After 35 years, Endless Summer will play final show on Saturday

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

As rock ’n’ roll music icon Jerry Garcia once said, “What a long, strange trip it’s been.”

“It’s not all roses, it’s a lot of work,” said Gene Parson, who owns Parson Real Estate in Charles City with his wife, Connie. “But when I could take off my sport coat and throw on an Endless Summer T-shirt — man, I was happy.”

Parson is one of the founding members of the band Endless Summer, which will play what it says will be its final live show Saturday at Central Park in Charles City, as part of the community’s Fourth of July weekend celebration. The group is scheduled to take the stage from noon to 4 p.m.

For over 35 years, Endless Summer has delivered a variety of music, with a song list that spans the 1950s to the 1980s, to venues large and small throughout Eastern Iowa and beyond. The band has released two studio albums — consisting completely of cover songs — and was inducted into the Iowa Rock ’n Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

Original members Parson, Med Lewis and John Simon turned what was initially intended to be a few gigs into nearly four decades of live performances. Parson said the band’s very first gig was for a 20-year class reunion in 1985.

“I think it was the 1965 CCHS class reunion,” he said. “They needed some entertainment, so we put together some pretty good stuff.”

The original Endless Summer lineup was Bill Wolfe, Parson, Lewis, Simon, Gary Parson and Shorty Shatek. The lineup was something of a local “supergroup,” as it featured members of already established bands Route 66 and the Country Blue Boys.

Parson said the original members were all outstanding vocalists, and he believes that was a key to their early success.

“We could work up some really good harmonies, and we all liked the old doo-wop music, and we liked the Beatles and the Beach Boys, so we quickly built a reputation of a group that could do old rock ’n’ roll,” he said.

The name Endless Summer comes directly from the name of an old Beach Boys album and movie.

Lewis said the original agreement was that the band would play two or three times a month, “but then it got out of hand.” By the end of their run, the year before the COVID outbreak, the group had almost every weekend filled.

Parson is the only member of the band who isn’t retired from his day job. Lewis was a chemist for years at Salsbury, while Simon worked as a psychologist for the AEA. All three agreed that they were starting to get too old to carry all their equipment around.

Saturday’s show will be something of a tribute to Wolfe, who passed away late last year from COVID-19. Parson said that was probably the final straw for Endless Summer.

“We’ve just lost too much to replace at once,” he said. “We were a five-piece group for many years.”

Wolfe performed in several bands besides Endless Summer, and mainly played the guitar and keyboards — for which he was self-taught — and performed lead vocals. He also moonlighted as a DJ and karaoke performer at local businesses, weddings and family events.

On Saturday, musicians who performed with Wolfe will be invited to take the stage, for at least a song or two.

“Other than that, we’re just going to play as good as we can without Bill,” Parson said. “Bill was a walking jukebox, and also had a little Motown flavor to him.”

“Bill was probably the only white boy I ever knew who had any soul,” Simon added, with a smile.

All three members said that their fondest memories of Wolfe weren’t from the on-stage performances, however, but rather from the way he made them laugh when they were together off stage.

“We’d all load up in my Suburban, and we’d be pulling the trailer to or from a show, and the guy was just a cut-up,” Parson said. “I’d be driving, and I was afraid I’d have to pull over, I was laughing so hard and my eyes were watering so much.”

There will be a memorial service for Wolfe at the Elks Lodge on Friday, as the band — Wolfe’s “second family,” wanted to thank and honor Wolfe’s “first family,” including his seven children, now all adults.

Endless Summer has developed a tremendous family tree over the years. Other acts associated with the group include the Lazy Boys, the Phantoms, Reminisce and Hammerin’. Collectively, members of Endless Summer have more than 600 years of playing experience.

Other area musicians who have played with Endless Summer — or with Endless Summer members in some form — include Paul Veen, Buzz Hendrickson, Mike Munshower, Chris Parson, Bruce Carr, Shorty Veen, Linda Sue Baker, Gordy Stull, Tom Blong, Juanita Boos, Bob Hammer, Rick McDonald, Andy Aird and John Morris.

Hendrickson and Aird have also passed on, and Parson said Saturday’s show will be a tribute to them as well.

Up until last year, Endless Summer’s “a couple shows a month” agreement had grown into 35-40 shows a year. Simon said the band owes a debt of gratitude to its fans.

“The people who ran venues have told us that the reason they hired us is because we are all clean cut, and because of our crowd,” he said. “We need to thank all of our fans, from the bottoms of our hearts, because the fans are why people would hire us.”

“We built a pretty good fan base for a bunch of weekend warriors,” Parson said.

Over the years, band members saw some brushes with celebrities — including opening gigs for Glen Campbell, Roy Clark, the Association and Tom Jones. They once performed the national anthem before a Minnesota Twins baseball game. Some of Endless Summer’s biggest shows, according to the band members, brought in crowds of three or four thousand people.

Once, several years ago, the band was shipped out to Scottsdale, Arizona, to perform for a group of investment brokers who handled the accounts of millionaires. After the show, the band was invited to an expensive party in a hotel suite, where every table was stacked with bottles of expensive booze.

Lewis looked over at Simon and said, “I could get used to this.”

The high life of a rock star didn’t really fit, however, and instead, Endless Summer remained a group of regular guys who just liked to play music and have fun.

“We agreed we would all stick together as long as it was fun, and it was obviously still fun after 35 years,” Parson said. “We’ve outlasted relationships, marriages and everything else. We’re quite a fortunate band — very few bands stick together as long as we have.”