From The History Books

Surf’s Up: When James Watt Banned the Beach Boys from July 4th

In the ongoing culture wars, few episodes have been as unexpected and revealing as the time the Beach Boys were banned from playing at the 1983 Independence Day celebrations on the National Mall. After President Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of the Interior James Watt made the surprising decision, what started as plans for a routine concert celebration quickly spiraled into a national controversy.

In April 1983, Watt, a lightning rod who was notorious for opposing many of the environmental programs that he was supposed to protect, said musical acts that had performed in recent years attracted the “wrong element.” Without explicitly naming the Beach Boys, who had been the most prominent band to play in previous years, Watt said the government would not “encourage drug abuse and alcoholism as was done in the past.” Watt, who had the authority to ban them because his department controlled the National Park Service, invited Wayne Newton and the U.S. Army Blues instead to perform “patriotic, family-based entertainment.”

The news didn’t sit well with many Americans. The Beach Boys were one of the most iconic bands to come out of the 1960s. It wasn’t a surprise that when they played at the July 4th celebrations in 1980, 1981, and 1982, they drew massive crowds who were thrilled to hear songs such as “Good Vibrations” played live.

The problem for Watt was that liberals were not the only people who were upset. By the 1980s, the Beach Boys were no longer seen as part of the 1960s counterculture. Rather, they were a clean-cut mainstream favorite, more Americana than Haight-Ashbury hippiedom.

Singer Mike Love responded to Watt’s controversial move by saying, “We sing about patriotic themes like ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.’” He published an article in The Washington Post, writing: “All of us need to be reminded just where rock ‘n’ roll came from. Its roots are right here in America. It was a blending of the Black music of the ‘40s and ‘50s with the hillbilly and country music that came out of the mountains of Appalachia.”