Middle Tennessee State University - Midlander Yearbook (Murfreesboro, TN)

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Where could you go on a warm autumn night in Mid- dle Tennessee and watch America ' s answer to the Bea- tles, the MTSU cheerleading squad (complete with mascot) and a singer who claimed to play the meanest mikestand in the business ? More than 7,000 people saw this and more on October 12, when the Special Events Committee presented the Beach Boys and Three Dog Night in concert. The show marked the Beach Boys ' second appearance at Murphy Center, and Three Dog Night ' s first concert tour in 10 years. Three Dog Night played the first set. Chuck Negron leading off on One Man Band, with Cory Wells assist- ing on cowbell. Afterwards, Wells, as spokesman for the group, promised the crowd hit songs spanning a dec- ade. Danny Huttoh brought back the mood of the early ' 70s with Shambala. Negron ' s pleading Easy to Be Hard means more now than it did when it was originally released. In Old-Fashioned Love Song, the tightly in- terwoven lines of the echo-ending brought cheers from the fans, while Wells hammed it up by holding his nose and delivering his lines in the purest ' 30s radio style. After a false start on Back in the Saddle Again (does every rock act playing a Tennessee campus have to 18 — Student Life

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Surfs Up At Murphy Center! Student Life — 17

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razz country music?). Three Dog Night launched into Never Been to Spain, with everyone clapping and singing along. Wells swung his mikestand up and strummed it soulfully, like any 14-year-old brother, at the end of Mama Told Me Not to Come. Hutton stepped forward with acoustic guitar to per- form the only new song of the set, Brand New Day, the theme song of a soon-to-be-released movie, American Flyer. The set closed with Celebrate, a perfect lead into the rest of the evening. The audience rose in a noisy standing ovation — Three Dog Night ' s return was as solid as Rock itself. The Beach Boys opened with their famous cover of the folksong Sloop John B., then moved into a medley of their surfing hits, ending with I Get Around. Mike Love vamped madly back and forth on stage, showing off his bright yellow beach shirt. In solemn tones. Love reminded his listeners that the concert was being held at a conservative, classical edu- cational institution, then started a slow country and western rhythm, turning it at the snap of a finger into a fast, loud Little Deuce Coupe. As a brief tribute to Dennis Wilson — victim of a diving accident in 1983 — the group performed Broth- er, a song from Carl Wilson ' s first solo album. The Del Vikings ' old rocker, Come Go With Me, was next, followed by Get You Back and the group ' s newest single, She Believes in Love Again, both from their most recent album. The stage became a pep rally as the cheerleaders of the Big Blue helped out with Be True to Your School, a hit from 1963. The next number, All Summer Long, was older than most of the audience, though many were familiar with it as the ending of the movie American Graffiti. Three or four beach balls appeared down on the floor section as the band romped through the classic Rock and Roll Music. Beach themes returned with Surfin ' Safari, Love pausing once in a chorus to kick a beach ball back out to the fans. The group left the stage then, but returned after four minutes of encore calls. Good Vibrations, the first encore number, was dedicated to the MTSU audience. At the wave of a pompon, the cheerleading squad reap- peared for Barbara Anne. The final song of the even- ing, Fun, Fun, Fun, had Three Dog Night ' s keyboar- dist Jimmy Greenspan returning on concert grand. — Freida Myers Student Life — 19