In 1980, The Beach Boys had been at it for nearly 20 years and all were still alive, including Dennis and Carl. Here, Brian Wilson is left more in the background with his keyboard while Bruce Johnston, who joined the touring band in 1965 playing bass to replace reclusive Brian, does most of the keyboard work. The other original Beach Boys, Mike Love and Al Jardine are there, of course and there is also an additional percussionist who fills in for Dennis on the drums for a couple of songs including Help Me Rhonda, where self-taught drummer, Dennis, takes to the piano.

I like to watch drummers in live performances, having played them myself, and Dennis was really beating away at them during this concert. Anyone familiar with the instrument, knows that they are not played the way Dennis taught himself to play them. Drums are normally played using the left hand for the snare drum and the right hand for the hi-hat which means crossing over the snare drum with your right hand to hit the hi-hat which is on the left. Dennis has changed this awkward positioning by using his left hand for the hi-hat and right hand for the snare drum which would be hard to do for anyone that has learned to play drums in the standard fashion because of the placement of the downbeat and the upbeat in each measure. The upbeat is not done with the right hand.

So here is 55 minutes of straight Beach Boys sound before a crowd of 400,000 in 1980. (Despite what the description says, there is not advertising.)

To think that the little kids shown on daddy's shoulders are around 50 right now, and the adults in the crowd are old, in body if not in mind. That's why some of us still prefer to listen to the old stuff. It was real, and it was better, too.

Skyhoop

https://youtu.be/JrzHX9-dj88