Brian's Modular Recording techniques: some questions on the subject

[The Song Of The Grange]

As many of us on this message board know, Brian Wilson's production techniques in the 66-67 era were way ahead of the times.  I am hoping to tap into the Smiley Smile brain trust and see if I can learn more.

Was there anyone else doing this kind of tape editing/splicing in the mid 60's?

Who actually did the tape splicing?  Was it Brian or someone like Chuck Britz?  It appears to me from hearing some "test mix" bootlegs that the different parts to be sliced together were "staged" up on one tape with gaps between them.  I assume then the little gaps were sliced out and the pieces were spliced back together.  If anyone has ever spliced tape they know that it is not the easiest thing to do, especially nailing the edit on-beat like in GV or H&V.  Whoever did it had some skills!

Did Brian come upon these techniques on his own during the GV sessions or did he have direct influences (other people doing the same thing around that time, Spector for instance)?  I have heard people say that he was influenced by the Musique concrète movement, but I am not convinced that Brian was exposed to that stuff.

Thanks for any and all input.

[Jason]

Was there anyone else?!? More like who wasn't.

Edgard Varese comes to mind, as he was experimenting with tape as early as the 1950s. Les Paul might have dabbled in it in the 40s. John Cage's early works dealt with tape splices and delays. I don't know how much, if at all, Brian was influenced by these folks. Certainly, Brian was possibly the first to do it in the mid-60s, but then you have to consider the Beatles, who were doing tape edits and splices as overdubs on Revolver and such.

The tape splicing was most likely done by Brian with Chuck at his side offering advice.

[buddhahat]

Who actually did the tape splicing?  Was it Brian or someone like Chuck Britz?  It appears to me from hearing some "test mix" bootlegs that the different parts to be sliced together were "staged" up on one tape with gaps between them.  I assume then the little gaps were sliced out and the pieces were spliced back together.  If anyone has ever spliced tape they know that it is not the easiest thing to do, especially nailing the edit on-beat like in GV or H&V.  Whoever did it had some skills!

Is this actually how they did it? I have absolutely no clue about Brian's editing techniques and would also be fascinated to hear how the parts were 'spliced' together.

[harveyw]

Tape editing was around for as long as magnetic tape had been around, but was primarily used for "practical" reasons rather than "artistic" reasons (though that depends on your definitions of practicality & art), to remove musical fluffs & mistakes, patching in a better section from a different take etc. I can't speak for orchestral/classical recordings, but I'm sure most early beat combos implemented this practice. A good example is She Loves You: the line "Pride can hurt you too, apologise to her" is clearly edited in from a different take. There, I've spoilt that song for you now, & you'll never be able to hear it again without hearing that edit! Sorry. There are plenty of other examples in the beatles catalogue, but I don't want to ruin their entire oeuvre for you...

As well as Stockhausen, Varese, Pierre Schaeffer and all the musique concrete crowd, I have to mention Joe Meek, who was doing all this is a pop context 7-8 years before Lennon "invented" backward tapes, and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, who brought the most avant garde musical techniques into people's living rooms in the 50s & 60s.

I don't suppose any of this influenced Brian in the slightest, though I'd be surprised if he wasn't a fan of Telstar...

[Bicyclerider]

There's a difference between tape splicing/editing use in music to create new sounds/juxtapositions/electronic noise and what Brian was doing.  Brian was recording the music in pieces, and then assembling the pieces together to make a continuous song - so he'd record the verse, chorus, and bridge (and sometimes fade) as different sections (not having the band play the piece all the way through) and then assemble the complete song.  He did this with GV, Smile, Smiley Smile and wild Honey.  Often all three sections were recorded the same day at the same session (Child), other times he'd record all three sections only to rerecord one or more sections and then assemble a " master" (Smile's Wind Chimes, for example).  This all has very little to do with Varese and Cage or musique concrete and is completely antithetical to Spector's approach, which was always to have the band play the entire song through until he found a take he liked.

I doubt Brian would ever have touched the tape - the engineer would be doing the splicing, at Brian's direction.

[Andrew G. Doe]

There's the "GV" session where Brian says "we're recording this on two 4-tracks, so we only have to play it once" - of course, some took this to mean he was using an 8-track. Well, really... 

