Interesting song connections

[Razvan]

I was going through the entire discography a few days ago and descovered some interesting connections that might have been pointed out before.

- "County Fair" (Surfin' Safari). The idea is repeated in "Amusement Parks U.S.A." from Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
- "Farmers daughter" (Surfin' USA) - The main melody appears in the fade-out of Brian's arrangement of Gershwin's "I Got Rhytm" in Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin. Edit: he also adds the funky two note bass line.
- The original lyrics to "Good Vibrations" and "Hang on to Your Ego" contain references to How To Speak Hip, a comedy album by Del Close and John Brent released in 1959. This album was introduced to Brian by Tony Asher. At some point, "Geetz Romo", the hipster instructor, tells the host:

...coming on is also when a cat has an over developed personality. You say, "he comes on strong". It's like the Dale Carnegie syndrome, you dig? [...] There's another meaning. When you come on with a chick, you're sounding it, you dig? - to make a sound. You're demonstrating a desire to become intimate with it.

And this is from Asher's original lyrics to Good Vibrations:

It's weird how she comes in so strong,
And I wonder what she's picking up from me.

And here's the original lyrics of "Hang On to Your Ego", writen with Terry Sachen:

"Now how can I say it
And how can I come on when I know I'm guilty"

This was popular slang in the 60s and it's likely that the boys used it anyway, but I found this interesting. Anyway, feel free to add your own observations.

[37!ws]

Well, I can think of these melodic similarities:

"I Do" --> "County Fair"

"Back Home" (1970) --> vague resemblance to "Merry Christmas, Baby"

"Happy Days" (first part) --> "My Solution"
"Happy Days" (second part) --> "All This Is That"

"Had To Phone Ya" --> "Guess I'm Dumb":
"I visualize that you're lookin' fine, feels so good when you come on the line" --> "I give in when I know I should be strong / I still give in even though I know it's wrong"

"Cuddle Up" --> "(Wouldn't It Be Nice To) Live Again":
"I know a man who's so in love" --> "Wouldn't it be nice to live again..."

"Desert Drive" --> ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down" (I think Bill Larson made that discovery)

Bridge of "Little Children" --> bridge of "Mountain of Love"

"Someone To Love" --> "San Miguel"

BW/DW solo lyrical connections:

"Rio Grande" --> "River Song" ("rollin', rollin', rollin' on...")

"Let's Go To Heaven In My Car" --> "Dreamer":
"Let's go to heaven in my car..." --> "They couldn't get to heaven in their car."
(Then again, Gary Usher might have written that chorus...but still, this is one reason I don't believe for a second that Brian never heard Pacific Ocean Blue.)

[pixletwin]

Likely not an intentional connection:

My Love Lives On and Southern California. Dennis' humming at the end and the melody "I had this dream singing with my brothers".

[El Molé]

Likely not an intentional connection:

My Love Lives On and Southern California. Dennis' humming at the end and the melody "I had this dream singing with my brothers".

Probably unintentional but it's also interesting that the "When you feel down" line from My Love Lives On shares the melody with "God Almighty" from Live Let Live.

[guitarfool2002]

And this is from Asher's original lyrics to Good Vibrations:

It's weird how she comes in so strong,
And I wonder what she's picking up from me.

And here's the original lyrics of "Hang On to Your Ego", writen with Terry Sachen:

"Now how can I say it
And how can I come on when I know I'm guilty"

Consider the era in the Good Vibrations lyric. The phrase "comes in so strong" was not as much slang but a term used by people listening to the radio or watching television at least until the digital era or even with radio the FM era.

The media you'd hear or watch was all transmitted, and the broadcasts were received through analog signals. Up to a certain point, you'd have to manually "tune in" whatever broadcast band you wanted to hear. With radio, it was moving the dial to zero in on the strongest signal. With television, it was all received through antennas, and you would often need to adjust, move, or in some cases rotate your antenna depending on the conditions in order to get the best signal reception.

