Brian's "Missing Link" Vocals

[runnersdialzero]

i always thought winter symphony was an obvious tweener voice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3dciht0NG4

Good example-more like the MIU voice-and what happened between LY and MIU?

I believe this is the point where he lost weight and cleaned up, if only for a short while. His voice really feels like it was starting to revert back to how it was before - surely it would've never been quite the same, but it's a shame he fell off the wagon again

I thought "Winter Symphony" was MIU era, thus not technically a "transitional" vocal?

[Jay]

For the longest time, I though Al sang Winter Symphony.

[Will C.]

Maybe the full extent gruff voice was a put on to some extent with the gruff voice sounding like his bass voice on "sweet mountain", because Brian could still sing high well on "sherry she needs me" or "airplane". I think his voice was declining slowly to the point where for a short while he could sing both normal voice and gruff voice.

Glad you said this, SMiLE Brian, as I've been meaning to research "Sweet Mountain" a little more.  I was hearing the bass voice at the end of the song and always thinking that it sounded like a 15BO era vocal if it was indeed Brian, but I didn't want to just assume it was him without looking further into it.  Definitely interesting!

[MBE]

Brian sings some of the high bits on Sweet Mountain, but also the low ending. I suppose at the time he could use whichever tone he wanted. There is less of a rasp but the tonal sound is the same.

[runnersdialzero]

Brian sings some of the high bits on Sweet Mountain, but also the low ending. I suppose at the time he could use whichever tone he wanted. There is less of a rasp but the tonal sound is the same.

Wait, wat? It's low in his register, but still sounds 100% like early 70s Brian and not at all like 15BO and after Brian. I think people seriously underestimate Brian's lower register pre-76. I'm still as sure as sure can be that all the vocals on "I Love To Say Dada" are him, for instance.

Where else on the Spring stuff does he supposedly sound closer to a '76 Brian?

[Runaways]

i always found that awake demo strange since people say it's from 71 but by all accounts he shouldn't sound like that in 71

[Andrew G. Doe]

If you want to hear Brian doing a very credible bass vocal, check out the original 1973 version of "Shortenin' Bread". That's him.

[runnersdialzero]

i always found that awake demo strange since people say it's from 71 but by all accounts he shouldn't sound like that in 71

How'zat? Sounds like that on about every other early 70s recording, to me.

If you want to hear Brian doing a very credible bass vocal, check out the original 1973 version of "Shortenin' Bread". That's him.

Does that circulate? I know the Adult/Child version utilized some of the 73 recording, but is the bass vocal on the Adult/Child version from '73, too? :O

[Andrew G. Doe]

i always found that awake demo strange since people say it's from 71 but by all accounts he shouldn't sound like that in 71

How'zat? Sounds like that on about every other early 70s recording, to me.

If you want to hear Brian doing a very credible bass vocal, check out the original 1973 version of "Shortenin' Bread". That's him.

Does that circulate? I know the Adult/Child version utilized some of the 73 recording, but is the bass vocal on the Adult/Child version from '73, too? :O

Adult/Child version is that very same track. This one, in fact. Only 1976 addition is Carl's lead.

[runnersdialzero]

Adult/Child version is that very same track. This one, in fact. Only 1976 addition is Carl's lead.

D =

I can't even. It sounds so '76 that it hurts. Very interesting.

[MBE]

Wow that does sound so 1976 I always thought only the track was 1973.

[Aegir]

[edit]

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Wow that does sound so 1976 I always thought only the track was 1973.

Nope...and funnily enough Brian's backups (low and high) sound EXACTLY like his vocal contributions on He Come Down off of So Tough. You can tell it's the 1973 version of Brian by the tag (when he sings "Shortenin' BREAD" at the very end during the fade out).

I think what is starting to become evident is that some of Brian's 15BO/Love You era voice being put on. Not the raspiness, but the tone. It's why his voice sounds so much better on some of the outtakes. I think late 78 was when the damage became permanent, personally.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

Wow that does sound so 1976 I always thought only the track was 1973.

Nope...and funnily enough Brian's backups (low and high) sound EXACTLY like his vocal contributions on He Come Down off of So Tough. You can tell it's the 1973 version of Brian by the tag (when he sings "Shortenin' BREAD" at the very end during the fade out).

I think what is starting to become evident is that some of Brian's 15BO/Love You era voice being put on. Not the raspiness, but the tone. It's why his voice sounds so much better on some of the outtakes. I think late 78 was when the damage became permanent, personally.

So it's a bit like pulling a face when the wind changes? Your face stays like that forever.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Pretty much, yeah. Good analogy.

[Barnshine]

I wonder what happened to his voice here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSLclEJ0IAQ&feature=related. He sounds rather focused in this interview (even if not totally "there"), but his voice... what has he done to it? He sounds remotely like his early '70s self but extremely hoarse. Or maybe he just had a bad cold that day.
BTW, what an annoying interviewer.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

That is truly the most heartbreaking BW interview I've ever seen.

[hypehat]

I know, right. That's horrible.

[rab2591]

I wonder what happened to his voice here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSLclEJ0IAQ&feature=related. He sounds rather focused in this interview (even if not totally "there"), but his voice... what has he done to it? He sounds remotely like his early '70s self but extremely hoarse. Or maybe he just had a bad cold that day.
BTW, what an annoying interviewer.

Apparently Brian was sick - it was more than a cold (though I don't know exactly what he was suffering from)

When I first saw this video my jaw dropped to the floor. I couldn't believe his voice was that bad - then I was informed he had laryngitis or something of that nature.

[Barnshine]

I wonder what happened to his voice here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSLclEJ0IAQ&feature=related. He sounds rather focused in this interview (even if not totally "there"), but his voice... what has he done to it? He sounds remotely like his early '70s self but extremely hoarse. Or maybe he just had a bad cold that day.
BTW, what an annoying interviewer.

Apparently Brian was sick - it was more than a cold (though I don't know exactly what he was suffering from)

When I first saw this video my jaw dropped to the floor. I couldn't believe his voice was that bad - then I was informed he had laryngitis or something of that nature.

I thought it must be something like that. Still, he wasn't in a great shape (no pun intended) this period.

[Mikie]

That's what massive amounts of coke does to ya, boys.  And I ain't talkin' the soft drink kind.  Guy was snortin' hog rails.

[SMiLE Brian]

That's what massive amounts of coke does to ya, boys.  And I ain't talkin' the soft drink kind.  Guy was snortin' hog rails.

When you met Brian at his house in the 1970s, did you see Brian snort coke firsthand or at least  hear him do it in another room?

[runnersdialzero]

I know it's just him speaking, but I hear a whole lot of 60's Brian here and nowhere else in any of his late 80s speaking voices and especially his singing in that era. Strange.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPej7S_ttso

[Curtis Leon]

Brian's voice in the 1973-'74 period is just a complete mystery. It's like Brian chose to sing it one way (Shortenin' Bread, Child of Winter) one day and an entirely different way the next. (Rollin' Up to Heaven, California Feelin', Lucy Jones). I think it's very possible that his modal voice was starting to become quite hoarseby this point, but his falsetto was still mostly intact (you can hear a bit of decline from the Sunflower era falsetto on Rollin' Up to Heaven, but not much). That, or he exclusively tried to sing in bass when not singing in head voice. The only conclusive "point of no return" we have is Johnny Rivers' Help Me Rhonda, where he basically sounds like a slightly higher pitched version of his 15 Big Ones falsetto. And after the early 80's, his voice becomes completely unrecognizable from what it once was (Little Children '83 is a prime example).