from Jerry Cole’s MySpace profile:

Our dear friend Jerry Cole died Wednesday night at his home in Corona, California. Funeral services are still pending but a public memorial is also being planned for the near future. Jerry’s wife Gale was with him when he suffered a massive heart attack. Jerry was 68 years old and is survived by Gale and their daughters, Monique and Katrina, and son, Cane. Jerry’s other son, Keith, died just a year earlier at the age of 28.

from Answers.com

Throughout the ’60s and , guitarist/songwriter Jerry Cole worked with some of the most prominent talents in rock’n’roll, including Them, the Beach Boys, the Byrds, and as a session man in Phil Spector’s ‘Wrecking Crew.’ With his own group the Spacemen, Cole released four albums of space-age surf music in just over two years, beginning with 1963’s Outer Limits. As the ’60s progressed, Cole worked on sessions for the Byrds’ ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’/’I Knew I’d Want You’ single and Them’s 1965 self-titled album. He teamed up with Roger McGuinn again in 1972 for McGuinn’s debut solo record, and session work with Roger Miller, Chuck Howard and Susie Allanson sent him in a country-rock direction. Cole’s work with the Spacemen was collected in the 1999 Sundazed compilation Power Surf! The Best of Jerry Cole & His Spacemen. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide

Jerry Cole

From the days A&Rs would do the occasional string arrangement. The Billboard Hot 100 sounded different. This particular one from 1963 reminded me of the days I did full song chart themed mix tapes of, say, summer 1964, southern Calfifornia local radio charts music. That way I had a nice helping of surf instros, among their contemporaries. I would pop it in the car-radio-tape player, blasting out of 2 sixties Dual speakers in the back of my beetle on the way to St. Peter with my 9ft board on the roof. You never know what it feels like until you try it.

kfxm/kfmen radio blogspot

A big article and interview on Brian Wilson in the Washington Post.
(through the exotica mailing list)

The Beach Boy’s Hymns to the Dream State of California Belied The Nightmare He Was Living

By J. Freedom du Lac
Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, December 2, 2007; Page M01
LOS ANGELES — Brian Wilson still hears voices.
They stalk him sometimes when he’s on the concert stage, bedeviling him from inside his head. They ridicule and threaten the original Beach Boy, backing him into dark corners that don’t exist. Watch closely, says his wife, Melinda, and you can tell when Wilson’s schizoaffective disorder is having its way. His eyes become distant and glazed. Another auditory hallucination…

full article at washingtonpost.com

One of the great Los Angeles session men, he played drums on countless hit records, as well as some of the best instrumental studio productions of the sixties. Here’s the Official Hal Blaine Website

here’s his drumming on iTunes