Mike's musical abilities

[Surfer Joe]

Overall, a remarkably peaceful band when it came to credits.  ... credited a song entirely to whoever was the primary guy.

I wonder if Queen were that way, too. I know that they gave the primary songwriter creative control on his own tunes, but I find it hard to believe that four such musically powerful voices weren't contributing to one another's music more often than the credits show. Of course, being such strong voices, maybe each of them really took control of his own songs and kept the others from getting two cents in...

It all cycles back to the compelling question of when songwriting occurs, vs. arranging or improvising.  Listen to Santana's version of "She's Not There": if someone in the band had brought the song in as an original, written by him, and it consisted of what the Zombies did, and then somebody else contributed that great opening lick that sets the tone in the Santana version, I think that guy would certainly rate a credit.  But since it was a cover, he doesn't. There must be a zillion examples like that.  Joe Cocker's "With A Little Help From My Friends" uses a musically different chorus, on which the whole song is rebuilt, but no one will ever be credited for that or receive specific royalties because the song was already registered. 

[The infamous Baldwin Organ]

Erik, I think Robert Johnson's authorship of the songs he recorded is an open question in many cases.  With a lot of blues stuff you just go back to the earliest known recorded version of the song, or printed reference to it, or whatever.  \

I agree, and I've discovered that many early songs exist in a wide variety of forms: i.e. Many songs with the same chords and melody, but with very different lyrics on a simmilar theme. I think that many of them date back to being work field songs, later interpreted and performed by solo singers.

[Rocker]

Erik, I think Robert Johnson's authorship of the songs he recorded is an open question in many cases.  With a lot of blues stuff you just go back to the earliest known recorded version of the song, or printed reference to it, or whatever.  1936 is usually far enough back to take the cake, but who knows where the song was before that?  I think I've seen "Dust My Broom" credited to Elmore James, even though Johnson's version is twenty years older than the James version I have, and I think the Rolling Stones' "Love In Vain" was just listed as a traditional arranged by them at some stage, not sure, and "Crossroads" by Clapton may have been credited as traditional as well.

Yeah, true. Some of Johnson's songs were based on other blues songs.

[mikeyj]

edit

[The Heartical Don]

Erik, I think Robert Johnson's authorship of the songs he recorded is an open question in many cases.  With a lot of blues stuff you just go back to the earliest known recorded version of the song, or printed reference to it, or whatever.  1936 is usually far enough back to take the cake, but who knows where the song was before that?  I think I've seen "Dust My Broom" credited to Elmore James, even though Johnson's version is twenty years older than the James version I have, and I think the Rolling Stones' "Love In Vain" was just listed as a traditional arranged by them at some stage, not sure, and "Crossroads" by Clapton may have been credited as traditional as well.

Yeah, true. Some of Johnson's songs were based on other blues songs.

Who'd have guessed that? 

[Pretty Funky]

Mike definitely plays some guitar, I think that was established here once, possibly when his oldest daughter was on.

Just watched this clip mentioned for the 'what were they thinking' thread. Is the sound you hear Mike toying with the guitar the last 10 seconds or so?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIgyeJQ6peA&feature=related

[Sheriff John Stone]

Mike definitely plays some guitar, I think that was established here once, possibly when his oldest daughter was on.

Just watched this clip mentioned for the 'what were they thinking' thread. Is the sound you hear Mike toying with the guitar the last 10 seconds or so?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIgyeJQ6peA&feature=related

Mike on Fender bass!

[PaulHippensteel]

Mike Love is very talented playing musical instruments, considerng that he plays the theramin (or "woo woo machine" as he calls it on the fall '66 live "Good Vibrations") which is one of the world's most DIFFICULT instruments to play,  since there are no keys (as on a piano or organ) or frets (as on a guitar) to mark the notes. What Mike Love played on late '60s/early live live performances & TV show takes of "Good Vibrations" is NOT a theramin but a RIBBON CONTROLLER connected to an early synthesizer, which is also very difficult to play because, like a thereamin, there are no markings for pitch/notes.

The difference between a theramin and a ribbon controller is that on a theramin you don't actually touch the instrument, it picks up an electromagnetic field from the human body! A ribbon controller requires that you either touch it with a finger or a metal probe. However, the SOUND produced by either a theremin or ribbon controller is essentially the same.

