How did the Beach Boys begin?
Carl Wilson: Brian had been fooling around at the piano for years, picking apart those Four Freshmen songs and putting them back together again. He would make me, my mom and Mike sing the harmonies he had figured out. He’d make us do that for hours. Then one day he got it in his imagination that he could do simpler, more direct music, rock ‘n’ roll. He thought he could put together a band and make music like we heard on the radio. In the fall of 1961, my dad and mom went down to Mexico City on a business trip. They left us with $80 for food, spending money and emergencies. As soon as they left, we all got into Brian’s car and went down to this music store on Hawthorne Avenue and rented some instruments. Alan’s mom rented us a big acoustic bass, an amplifier, a couple guitars. I already had a guitar, a Kay that my dad had got me in Los Angeles. Alan had wanted to start a folk group, so he had been in touch with my dad’s publisher, Hite and Dorinda Morgan. So we took our rented instrumen