The great lost element in all of this was trying to tune in distant signals that would drift in and out depending on the conditions. Sometimes late at night, again depending on the atmospheric conditions, you could be in the US northeast and be able to tune into a country broadcast coming from Nashville. Or with kids like a young John Lennon in Liverpool, he'd try to tune into broadcasts like Radio Luxembourg on his radio to hear rock and roll that the BBC didn't play. And I remember as a kid being able to pick up television stations usually on UHF on certain nights that were distant and which usually didn't come in. They were full of static, but in the pre-cable days it was cool to be able to turn the UHF tuning dial and find something new.

And part of the lingo I remember hearing was that a certain station or broadcast was "coming in strong" or "coming in good", and likewise your ability to "pick up" a certain broadcast signal on your radio or TV. Maybe it's a regional thing? Anyway, that was the term for hearing a particularly strong or clear AM or television broadcast signal, as the quality could vary with the time of day or the weather conditions.

So when the Asher lyric says the girl "comes in so strong", it's referencing the signals or the vibes that she's sending out, using the radio broadcast analogy. And the guy saying it wonders what signals he's sending out and how she "picks up" his broadcast, if you will.

It's part of the lost experience of AM radio and broadcast television that was replaced by digital.

[Razvan]

...So when the Asher lyric says the girl "comes in so strong", it's referencing the signals or the vibes that she's sending out, using the radio broadcast analogy. And the guy saying it wonders what signals he's sending out and how she "picks up" his broadcast, if you will.

It's part of the lost experience of AM radio and broadcast television that was replaced by digital.

Very interesting, thanks!

[Don Malcolm]

It's part of the lost experience of AM radio and broadcast television that was replaced by digital.

...and the seemingly endless refrain of "Can you hear me now?" which I hope that one of BW's latter-day lyricists will swiftly put to use.

[CenturyDeprived]

What do you guys think of this one? To me, this brief section of the bridges in these 2 songs sound really similar melody-wise...

From "Full Sail":"

"Find the measure of the man
Follow the sun heading west

and...

from "She Believes in Love Again":

"She'd open up her soul
And share her life with me"

[Sam_BFC]

I hear a small melodic similarity with You're Still a Mystery and This Isn't Love

[leggo of my ego]

The great lost element in all of this was trying to tune in distant signals that would drift in and out depending on the conditions. Sometimes late at night, again depending on the atmospheric conditions, you could be in the US northeast and be able to tune into a country broadcast coming from Nashville.

You could always pull in more AM stations at night because this is due to the change of altitude of Earth's ionosphere. The ionosphere (layer of ionized air in the atmosphere is what radio signals bounce off of -- at night it is much higher than in the daytime so the signals bounce further. The airwaves also get very "crowded" at night since you can pull in numerous stations you cant access in the daytime.

AM radio was a necessity when I was young but when FM stations started programming stuff besides "101 Strings" I never looked back. KNUS and KZEW in Dallas were pioneers of album rock back in the 70's. 

[Summer_Days]

Brian's falsetto bit on 'Getcha Back' i think is supposed to harken back to 'Hushabye'...sorta sounds similar.

[runnersdialzero]

I've wondered this for a while now, not sure if I ever asked, but does anyone know if, "Oh honey, don't know how long it's been, but this feeling's building up inside again," from "I'd love Just Once To See You" is an intentional allusion to, "Well it's been building up inside of me for oh, I don't know how long," from "Don't Worry, Baby"?

Also, please don't let this turn into another "recycled riffs" thread ;( I don't think that was really the intent of the original post. I'm just sayin', we've been over that ten thousand times.

[RangeRoverA1]

I hear some sort of connection between "That Same Song" & "Sloop John B", i.e. the "dooby doo" vocs/coda & the main guitar riff, respectively.

[Slow In Brain]

Strange World mentions County Fair and sound checks the bicycle bell from YSBIM