Day off in Los Angeles – 27 August 1966

Saturday 27 August 1966 | Miscellaneous, The Beatles

On Saturday 27 August 1966, The Beatles spent their third consecutive rest day at 7655 Curson Terrace in Beverly Hills, a house arranged for them by Brian Epstein during their stay in Los Angeles. The day brought a notable visit: Brian Wilson and Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys came to the house to spend time with the group.

It was a meeting of the two most creatively ambitious acts in popular music at the time — and a moment that reflected the extraordinary mutual influence the two groups had exerted on one another over the preceding year.

Pet Sounds and Revolver

The Beach Boys’ eleventh album Pet Sounds, released in May 1966, had been a profound influence on The Beatles during the recording of Revolver, which had been released just three weeks earlier on 5 August 1966. Paul McCartney in particular had been deeply affected by Pet Sounds, later describing it as “the album of the century” and citing it as a direct inspiration for the ambition and sonic experimentation of Revolver and, subsequently, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The influence ran in both directions. Brian Wilson had been galvanised by The Beatles’ Rubber Soul (December 1965) — its cohesion, its range, its sense of an album as a unified artistic statement — and had set out to make something that matched and surpassed it. The result was Pet Sounds. The Beatles heard it, raised the stakes further with Revolver, and the creative dialogue between the two groups became one of the defining dynamics of mid-1960s popular music.

By August 1966, however, the pressures on both acts were immense. Brian Wilson had withdrawn from touring entirely, unable to cope with the demands of live performance, and was increasingly consumed by the recording of what would become Smile. The Beatles, for their part, were on the final dates of what would prove to be their last ever concert tour — a tour they had undertaken with growing reluctance, and which would end the following night at Dodger Stadium.

The final tour

The 1966 North American tour had been a difficult one from the outset. The controversy over John Lennon’s “more popular than Jesus” remarks, made in an interview earlier in the year, had generated protests and record burnings across the American South. Security concerns were constant. The music, meanwhile, had become almost impossible to hear above the noise of the crowds — and The Beatles were now making records of a complexity that could not be reproduced on stage.

The Beatles had remained at the Curson Terrace house throughout their Los Angeles stay, not venturing out. The visit from Brian and Carl Wilson was one of the few social engagements of the period — a private meeting between musicians who understood, perhaps better than anyone, what the other was going through.

The following night, 28 August 1966, The Beatles would play Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. It would be one of their final concerts. Their last ever public performance would take place at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on 29 August 1966 — two days later.

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