The Smiley Smile Message Board

Via The Second Disc: http://theseconddisc.com/2016/06/28/surfin-life-omnivore-collects-beach-boys-earliest-recordings-premieres-unreleased-tracks/

(http://theseconddisc.com/wp-content/uploads/Becoming-The-Beach-Boys-300x300.jpg)

Scheduled for a August 26, 2016 release from Omnivore Recordings.

   Disc 1:
   SURFIN’
1. (Demo)
2. (Takes 1–2)
3. (Take 3)
4. (Take 4)
5. (Take 5)
6. (Take 6)
7. (Take 7)
8. (Take 8 )
9. (Master)
 
     LUAU
10. (Demo – Take 1)
11. (Demo – Take 2)
12. (Demo – Take 3)
13. (Takes 1–2)
14. (Takes 3, 5–6)
15. (Take 7)
16. (Take 8–11)
17. (Take 12)
18. (Master)
 
     LAVENDER
19. (Rehearsal – Take 1)
20. (Rehearsal – Take 2)
21. (Rehearsal – Take 3)
22. (Take 1)
23. (Take 2)
24. (Take 4)
 
     SURFIN’ SAFARI
25. (Takes 3–4)
26. (Takes 5–6)
27. (Take 10)
28. (Overdub – Take 1 on Take 6)
29. (Overdub – Take 2 on Take 10)
30. (Stereo Overdub)
31. (Master)
 
   Disc 2:
   SURFER GIRL
1. (Take 1)
2. (Take 2)
3. (Take 3)
4. (Take 4)
5. (Take 5)
6. (Take 6)
7. (Master)
8. (Overdub – Lead Vocals)
 
   JUDY
9. (Take 1)
10. (Take 2)
11. (Overdub – Takes 1–2)
12. (Overdub – Take 4)
13. (Master)
14. (Demo – April 1962 Guitar Solo)
 
     BEACH BOY STOMP (aka Karate)
15. (Take 1)
16. (Rehearsal – Take 2)
17. (Overdub – Take 1 on Take 1)
18. (Overdub – Take 2 on Take 1)
19. (Master)
 
     BARBIE – Kenny And The Cadets
20. (Overdub – Take 1)
21. (Overdub – Takes 2–4)
22. (Overdub – Take 5)
23. (Overdub – Take 7)
24. (Single Master)
25. (Album Master)
 
     WHAT IS A YOUNG GIRL MADE OF – Kenny And The Cadets
26. (Demo)
27. (Overdub – Take 1)
28. (Overdub – Take 3)
29. (Overdub – Takes 4–5)
30. (Overdub – Take 6)
31. (Overdub – Take 7)
32. (Master)

It appears this is authorized by the Beach Boys/BRI, so hopefully this will actually come to pass.

Curious if it has been newly remastered or if Steve Hoffman's mastering will be used.

After we celebrate the release of this, perhaps someone can convince BRI to release something even more interesting like the hours and hours of live and studio material that came after.

Why would BRI okay the release of over a dozen takes of "Luau" but can't let "Carry Me Home" out?

Seriously, not trying to be downbeat about this release. After reading Jim Murphy's book, these recordings took on a much greater context and I'm far more interested in the whole thing now.

Take 1 of “Surfer Girl” can be heard on RollingStone.com. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/hear-beach-boys-rare-somber-surfer-girl-from-first-sessions-20160628

This is interesting! I'm looking forward to it. Thanks for the heads-up

Thats awesome! I am excited to hear this! Hope alot more rarities will be released soon afterwards!

This would really help me in conjunction with Murphy's book. I use Big Beat 1963 as a guide to reading about the later recordings referenced in that book.

Interesting to see this coming out, after all the information in Murphy's book about Brad Elliot and Bruce Morgan and all of the back and forth and the lawsuits in the past.

Will either Brad and Bruce have a hand in it?   I know many have their gripes and problems with Brad with what happened in the past, myself included, but he was really the first one
to really try to get these tapes released, and he spent a great deal of money (a lot of it NOT his) fighting the lawsuits, to no avail.   It's a sad story and many got screwed, including Brad.   

I can honestly say, I don't know all of the details....but it is a shame that someone who once was held in such high regard by Beach Boys fans and collectors everywhere ended up
screwing everyone, and also getting the short end of the stick to try and make this release happen.   

