David Marks

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 gettogethers 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 Al Jardine on rhythm guitar and performed on the bands first four albums Surfin Safari 1962 Surfin USA 1963 Surfer Girl 1963 and Little Deuce Coupe 1963 Because he did not appear on the 1961 single Surfin the first performance by the band that became the Beach Boys most historians discount him as a true founding member of the group In August 1963 he left the band due to personal problems with manager Murry Wilson Afterward Marks worked with acts including Casey Kasems 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 He briefly reunited with the group for their fiftiethanniversary tour and the 2012 album Thats 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 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 twobedroom 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 B3 organ an upright piano and a little hifi in there As the 1950s progressed Marks sang and played music with the Wilson family at their Sunday night singalongs 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 He began taking lessons from Maus who had been a student of Ritchie Valens In 1959 Marks and Brian Wilsons youngest brother Carl began to develop their own style of playing electric guitars 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 Brians first songwriting efforts that led to the bands 1963 hit single Surfer Girl 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 Wilsons who had been singing and playing standup bass with the Wilson brothers and their cousin Mike Love 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 Source Article David Marks from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30