The Smiley Smile Message Board

I know that Brian's on the skins (drums) for this track, but does he provide most of the other instrumentation? Also is he on any of the backing vocals?

AFAIK, this song was written & recorded in one session, ostensibly one of the few (aside from Mount Vernon and Fairway) in Holland where Brian was truly active.

My guess would say he is contributed more than just drums, but I can't say for sure.  For the backing vocals, my ears say you can hear Brian on the "Ooooooooohh FUNKY"'s near the end of the song, if anyone knows what part I'm referring to.  Really seems to me like his voice stands out a bit there.

The only parts on Holland where I can really make out Brian are on the fairy tale and Cal Saga pt 3.

An article from the "Holland" era stated that all the instruments on "Funky Pretty" were played by Brian, Carl, and Ricky.  I would imagine that Brian played drums and most or all of the keyboards, Carl played the guitar and maybe some keyboards, and Ricky overdubbed the percussion.

From 02:22 to 02:35 you can hear Brian on the backing vocals. He sings something like "funky pretty gone", three times.

Ooh Funky is him slightly speed up.

He's also singing  "Funky Girl, why" part in the normal, "correct" speed.

Ricky probably played the moog, as he did on "Leaving This Town".

I think the moog really adds a lot to FP.  Do we know who did the arrangement of the moog parts -- Ricky or Brian?  It always sounded to me like the atmospherics of some of the Spring album (esp.  Sweet Mountain).

I love the way they did "Funky Pretty" live — it rocked in a way the studio version didn't.

I agree, I always loved the version on the Concert album....it seemed like a steller song to keep on setlist

I really like this song.  Silly but good....and it seems to have been done with tongue in cheek to some extent.   Part of the greatness of Holland.   So many good songs.  It has occured to me that If CATP and Holland were melded into one release back in the day, with a couple of the weaker numbers deleted...and only a couple....this would have been one monumental album.  And given the short period of time between releases, at least by today's standards, it would have been a truly great album done in a relatively short time....again, by todays standard of 3 years betweeen albums.

I've listened to FP carefully and I hear the very high electronic melody overtop and behind everthing else......and it sounds similar to some of the sounds I hear on Mt Vernon.....have you noticed it?

A sound Brian was into at the moment?

yeah, i always thought Funky Pretty sounded a lot like Mt. Vernon and Fairway...a good intro to the EP if you will....

Yep, totally.

I really like that synthesiser sound on that album(on that song and MT.Vernon.)
I had always thought that nearly all the instruments were Brian. That is truly one weird track.

I like the live version a little better, too, but it's a different animal.

I didn't like the concert version as much as it obviously lacked most of the beautiful synth touches so prominently featured in the original arrangement. Brian really should've done a whole album bursting with FP/Sweet Mountain-type "magic synthesizer" songs in 1973.

I agree with this.  The concert version doesn't do as much for me because it lacks the synth touches.  The synthesizer really elevates the song into something special.

Supposedly Brian wanted to make "Mt. Vernon & Fairway" and "Funky Pretty" the centerpiece of a new BB album, but the group felt that "Mt. Vernon" was a little too weird to be a centerpiece. Supposedly Brian felt rejected and stopped working with the group for awhile.

Exactly what kind of MOOG is that on Funky Pretty?
To my ears it sounds like a Mini Moog.
And the MOOG "bass line" during the Copenhagee/Tokyosee section sounds phenomenal
when played LOUD! Shakes the floor like MOOG Taurus bass pedals do when listening to Genesis or RUSH.

Bri

Ouch.

I can't see Mt. Vernon as the center of a Beach Boys album; however, it's interesting to think if the Beach Boys had styled a 'fairytale'-themed album in the style of That Lucky Old Sun, with a few lines of narration in between similarly themed groups of songs. That could have been cool. ...The Beach Boys present a California fairytale?

Did Brian want "Funky Pretty" as centerpiece of ANY album? It sounds more like he woke up in good mood and decided to join the boys in the studio, writing this light ditty in a matter of minutes. After the Holland experience, how did Brian stop working with the group? He recorded the Christmas single and was available for the next try at a new album at Caribou Studios, in '74.

Deja Vu all over again? Another SMiLE situation?

So, my natural response would be, then why did the guys do such a beautiful job singing on the record, why did they/Carl finish it, and why would they ultimately release it - complete with picture sleeve (more $$$$$ spent)?

I don't know, that's just what I've heard. Maybe Carl and the group (mainly Carl it would seem, who was always very sympathetic to Brian) finished it as a goodwill gesture, after they saw that Brian was hurt? Maybe the record company wanted more Brian, regardless of what it was? That's how "Sail on Sailor" got on the record. And after all of that they still made sure that it was clearly distinguished as being separate from Holland. I know I heard a bootleg with a tape of Brian playing parts of the fairytale to a reporter in Holland and he sounds really into it and proud. Why didn't he finish it, then? Just because of randomly changing moods? Or was it like "Til I Die", where a few negative comments can send him retreating? We'll never know, but they're just as probable.

