Rare song -- Brian playing "Susie Cincinnati" and "Little Child" in Holland!

[Mark H.]

Who is I...? 

[Old Rake]

I'm gonna agree with Josh and Andreas here and say that it is unequivocally Brian's piano playing. The style is so much like him from the way the left hand moves to the poundy right hand to -- well, its HIM. I'd know his playing in a heartbeat. I'd bet a dollar the whole thing is him, too.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

Who is I...?

Hans.  Some guy.  We just have to trust him, I guess.

[andy]

I think Brian's voice is pretty smooth in this demo; a lot closer to early 70s Brian than late 70s Brian, imo.

[Dan Lega]

I'm gonna stick with my original stance that's it Brian singing both songs.  The first song sounds exactly like Brian and exactly NOT like Alan.  The second is admittedly a little lower fidelity on the vocals, so I can't be as sure about who is singing it, but still, I would put a lot of money on it being Brian's voice, too.


Also, I know only one person said it so far, but "Little Child (Daddy Dear)" is obviously NOT a Brian written song.  If it was a Brian song then we wouldn't have the lyrics and other info on the song that I put in the very first post with the links.  Please read that first post again and think about editing your original post so that other people don't start thinking that Brian wrote the song. 

Love and merci,   Dan Lega

[Surfer Joe]

First, and most importantly, what a beautiful song.

Incidentally, sounds a little more like the "When A Man Needs A Woman" guy than the "Lady Lynda" guy.

[Dan Lega]

I just went back to the website where the original download is and I noticed that it said the song you download will disappear from your computer in 30 days.  Is this true?  If so, how does it happen?

Love and merci,   Dan Lega

[Andrew G. Doe]

If we're feeling frisky, we could always ask Alan Boyd to draw Alan Jardine's attention to the recording, or play it for him to verify the singer(s).

Excellent idea.  I'll do that later today.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Do it!!!

[Surfer Joe]

Here's a lengthy sbippet of Wes Montgomery playing the song.  Very nice, and not drenched in strings by Don Sebesky:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00002NDAD/sr=1-21/qid=1139117820/ref=sr_1_21/102-9172633-8540964?%5Fencoding=UTF8

[HeyJude]

Well, I don't know if anybody needs another opinion, but here's mine:

I'm happy to be the contrarian, and in fact, it's fun to challenge a widespread assumption sometimes. However, in the case of this recording, I'm about 99% sure it's Brian Wilson singing whatever that first ditty is, and about 98% sure it's Brian Wilson singing the little bit of "Susie Cincinnatti." (I'm only 1% less sure because there appears to be a break in the tape at that point, and the voice is not as loud).

As for why Brian would be singing a song Al wrote, I think the answer is potentially quite simple. I'm not even convinced Brian helped Al write it. I think Brian might have just been noodling around with the song. I remember hearing a story about somebody watching Brian during a soundcheck prior to a show on the 2000 "Pet Sounds" tour, and somebody said that out of nowhere, Brian bursted into singing "Lady Lynda" for a moment!

Or, perhaps this tape is not a "home" tape but perhaps was recorded in or near a studio rehearsal or actual session. Perhaps they were considering re-recording "Susie..." for the album, and Brian was actually interested for a time in participating in such a session.

Interestingly, it sounds as though there is a second break in the tape a few seconds before the end of this mp3 file. Certainly, even if there was only a small amount of material still on the tape, there might be something else on the original tape that is not on this mp3 file. Do we have any way of knowing for sure that this clip of less than 4 minutes is everything that was found on that tape?

I'd also say that, contrary to what some others are hearing, I think the fidelity of the recording is pretty good for a circa 1972-73 home-style recording. The problem is that this mp3 only has sound in one channel. I don't think we're missing any sonic information, as the recording was probably made in mono, or even if in stereo, it wasn't a line recording. It was probably done with a portable mic, or two if done in stereo. Either way, there wouldn't have been much separation even if it was done in stereo. The mp3 sounds bad because you're getting half the volume of the performance and twice the volume of hiss. I stuck it in a nearly 10-year old editing program and just deleted the left channel and copied and pasted the right channel onto the left channel, and it sounds just fine. Certainly quite listenable for this type of recording. No extra tweaking needed.