Perhaps some of you know more about this whole situation than I or many do.  And I'll be clear, I'm not defending Brad, but I was one of the lucky ones who DID get a refund, when it was clear the
release he was planning for the HITE MORGAN tracks way back when, wasn't going to happen.   

Dogbone

Fascinating to hear! And then they took that and perfected it wherre most others would have been satisfied with the arrangement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir_iloWROwM

Interesting...but I'd much rather have a live collection of some kind

Brad should be paying for this CD for me, he still holds my 30 bucks or so from the early 2000s for the pre-order of something equivalent.

Yeah, mine too. And there is no way in hell I am going to pre-order this. I will wait until I hear of confirmed deliveries before I commit to buying. This project has such a trail of merda behind it that it could fertilize the Simpson desert.

Fans have plenty of reason to be skeptical, but unless the websites/articles are lying, the fact that this set is approved by BRI (who, if I'm recalling correctly, may essentially hold the copyrights to all of the material from these sessions not already released in the past on "Lost and Found") and is being put out by a legit label seems pretty solid.

Al Jardine has even linked to a story about the set on his Facebook. So I'm guessing this set has all of the proper parties signing off.

This thing seemed like such a political minefield in reference to BRI back in the previous decade; I'm only annoyed that BRI seems even more stingy about releasing material (e.g. all of the Brother vault material) that they own outright and uncontested.

Cheryl Pawelski is the one who headed up the second twofer reissue way back when. Or was it the first ? I can't remember. I was fortunate enough to run into her at a great cd store in Milwaukee. She was talking to the owner about her job at Capitol Records and that she was home for the holidays. She mentioned that her name was Cheryl. I asked "are you by chance the Cheryl from Milwaukee, who is heading up the Beach Boys reissue program. "( I had read that she was from Milwaukee somewhere ) She smiled and said that she was that one. We chatted for quite a while, and I jokingly asked her to send me the discs. I gave her my address and she sent me all of the twofers, for free, a few weeks before they released. She was also working on the Ricky Nelson catalog and she sent me all of those reissues too. To reciprocate, I located a rare local 45 that she wanted, but couldn't find.

Cheryl co owns the record company releasing this latest Beach Boy release. If she says it's happening, it will be happening ! She's a very nice person . I did lose track of her for several years, but recently reconnected with her on FB.

Since several people have I asked , I thought it worth noting that this is a 100% legit release approved by the group and available from regular retailers. It was compiled and mastered this year and has no connection to the previous illicit attempts to release the material by bootleggers .

I'm also wondering if last year's weird, sketchy attempt to "Crowd Fund" a single-disc release of *some* of the unissued Morgan tapes may have helped spur BRI to sign off on just putting the whole thing out and then at least being in some level of control of it.

Does Bug/Universal (who, I believe it's mentioned in Murphy's book, bought the copyrights of the already-released "Lost and Found" material from Morgan) still own their stake in these recordings? I would imagine that, as BRI has some level of an ongoing relationship with Capitol/UME, this made the release relatively smooth this time around.

Despite about my numerous references to MANY other releases I'd rather see from the BB archives, I am glad this set is being released and it will all be out there for historians and scholars. I may not end up listening to it that much, and it's main purpose will probably end up being as a companion to Jim Murphy's excellent book, but I'm glad the material will make it out there.

As far as I know, BMG has no ownership of any of the Hite Morgan recordings.

I don't have Jim Murphy's book in front of me; my recollection was that in the section detailing the various Morgan tape legal issues, it was mentioned that Bruce Morgan eventually (as in some time in the mid-late 2000s) sold the copyright to the recordings he still held the copyright on (e.g. the stuff that had already been released on "Lost and Found") to Bug Music, and they were subsequently bought up. But it was indeed BMG that bought up Bug, so I'm curious who owns what now. I believe the book also mentioned that Morgan still held physical ownership of the tapes at that time.

I'm curious if perhaps BRI just bought everything up, including all copyrights and physical tapes.

Releasing stuff like this but not live concerts from the Blondie/Ricky days makes no sense to me.
Keep scraping that barrel.

Mildly excited for this if only to finally hear the studio take of "Lavender," rather than just the rehearsal.

What, no bonus tracks?

"Dennis is a Prick"

"Murry on the Phone"

"Brian's Book Report"

 :-D

is there anything that will be on this set that is already released but NOT on Lost & Found album? and is there anything on the Lost & Found album that isnt on this set?

