number 47 in the U.S., the band�s lowest singles peak since 1962. In support of the Friends album, Love had arranged for the Beach Boys to tour with the Maharishi in the U.S., which has been called one of the more bizarre entertainments of the era. Starting on May 3, 1968, the tour lasted five shows and was cancelled when the Maharishi had to withdraw to full film-film contracts. Because of disappointing audience numbers and the Maharishi�s withdrawal, 24 tour dates were subsequently cancelled at a cost estimated at US$250,000, approximately US$1 today, for the band. This tour was followed by the release of Do It Again, a single that critics described as an update of the Beach Boys surf rock passed in a late 1960s style. The single went to the top of the Australian and U.K. single charts in 1968 and was moderately successful in the U.S., peaking at number 20. For a short time in mid-1968, Brian Wilson sought psychological treatment in hospital. During his absence, other members began writing and producing material themselves. To complete their contract with Capitol, they produced one more album. 2029-69, was one of the group�s most stylistically diverse albums, including hard rock songs such as �All I Want to Do, The Waltz-Based Time to Get Alone,� and a cover of the Ronnets I Can Hear Music. The diversity of genres have been described as an indicator that the group was trying to establish an updated identity. The album performed strongly in the U.K., reaching number three on the charts. In the U.S., the album reached a modest 68. In spring 1968, Dennis began a strained relationship with musician Charles Manson, which persisted for several months afterward. Dennis bought him time at Brian's home studio where recording sessions were attempted while Brian stayed in his room. Dennis then proposed that Manson be signed to brother records. Brian reportedly disliked Charlie, and so a deal was never made. Without Manson's involvement, the Beach Boys did record one song penned by Manson, cease to exist, rewritten as �Never Learn Not to Love.� The idea of the Beach Boys recording one of his songs reportedly thrilled Manson, and it was released as a Beach Boys single. After accruing a large monetary debt to the group, Dennis deliberately omitted Manson's credit on its release while also altering the song's arrangement and lyrics. This greatly angered Manson. Growing fearful, Dennis gradually distanced himself from Manson, whose family had taken over his home. He was eventually convicted for murder conspiracy, from there on, Dennis was too afraid of the Manson family to ever speak publicly on his relationship, let alone testify against him. On April 12, 1969, the band revisited their 1967 lawsuit against Capitol Records after they alleged an audit undertaken revealed the band were owed over US$2 million, a $$ today, for unpaid royalties and production duties. The band's contract with Capitol Records expired on June 30, 1969, after which Capitol Records deleted the Beach Boys� catalog from print, effectively cutting off their royalty flow. In November 1969, Murray Wilson sold Sea of Tunes, the Beach Boys� catalog, to Irving Almo Music, a decision that, according to Marilyn Wilson, devastated Bryan. In late 1969, the Beach Boys reactivated their brother label and signed with reprise. Around this time, the band commenced recording a new album. By the time the Beach Boys tenure ended with Capitol in 1969, they had sold 65 million records worldwide, closing the decade as the most commercially successful American group in popular music. Sunflower, Surf's Up, So Tough, and Holland. In 1970, armed with the new reprise contract, the band appeared rejuvenated, releasing the album Sunflower to critical acclaim in the UK but indifference in the US. The album features a strong group presence with significant writing contributions from all band members. Bryan was active during this period, writing Orcio writing seven of the twelve songs on Sunflower and performing at half of the band's domestic concerts in 1970. Sunflower reached number 29 in the UK and number 151 in the US, the band's lowest domestic chart showing to that point. After Sunflower, the band hired Jack Riley as their manager. Under Riley's management, the group's music began emphasizing political and social awareness. During this time, Carl Wilson gradually assumed leadership of the band and Riley contributed lyrics. On August 30, 1971 the band released Surf's Up, named after the Bryan Wilson Van Dyke Park's composition Surf's Up. The album was moderately successful, reaching the US Top 30, a marked improvement over their recent releases. While the record charted, the Beach Boys added to their renewed fame by performing a near-sell-out set at Carnegie Hall, followed by an appearance with the Grateful Dead at Fillmore East on April 27, 1971. The live shows during this era included reworked arrangements of many of the band's previous songs. A large portion of their set lists culled from pet sounds and smile, as author Dominic Priori observes, they basically played what they could have played at the Monterey Pop Festival in the summer of 1967. Johnston ended his first stint with the band shortly after Surf's UPS release, reportedly because of friction with Riley. At Carl's suggestion, the addition of Ricky Fadar and Blondie Chaplin in February 1972 led to a dramatic restructuring in the band's