Thread for various insignificant questions that don't deserve their own thread!
runnersdialzero:
I've had a few dozen thoughts/questions that are pretty minor and probably don't deserve their own thread. Thus, I'd like to ask a couple of them here and I encourage others to do the same.
Question 1: There's a song that starts with, "My folks have a friend who knows an old lady." It's a song about some old lady's car being stolen or something. It's a Brian vocal, he complains that he can't sing the song throughout (which is actually pretty amusing).
I've seen at least three different titles given for it - what is the proper title and what era is it?
Also, anyone else think the track for this song sounds a whole hell of a lot like "Morning Beat"?
Question 2: Do Carl or Dennis' lead vocals still exist anywhere for "Sail On Sailor"? Anyone here heard them - do you feel their vocals are worthy of release some day, or are they just scratch takes?
Jason:
The song referenced in Question 1 is entitled Walkin', recorded initially in 1968 during the tail end of the Friends period, and worked on a bit more during the sessions for the "last Capitol album". It was on a compilation tape named "Sun Flower" given to Warner Bros. when Mo Ostin signed the group in 1969. If it was seriously considered for the actual Sunflower album beyond its appearance on the aforementioned reel, it's doubtful. The track as it exists features incomplete vocals and a very dejected lead from Brian - note his "I don't wanna sing this" when the drums come in at the beginning.
Morning Beat does seem to take part of its verse melody from Walkin'. On a related note, the "mow mamayama glory hallejulah" refrain is a slightly revised riff that Brian was working on in 1975-76 called Clangin', or simply Clang as Brian referred to it in a 1976 interview.
Question 2 - Steve Desper reminisced on here a while back that he produced some sessions for Sail On Sailor in 1971, apparently it was sung by Carl. Dennis' vocals were initially going to be on the Holland cut, but apparently he couldn't hack it, hence Blondie's lead. I don't recall if the track still exists. Certainly, I've never heard them. Of course, the timeline is a bit skewed since the famous "hypnotize me, Van Dyke" cassette tape was from sometime in 1972. Who knows? Ask Brian on the blueboard. :)
runnersdialzero:
Quote from: The Real Beach Boy on December 08, 2009, 03:27:51 PM
The song referenced in Question 1 is entitled Walkin', recorded initially in 1968 during the tail end of the Friends period, and worked on a bit more during the sessions for the "last Capitol album". It was on a compilation tape named "Sun Flower" given to Warner Bros. when Mo Ostin signed the group in 1969. If it was seriously considered for the actual Sunflower album beyond its appearance on the aforementioned reel, it's doubtful. The track as it exists features incomplete vocals and a very dejected lead from Brian - note his "I don't wanna sing this" when the drums come in at the beginning.
Morning Beat does seem to take part of its verse melody from Walkin'. On a related note, the "mow mamayama glory hallejulah" refrain is a slightly revised riff that Brian was working on in 1975-76 called Clangin', or simply Clang as Brian referred to it in a 1976 interview.
Question 2 - Steve Desper reminisced on here a while back that he produced some sessions for Sail On Sailor in 1971, apparently it was sung by Carl. Dennis' vocals were initially going to be on the Holland cut, but apparently he couldn't hack it, hence Blondie's lead. I don't recall if the track still exists. Certainly, I've never heard them. Of course, the timeline is a bit skewed since the famous "hypnotize me, Van Dyke" cassette tape was from sometime in 1972. Who knows? Ask Brian on the blueboard. :)
Thanks a lot! Am attempting to sort rarities by era, this helps.
MBE:
I wonder if Walkin was attempted again by Brian somtime during the Sunflower period. It's clear he doesn't like the song, but at the same time I like the vocal he partially laid down. I only ask this because I wouldn't think it would be on the reel unfinished.
Wirestone:
Yeah, the Walkin' - Morning Beat connection is an interesting one. You can sing the verses of Morning Beat to the verse of Walkin' -- but the lines scan differently (two lines of MB to one line of Walkin), and there's no chorus in Walkin'. Like a few other bits of TLOS, it seems like Brian took a riff / melody fragment from the past and worked it into something different. You can see this in Goin' Home -- where he takes the first two lines of a song he wrote with Paley and transforms it into a rockin' blues tune -- or "Message Man," which takes its opening six-note phrase from "Marketplace" and then moves in a peculiarly BW direction.
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