“…the record absolutely slayed me. Then it dawned on me that this music was by a Beach Boy…it all started to make sense. The attitude I felt from those Marksmen recordings seemed to match the image captured in those [Beach Boys] photos. I want to say he came off looking like a different type of rebel than even Denny Wilson’s rebel – someone who wanted to break out of the typical surf aesthetic and do something grittier…and I believe David Marks succeeded in doing so.”
- Darian Sahanaja (Wondermints, Brian Wilson Band) in The Lost Beach Boy
During the final days of 1963, David Marks was a very busy 15 year-old. As if touring all over the US and recording 4 hit LPs with his band, The Beach Boys, wasn’t enough, David also began recording his original music with a local garage band, The Jaguars, which he quickly renamed The Marksmen. By the end of that year, David abandoned the Beach Boys and focused solely on the Marksmen.
The band was first signed to A&M Records and then later, by Warner Brothers; however, the Marksmen suffered the fate of being on the radar of a revenge-seeking Murry Wilson, who all but killed the growing momentum of the promising act. For the few who have heard these lost gems, David Marks is revered for his progressive hybrid of South Bay Surf with early British Invasion influences that was way ahead of its time.
Now, you can have the entire Marksmen catalog in this newly re-mastered Collector’s Edition CD !!!!