sound. The album Carl and the Passions So Tough was an uncharacteristic mix that included two songs written by Fadar and Chaplin. For their next project the band, their families, assorted associates and technicians moved to the Netherlands for the summer of 1972. They rented a farmhouse to convert into a makeshift studio where recording sessions for the new project would take place. By the end of their sessions, the band felt they had produced one of their strongest efforts yet. Reprise, however, felt that the album required a strong single. This resulted in the song Sail On, Sailor, a collaboration between Brian Wilson, Tandon Elmer, Ray Kennedy, Jack Riley and Van Dyke Parks featuring a soulful lead vocal by Chaplin. Reprise subsequently approved and the resulting album, Holland, was released early in 1973, peaking at number 37. Brian's musical children's story, Mount Vernon and Fairway, A Fairy Tale, narrated by Riley and strongly influenced by Randy Newman's Sail Away, 1972, was included as a bonus EP. Despite indifference from Reprise, the band's concert audience started to grow. The Beach Boys in Concert, a double album documenting the 1972 and 1973 US tours, was another top 30 album and became the band's first gold record under Reprise. During this period the band established itself as one of America's most popular live acts. Chaplin and Fata are helped organize the concerts to obtain a high quality live performance, playing material off surf sub, Carl and The Passions and Holland and adding songs from their older catalog. This concert arrangement lifted them back into American public prominence. In late 1973, the 41-song soundtrack to American Graffiti was released including the band's early songs Sophan Safari and All Summer Long. The album was a catalyst in creating a wave of nostalgia that reintroduced The Beach Boys into contemporary American consciousness. In 1974, Capitol Records issued Endless Summer, the band's first major prepet sounds greatest hits package. The compilation surged to the top of the Billboard album charts and was the group's first multi-million selling record since Good Vibrations. It remained on the charts for two years. Capitol followed with a second compilation, Spirit of America, which also sold well. With these compilations, The Beach Boys became one of the most popular acts in rock, propelling themselves from opening for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young to headliners selling out basketball arenas in a matter of weeks. Rolling Stone named The Beach Boys the band of the year for 1974, solely on the basis of their juggernaut touring schedule and material written over a decade earlier. Riley, who remained in the Netherlands after Holland's release, was relieved of his managerial duties in late 1973. Chaplin also left in late 1973 after an argument with Steve Love, the band's business manager, and Mike's brother. Feta R remained until 1974, when he was offered a chance to join a new group led by future Eagles member Joe Walsh. Chaplin's replacement, James William Gersio, started offering the group career advice that resulted in his becoming their new manager. Under Gersio, The Beach Boys staged a highly successful 1975 joint concert tour with Chicago, with each group performing some of the other's songs, including their previous years' collaboration on Chicago's hit Wishing You Were Here. Beach Boys' vocals were also heard on Elton John's 1974 hit Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me. Nostalgia had settled into The Beach Boys' hype, the group had not officially released any new material since 1973's Holland. While their concerts continuously sold out, the stage act slowly changed from a contemporary presentation followed by Aldi's encore to an entire show made up of mostly pre-1967 music. 15 Big Ones and Love You Recorded in the wake of California Music's demise, a super grub that would have involved Brian Wilson, Bruce Johnston and record producer Terry Melcher, 15 Big Ones, 1976, marked Brian's return as a major force in the group. The album included new songs by Brian, as well as cover versions of Aldi's such as Rock and Roll Music, Blueberry Hill, and In the Still of the Night. Rock and Roll Music peaked at number five in the U.S. Brian and Loves It's Okay was in the vein of their early 60s style, and was a moderate hit. The album was publicized by an August 1976 NBC TV special, simply titled The Beach Boys. The special, produced by Saturday Night Live, SNL, creator Lorne Michaels, featured appearances by SNL cast members John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd. The album was generally disliked by fans and critics upon release. During its sessions, Brian's production role was belittled as group members overdubbed and remixed tracks to fight against his desire for a rough, unfinished sound. Carl and Dennis disparaged the album to the press while Brian admitted, undoubtedly the new album is nothing too deep, but remained hopeful that their next release would be on PAR with the group's good vibrations. For the remainder of 1976 to early 1977, Brian spent his time making sporadic public appearances and producing the band's next album Love You, 1977, a quirky collection of 14 songs mostly written, arranged and produced by Brian. Brian revealed to Peter Ames Carlin that Love You is one of his favorite Beach Boys releases, telling him that's when it all happened for me. That's where my heart lies. Love You peaked at number 28 in the UK and number 53 in the US and developed a cult following, regarded as one of the band's best albums by fans and critics alike, and an early work of synth pop.  