Back to the voice: In order for me to believe the voice could be Al, I would have to be convinced of at least one of two things: The voice doesn't sound enough like Brian, and/or the voice does sound enough like Al. I don't hear either of these things. The voice sounds quite like Brian, both in speaking voice and the timber of his voice at all times. It doesn't sound much like Al, although I think a better case could be made for it being Al by suggesting that it's Al sounding VERY much like Brian, as opposed to arguing that it doesn't sound like Brian.

And finally, I have to say that while any such recording is of historic interest and it is indeed fun to debate what the recording is, I don't otherwise find the song or performance particularly interesting. It sounds like Brian trying to remember a couple of songs and stumbling his way through both.

Even the home recording of the "Mount Vernon and Fairway" that is around is more interesting than this recording.

Now, if we can hear that instrumental demo of "'Til I Die", that would be something.

[XY]

Hmmm... Maybe it's from the 1969 Brian/Al piano session where they also recorded "Back Home"...?

[Andreas]

Here is a more listenable mono fold-down of the clip: http://s56.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=05OU7PL5ZWGI409L6I7ZTIZZHM

[Matinee Idyll]

There be only one fella I known says 'darn';



It's gosh-darn Alan Jardine!

[Jaco]

I'm for 100% sure the pianoplayer is not Al, but Brian. (Old Rake said it perfect)
I've seen Alan himself try to play piano in a video and I immediatly heard he couldn't, he's into a few normal chords on piano, I don't believe he knows stuff like 5 part jazz chords as Brian does.

The voice could be easily done Al, cause he's a GREAT singer, but I don't believe that either, I believe the pianist is also the singer.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Two points:

One, unless the singer has mastered the arcane art of whistling while he sings(and, now I come to think of it, is talking to himself), there's more than one person present.

Two, this is what the original blog said (and still says): "When Brian Wilson and the other Beach Boys ,recorded Holland in Holland, I lent Brian a small UHER reel to reel tape recorder, so he could have something for ideas at home... when i got it back, when he left for the usa again, it still had some music and parts of a song on a tape." I'm not denying for a moment that Brian was handed the recorded and handed it back, but this is no proof that he alone used it.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

Andrew, skepticism is certainly a core tenet of good scholarship, but what have you to say about the piano playing?  Has your research turned up any evidence of Al being a skilled pianist, not only in his own right, but also in the Brian Wilson idiom?  Surely you don't think that (however many people are present, obviously there's at least two) the piano is being played by a seperate person from the vocalist for "Little Child"? 

[Andrew G. Doe]

When I can think up a reasonable rebuttal, I'll get back to you on that. 

[HeyJude]

If this indeed is the same recording excerpted in the A&E Biography documentary (it sounds similar to me, but I probably haven't watched the A&E doc for several years), one would think the compilers of the documentary would have made some attempt to find evidence that the performance is Brian's. Perhaps they even asked him, or had Leaf authenticate it with Brian.

I certainly don't think that any such authentication process would have happened for sure, nor do I believe it would have proven anything 100% positive. But it's another bit of evidence to take into account. That would be pretty funny if a BW A&E Biography had used a recording of Al Jardine to make some sort of reference to Brian's lost years of brilliant but lost compositions.

I still go back to the fact that, to me, it just sounds too much like Brian. If the quality of the recording was worse, I'd be more open to it possibly being Al. I'm usually much more apt to believe something that doesn't immediately seem like the right answer. But in this case, what I'm hearing doesn't give much room to consider that it's Al. I've made these mistakes before, though. I originally thought the outtake "Out in the Country" had Bruce on vocals. But, once I realized the tape was simply running too fast, I realized it was Al. I also picked up on some of Al's vocal inflections.