Because the sound of a theramin is a simple sine wave, you can actually use one of several different technologies to build a theramin. Actually I built SEVERAL different theramins when I was in high school in the '70s. There used to be a company called Southwest Technical Products in Arizona or someplace that sold theramin kits in the '70s that were transistorized and had triangular antennas. I also built a theramin according to a plan from a Radio Shack book called "Electronic Music Projects" that made sounds come out of an FM radio that was placed nearby, but not touching the theramin. I also built a "light theramin" that used a solar cell, and you changed the pitch by waving your hands over the solar cell and changing the amount of light reflected on it!

Getting back to Mike Love, saxophone is not exactly an easy instrument to play either, because you not only have to finger the keys but you also have to have good breath control when you play it. Mark Lindsay (of Paul Revere & The Raiders) first took up the saxophone because he lost the tip of a finger in an accident so he couldn't play the guitar (Mark does a solo saxophone instrumental "Melody For An Unknown Girl" on the Raiders' "Midnight Ride" album). I love Mike Love's saxophone on "Long Tall Texan" (actually one of the first Beach Boys songs I ever heard since it was on "Best Of The Beach Boys, Vol. 2").

[Aegir]

The ribbon controller Mike used did have markings. There was a keyboard drawn onto it so he knew where the notes were.

And the sax at the end of Long Tall Texan is very comical.

[Dr. Tim]

More complete answer for Erik H:  Paul did try to get permission to bill "Yesterday" as his alone, and then with his name before John's, which Yoko vetoed, as she had the right to do.  Apparently anything published under the Maclen Music moniker was to be credited just so.  Paul whined about this a little bit at the time, saw no one cared, and shut up.  On the Please Please Me UK LP, Paul is listed first, John piped up when he saw it and from then on it was always L/McC.  Or to use John's term, he "baggsy-ed" the first position.  Paul talks about this in the Barry Miles book.

Matthew Fisher lost his copyright claim to Whiter Shade of Pale; the basic tune (adapted from Bach's Sleepers Wake cantata) was by Gary Brooker, Fisher's organ part was deemed an arrangement touch.   Fisher did get co-writing credit for, and sang on, other tracks like In Held Twas In I and some songs on A Salty Dog.

Now here's a silly one, which I think is still true even now: Paul Simon resented Art Garfunkel singing "Brodge Over Troubled Water" because HE thought OTHER people would think Garfunkel wrote it - never mind what the album credit said, and what every musician knew.  Jeez, dude!  Who cares what OTHER people think if you're the one getting the fuckin check?? Just cash it and buy yourself an extra beer as consolation.

[Wirestone]

Procul Harum's Matthew Fisher did not lose his copyright claim. The claim (putting his name on the song) had been granted earlier, at question was whether he would receive royalties for the song. This summer, the House of Lords voted to give them to him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Whiter_Shade_Of_Pale

[Andrew G. Doe]

Mike Love is very talented playing musical instruments, considerng that he plays the theramin ...

Flag on the play - Mike has never, ever played a theremin. In fact, a theremin has never been used on a BB record. What was used on "IJWMFTT", "GV" & "WH" was a tannerin, a much simpler piece of kit to play than a theremin (I've tried the latter - it's a complete bitch).... and Mike didn't play that either.

As an aside, Mike's ribbon controller was custom-built by Robert Moog. 

[Dr. Tim]

Thanks for the update.  Saw the prior story on the decision denying the royalties but I guess the House of Lords, sitting as a court of appeals, reversed that.  Interesting.

[wiggbuggie]

mike also rewrote the lyrics to good vibrations which I prefer his (Mike Love) lyrics I remember reading he wrote them as they were driving to the recording studio and his cool head warm heart song is just plain awesomeness

[PaulHippensteel]

Andrew G. Doe:

>>Flag on the play - Mike has never, ever played a theremin. In fact, a theremin has never been used on a BB record. What was used on "IJWMFTT", "GV" & "WH" was a tannerin, a much simpler piece of kit to play than a theremin (I've tried the latter - it's a complete bitch).... and Mike didn't play that either. As an aside, Mike's ribbon controller was custom-built by Robert Moog.