Uh Yeah! Of course there is going to be tons of takes that were never released on this set! Surfin's getting it's due we have only heard take 1 and the master take so.... Dear Mods where did all these whiners come from about all these future projects, that are great that they are coming out? Boo hoo I can't have a Stereo Smile, well we don't need it, you want it so bad roll your own,as Alan Boyd has said before! Boo hoo were getting all the Hite Morgan sessions and not other stuff? This is getting out of hand. I'm proud if this new release and I can finally own it all now! It's a musical time capsule!

Word! Be happy with what you get.

As John Lennon once said (in an approving tone): "It's history, man!"
P.S., he was referring to bootlegs of Beatles stuff, of which he was a big collector.

Huh. I did not know that.

Some new pictures via Amazon of this set:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71NMo7IhuKL._SL1500_.jpg)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71p3L8kN10L._SL1200_.jpg)

There are a few takes missing - Luau take 4, Lavender take 3, Surfin Safari takes 1-2, 7-9, Judy overdub take 3, Barbie overdub 6, Young Girl overdub take 2.  So is this really the "complete" Hite Morgan sessions?

Nevertheless I'm excited about this release and also for Jim's liner notes which should be revealing.

They were missing from the proposed First Wave lineup too, right? So I tend to think they're missing from the tapes altogether...as in erased...

Who's the dude on the cover..?

Becoming the Beach Boys: The Complete Hite & Dorinda Morgan Sessions are indeed the complete Hite and Dorinda Morgan sessions.  Every second of every tape. 

As Craig astutely pointed put, any appearance of "missing takes" is because they either never existed in the first place or they simply no longer exist -- erased, taped over, skipped. 

Becoming the Beach Boys: The Complete Hite & Dorinda Morgan Sessions is a beautiful 2 CD set -- a tri-fold digipack with a twenty-page booklet with color photographs.  I hope Beach Boys fans appreciate the diligence, perseverance, and creativity Brad Rosenberger and his team at Omnivore Recordings poured into this package.  As Mikie pointed out, referencing the Coda in my book (The Hite Morgan Tapes--Discovery, Illumination and Litigation) that examines the decades of litigation and legal entanglements ensnaring the tapes, suffice it to say that releasing this package was no easy task.  The tracks were remastered from the original tapes by Mark Linett, Alan Boyd weighed in with his unparalleled knowledge of the Beach Boys, and I had the honor to write the liner notes based on my book Becoming the Beach Boys, 1961-1963.  These folks, myself included, of course, care deeply about preserving the Beach Boys' musical legacy.  And not just preserving it, but getting it right.  As right as anyone can in 2016.  That these historic recordings are being released in a physical format, given the changes and financial constraints in the music business, well, that just flirts with the miraculous. 

The extension of "Becoming" from the book to the CD set was a purposeful decision by Brad Rosenberger.  This is all of the band's earliest recordings, even as they called themselves the Pendletones, compiled, remastered, and sequenced thoughtfully into a musical and historical document detailing, through music and words, how five boys from California formed America's greatest band on the way to becoming the Beach Boys.     

"Here in these seminal recordings are the nascent Beach Boys, the premiere vocal group of American popular music, and this is where it all began."

Comparing the track list with the list for First Wave, the following takes SEEM to be missing from the Complete Hite Morgan sessions and present on First Wave:

Lavender - rehearsal/demo take 4

Barbie overdub take 2

Young Girl overdub take 2

Surfin' Safari - edit takes 6 & 9


Of course it's possible that on this release some false starts weren't considered "takes" and if the take wasn't slated each time, it may just be a matter of semantics.  
                      

I remember they perfomed a version of John B Sails on that sessions

Aren't you thinking of the version taped at the Wilson's home and included on the boot The Gargage Tapes?

The package arrived an hour ago and I am just listening to the Surfer Girl sessions right now. This set is AMAZING! Sound quality: outstanding! Historical importance: Second to none. Even at this raw stage you can ghear Brian's genius. Wow! If you already haven't I URGE you to order this set. A real fly-on-the-wall look into,as the set title says, the boys becoming the Beach Boys.

Stop press: Surfer Girl Take 9 overdub lead vocal contains like a female singine, "we ride the surf together..." No mention made in the notes that I can find.

Was their a few of these recordings released on MIC box set?

Brother Records finally gave us something the fans wanted! but there is way more popular stuff unreleased then this! But i am not going to complain one bit! I will always be happy with ANYTHING that gets released of the Beach Boys! This is a great set!!!