The album showcases a truly original mix of humor and sadness. The original numbers always dance just a step away from the cliché, dealing with simple lyrical themes that make you wonder why they had never been explored before. The AV Club considering the album in the same vein as Tonight's The Night, 1975, Pussycats, 1974, The Madcap Laughs, 1970, and Barrett, 1970, described Love You as, something almost desperately optimistic. Wilson sings frayed songs about rollerskating, road tripping and Johnny Carson like a frazzled man sitting in a corner chanting calm blue ocean over and over. It's a beautiful, noisy, funny, heartbreaking work of art one not for everybody, yet vital for anyone who wants to understand Wilson's overall worldview. After Love You was released, Brian began to record and assemble Adult Child, an unreleased effort largely consisting of songs written by Wilson from 1976 and 1977 with select big band arrangements by Dick Reynolds. Though publicized as The Beach Boys' next release, Adult Child caused tension within the group and was ultimately shelved. Following this period, his concert appearances with the band gradually diminished and their performances were occasionally erratic. 1978–present Internal Divisions and Personal Struggles The internal wrangling came to a head after a show at Central Park on September 1, 1977, when the band effectively split into two camps, Dennis and Carl Wilson on one side, Mike Love and Al Jardine on the other with Brian remaining neutral. Following a confrontation on an airport tarmac, Dennis declared to Rolling Stone on September 3 that he had left the band, it was Al Jardine who really knifed me in the heart when he said they didn't need me. That was the clincher. And all I told him was that he couldn't play more than four chords. They kept telling me I had my solo album now Pacific Ocean Blue, like I should go off in a corner and leave The Beach Boys to them. The album really bothers them. They don't like to admit it's doing so well, they never even acknowledge it in interviews. The band broke up for two and a half weeks, until a meeting on September 17 at Brian's house. In light of a potential new caribou records contract the parties negotiated a settlement resulting in Love gaining control of Brian's vote in the group, allowing Love and Jardine to outvote Carl and Dennis Wilson on any matter. He declared in 1966 that his greatest interest was to expand modern vocal harmony, owing his fascination with voice to the four freshmen, which he considered a groovy sectional sound. He added, The harmonies that we are able to produce give us a uniqueness which is really the only important thing you can put into records some quality that no one else has got. I love peaks in a song and enhancing them on the control panel. Most of all, I love the human voice for its own sake. For a period, Brian avoided singing falsetto for the group, saying I thought people thought I was a fairy. The band told me, If that's the way you sing, don't worry about it. Rock critic Eric Davis wrote, The purity of tone and genetic proximity that smoothed their voices was almost creepy, sudo costrato and a barbershop sound. According to Brian, Jack Good once told us, You sing like Unix in a Sistine Chapel, which was a pretty good quote. Writer Richard Goldstein reported that, According to a fellow journalist who asked Brian about the black roots of his music, Brian's response was, We're white and we sing white. Goldstein added that when he asked where his approach to vocal harmonies had derived from, Wilson answered, Barbershop. On the group's blend, Carl said, Michael has a beautifully rich, very full-sounding bass voice. Yet his lead singing is real nasal, real punk. Allen's voice has a bright timbre to it, it really cuts. My voice has a kind of calm sound. We're big oo e r s, we love to oo. It's a big, full sound, that's very pleasing to us, it opens up the heart. From lowest intervals to highest, the group's vocal harmony stack usually began with Love or Dennis, followed by Jardine or Carl, and finally Brian on top, according to Jardine, while Carl said that the blend was Love on bottom, Carl above, followed by Dennis or Jardine, and then Brian on top. Jardine explains, We always sang the same vocal intervals. As soon as we heard the chords on the piano we'd figure it out pretty easily. If there was a vocal move Brian envisioned, he'd show that particular singer that move. We had somewhat photographic memory as far as the vocal parts were concerned so that was never a problem for us. Striving for absolute perfection, Brian's intricate vocal arrangements exercised the group's calculated blend of intonation, attack, phrasing, and expression. Sometimes, he would sing each vocal harmony part alone through multi-track tape. Jimmy Webb has said, They used very little vibrato and sing in very straight tones. The voices all lie down beside each other very easily there's no bumping between them because the pitch is very precise. As instrumentalists. The group's instrumental combo initially involved Brian on bass guitar and keyboards, Carl on guitar, and Dennis