Very interesting! The reason I said the BB used a "theremin" is that is the instrument that's always been mentioned in BB books over the years, I have never heard of a "tannerin" until you mentioned it just now. Brian even appeared in the "Theremin" documentary film made in the '90s.

Here's a tannerin web site:

http://www.tompolk.com/Tannerin/Tannerin.html

As far as I can tell, "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd." by The Monkees is the first rock album to use Moog synthesizer, released in the fall of 1967 (nearly two years before The Beatles got a Moog). Micky Dolenz bought the the third Moog ever built! Micky plays the Moog on "Daily Nightly", although he mostly just does sound effects. Paul Beaver (Moog musician & sales rep) played the Moog on "Star Collector" and his playing is more melodic (actually the first Moog solo on the song almost sounds like ragtime!). So the Beach Boys probably got their first Moog AFTER The Monkees.

In the mid-'70s I built a ribbon controller synthesizer called the Gnome from a kit made by a company called PAIA. It was played using a metal probe. But it was quirky and had linearity problems so I couldn't play actual music on it (no "keyboard" style markings), but it made great sound effects (which I used in a videotape we made at my high school). I would have preferred to have a keyboard synthesizer at that time but eveb PAIA's kits for those were expensive at the time. The Gnome was cheap enough ($50 in 1976 money) that I was able to get my dad to buy it for me for Christmas!

PAIA still exists but keyboards got too expensive so now they just make MIDI modules, fuzzboxes, preamps, etc. And they make REAL theremin kits if you want one! Their web site: http://www.paia.com

A few years ago a movie theater here in Indianapolis ran a double feature of the "Theremin" and "Moog" documentary films. They set up a real theremin in the lobby for customers to play! I was able to play the same riff repeatedly on the theremin but I couldn't play the riff from "Good Vibrations". In the the "Theremin" film a guy actually plays Mancini's "Moon River" on the theremin!

For more about electronic musical instruments, read the great book "Vintage Synthesizers" (edited by Mark Vail). It not only covers synthesizers but also theremins and '60s combo organs, like the Farfisa organ played by Bruce on the fall '66 live "Good Vibrations" (I have one!).

[Wilsonista]

I think what Mike was playing was different than what Micky and Paul Beaver played. Mike's instrument (seen in the Ed Sullivan show performance of GV) is played like a tannerin (with Mike using his finger) whereas Micky had the actual Moog synthesizer (sen in the video for "Daily Nightly"). Mike and the BB were using the ribbon controller in the fall of '66 on the road when they started performing GV live.  Micky, I think didn't get his until summer of '67 - he saw a demo of the Moog when he and Peter were at the Monterey Pop Festival in June '67.

[Jay]

If a Mike Love book or documentary would be named after a Beach Boys song, this one would be interesting:

"Love Is A Woman (And Other Shocking Confessions)"

"I dedicate this song to all the girls....even you Micheal". 

[PaulHippensteel]

Bruce probably only played a Farfisa organ in concert from '66 to '67. By '68 or '69 Bruce was playing a Hammond B-3.

Van Dyke Parks played a Moog synthesizer in TV commercials (one of which you can hear on a Warner Brother various artists album). Also the Modern Folk Quartet (featuring Chip Douglas and Henry Diltz) had a single out using a Moog that possibly pre-dated the Monkees' "Pisces" LP.

[Wilsonista]

And Chip produced Headquarters and Pisces and Henry was their photographer. Lots of connections there, that;s for sure. Maybe the MFQ track was what  convinced Chip to allow Micky to use the Moog on a track.

[Aegir]

Paul Beaver from Beaver & Krause is the guy who introduced the Moog to Mickey.

[Wilsonista]

Yes, I knew that. But what I'm saying is that if the Moog was previously on Chip's band's track, then he(Chip) was probably gung ho when Micky suggested adding a Moog to the aforementioned Monkees tracks.

[petsite]

As to Mike's musical ablities. He wrote alot of his solo stuff just making up tunes and singing them into a tape recorder. He does play some guitar and can hammer out chords on a keyboard (asseen on the Our Team video).

[Stegibo]

What's the "Our Team" video?

[variable2]

What's the "Our Team" video?

is it this (minus the audio)? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6YSihrVvK4

[phirnis]

What's the "Our Team" video?

is it this (minus the audio)? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6YSihrVvK4

Where and when was that particular video recorded? M.I.U. sessions?