Keep in mind I haven't listened to "Lost and Found" for some time, but there were alot of takes I don't think I had heard before. In the cases where stuff had been released previously, it is mentioned in the booklet. MiC only had a few of the tracks on here, mainly Surfin'. Pretty much every track on this set goes: Hite Morgan home demo, rehearsals, takes, final take, master with whatever overdubs may have been done. For example the Surfer Girl sessions , Brian asks Hite if they could do an overdub for the bass, he is refused. I have not heard that before, I dont think. The quality, given the age of the material is outstanding. I was reluctant to get this, but am very glad I did.

To Bicyclerider: I have only done a cursory listen, and there are several takes on the one track in a few places. I am not at home so I can't cross check, but you may be right. However there are points where you definitely hear the tape stop/start. I will need to listen again tonight or tomorrow.

A clue here?

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/7487799/beach-boys-earliest-recordings-becoming-the-beach-boys

This new set, made in full cooperation with the band, contains all of the available tapes plus studio chatter. The group on these recordings was comprised of brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, as well as friend Al Jardine and cousin Mike Love. The CD also contains songs by Kenny and the Cadets, which included Brian and Carl Wilson, their mother Audree Wilson, Al Jardine and Val Poliuto.

It's already out on Spotify.

Here's a link to an interview I did recently with Tony Basilio on The Tony Basilio Show in which we discuss Becoming the Beach Boys, 1961-1963 (McFarland Books, 2015) and Becoming the Beach Boys: The Complete Hite & Dorinda Morgan Sessions (Omnivore Recordings, 2016).


https://bbbjmurphy.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/2016-07-08-tony-basilio-with-james-b-murphy-becoming-the-beach-boys.mp3

I listened to some samples on amazon.de It's interesting - even with just 30 sec. samples - to hear how they got better and more confident in performing "Surfin'" from take 1 to the master.

Full thing is on Spotify. It sounds great though some people find it hard to understand why I'm listening to the same song over and over ;-)

According to the CD liner notes, these tracks were previously released:

Surfin' (Master take) b/w Luau -Candix 301

Barbie (Single master) b/w What is a Young Girl Mad Of  -Randy 422

Surfin' Safari (stereo overdub)  -Germany Ariola 45 411

Surfin' Safari (Master), Barbie (Album Master), Judy (Master), Surfer Girl (Master), Beach Boys Stomp (aka Karate) (overdub take 2 on take 1)  -Beach Boys Biggest Hits ERA 805

Surfin' (demo), Luau (demo, take 1 and take 6), Lavender (rehearsal, take 2), What is A Young Girl Made Of (overdub, take 7), Surfin' Safari (take 6), Judy (Take 2), Beach Boys Stomp (aka Karate) Master  -Lost and Found DCC DZS-054

Surfin' (take 1 and 7) -Good Vibrations 30Years of the Beach Boys Capitol C2 0777 7 812594 2 4

Review: http://fridaynightboys300.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/becoming-beach-boys-complete-hite-and.html

Thanks, Ed. Good to see the Friday Night Boys are still as disparate as ever. :=) 

More so as we age.

Hey guys,

I just interviewed Brad Rosenberger, president of Omnivore Recordings, about this set for my Icon Fetch podcast.  The link is:

http://www.iconfetch.com/great-music-interviews/2016-shows/1017-show-275-becoming-the-beach-boys-82916.html (http://www.iconfetch.com/great-music-interviews/2016-shows/1017-show-275-becoming-the-beach-boys-82916.html)

He talks about actually having the tapes at his house (and how nervous it made him), before returning it to the Morgans. 

Hope you enjoy.


Tony

I haven't listened to the interview yet, but it is interesting that BRI apparently owns the copyrights to the recordings themselves, while the Morgans still retain physical ownership of the tapes. I believe this is covered in Murphy's book.

Great interview, Tony.  I've enjoyed all of your Beach Boys related episodes.  I'm still a bit stumped on the name of the podcast, though...

In the interview, Rosenberger mentions that the identity of the female singer is still unknown. I wonder if anybody's ever asked any of the Boys if they remember who it was?

It's so cool to hear the group trying out some kind of instrumental track for the early takes of "Lavender", I wish a backing track was actually fleshed out for the final take!

Having listened to just part of the set thus far, I have to say that it's totally awesome. I can't wait to listen to the rest. It must be appreciated on headphones.

Does anyone else think that the original speed version of Surfin' is far superior to the sped-up single version? And does anyone think the song's hit status had anything to do with the faster speed, or that the original speed would have been just as much of a success?

