Constant Companion

[Smilin Ed H]

What the hell is this about?

[bgas]

What the hell is this about?

Hey, It's your thread, you tell us

[c-man]

Carli has said it's about the idea that we have "spiritual companions", like a guardian angels, or maybe God, traveling through life with us.

[Moon Dawg]

 I'd like to love this one but it never did much for me. Not bad though. Would have been OK as a BAMBU track.

 To elaborate, BAMBU would have been inferior to PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE in every way. Dennis's voice was shot and the tunes as a whole weren't quite up to the majesty that is PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE.

 I believe the best remaining BAMBU tracks should have been used to improve KEEPIN' THE SUMMER ALIVE, as "Baby Blue" and "Love Surrounds Me" solidified L.A. Imagine a side 2 of KTSA going something like this: "Goin' On", "Love Remember Me, "It's Not too Late", "Endless Harmony, "Still I Dream Of It". The fading keyboards of "Not too Late" segue perfectly into Bruce's opening tinkling on "Endless Harmony." Commercial fate aside, that would have been 1/2 of a very good 1980 album by The Beach Boys.

[Smilin Ed H]

Thanks (as ever)  bgas!

Gotcha, c-man - that was what I suspected. I'm fiddling with cover art for my custom LA and need to find some sort of relevant image that doesn't look like it's an ad for some awful bible channel aimed at dimwits.

And... from what we have, I don't think Bambu would have been as good as POB either, like it though I do. Constant Companion is replacing She's Just Out to Get You on my custom LA (which had replaced something else - Shortenin' Bead, maybe...)

[Dudd]

Yeah, on the whole the Bambu stuff doesn't touch POB, but this one's a highlight. The Dumb Angel Rarities version opens with 50 completely gratuitous seconds of percussion, which might be why I prefer it.

[rogerlancelot]

I listen to the Legacy edition now and then and I'm really glad they cut out the intro percussion on "Constant Companion". I think it would have made a great opening track to any album but I wouldn't have wasted it on KTSA.

I love the Bambu tracks they gave us (my favorite is "Are You Real?") and usually spin that second disc more than the first although I love it all. Would like more, please (and less BB outtakes like "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Summer In Paradise (Live)" - still sucks ass, etc.).

[kwebb]

Love Remember Me is my favorite Bambu track by a longshot

[Smilin Ed H]

I listen to the Legacy edition now and then and I'm really glad they cut out the intro percussion on "Constant Companion". I think it would have made a great opening track to any album but I wouldn't have wasted it on KTSA.

I love the Bambu tracks they gave us (my favorite is "Are You Real?") and usually spin that second disc more than the first although I love it all. Would like more, please (and less BB outtakes like "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Summer In Paradise (Live)" - still sucks ass, etc.).

I believe that at one point there was a possibility of it being on LA not KTSA

[Smilin Ed H]

... but yeas, it would've been wasted on KTSA where there isn't much of that quality (excepting Goin' On and Santa Ana Winds, the latter of which should also have been on LA, making KTSA more of a stinker).

[Jay]

I truly believe that if Bambu had been completed and released, Constant Companion would have been a MONSTER hit single. It has "commercial" and "radio friendly" written all over it. It's a perfect mix of funk and soul, with a bit of Latin influence. It's got great lyrics, and a very good vocal from Dennis(one of his best from this period, in my opinion). I can just imagine cruising down the highway in a 1970's muscle car with this song blasting on the radio. It's anything and everything the disco version of "Here Comes The Night" tried to be, and failed. 

[Ian]

I'm drawn to the melancholy "cocktails ." There is something infinitely sad and haunting about it.

[Ed Roach]

I truly believe that if Bambu had been completed and released, Constant Companion would have been a MONSTER hit single. It has "commercial" and "radio friendly" written all over it. It's a perfect mix of funk and soul, with a bit of Latin influence. It's got great lyrics, and a very good vocal from Dennis(one of his best from this period, in my opinion). I can just imagine cruising down the highway in a 1970's muscle car with this song blasting on the radio. It's anything and everything the disco version of "Here Comes The Night" tried to be, and failed.  

Does my heart good to read this!  I've often told the story of walking in to Brother very shortly after Dennis recorded the scratch vocal for this, and telling him he had a song that had chart potential.  He got real aggressive with me, and told me only Carly should sing this song!  He proceeded to have Carly do it on stage, when the back up band for The Boys were the openers before they backed Charles Lloyd - then went on to do a Beach Boy set!  (Where did Carly, Bobby, Billy, Eddie, Sterling & those guys get the energy?)

I think Carly is a little more comfortable singing it today - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKjw70Xmfds - but I'll never forget Dennis & I first hearing him do the song at The Come Back Inn in Venice...


https://www.facebook.com/roachclips68

[wantsomecorn]

I truly believe that if Bambu had been completed and released, Constant Companion would have been a MONSTER hit single. It has "commercial" and "radio friendly" written all over it. It's a perfect mix of funk and soul, with a bit of Latin influence. It's got great lyrics, and a very good vocal from Dennis(one of his best from this period, in my opinion). I can just imagine cruising down the highway in a 1970's muscle car with this song blasting on the radio. It's anything and everything the disco version of "Here Comes The Night" tried to be, and failed.  

Does my heart good to read this!  I've often told the story of walking in to Brother very shortly after Dennis recorded the scratch vocal for this, and telling him he had a song that had chart potential.  He got real aggressive with me, and told me only Carly should sing this song!  He proceeded to have Carly do it on stage, when the back up band for The Boys were the openers before they backed Charles Lloyd - then went on to do a Beach Boy set!  (Where did Carly, Bobby, Billy, Eddie, Sterling & those guys get the energy?)

I think Carly is a little more comfortable singing it today - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKjw70Xmfds - but I'll never forget Dennis & I first hearing him do the song at The Come Back Inn in Venice...


https://www.facebook.com/roachclips68

Thanks for sharing that Ed, it's cool to see him singing his own song.

[puni puni]

What are the chords? Sounds like it's in G

[Steve Latshaw]

I'd be curious to hear, from our guests, what the general reaction was from Dennis, Carl, etc., when the planned Beach Boys Constant Companion single was vetoed in favor of the disco Here Comes the Night.

[CenturyDeprived]

I truly believe that if Bambu had been completed and released, Constant Companion would have been a MONSTER hit single. It has "commercial" and "radio friendly" written all over it. It's a perfect mix of funk and soul, with a bit of Latin influence. It's got great lyrics, and a very good vocal from Dennis(one of his best from this period, in my opinion). I can just imagine cruising down the highway in a 1970's muscle car with this song blasting on the radio. It's anything and everything the disco version of "Here Comes The Night" tried to be, and failed.  

Does my heart good to read this!  I've often told the story of walking in to Brother very shortly after Dennis recorded the scratch vocal for this, and telling him he had a song that had chart potential.  He got real aggressive with me, and told me only Carly should sing this song!  He proceeded to have Carly do it on stage, when the back up band for The Boys were the openers before they backed Charles Lloyd - then went on to do a Beach Boy set!  (Where did Carly, Bobby, Billy, Eddie, Sterling & those guys get the energy?)

I think Carly is a little more comfortable singing it today - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKjw70Xmfds - but I'll never forget Dennis & I first hearing him do the song at The Come Back Inn in Venice...


https://www.facebook.com/roachclips68

Both Constant Companion and School Girl could have been hits. Lots of hit potential there.

School Girl especially sounds to have been crafted with hit song + radio play specifically in mind, to my ears.