on drums. Nine months after forming, they acquired national success, and demand for their personal appearance skyrocketed. Biographer James Murphy said, By most contemporary accounts, they were not a very good live band when they started. The Beach Boys learned to play as a band in front of live audiences, but asserted that they eventually became one of the best and enduring live bands. For the recording of the Beach Boys' instrumental tracks, Brian arranged many of his compositions for a conglomerate of session musicians informally known as the Wrecking Crew. Their assistance was needed because of the increasingly complicated nature of the material. As a result, a number of songs do not credit the Beach Boys as instrumentalists, but nearly invariably as lead, harmony or backing vocalists. It's the belief of Richie Winterberger that, before session musicians took over most of the parts, the Beach Boys could play respectively gutsy surf rock as a self-contained unit. Carl continued to play beside these musicians whenever he was available to attend sessions. In archivist Craig Slawinski's view, one should not sell short Carl's own contributions, the youngest Wilson had developed as a musician sufficiently to play alongside the horde of high-dollar session pros that Big Brother was now bringing into the studio. Carl's guitar playing was a key ingredient. It is often erroneously stated that Dennis Drumming in the Beach Boys' recordings was filled in exclusively by studio musicians. His drumming is documented on a number of the group's singles, including I Get Around, Fun, Fun Fun, and Don't Worry Baby. Songwriter and Production Brian's experiments with his Wollensack tape recorder provide early examples of his flair for exotica and unusual percussive patterns and arranging ideas that he would recycle in later prominent work. Through attending Phil Spector's sessions sporadically, Brian learned how to act as a producer for records while being educated on the wall of sound process. From then on, Brian received some production advice from Jan Berry. As they collaborated on several hit singles written and produced for other artists, they recorded what would later be regarded the California sound. The positive commercial response to Brian's structurally irregular and harmonically varied pop compositions gave him the prestige, resources and courage to further his creative aspirations. He proceeded to explore many unusual combinations of instruments while emphasizing inventive percussion and progressively ambitious lyricism. Although he was often dubbed a perfectionist, Brian was an inexperienced musician, and his understanding was mostly self-taught. He handled most stages of the group's recording process from the beginning, despite Nick Venet being credited for producing their early recordings. At the lyric stage, Brian usually worked with bandmate Mike Love, whose assertive persona provided youthful swagger that contrasted Brian's explorations in romanticism and sensitivity. Louis Sanchez noted a pattern where Brian would spare surfing imagery when working with collaborators outside of his band's circle, in the examples Lonely Sea and In My Room. After 1967. 4. Shadowed by Beach Boys Party 1965, much of the group's recordings from 1967 to 1970 displayed sparse instrumentation, a more relaxed ensemble, and a seeming inattention to production quality. Brian briefly experimented with music concrete and minimalist rock approaches to music before retreating to his home recording studio to record manic material in the 1970s, enacting syncopated exercises and counterpoints layered on jittery eighth note tone clusters and loping shuffle grooves. During the infancy of Brian's home studio, the group was forced to improvise many technical aspects of recording. In one instance, they used an empty swimming pool as an echo chamber. When Brian abdicated from the group, the other members were forced to take a more active production role. This is believed to have faltered the quality of their music. Rich Eventer Berger believes that after the December 1967 release of Wild Honey, the Beach Boys were revealed as a group that, although capable of producing some fine and interesting music, were no longer innovators on the level of the Beatles and other figureheads. The album marked the beginning of Carl's increased role as producer, who described it as music for Brian to cool out by, signalling a mellower approach that pervaded into the 1970s.In 1968, Dennis contributed original songs to friends, revealing himself as a broodingly soulful songwriter and singer, while Bruce Johnston devised a moody instrumental, the nearest faraway place, for 2020 the following year. Sunflower, 1970, marked an end to the experimental songwriter and production phase initiated by Smiley Smile, 1967. Of the albums between Surf's Up, 1971, and Holland, 1973, Daniel Harrison wrote that they contain a mixture of middle-of-the-road music entirely consonant with pop style during the early 1970s with a few oddities that proved that the desire to push beyond conventional boundaries was not dead. While Harrison adamantly states 1974 is the year in which the Beach Boys ceased to be a rock and roll act and became an oldies act, Love You, 1977, is perceived by some as an oddity that sounds like no other record in their catalogue with synthesizer-laden arrangements played almost entirely by