35 years ago today: James Watt bans The Beach Boys from Independence Day celebration

[Miles Archer]

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/beach-boys-4th-of-july-band-1983/

President Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of the Interior had been in office for two years and was known as an anti-environmentalist who once vowed to “mine more, drill more, cut more timber,” and upset many conservation bodies in the process. But Watt achieved a new height of hatred when he went after Brian Wilson’s band on April 5, 1983.

The Beach Boys had marked Independence Day at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 1980, 1981 and 1982, performing to large audiences each time, and it had been expected that a fourth appearance would take place. Watt, however, had other ideas – without naming the band directly, he announced that no more rock acts would take part on July 4, saying they attracted “the wrong element.” “We’re not going to encourage drug abuse and alcoholism, as was done in the past,” he said.

***

It probably wasn’t the band’s comments that landed Watt in deep water; it was almost certainly the comments of his bosses. Vice President George H.W. Bush described the Beach Boys as “my friends” and added, “I like their music.” First Lady Nancy Reagan apologized to the group on behalf of the White House. The Department of the Interior was said to have received 40,000 complaint calls. On April 7, two days after Watt had introduced his ban, the president reversed it. But press coverage of the dispute had led to increased interest in the band, and they had secured another booking for July 4 that year.

By way of resolving the situation, they were instead invited to play at the White House on June 13 at an event marking the 15th anniversary of the Special Oympics. “I just wanted … to thank the Beach Boys for coming here on this very special occasion,” Reagan told the crowd. “We were looking forward to seeing them on the Fourth of July – I’m glad they got here early.”

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Reagan and team , nightmares

Targeted working people, destroyed them

[no_hypocrisy]

2. The Beach Boys want to dedicate this little number to James Watt:

[trackfan]

3. Watt was the guy who, touting the diversity of his staff said,

"I've got a Black, a woman, two Jews, and a cripple".

[Submariner]

4. He changed the Bison from facing left to facing right for a few years

[Aristus]

5. What a pissy, bigoted little prig that asshole was.

He's the reason Wyoming is the least-populous state in the Union. No one wants to be around that ass-clown...