David Marks
David Marks | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | David Lee Marks |
Born | August 22, 1948 |
Origin | New Castle, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Genres | |
Occupation(s) |
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Instrument(s) |
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Years active | 1962–present |
Website | davidleemarks |
David Lee Marks (born August 22, 1948) is an American guitarist who was an early member of the Beach Boys. While growing up in Hawthorne, California, Marks was a neighborhood friend of the original band members and was a frequent participant at their family get-togethers.[1] Following his departure from the group, Marks fronted the Marksmen and performed and recorded as a session musician.
Marks joined the Beach Boys in February 1962, replacing
From 1997 to 1999, Marks returned to the Beach Boys for their live performances. In 2007, he released an autobiography, entitled The Lost Beach Boy. He briefly reunited with the group for their fiftieth-anniversary tour and the 2012 album That's Why God Made the Radio.
Biography
Early years
At age seven, David Lee Marks moved into a house across the street from the family home of the three Wilson brothers,
As the 1950s progressed, Marks sang and played music with the Wilson family at their Sunday night singalongs.[1] Inspired by a 1958 performance by guitarist John Maus (later of the 1960s Walker Brothers), Marks asked his parents to buy him a guitar, which they did on Christmas Eve, 1958.[4] He began taking lessons from Maus, who had been a student of Ritchie Valens.[6]
In 1959, Marks and Brian Wilson's youngest brother Carl began to develop their own style of playing
Marks was not on the Beach Boys first recording, "
Over the next couple of months, Brian experimented with different combinations of musicians, including his mother Audree Wilson, but was not able to interest a major label.Marks joined the Beach Boys in February 1962, replacing Al Jardine who had left (not for dental school as is often stated). Playing rhythm guitar, Marks ended up performing on the band's first four albums.
The Beach Boys
On April 16, 1962, the Beach Boys recorded a demo session at Western Recorders that produced the masters for the songs "Surfin' Safari" and "409", that became the band's first double-sided hit, landing them a long-term contract with Capitol Records.
According to biographer Jon Stebbins, Marks's guitar chemistry with Carl Wilson changed the sound of the band. Writing about the difference between the Beach Boys' Candix Records single and their first Capitol Records release, Stebbins stated:
Compared to 'Surfin'', this was metal. No sign of stand-up bass or folk sensibility on this recording. And the tiny amateurish guitar sound and lazy feel of the [earlier demo] World Pacific version of 'Surfin' Safari' had now transformed into something crisp and modern. "It was Carl and Dave who brought that electric guitar drive into the band", says Al Jardine. "And because of that, Brian was able to expand a little bit."
Marks continued to sing and play rhythm guitar with the Beach Boys on their first four (plus) albums, including the early hit singles "Surfin' Safari", "409", "
". Marks played over 100 concerts with the Beach Boys, toured across the United States with them, and appeared on their first string of national TV appearances. Marks contributed to their tightly knit sound, as well as their youthful look on the early Beach Boys' album covers.Although it has been assumed that Marks left the Beach Boys when Jardine returned to the band, this was not exactly the case. Marks and Jardine were both part of the 1963 Beach Boys touring line-up. Jardine returned on a part-time basis to fill-in on bass for Brian Wilson, who had already begun to detach himself from the touring band as early as the spring of 1963.
At the height of their first wave of international success, Marks quit the Beach Boys in late August 1963 toward the end of the group's summer tour during an argument with Murry Wilson, the Wilson boys' father and the band's manager, but did not immediately leave the band until later that year when his parents and Murry came to blows over financial and managerial issues. The first show without Marks on guitar was October 19, 1963,[10] though he would stay friends and be in close contact with various band members for many years, and he would remain, unbeknownst to him, a legal member of the Beach Boys until September 27, 1967.[3]
Post-Beach Boys career
In February 1963, Dennis Wilson was injured in a car accident. His replacement was Mark Groseclose, who went to high school with Carl Wilson. Marks and Groseclose became friends and Marks eventually took over Groseclose's garage band, the Jaguars, which he renamed the Marksmen. The band was initially a side project for the aspiring songwriter, who was growing tired of his songs being passed over for Beach Boys records by Murry Wilson.
After Marks left the Beach Boys, the Marksmen became his full-time focus, and one of the first acts to be signed to
In 1966, Marks played with
Since 1971
In early 1971, after reuniting onstage in Boston with the Beach Boys, despite a chilly reception from both the public and Bruce Johnston, Marks received an offer from Mike Love to rejoin the band but he declined.