But I don't hear any of this on the Holland tape. As I said before, a stronger argument could be made that the tape sounds nothing like Al, and it's Al just sounding very much like Brian. Al has indeed sounded like Brian on some recordings from time to time, and in some cases it's quite amazing. But I've never heard any recording of this sort where we can hear singing and speaking voice where one BB sounds like another for nearly four minutes without any indication of who the actual BB is. That is, if this recording is Al, then he never gives a single hint in the recording vocally that it's him (Al). This would have to be the all time greatest Brian impersonation ever. Or, the tape is wildly off speed and a speed correction could reveal something interesting, which I wouldn't completely rule out.

I would also suggest, if anybody tries to alter the recording, that it works better doubling up the right channel as opposed to folding down both channels to mono. If you just fold it down, you're still overlaying the 100% hiss, 0% music of the left channel onto the right channel. If you double up the right channel, you get twice the volume and half of the hiss without losing any sonic information. (Interestingly, there is information on the left channel for the last few seconds of the file).

[Dan Lega]

Andrew, listen to Brian doing the Fairy Tale music on "Get The Boot" through your spatializer.  If you come back and tell us that sounds like Al Jardine, too, then we'll have our answer.   


PS -- You don't need to hear the extraneous whistling to know that there are at least two people in the room.  Brian is obviously playing the song for someone and even comes right out and asks the other person(s) what they think of it.


Love and merci,   Dan Lega

[forgetemarie]

I vote for Brian.  It just sounds like him.  And yeah, I know Al could sound a great deal like Brian, but it sounds like Brian to me.  I love the line about "if children had wings, we wouldn't need birds."  That's sooo Brian.  And yes, the speaking voice is just like the one heard on the Jim Pewter interview tapes from 1974.  It makes me sad to hear that Brian was a cogent, lucid person in those days, even in spite of it being at the supposed height of his illness, and sounded way better than he has the past decade and a half or so.  Maybe a case of the cure being as worse or at least as bad as the disease.

There are boots of John Lennon singing "Uncle Albert" and "She's a Woman" at his solo sessions, post-Beatles.  If John can sing Paul songs just for fun, why not Brian singing Al songs?

[Jonas]

I would also suggest, if anybody tries to alter the recording, that it works better doubling up the right channel as opposed to folding down both channels to mono. If you just fold it down, you're still overlaying the 100% hiss, 0% music of the left channel onto the right channel. If you double up the right channel, you get twice the volume and half of the hiss without losing any sonic information. (Interestingly, there is information on the left channel for the last few seconds of the file).

The version I gave out is the right side only, so the hiss from the left channel is not included. As for the 2nd person in the tapes, sounds like a woman to me, my assumption is that Brian is showing the tunes to Marilyn...

[harveyw]

Definitely the same recording as the one that appears in the A&E biography. But how was it included in that show if the tape is in the hands of a private collector who hasn't listened to it for 30+ years? Most odd.

I have nothing to contribute to the Al/Brian discussion: piano playing sounds like Brian (maybe it's Al playing Brian's piano? Maybe it's the *sound* of the piano that makes it sound like Brian's playing. And the playing here is pretty rudimentary, so it could be Al); some of the speech definitely sounds like Al to me ("forgot the darn song"), but at other times it sounds like Brian (compare "then it goes" to the same phrase as it appears on the box set version of "Can't Wait Too Long"). But it's clearly the same person singing as is playing. What i'm saying is...I don't know. I eagerly await Al's reaction to the topic.

In case anyone hasn't posted a link to the guy's website, here 'tis:
http://walloftape.blogspot.com/
Just downloading that Dion show now....

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Well, I think the other person *is* Al, but Brian singing. It also sounds like he's a bit stoned, which would automatically exlude Jardine right there.

[Sheriff John Stone]

In trying to determine if it was Brian or Al singing "Little Child", I've listened to the song about 57 times now. So, like most Brian Wilson-related songs, I've come to really like the song. The question is, why didn't they record it? Or did they?

"All Dressed Up For School", "Lazy Lizzie", "Hey, Little Tomboy", "Roller Skating Child", "I Want To Pick You Up", and now "Little Child". Is that more evidence that it is Brian?  Just kidding...