Brian. Legacy Cultural Impact and Influence Regarded by some critics as one of the greatest American rock groups and an important catalyst in the evolution of popular music, the Beach Boys are one of the most critically acclaimed, commercially successful and widely influential bands of all time.The Beach Boys sales estimates range from 100 to 350 million records worldwide, and have influenced artists spanning many genres and decades. The group's early songs made them major pop stars in the US, the UK, Australia and other countries, having seven top ten singles between April 1963 and November 1964. They were one of the few American bands formed prior to the 1964 British invasion to continue their success. Among artists of the 1960s, they are one of few central figures in the histories of rock. Awards and Honours The Beach Boys star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 1500 Vine Street. The group routinely appears in the upper reaches of ranked lists such as the top 1,000 albums of all time. Many of the group's songs and albums including The Beach Boys today. 1965, Smiley Smile, 1967, Sunflower, 1970, and Surf's Up, 1971, are featured in several lists devoted to the greatest of all time. The 1966 releases Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations frequently rank among the top of critics lists of the greatest albums and singles of all time.In 2004, Pet Sounds was preserved in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being culturally, historically and aesthetically significant. Their recordings of In My Room, Good Vibrations, California Girls and the entire Pet Sounds album have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. On acclaimed music, Good Vibrations is ranked the third best song of all time, while God Only Knows is ranked 21st, the group itself is ranked 11 in its 1,000 most recommended artists of all time. In 1966, a reader poll conducted by the UK magazine NME crowned The Beach Boys as the world's number one vocal group, ahead of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. In 1974, The Beach Boys were awarded Band of the Year by Rolling Stone. On December 30, 1980, The Beach Boys were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 1500 Vine Street. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Ten years later they were selected for the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.In 2001, the group received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked The Beach Boys number 12 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time. Brian Wilson was inducted into the UK Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November 2006. The Wilson's California House, where the Wilson brothers grew up and the group began, was demolished in 1986 to make way for Interstate 105, the century freeway. A Beach Boys historic landmark, California landmark number 1041 at 3701 West 119th Street, dedicated on May 20, 2005, marks the location. Grammy Awards Roseban equals 4967. Roseban equals four good vibrations. Best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals. Best contemporary, Rand R, recording. Best contemporary, Rand R, performance. Best arrangement accompanying a vocalist or instrumentalist. 1989. Kokomo. Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. 1994. Good vibrations. Roseban equals Three Hall of Fame. 1998. Pet Sounds. 1999. In My Room. Roseban equals two 2001. The Beach Boys. Lifetime Achievement Award. Endless Harmony. Best Longform Music Video. 2011. California Girls. Hall of Fame. 2013. The Smile Sessions. Best Historical Album. 2017. I Get Around. Hall of Fame.


Those are medieval robots. Sometimes I lie awake at night afraid of death. I know, a weird way to start things off, but it's true. I can't help but stare at my ceiling, wondering what I'm fighting for, or why I'm fighting to begin with. At one point, I even ended up getting out of bed in the middle of the night just to call one of my family members from across the state. I don't care, I needed to talk about it. Your thoughts can drive you to doing nutty things sometimes, if that's even a good word to use. I found something that made me think though, a little too hard. Not just about my life crisis, but so many other things. I don't know whether to be scared or disgusted. I'm in my late 40s and I like to go urban exploring on a daily basis. I own a nifty little Facebook page where I share my findings, travels, etc. One place I really wanted to visit but I had to save up for Waswimstone Warfare. The original location for the Teletubby's show set. I'm not the biggest fan of the characters or how they act, but I did think their designs and the overall setting was quite charming. I know that the original set is practically just a leak with an moan grass now, all because the original owner.tired of tourists plaguing the place, but it's nice to look back on history. Part of the reason why I wanted to go there was because the idea was given to me by my cousin. This may come as sudden information, but he used to work in the production crew for the show. He told me a thing or two about his experiences working on the set. Such as when the original show ended in 2001, the original costumes worn by the actors were stolen, and all they had left was Nunu, the vacuum cleaner. This resulted in the main characters having to be remade from the ground up for the