Marks rejoined the Beach Boys as a full-time member playing lead guitar in 1997, when Carl Wilson, fighting cancer, was unable to continue touring with the group. After playing another 300 shows as an official Beach Boy, Marks left the band a second time in 1999 due to his own health issues when he was diagnosed with hepatitis C.[15]
Marks became a leader in the hepatitis C community, appearing in the media to raise awareness of the disease.[16] In 2007, Marks co-wrote The Lost Beach Boy with Stebbins, which detailed his early career and related his "lost years", his health problems, his musical development, and his recovery and acceptance within the Beach Boys community.
On May 20, 2005, the Beach Boys six-man line-up including both Marks and Jardine, was memorialized on the
On December 16, 2011, it was announced that Marks would be reuniting with Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, and Bruce Johnston for
Following the 50th anniversary tour, it was announced that Marks along with Wilson and Jardine would no longer tour with Johnston and Love; instead, Marks appeared with Jardine and Wilson along with Wilson's band for a short summer tour in 2013 featuring the three. On the tour Marks sang "Little Bird", "Forever", "This Car of Mine", and "Summertime Blues". The following fall, Wilson, Jardine, and Marks joined guitar legend Jeff Beck for a 23 city tour, the foursome appearing on the
Marks and his wife, Carrieann, relocated to southern California in 2013 after living for a decade in North Salem, New York.[4]
In 2017, Marks made an appearance as himself on an episode of Decker.[20]
Marks has been relatively inactive since 2015. Among his appearances during this time was in 2019 with Jardine at the California Saga 2 event to raise money for those experiencing homelessness.[21]
Discography
Solo
Year | Album details |
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1992 | Work Tapes
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2003 | Something Funny Goin' On
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2006 | I Think About You Often
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- The Marks-Clifford Band "Live At The Blue Dolphin '77" (2006)
- The Lost Years : Limited Edition - triple album Set (2008) Quiver Records
- The Marksmen : The Ultimate Collectors Edition (2008) Quiver Records
The Beach Boys
- Surfin' Safari (1962)
- Surfin' U.S.A. (1963)
- Surfer Girl (1963)
- Little Deuce Coupe (1963)
- That's Why God Made the Radio (2012)
- Live – The 50th Anniversary Tour (2013)
The Moon
- Without Earth (1968)
- The Moon (1969)
Surf City All Stars
- Live In Concert (2007)
- Acoustic Vibrations (2009)
- Live In Concert (2013)
Other appearances
- Mike Love, Bruce Johnston and David Marks of the Beach Boys Salute NASCAR (1998)
- A Postcard from California (Al Jardine, 2010)
- No Pier Pressure (Brian Wilson, 2015)
See also
References
- ^ a b Stebbins 2007, p. 18
- ISBN 978-1-4584-2914-8.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-85227-391-0.
- ^ a b c Pacchiana, Katherine (February 25, 2012). "North Salem's Beach Boy David Marks - Good Vibes". The North Salem Daily Voice. Retrieved July 25, 2012.
- ^ Sharp, Ken. "David Marks of the Beach Boys – In His Own Words (Interview)". rockcellarmagazine.com. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
- ^ Stebbins 2007, p. 20
- ^ Stebbins 2007, p. 22
- ^ Stebbins 2007, pp. 25–26
- ISBN 0-89471-412-0.
- ^ Beach Boys Concert-October 19, 1963. Members.tripod.com (October 19, 1963). Retrieved on 2013-08-25.
- ^ Stebbins 2007, pp. 113–118
- ^ Stebbins 2007, pp. 146–154
- ^ Stebbins 2007, p. 158
- ^ Stebbins 2007, pp. 172–174
- ^ "Celebrity Health – David Marks". BBC News. May 23, 2008. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
- ^ Stebbins 2007, p. 228
- ^ Stebbins 2007, p. 236
- ^ "The Beach Boys". The Beach Boys. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
- ^ Mike Love 'Looking Forward' to Beach Boys 50th Anniversary Tour | Music News. Rolling Stone (December 19, 2011). Retrieved on 2013-08-25.
- ^ "Decker - Rock and a Hard Place on Adult Swim". Adultswim.com. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
- ^ "The Beach Boys". Facebook. Archived from the original on February 26, 2022.
External links
- Official website Archived July 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- David Marks 2008 Interview on ilikemusic.com