Sunday, February 27, 2000
'Beach Boys' actors look authentic thanks to Bridgetown native
BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Good, good, good vibrations weren't good enough. Bridgetown native Gary Griffin, who toured as a keyboardist with the Beach Boys in the 1970s, wanted perfection from the young actors starring in The Beach Boys: An American Family, the two-part ABC miniseries premiering today.
“We spent a lot of time together. Only one of the guys (actors) had played guitar a little bit before they got the part,” he said about stars Fred Weller (Brian Wilson), Matt Letscher (Mike Love), Nick Stabile (Dennis Wilson), Ned Vaughn (Al Jardine) and Ryan Northcott (Carl Wilson).
“I taught these guys how to look like musicians and be the Beach Boys,” Mr. Griffin said.
The 1969 Oak Hills High School graduate was hired as music supervisor for the four-hour miniseries. His job was to compose background music and secure rights for two dozen Beach Boys recordings in the film.
But his role quickly expanded to music teacher, showing Mr. Northcott how Carl held a chord, and Mr. Weller how Brian played piano and bass guitar.
“I made videotapes of my hands playing the keyboards, and he would watch them at home at night over and over,” said Mr. Griffin, 48, who played electric piano for the Haymarket Riot here from 1974 to 1977.
The actual surfing tunes is the big difference between the new Beach Boys movie and ABC's 1990 film, The Story of the Beach Boys: Summer Dreams. Sound-alikes were used on the Bruce Greenwood movie a decade ago.
“We've licensed all the original Beach Boys music, which gives this movie a lot of class,” Mr. Griffin said. Songs include “Surfin' USA,” “Little Deuce Coupe,” “I Get Around,” “Barbara Ann,” “God Only Knows” and “California Girls.”
ABC's Beach Boys even has a new vocal track by founder Brian Wilson, the genius who wrote the band's sweet harmonies. At the producers' request, he recorded “In My Room” in Mr. Griffin's home studio two weeks ago.
“His wife had said he'd love to do it,” Mr. Griffin said. “It's just a cool thing to have Brian's voice in this movie.”
The Beach Boys: An American Family dramatizes the first 14 years of the band originally called the Pendletones in 1960. They rode the surfing wave through the early '60s, crashed hard during Brian's drug use in the psychedelic rock years and got back on top for a triumphant revival tour in 1974. (The 1990 movie covered 23 years in two hours, through Dennis Wilson's drowning death in 1983).
For their fans, the story will be as familiar as their music — and maybe too familiar. Most have heard about how the Wilsons' obsessive, domineering dad (Kevin Dunn from Godzilla, Nixon, Dave) repeatedly smacked and whipped his emotionally fragile sons, without a protest from their mother (Alley Mills from The Wonder Years).
Brian Wilson's many problems with fears, food and pharmaceuticals provided the opening for Mr. Griffin to join the group on keyboards in 1977. He remembers catching the first wave of Beach Boys music in 1962 on old WSAI-AM and WCPO-AM.
“My brother (John) gave me a copy of "Surfin' Safari' for my (11th) birthday in the fall of '62. I still have the record,” he said.
He seldom missed seeing a Tristate Beach Boys concert while in high school, college (Miami University and the University of Cincinnati) or playing in local rock bands.
“I just got to know them by being a pesky fan of the band,” he said. When a withdrawn Brian ballooned to more than 300 pounds, they hired Mr. Griffin for keyboards, vocals and arranging.
Two cameos
Mr. Griffin later played with Mike Love's Celebration band, until hooking up with Jan & Dean in the early 1980s. He has continued to tour some with Jan & Dean on keyboards and vocals, appearing several times at WGRR-FM's OldiesFest concerts in New Richmond.
Perhaps only Mr. Griffin's parents — Tom and Esther Griffin of Bridgetown — will recognize their son in his two cameos Monday night, as an audio recording engineer at Brian's house, and as the long-haired bass player on the “Fun, Fun, Fun” finale.
The concert scenes were among the last done in the film, produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (Annie, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella) and actor John Stamos (Full House), a part-time drummer for the Beach Boys who suggested the new miniseries. (Mr. Stamos does not appear in the film.)
Director Jeff Bleckner (Rear Window, Flowers for Algernon, Serving in Silence) shot the film out of sequence to let the actors get in tune with the '60s surfing sound. Viewers may be convinced they're watching the real Beach Boys faster than you can say Ba-Ba-Ba-Babara Ann.
“The actors — just like the Beach Boys — got better as they went on,” Mr. Griffin said.
“At first, the guys didn't know much about the Beach Boys. But they really worked hard at it. They really came to love all the music. They bought all the records. They even learned songs that we weren't going to use.”
Thanks to those Beach Boys' good, good, good vibrations.
John Kiesewetter is Enquirer TV/radio critic. Write: 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202; fax: 768-8330.
