Guitarist and ‘Lost Beach Boy’ David Marks has reflected on his early career memories working alongside the Wilson brothers, and confirmed his role on the iconic track, Don't Worry Baby.
Discussing his Beach Boys legacy in the new issue of Guitarist, the 77-year-old says it's been 70 years since he first met the Wilsons and, as the boys grew into men, they'd lean on each other's talents as Brian Wilson's vision was brought to fruition.
“My family moved across the street from them in 1956 when I was around seven,” he remembers. “As we were moving in, Carl and Dennis [Brian's brothers] were throwing garbage and car parts into our yard, yelling, ‘Hawthorn rules. Inglewood sucks.’ Our street was the border between the two towns.”
Early jams with Carl Wilson caught Brian's attention, he says, and their relationship grew from there. During those jams, he was playing a blue and white Sears Silvertone acoustic with terrible action; “the strings were like an inch off the neck,” he remembers. Carl, he adds, had “either an electric Sears guitar, a Kay, or a Stella.”
The pair would later switch to Fender guitars, with which the Beach Boys would become synonymous.
“Carl had gotten his Stratocaster, so my parents broke down and got me one, too,” Marks laughs. “After a while, Carl got a Jaguar, and we played that through Fender Dual Showman [amps].”
The tandem played across the band’s first four albums, helping the band forge their early successes. But Marks' biggest impact on the band's back catalog arguably came when the bandleader asked him, rather than his brother, to track the leads on Don't Worry Baby. Even if he downplays the size of the part.
“Carl usually played the leads, which is what Murry [Wilson, their father] wanted,” he details. “I had stopped going on the road with them, but I’d still visit Carl every day after school.
“When they got off the road, they’d overdub stuff, and one day Brian asked me if I wanted to do a lead. I got excited and was ready to shred! But it turned out to be just this little guitar break, like a chord of upstrokes.”
He’s also been keen to address somewhat cynical remarks about the Beach Boys not being a guitar band. As Guitarist scribe Andrew Daly points out, the band, during Marks’ time, were a little different.
“It definitely was guitar-oriented,” he underscores. “Along with Brian’s vocal stuff, I think that created our sound. The first four or five albums created a foundation for Brian to operate on. A lot of that was influenced by Chuck Berry, so it was definitely a heavily guitar-oriented sound.”
Marks’ full interview can be found in the new issue of Guitarist, which features Greta Van Fleet offshoot Mirador on the cover. Head to Magazines Direct to pick up a copy today.
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