David Marks

David Marks
Marks performing for the California Saga 2 Charity Concert in Los Angeles, 2019
Background information
Birth name	David Lee Marks
Born	(1948-08-22) August 22, 1948 (age 76)
Origin	New Castle, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Genres	Rock pop surf
Occupations	Musician singer songwriter
Instruments	Guitar vocals
Years active	1962–present

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 played music with the brothers from before the band started performing publicly, including the first demo recording for "Surfin'" (recorded as The Pendletons), but he was in school^[2] – and his 12-year-old voice was deemed unnecessary – on the October 1961 afternoon the group held the final recording session for the single, released in November 1961 with the new name Beach Boys on the single's label.^[3] Marks continued with the group, moving to rhythm guitar when Al Jardine left the group in February 1962, recording as a Beach Boy from the band's second single, "Surfin' Safari", which earned the band a long term contract. He was a Beach Boy for their first four albums, Surfin' Safari (1962), Surfin' U.S.A. (1963), Surfer Girl (1963), and Little Deuce Coupe (1963). Despite participating with the group from before they became "the Beach Boys", and being in the band through their initial success (except for the recording session of their pre-success first single), historians have discounted him as a true founding member of the group.^[3] In August 1963, he left the band due to personal problems with manager Murry Wilson.^[4] Afterward, Marks worked with acts including Casey Kasem's Band Without a Name, the Moon, Delaney & Bonnie, Colours, and Warren Zevon, and studied jazz and classical guitar at the Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory.

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.^[4] He reunited with the group for their fiftieth-anniversary tour and the 2012 album That's Why God Made the Radio.

At age seven, David Lee Marks moved into a house across the street from the family home of the three Wilson brothers, Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, later the founding members of The Beach Boys.^[5] Describing the neighborhood, Marks noted, "It was run down. There were no sidewalks. The houses were older and the Wilsons lived in a pretty small, modest two-bedroom home. The boys all shared a bedroom. When they got older, Brian started sleeping in the den more and more, which was a converted garage they had turned into a music room. They had a Hammond B-3 organ, an upright piano, and a little hi-fi in there."^[6]

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.^[5] He began taking lessons from Maus, who had been a student of Ritchie Valens.^[7]

In 1959, Marks and Brian Wilson's youngest brother Carl began to develop their own style of playing electric guitars.^[8] Brian realized that the combination of Carl and Marks playing brought a rock guitar sound to his original compositions, and the two teenagers participated in Brian's first songwriting efforts that led to the band's 1963 hit single "Surfer Girl".^[9]

Marks was not on the Beach Boys first recording, "Surfin'" for Candix Records on October 16, 1961; that roster included Al Jardine, a high school classmate of Brian Wilson's, who had been singing and playing stand-up bass with the Wilson brothers and their cousin Mike Love.^[10] 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.

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", "Surfin' U.S.A.", "Shut Down", "Surfer Girl", "In My Room", and "Be True to Your School". 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,^[11] 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.^[4]

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 Herb Alpert's A&M Records in 1964. Murry Wilson reportedly threatened radio deejays in order to keep them from playing the Marksmen's records.^[12] Later, the group signed with (and released a single on) Warner Bros. Records, but in spite of packed concert venues up and down the state of California, lack of airplay precluded any further releases. The 2009 release of Marks & the Marksmen Ultimate Collector's Edition 1963–1965 marks the first-time the entire Marksmen catalog was made available to the public.

In 1966, Marks played with Casey Kasem's Band Without a Name. He then worked with the late 1960s psychedelic pop band, The Moon, along with Matt Moore, Larry Brown, and David Jackson. The band signed a production deal with producer Mike Curb and released two under-promoted albums on the Imperial label.^[13] He also performed with Delaney and Bonnie, Colours (recording lead guitar on their second album), and Warren Zevon.^[14] By the time Marks was 21 years old, he had been signed to five label deals and had grown disillusioned with the Los Angeles music scene. In 1969, he relocated to Boston, where he studied jazz and classical guitar as a private student at the Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music in 1970–71.

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.^[15] Instead, he spent the next 25 years playing with artists like Buzz Clifford, Daniel Moore (writer of "My Maria" and "Shambala"), Gary Montgomery, Jim Keltner, Carl Radle, Leon Russell, drummer-turned-actor Gary Busey, Delbert McClinton, Warren Zevon, and many others, earning a reputation as a solid session guitarist without cashing in on his notoriety as having been a Beach Boy. Marks briefly played lead guitar for Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, but was let go and replaced by Eric Clapton. Marks was also offered the lead guitarist spot in Paul Revere and the Raiders, but turned down the offer because he did not want to dress up in a revolutionary war-era costume every time he played a show. Marks was a close friend of Warren Zevon for years until they had a falling-out. In 1988, when the Beach Boys were inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Marks was neither invited nor acknowledged at the ceremony, an oversight which was reportedly finally rectified in 2007.

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.^[16]

Marks became a leader in the hepatitis C community, appearing in the media to raise awareness of the disease.^[17] 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 Beach Boys Historic Landmark in Hawthorne, California. The following year, on June 13, 2006, Marks gathered with surviving Beach Boys Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Mike Love, and Bruce Johnston on the roof of the landmark Capitol Records building in Hollywood, where all five were presented with an RIAA Platinum record Award in recognition of two million in sales of the Beach Boys CD song collection Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of The Beach Boys.^[18] In 2008, following the release of a career retrospective, The Lost Years (released to coincide with his book), he toured the UK as a "special guest" with the Beach Boys. He has also semi-regularly performed with Jardine and Dean Torrence of Jan & Dean, in the "Legends of Surf Music" tour, with the Surf City All-Stars.

On December 16, 2011, it was announced that Marks would be reuniting with Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, and Bruce Johnston for a new Beach Boys album and 50th anniversary tour in 2012. The group appeared at the 2012 Grammy Awards on February 12, followed by a 50-date tour that began in Tucson, Arizona in April.^[19] Mike Love commented on working with Marks once again, stating, "David rocks. A phenomenal guitarist. When he does those leads on "Surfin'", "Surfin' Safari", and "Fun, Fun, Fun" it's so authentic. He and Carl committed on playing guitar since they were ten years old and were neighbors with each other from across the street in Hawthorne. He's a fantastic musician and a really fantastic guy to be with. He went through his issues with alcohol, but he's completely cooled out for maybe ten years now. It's going to be really great to be with him."^[20] Marks took over lead vocal duties on the songs "Hawaii" and "Getcha Back" during the anniversary tour.

Also in 2012, Marks released the album The Circle Continues, which featured a guest appearance from Jardine on vocals on the song "I Sail Away'.^[21]

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 Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote their tour. For 2015, Marks and Jardine added vocals to Wilson's solo album (released April 2015); however, Marks was not a part of Wilson's Summer tour to promote the album, instead making several appearances with Love/Johnston's Beach Boys group during the rest of 2015.

Marks and his wife, Carrieann, relocated to southern California in 2013 after living for a decade in North Salem, New York.^[5]

In 2017, Marks made an appearance as himself on an episode of Decker.^[22]

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 the homeless.^[23]

In 2021, he sued Universal Music for shortchanging him on royalties from foreign streaming revenue.^[24]

Solo

• 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)

• Beach Boys Historic Landmark

Wikimedia Commons has media related to David Marks.

• David Marks 2008 Interview on ilikemusic.com