[Bicyclerider]

To me "why" is more interesting than "how."  I can think of several reasons why Brian switched to the modular recording process:

1. His attention span had decreased due to drugs (marijuana/hash/speed), so it was easier for him to concentrate on one section at a time and perfecting that than to go through the entire track and tweak it, as he did for Pet Sounds.

2. He wanted to keep his options open to add, subtract, and replace sections, as he had with Good Vibrations -  if further inspiration struck or he changed his mind after "living" with the tracks for a period of time - which he apparently did quite often during Smile.

3. Good Vibrations' success validated the approach and so he wanted to continue to use it to create other "epic" songs.

4. The technique was influenced by modern artists including pop artists who were into collages and the juxtaposition of widely dissimilar materials and images in their paintings.  It also tied into the pop art "cartoon consciousness" that Van Dyke has referenced as inspiration for his and Brian's collaboration.  Brian was translating some modern pop art painting techniques into music (and Van Dyke the same into lyrics).

4. With Smiley and Wild Honey where Brian and the boys were playing all or many of the instruments, it was easier to play it in short sections without making mistakes, especially when they were stoned (Smiley).

[the captain]

Frank Zappa was doing a lot of work with serious editing and splicing of tape.

[A Million Units In Jan!]

I thought that the only reason GV was in sections was because he recorded however many different versions, and then he took the sections out of those that he liked and spliced them together. I didn't think that it was neccessarily done that way on purpose per se, it's just the way it worked out. Then, having some success with that concept, he started doing that with SMiLE.
I always kind of liked the thought that maybe he did things in sections so that he could make sure every note on every song was perfect-it's alot easier to make a bunch of thirty second pieces of music perfect than a two and a half minute piece perfect.

[the captain]

That idea would hold up better if every note were perfect.    But he was splicing tape before GV. Unless I'm mistaken, he was already doing it for instrumental tracks of verses and choruses of earlier songs just to simplify the process: once you have a good take of the verse, you can just copy and use it again for the background of the second verse.

[Chris Brown]

That idea would hold up better if every note were perfect.    But he was splicing tape before GV. Unless I'm mistaken, he was already doing it for instrumental tracks of verses and choruses of earlier songs just to simplify the process: once you have a good take of the verse, you can just copy and use it again for the background of the second verse.

He also did it for many of their a-capella tracks..."Auld Lang Sine" and "And Your Dream Comes True" are the two that immediately spring to mind.  Of course, those weren't really an artistic choice, but rather a primitive method of what they now call "comping." 

[The Song Of The Grange]

Thanks for some great insights here.  Maybe the true origins of the technique falls someplace in between comping and artistic choice (such as using the splicing for extreme juxtaposition).  It makes sense to me that the success of GV would have lead him to more creation in this mode.

Sounds like there were others splicing for artistic reasons, but no one did it like Brian did it!

One thing to add: wasn't the intro to You Still Believe In Me spliced onto the front of that song?  I always wondered if the into to California Girls was spliced onto the front of that song too.

[Chris Brown]

One thing to add: wasn't the intro to You Still Believe In Me spliced onto the front of that song?  I always wondered if the into to California Girls was spliced onto the front of that song too.

You are correct about the intro to "You Still Believe In Me;" you can hear the separate sessions on the Pet Sounds box.

As for California Girls, if memory serves there was no edit there, they just played it straight through.

[Bicyclerider]

That idea would hold up better if every note were perfect.    But he was splicing tape before GV. Unless I'm mistaken, he was already doing it for instrumental tracks of verses and choruses of earlier songs just to simplify the process: once you have a good take of the verse, you can just copy and use it again for the background of the second verse.

While some splicing and editing was involved for the a capella tracks mentioned, I can't recall any verse/chorus splicing before Good Vibrations - there were some fade/tag splicing though.  I'll have to look through my SOT's to refresh my memory on this.  Any examples of earlier verse/chorus splicing?

[Bicyclerider]

Frank Zappa was doing a lot of work with serious editing and splicing of tape.

Indeed - Frank's Lumpy Gravy is in many ways what most fans imagined Smile to be - a collage of spoken comedy (Vegetables arguments, party reels, audio verite - the cab driver tape), sound effects (water recordings, basketball echo), avant garde classical/jazz music (Fire, I Wanna Be Around/Woodshop), and pop songs.