Netflix reboot. This is important, please keep this in mind for later. Anyways, I managed to get plane tickets to England after so much saving up. I was really excited to get there and get a little townhouse to dwell in. There was a crying baby screeching in my ear, but it was worth it to get here. When I made it to the location, it was as you'd expect, a small circular pond, accompanied by St. Augustine grass upon numerous hills. Beautiful. I just wanted to lie down and stare at the cloudy sky. That's when I saw something off in the distance. A trailer, hidden within the trees surrounding the area. Strange. My best guess was that it would have belonged to someone in the production crew. I went over to where it was, cracking twigs and breaking leaves with every step, until I finally approached the trailer. The smell was absolutely foul, and it almost made me not want to go in, but then I realized, it's probably been sitting there for decades. Of course it would smell like year old kimchi. I stepped in, and while it was very moldy, dusty and dimly lit in most of the area, I spotted something. It was a small rack of standard VHS tapes, all labeled, stacked like ginger blocks. They looked old, but I still wondered if they worked. Would make for some interesting souvenirs indeed. I ended up taking them with me back to my rental townhouse after exploring for a bit more, taking pictures and whatnot. Cut to now, two weeks later. I skimmed through some of the tapes with the help of an old Panasonic in my basement. Most of the tapes consisted of various test reels, early recordings, bloopers, the stuff you'd expect. However, I did find a few with no labels. Most of them were empty, all except for one. It had no label. No warning, right off the bat. I stuck the tape in and waited. The start-up was very jittery, but the film eventually showed up after a short wait. Up came the usual setting for Teletubby's episode, except the grass wasn't trimmed, meaning that this would have been shot sometime after the show ended. Shots of the Tubby's home showed on screen as the sound of birds tweeting filled my TV speakers. There was no music. It was quite delightful, until the next scene came. The automatic doors of the Tubby's home opened up, and out came Tinky Winky, slowly limping outside as if he broke his femur. He made weird straining grunts as he hobbled. The strangest part about how he looked was that his face looked wrinkly, but not very detailed wrinkles, like if they were carved in. They looked drawn on with a marker, or sharpie. He started lamely walking up a hill, groaning as he did so, before eventually falling on his bottom and looking up at the sky. The camera cut to his face. He looked sad, somewhat forlorn about something. He looked like he wasn't happy with living, or himself. It reminded me of how I was in my past, more particularly my late 30s. That's when the view cut to a shot of the sun. You know how the sun has a baby face stamped on it with after effects in the actual show?  I'm positive she wasn't the original actor for that baby based on my research after this occurrence, and the stories my cousin shared with me. Tinky Winky sighed and whimpered, before looking back up at the sun. The sun baby, or in this case, sun woman, began to speak to him. It was slightly echoed, but coherent enough to hear. Poor thing. You're frightened, aren't you? Tinky Winky nods.  Tinky Winky sniffs, looking like he just realized how long it took for him to walk up that hill. The sheer speed he had going up there to look at the sun made him want to regress, or go back in time to be young again. I understand how you feel my dear. You could pass on in the next year, day, or even minute. But I can assure you, your life was not created in vain. You were put on this precious earth to make people laugh and cry, tears of hope. Tinky Winky's eyes widened slightly. Past scenes from the show involving Tinky Winky and his friends began to fade into view in various transparent shots as the sun spoke. Look around you. If your life was in vain, you wouldn't have been given these gorgeous fields, or this entertaining little home of yours, or your friends. Think of them. Tears seemed to flow down Tinky Winky's eyes, presumably from my drops given behind the scenes. The sun sighed gently. My child, live your life to your very fullest. That's why I did. Up until I was two. Tinky Winky's belly vision thing I'm a jig came on, and static erupted from it. Startled, he quickly looks down at his belly as the camera zooms into the static. Up came some rather real security footage. What showed up was something I really didn't expect, and I don't ever want to see it again. A large ballroom, possibly for a religious event, with a toddler running all over the place. Certain props were placed around the area, like small crosses, an authoring box, things to keep the authoring table lit up, stuff that would probably be found at this type of party. The child seemed happy and carefree, until her dress met a candle. The adults around her were focused on their own conversations, up until she started screaming when she was fully engulfed in the flames. By the time they were jumping in to help her, it was too late, as her panicking caused her to run into a table, causing bottles of alcohol to topple over and pour on her, causing her to burn more.  