Lei'd In Hawaii Reels..what we have
Aegir:
Did anyone else notice how half the songs from the concert are only like one verse? Did they plan to medley them together post-production or something?
punkinhead:
i was thinking about that the other day...I was thinking that they only did it on Hawaii, just as kind of a reprise of where they're at...but then i noticed others just having few verses
Reverend Joshua Sloane:
This may be a totally wild thought but could the Beach Boys have been missing parts of songs due to their "Cut and Paste" recording methods?
They would record one verse, one chorus and edit them together. The same parts could be put wherever, probably tried through with different structures. Now is it possible that the group made mistakes while playing live due to that? Hearing Al/Carl play bum notes to a harmonically simple song like Gettin' Hungry is just odd.
curth:
Here is what Brad Elliott had to say about The Letter in 2002 on the Imagination list. I know the list is private but I don't think the owners will mind if I post this for accuracys sake.
"Okay, let's try again. In my earlier answer, I was addressing ony the
studio recordings of "The Letter" and didn't even touch on the actual live
recording(s) from Hawaii. But I guess that wasn't quite as clear as it
should have been. So, here follows a complete (?) guide to BB recordings of
"The Letter."
(1) Actual honest-to-God concert recordings from Hawaii: The Beach Boys
played four shows in Hawaii on Aug. 25 and 26, 1967. "The Letter" was
played at most, if not all, of them. To date, though, only one of the four
concerts (apparently the 2nd of the 8/25 shows) is in circulation among fans
and collectors. The 13-song concert starts with a performance of "The
Letter," includes that weird version of "Surfin'" as well as "Gettin'
Hungry," and ends with "Barbara Ann." That recording of "The Letter" is
a real concert recording.
(2) The Wally Heider "live in the studio" re-creation: On September 11,
1967, the BBs went into Wally Heider's Studio to record a set of replacement
tracks for the projected LEI'D IN HAWAII album. This was because the actual
concert recordings from Aug. 25 & 26 did not meet their expectations. About
a dozen songs were recorded. A pseudo-album of 8 tracks was assembled, but
never released. This has circulated on tape and bootleg, most commonly as
the LEI'D IN HAWAII REHEARSAL bootleg from Vigotone (VIGO 133). This set of
songs starts with "God Only Knows," includes "Help Me Rhonda" sung as "help
YOU Rhonda" and the version of "Heroes & Villains" where Mike makes fun of
the song, and ends with "Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring." Outtakes from
this session were included on the third disc of the 3-CD LIVE BOX that
appeared on the Sea of Tunes label. All of these performances are actually
live-in-the-studio recordings, not concert recordings. The version of "The
Letter" on RARITIES is one of these. It is identical (except for slight mix
differences) to the version of "The Letter" that's heard on the Vigotone
REHEARSAL boot.
(3) The proper studio recording: According to Capitol's files, The Beach
Boys also recorded "The Letter" during the sessions for the WILD HONEY
album. The track reportedly was recorded at Brian's home studio on Oct. 25,
1967. This recording has never turned up and doesn't seem to be in The
Beach Boys' tape archive.
Finally, it should be noted that "The Letter" was listed in the early track
lineup for the WILD HONEY album. However, the brief liner notes that were
to accompany that lineup indicate that the track was a live recording, not
a studio recording. But based on the fact that the BBs rejected the actual
live recordings from Hawaii and that the tape delivered to Capitol was the
Heider re-creation, I think it's obvious that what would have appeared on
WILD HONEY was, in fact, the 9/11/67 Heider recording, being passed off as a
"live" recording (which, of course, was the entire reason for that day's
recordings)."
Any questions? :-)
Surf's up!
Brad
Cam Mott:
Am I understanding Brad that an album of the Lei'd concerts was assembled and delivered to Capitol?
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