The Fall 1961 Mexico Trip

Splendid, look forward to seeing that.

Now I think about it, the guy who was in charge of the ads dept on the paper was Tim Berry. Wonder if he was from the same family?

The Berrys’ full U.K. address would have been Shenstone, Beechwood Grove, Halifax, West Yorkshire, HX2 9BY - Shenstone being the name of the house.

And looking on Google maps, I’m guess the house was demolished and the site developed with a few non-vernacular red brick houses.

Jim does have an account here. I contacted him a couple of days ago. Hopefully he'll come by here and provide input to the thread.

There was a Dean Martin song in 1955 called Relax-Ay-Voo but it wasn't a hit in the US or UK (though it was in Australia) and I don't know how popular a phrase it was. I asked my parents-in-law (both from Yorkshire and teenagers in the '50s) if relaxayvoo or relaxayvooing was an expression they were familiar with but they didn't know it (though my mother-in-law vaguely remembered the song).

I started hearing Malcolm McDowell after that. "There was me, that is Barry, and my three Havens. That is Mrs. H, Frederick and Frankie. We sat in the Wilson music room relaxayvooing to a bit of the old Two-Step Side-Step..."

As far as Rock Odyssey, I did think it a stretch that he's bumming around the U.S., makes his way to CA, engulfing himself in the surf and sun music scene, and just so happens to be hosted by the British couple that was present at the moment of myth, but ok. That second encounter with the family in 1967 sounds like an intentional parody though.

So, made up names and never happened? 

Mr. Murphy will be here soon....

The Beach Boys early history is like a complex and convoluted jigsaw puzzle. We have most of the pieces and most of them in the proper place. But finding the missing pieces and ensuring their proper position remains a challenge. Further complicating things is determining which pieces are extraneous and should be put aside and discounted.

Kudos and much admiration to CorkOnTheOcean for unearthing this heretofore missing key piece of the puzzle. The research center in my brain is genuinely joyful this type of diligent searching continues by determined musical archaeologists. Nice work!

I believe Cork’s research uncovering Audree and Murry Wilson, and Tom and Nellie Berry returning to Los Angles from Mexico City aboard Compañía Mexicana de Aviación (flight MX 900, perhaps) on Wednesday, November 8, 1961, is the most significant piece of the puzzle uncovered in quite some time. It sheds new and important light on the chronology leading up to the recording of “Surfin.”

When I was researching and writing Becoming the Beach Boys, 1961-1963, it was readily apparent the date of the Mexico City trip was key to the chronology as it put into motion the rental of the musical gear and the studio recording of “Surfin.” I believed once a master take of “Surfin” was recorded, Hite Morgan moved very quickly to find a record company and have it released. I wrote to the U.S. Department of State and obtained Murry’s passport records in the hope they would reveal the exact date of the trip. A few months later I received a package from the State Department with copies of Murry’s passport, passport photo, and travel history. But as I was later to learn, travel to Mexico in 1961 did not require U.S. citizens to have a passport. I tried to track down the airlines and schedules for flights from Los Angeles to Mexico City but came up empty. I knew the entrenched story of the rental of the musical gear over Labor Day weekend did not make sense. In short, the gear rental is driven by Al asking his mother Virginia to loan them the money. But Al did not reconnect with Brian and begin singing with the Wilson brothers and Mike until after he ran into Brian on the campus of El Camino Community College. And since the school year started September 11, the gear rental could not have happened September 1-4 (Labor Day weekend). So, if not Labor Day, I thought maybe it was confused with another holiday—Columbus Day (October 12), Halloween (October 31), Election Day (November 7), Veterans Day (November 11, celebrated November 10 that year). I thought Thanksgiving (November 23) and certainly Christmas were too late in the year. I couldn’t make any of the other holidays work. It was all conjecture. But I knew the gear rental had to be later in the year than Labor Day weekend. But how much later? That was driven by when Al ran into Brian on the campus of El Camino Community College. Al had to have reconnected with Brian before the gear was rented as Virginia's loan for the gear was firm. Once the gear was rented and they rehearsed with it and recorded a master of "Surfin," things moved rapidly. So, I worked backwards from what we knew about the release of “Surfin” on Candix 331. I am working on an updated, detailed proposed Chronology incorporating Cork’s important discovery that I will post here when finished.

I got the name Barry Haven from Ian Whitcomb’s book and I don’t have anything new to add to that aspect of the story. Clearly it appears the name Barry Haven was either misremembered or simply incorrect. That’s one of wonderful things about research. It is constantly renewing itself. I think we can safely say Audree and Murry travelled to Mexico City with Tom and Nellie Berry and returned Wednesday, November 8, 1961, putting into motion the rental of the musical gear financed by Virginia Jardine. It seems likely the trip would have been one week or less. So, perhaps they departed no earlier than Wednesday, November 1, or a few days later. I wonder if weekday fares were more reasonably priced than weekend fares, and whether that may have been a factor in Murry’s decision when to travel.

Once again, kudos and thanks to Cork for such a pivotal piece of research that helps us document the early history in a much more accurate manner.

Not sure it is relevant but presumably All Saints and All Souls Days observances would be circa November 1 and 2 in Mexico in 1961.

Anyone have access to Mexican/Mexico City newspaper archives?

All Souls Day in 1961 was Thursday November 2nd.