The fire quickly spread, with one lady in particular screaming and crying her lungs out. The footage then cut to static and zoomed out of Tinky Winky's stomach.  The purple Telly Tubby would then sigh, and lie on his back, looking up at the sky with a tired look. Now you know the true answer. It's real importance. Tinky Winky slowly shut his eyes, and he didn't move afterward. The camera would cut to a side view of him lying against the grass. The other Telly Tobbies, those others being Dipsy, La La and Poe, would limp towards him like he did earlier, and inspect what was going on.  Upon realizing Tinky Winky wasn't alive, they all began to let out soft whimpers. Quiet cries. As the Telly Tobbies were mourning over the passing of their dear friend, the son's voice could be heard one last time. Your next life will be great. You'll grow, and find some new friends. And sure of it. I love you. Rest in peace. With that, the video began to distort, and the son's dialogue would cut off there. I was terrified with what I had just watched, and I couldn't help but put my head in my hands. That's when I heard a noise come from my VHS player. The tape was rapidly unraveling, stripping itself apart to the point where it became ruined. I tried to save it, as I would have been able to show the police what I had just seen, but I was too late. Despite myself loathing for not being able to get the tape out in time, it made sense. It was indeed old and probably damaged too. I had so many questions nailing through my brain at once. Was this what the stolen costumes were used for? Who was that lady who voiced the son? Was this meant to be an actual genuine lesson compared to what is actually shown in the Telly Tobbies? However, none of those questions came close to the one I had on my mind for a hot minute. Where and how could they have gotten that security footage?


Well, it's time to talk Donegal555 slash Donegal333. We're joined by one of the race organisers as we go to sunny Dubai to join Eric Kinneyman, Sean McFadden. How are you, Sean? Good to see you. Hi, Arsene. How's it going there? Good to see you. Good to hear from you. I'm doing not too bad in the snow here, Sean. We had the shorts and the t-shirts on last week, and we've got snow now today, so we have, but you've no problem with snow over there by the looks of things? No problem at the moment now. The sun is shining and it's getting hotter day by day, but no, it's nice. It's very bearable at the moment, but I heard Ireland was beautiful last week, and now there's going to be snow this week, so I suppose that's just good old Irish weather. It's just unpredictable. Yeah, that's it. But anyway, let's focus on the 555. It's on the 5th of August. A change of date for you, Sean, as you're going a wee bit later. It was traditionally June, of course, but already the event is sold out. And there's been a lot of talk and a lot of excitement about it. And I suppose the big change is the 333 has now been incorporated. And tell us about it. Yes, Arsene. We sat down after the 555 last year, myself and Eugene and the team, and we said we'd just change the date and change the whole spice it up a bit. And we changed the date, and we changed it for different reasons, and it's kind of worked out really, really well. And we want to incorporate another discipline into the race. And we thought about it for years, and we didn't do it, but then we thought we'd kind of have to do it with other racers coming on board. And there's loads of racers coming on, and they've got smaller events, so we thought we'd try and come up with one. And believe it or not, I suppose I'm going to have to put it out there. And I think we've had a lot of hours, and a good competitor come up with the name of this. Colin Richardson come up with a 333. And actually when we talked about it and when we advertised that it just sold out lately in nearly three or four days, you know, we didn't want the 333 to swallow the 555, but it just really took over, you know, so yeah, so we kind of capped it that we'd only maybe take 20 to 30 333 competitors for the first year to see how it went. Because we really don't want it to swallow the 555, but it was a really, really, really successful idea. Well, what is the 333? What's the, apart from 222 kilometres, if my maths is correct, what's the course for the 333 going to be, Sean? Yeah, well, it's still part of the 555 course, but they're not doing the first section of downwind and a show, and so they're doing the second half of the 555, but the 333 still is very, very challenging. People think it's a little bit like it's only 350, 333 kilometres, but there's still nearly over 4,000 metres of climbing on it, you know. So the second half of this race is a lot of climbing on it, so it's still going to be very, very challenging for people, you know. Yeah, and is there any difference to the 555 this year? Is it the same Rogan's tough course that's always been there, Sean? Because there's always a small sort of alteration while the years go on. Is there going to be any this year? No, we're not going to try and change this. We've kept it as close as we can for people to set records and for people to target their time from the previous years. And I don't like changing stuff too much, you know, okay, if there's a road works on and we have to change maybe a kilometre or two kilometre. We try to stay as close as we can for, you know, because as I