The idea of disparate song "sections" that musically don't have much to do with each other being juxtaposed was also used by others such as Love in Forever Changes and Your Mind and We Belong Together, and later even in CSN's Suite for Judy Blue Eyes.  Brian was really the first major pop/rock artist to do that.

[The Song Of The Grange]

Bicyclerider, thanks for the Zappa Lumpy Gravy comparison.  I had never made that connection, it makes sense.  Was there any contact or influence between Wilson and Zappa.  It seems like Zappa spent a lot of Freak Out doing Beach Boys parody.

[Bicyclerider]

There was one major connection between Zappa and Brian:  David Anderle.  He's thanked in the sleeve for Freak Out.

[Chris Brown]

That idea would hold up better if every note were perfect.    But he was splicing tape before GV. Unless I'm mistaken, he was already doing it for instrumental tracks of verses and choruses of earlier songs just to simplify the process: once you have a good take of the verse, you can just copy and use it again for the background of the second verse.

While some splicing and editing was involved for the a capella tracks mentioned, I can't recall any verse/chorus splicing before Good Vibrations - there were some fade/tag splicing though.  I'll have to look through my SOT's to refresh my memory on this.  Any examples of earlier verse/chorus splicing?

It wasn't verse/chorus splicing exactly, but I'm pretty sure the intro to "I'm So Young" was edited onto the finished track.  But you are correct in that Good Vibrations was the first time he did verse/chorus/bridge splicing.

[the captain]

There was one major connection between Zappa and Brian:  David Anderle.  He's thanked in the sleeve for Freak Out.

So is Carol Kaye (who played for both). Zappa was definitely aware of what BW was doing, although I don't know if that went both ways.

[WWDWD?]

I am a huge Zappa fan. I stumbled across Zappa after  reading a post on a beach boys yahoo group where someone was comparing We're Only In It For The Money to what Smile was aiming to be. I was like "I HAVE to hear this".

Zappa was splicing tapes all over the place, obscure cuts, intermissions of random talking, echo-chamber distortion noises as well as great pop songs, great rock songs and beautiful art music. I think the original Mothers of Invention albums would really appeal to the dedicated Smile fan. They are more in your face and ugly though. With a snarling sarcasm replacing the child-like innocence and wonderment of Brian's Smile.

"Call any vegetable... call it by name."  <- another Beach Boys parody?

[Ganz Allein]

"Call any vegetable... call it by name."  <- another Beach Boys parody?

Since The Mothers' "Absolutely Free" was released in May '67, Zappa wouldn't have heard of (or heard) "Vege-Tables" yet.  Unless maybe David Anderle snuck over one of Brian's acetates to him.  But the songs are so dissimilar anyway.

[WWDWD?]

I wasn't sure which came first, but I wasn't necessarily referring to the song Vege-Tables, maybe Zappa had heard of Brian's fascination with Vegetables from an interview or something. Otherwise it could just be a reference to the hippie scene, tree-huggers loving their vegetables. Or not related to that scene at all. 

I didn't say the songs were similar musically... I took it as Zappa making fun of someone like Brian.

And if anyone is interested... here are a few other beach boys/zappa links...
- Gail Zappa was seeing BW at some stage
- Van Dyke was briefly a part of the Mothers of Invention (for about four months)
found these and more http://www.zappateers.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=14207&sid=1c5389fbd95b74d3cca6da407846309d not sure if you will need to sign up to view that link though.

[Dancing Bear]

There was one major connection between Zappa and Brian:  David Anderle.  He's thanked in the sleeve for Freak Out.

So is Carol Kaye (who played for both). Zappa was definitely aware of what BW was doing, although I don't know if that went both ways.

I think David Anderle tried once to make Brian listen to one of Zappa's early records. That should be Freak Out or Absolutely Free. Apparently Brian HATED it.

[Cam Mott]

According to Zappa, "Call Any Vegetable" was written in the second week of April 1966 in Hawaii.

[grillo]

Isn't  the more fleshed out version of DYDW from the Vigotone boot a Zappa-related recording? The version of worms I speek of is distorted with a bunch more vox. Anyone?