Found these images over at gettyimages. Don’t think I ever seen them before. 29th August 1967 at Lido Beach, Long Island, New York at a place called Malibu Beach Club. Photos by Don Paulsen.
There’s also three other photos from the same night (in 1967). At gettyimages they say that it’s the Parliaments, but they look more like the Isley Brothers to me. And since the Isley Brothers also played that night, it’s probably them. Here’s the images with (presumably) the Isley Brothers:
Holy effin Christ… What a find!
Not sure , but yes, that should be Eddie I think.
Would you like to share with them on Facebook? Or can I do that? Pretty sure there are some people that could add some background to these.
Again, fantastic find! Thanks for sharing them here!
I think u are right. I’ll be damn. Did a lil research. According to some sources, the Boyce brothers decided to remain in school once The Parliaments started to seriously tour. This was about '66.
These are very cool! Thanks for sharing, I’ve never seen these before. Maybe it’s just the angle of the photo playing tricks on me, but I don’t think the bass player here is Billy. I think that is Eddie on guitar in the second photo, but the bass player looks taller than Billy in reference to George and Eddie and older than I would expect Billy to look in 1967 at 16 years old.
Maybe he is a pick-up band member or house band member from the venue? It looks like he is following Eddie. Notice Eddie is facing forward like the singers, but the bass player has his back to the crowd in all three shots, watching Eddie and George attentively in the first two shots.
(I agree that the last three photos are the Isley Brothers, not The Parliaments)
Good observation about the bass players length and what way he’s facing! But to me he looks like Billy…
Regarding the Parliaments, I believe they’re standing like this (from left to right): Calvin Simon John Jenkins [edit: see post below], Ray Davis, Grady Thomas, Fuzzy Haskins, George Clinton. Let me know if I’m wrong .
I also noticed that the Parliaments doesn’t seem to have processed hair, like they had on this classic photo from the year before (1966).
I believe it to be Billy. There is another recent pic out there on Getty that nobody seems to have seen before that shows The Funks during the '71 tour of Europe. They are all in a line and a lady is at the end of the line posing with them. Looking at Billy in that pic then from the side has convinced me this is Billy. Billy was in the band before Eddie I think. Then he went and got Eddie. For sure I may stand corrected. We need Billy to come on here and tell us.
I don’t believe Calvin is in the pic. There was another Parliament who was with them about the time testify hit. I think his name was Jenkins or something to that effect. I think Coolcumber had gone off to war. I plainly see the other Parliaments, but I think that is who that is down at the far end.
Yeah true. Eddie and Billy left the group. Eddie was the first to come back and he brought Tawl with him (on bass). When Billy got back Tawl moved to rhythm guitar (just as you pointed out), but that was in 1969.
I knew that Calvin was in Vietnam when Testify came out, but didn’t remember for how long. So I had to double check and you’re absolutely right! Apparently (according to the excellent Music For Your Mother liner notes) he was drafted in autumn 1966 and didn’t get back until October 1968. And was replaced with John Jenkins. So yeah, that should be John on the far left.
Would be awesome with Billys input. He tells it how it is.
But yeah, Billy got first into the band and then Eddie. An interesting thing I read in the liner notes was that Eddie joined in August 1967 and Billy, who had played guitar up to this point, switched to bass. So that was maybe just before this show.
Here’s a theory (ok so I’m just speculating now ) regarding to @Vampidemic observation that the bass player is facing Eddie (instead of the crowd). Since this show was on 29th August 1967, it could be one of the first shows with Eddie. So if Eddie was so fresh and Billy just switched to bass, maybe Billy wanted to keep a close eye on Eddie.
You know what? You have inspired me to take that Music For Mother back out and reread that whole booklet it was outstanding. Been years since I read it.
I think you had it correct originally for the 1966 group photo. I can say with pretty high confidence that it’s the main 5 (George, Fuzzy, Grady, Stingray, & Calvin) in this photo, just based on their faces. That’s distinctly Calvin second from the left (I think his distinctive eyelids are a good way of identifying Calvin and I see them here) and definitely Stingray all the way on the left as well.
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