said, people set in targets and people set in times and people want to beat their own time from last year. And they want to, you know, so we're going to try, we are keeping the 555 as exactly as it was before, you know. Well, Lorraine Malarkey came and destroyed the Solar Women's Record last year. She done it in 21 hours. And you were talking her up before her arrival last year. Sean, is there anybody to talk up this year? Anybody to watch out for? Well, Lorraine, Lorraine is sitting on the fence. She's actually thinking about coming to do the 333 and trying to set a blossoming time in the 333. She hasn't signed up yet because, you know, with the change of date and with Lorraine here in Dubai, it's like she has to get time off school and different things to get. But there is a few that are sitting on the fence that are still challenging themselves for other races. So a couple of competitors like, you know, that have done the 333 women have done it before. So we've kept a couple of slots for them. But so it's, it's kind of exciting times. And we're hoping that the reasoning that they're doing at the minute is going to go really, really well and it's going to set them up then for the 555 or the 333, you know. Okay, so we'll wait to see what happens then in the next couple of months to see if there is any big names on the way. So what happens between now and race day, Sean? Because we're here now coming, but we're about to start April.  So what's happening between now and then? Well, from now and then, like it just like we're very lucky using our rushing that we've sold out this year, like we've sold out. We've never sold out before. We've always had this number and a head that we wanted to get over 100 competitors on the road and at the minute we're well over 100. And even we do get a few droplets where I think, you know, really our goal at the start of the 555 when we started out, we don't need maybe like 30 competitors. And it was always a magic number to get over the 100. And now we are. So we're hoping like with a few droplets, we will still have over 100. So I just gave me and Eugene and Damien, the good one this year that's come on board to give us a hand with all the just the emails part of it and everything else Damien's come on board. So it gives us more time now to get everything set up in place where before we were holding on to maybe three weeks out and then trying to get everything in place. Well, now we've got a week, but a bigger window to go by. So it's going to give us more time to get things organized, you know, and just get the venue ready. And, and yeah, we're looking forward to seeing everybody in the ramp on the 5th of August, you know, and let's see if we can get some new new records on the 555 or let's let's see what they can do with the 333, you know, 333 is going to be fast. And it's going to be a very exciting risk between like two mountain teams and and solo competitors, you know, so like, do they start a wee bit later Sean than the five because the 555 boys are way they're way early on the Friday morning so they are as the 333 goes a wee bit later in the day or are they going off at the same time. No, no, it's what we're going to do. We're going to get the 555 solo man out the road and then we're going to be haven't actually decided what we're going to do it. So we're still working on that, but the 555 men will solo people will go first, and then we will, we will have the 333 men and women away then, you know, that's a cycling Ireland backed event as well. Cycling Ireland backed event this year and as everybody knows we couldn't go without cycling Ireland because just with the whole issue of insurance and stuff like that so we're delighted that Cycling Ireland come on board. I think now this is their third year with us so we couldn't do this event without them you know so it's incredible to have them on board and all our sponsors come on back on board this year to make this event possible again so you know it's a packed field like we've got this year we've got 40 solo competitors in the 555 we've got 25 solos in the 333 and we've got 12 teams in the 333 and we've got five unsupported solos in the 555 including one woman this year that's going unsupported so that's going to be a challenge for for that young lady that's going to take it on unsupported you know so and we bit down this year and the four man teams on the 555 because with including the 333 they've thought okay if they've gone on a four man team before they're going to take on the 333 so we've only 10 four man teams this year but listen we'll see how it goes you know it's a packed house it's a packed field and we're excited you know we're just we can't wait again you know it's like every year when the last person crosses the ramp you think oh that's a we've got a year to get it ready again but all sun that's around the corner and like you're only a couple of months out you know and the preparation has started and we're looking forward yeah listen we all look forward it is a very very good event the 7th edition of the 555 slash 333 is on the way in the month of August you enjoy the sun Sean let Eugene and Demian do all the work at home for you and you'll probably turn up in the air too before it don't rub it in please they give it a hard time as it is okay listen good to see you Sean thanks for joining us awesome thanks very much take care bye bye