A few initial thoughts:

- I know it's an aural illusion, since there is no keyboard anywhere on the song Surfin', but I have *always* sworn I hear something that sounds like a keyboard sound on the lyrical line "the only way for me"... a melody which sounds to double the vocal melody. I am trying to figure out just what it is that I'm hearing, but it's probably some odd artifact where the voices blending, coupled with the reverb present, create some sound that to me resembles a quietly-mixed keyboard/organ. Does anyone else hear it, or am I nuts?

- Love the vibrato audible on the vocals of Surfin' Take 4 at 1:09 and 1:17.

- Love the confidently-sung line "That won't stop me baby" on Surfin' Take 7 at 1:49.

- Funny how we hear the loop-de-loop-loop-Luau vocals changing a bit each time from take to take. Sometimes they sound like loop-de-loop-loop-BLU-AU, and other times like loop-de-loop-loop-DOO-AH. I wonder if Brian was changing things around on purpose, or if they were more or less flubs.

With the release of Becoming The Beach Boys, the two CD set by Omnivore Recordings, we finally have what is referred to as “The Complete Hite & Dorinda Morgan Sessions”, something all fans of the Beach Boys have been waiting for since Brad Elliott’s ill-fated First Wave project from 2000. Unlike Elliott’s project, the arrangement of tracks on Becoming The Beach Boys has all the recordings of the same songs titles grouped together. My preference would have been to present them in their historical order, that is September 1961 and the October recordings as separate sets. That to me is a better way of presenting this in a more historical way.

I like the packaging but do have a couple of question relating to how it is presented seeing as this is being presented as an historical item. I don’t understand why a 1964 photo of the group is included with the package. Surely there was access to more period relevant photos.  Even a better idea would have been to include the three issues of the Beach Boys’ Surfin’ single - Candix 331, X 301 and Candix 301 from left to right when the packaging is laid out flat. I realise the missing one is included in the booklet (page 5).

I am puzzled a bit about the photo of the tape box on page 13. This can’t be the original box from February 1962 as it has a zip code in the bottom left hand corner. Zip codes were not introduced until July 1963! So this tape box must at least date from after that. It has “Beach Boys Candix 1962” written on it, but this box could date from any time after mid 1963.

I don’t understand why a copy of the April 1962 session tape box is included when it has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the music contained within this set.

Why not include tape boxes of some importance, like the boxes referred to in the Becoming the Beach Boys, 1961-1963 book, such as the World Pacific session with the group name “The Surfers” on it and/or the tape box reputedly featuring the wording in Dorinda Morgan’s hand of “Pendeltons Surfing Song.”
Do these actually exist is the question! That would most certainly confirm if Pendeltons as a name was being used at that time.

Where are the “missing” takes. If they no longer exist, it would have been nice for us to be informed of this. I do see in Jim Murphy’s response about this that explains it well but maybe that should have been in the booklet as well.

I find the Stereo Masters tape box on page 14 of the booklet very interesting. It indicates the recordings on this tape were 3 track recording and mentions what is on the left, centre and right of the recording. Mostly all the right contains the original track (I guess the music backing track) and on some of the tracks it indicates what is on the other 2 tracks. Would I be correct it assuming that the backing tracks were recorded first and vocals and other instruments mostly bass were overdubbed onto these other “tracks”. Would that mean that we could have had some of the original tracks without vocals made available to us.

I must say I am glad for this release and overall the release is most welcome. The audio is superb but the booklet just opened up to me a couple of questions.

I'll defer to any expert on the subject, but it appears the tape box on page 13  may have been a copy made when Hite Morgan leased the music back in the late 1960s or 70s.  Obviously he didn't want to send out the original tapes to random "grey market" record companies.

The April 1962 tape has a take of "Judy" with a different guitar solo overdubbed, and that version is included in this set.

According to someone on Reddit (http://"https://www.reddit.com/r/vinyl/comments/56ss8p/rsd_black_friday_release_list/"), Becoming the Beach Boys will have a special vinyl release for Record Store Day Black Friday. Red, blue, or yellow vinyl.

Just bought it.     Now, to go through my three bankers boxes of Beachboys LP's and see which of the several miscellaneous Hite Morgan LP's I can now remove from my collection.  Maybe also a good time to reduce the number of  redundant copies of other compilations.    Might start by giving alway 5 of the 6 copies I have of Endless Summer.