Dada, I wasn't disagreeing with the theory that Brian might've felt dejected and stopped working with the group over "Mt. Vernon". He probably was/did. My post was just an observation that, again, the group ultimately rose to the occasion and recorded the song, brilliantly in fact, much like the SMiLE material.

By 1972, the guys probably felt that if Brian wanted something recorded, record it, because A) they didn't want him to retreat again (which he did anyway), and B) due to Brian's dwindling output, they'd take ANYTHING they could get their hands on.

It seems that Brian ultimately got recorded every song he ever wanted recorded. I'm curious, does anybody know of any songs that Brian wrote and wanted to record that didn't get recorded?

Maybe the others didn't dig the suite that much, at first. I think it's a big bore, myself. But it was finished and included in the package, after all. Yeah, probably to apease Warner and keep Brian happy and motivated for Beach boys endeavours.


An LP can only contain so many minutes of music. Including MVaFA in the plate would drastically hurt the sound quality. They could record more tracks and give Warner a double album (yeah right  :-D) or any number of Beach Boys could volunteer to take out their tracks to acommodate MVaFA.

I'm perfectly happy with the solution as it was, an added bonus EP, like in Songs in the Key of Life. More music for the buyer. Anyway, did it hurt Brian to have it as a separate EP? He was probably more concerned about food and cocaine at that point.


Can Brian, once in our lifetime, not be considered the wussiest rock musician ever born?  ;D He finished 'Til I Die just like he wanted it, end of story.

But he is. He bragged to Howard Stern about not having massive orgies with girls.

Easy one - take out Leaving This Town.  ;D

The 1990 vinyl had MT Vernon stuck on. I wonder how the pressing sounds? I always wanted one just because of it being a novel version.

It's mostly Warner Brothers wanting more Brian, i think. Mo Ostin (head of Warners at the time) apparently signed them mostly on the assurances that Brian would be at the helm. And apart from Funky Pretty, he's barely on the stuff they did in Holland (iirc, he literally phoned in his contribution for Sail On Sailor  ::) )

I prefer the instrumental version of Mt. Vernon myself - it sounds so lush in places

Speaking of LP lengths.... why only 9 songs? Steamboat isn't that long, ffs. And is always the case, they had plenty of stuff going. Was there a specific reason it's got so little on it?

Standard US practice at the time was for ten songs per LP.  Remember that publishing royalities were treated different in the UK and US.  The UK had a standard amount per LP which was then divided by the number of songs to get the royalty per son, whereas in the US each song is worth a fixed amount, the amount of songs then determining the total royalties due per LP.

The LP proper has nine songs, but when you added the Mt Vernon EP (which was divided into five tracks IIRC), royalties are actually being paid on 14 songs.  Since the LP/EP configuration was a compromise to appease Brian, Reprise probably negotiated a rate reduction on royalites with the group so the amount being paid was the equivalent of ten songs.  Didn't the group also have to absorb the extra costs of manufacturing the EP as well as part of the compromise?

Let's keep in mind it was immediately preceded by an eight-song "LP," too... Heck, even four of the 10 songs on Surf's Up clocked in at under 3 minutes. The BBs weren't exactly over-extending themselves in that regard in those years. (Funny, considering how much material dates from the late 60s through early 70s.)

Yes, and the fact that they had six songwriters in the group. I think I understand the politics that went on inside the group, but I'm still surprised at the relative lack of representation from each individual songwriter. Obviously, there were no solo albums coming from the group; were they that content with just touring?

The biggest surprise to me regarding "Mount Vernon" was that they (the record company and/or the group) splurged on that special picture sleeve. The future pressings used only a plain white paper sleeve. I guess they didn't care as much about making Brian happy. ;D

MBE, I'm curious about that 1990 vinyl edition of Holland. Do you know if "Mount Vernon" was simply tacked onto Side B, or was the sequencing changed in any way?

Hold on there a second.  Some of us happen to love "Leaving This Town."  It's probably my favorite track on Holland and one of the Beach Boys' best in the entire decade, IMO.

Ha! Ten years ago almost to the day. ;D

Saw this while looking around for info on whether Marilyn might have been involved in the tag of "Funky Pretty".

I must say, I have to agree 100% with busy doin nothin. :)

Me three!  "Laving this Town" -- Now there's a song where I dig the "Concert" version a bit more.  Great B3 solo by Carly Munoz.

And I agree with the Moog parts on "Funky Pretty" elevating the track.  I recall being quite stoned and hearing them sounding like birds wailing at the end. Almost eerie.  I'll have to go back to that....

.

OK, thanks!

It's a pity the Vocal Credits thread can't be amended. Unless the mods know a way round that...

What about the weird play on words at the end