The Smiley Smile Message Board

1) When did Dennis and Carl last enter a recording studio together?

2) When did Dennis last enter a recording studio to do solo work?

3) When did Carl last enter a recording studio to so solo or group work?

I think the answer to #1 is the Beach Boys/Four Seasons recording "East Meets West".
http://youtu.be/E1-NlPIboXw

Dennis was there? Never knew that. It's hard to imagine him participating in a project like that, but I guess not impossible.

I hadn't heard the remastered version till now. What a big improvement! Thanks for posting it.

I always had the impression that while "East Meets West" was recorded technically just prior to Dennis’ death, he wasn’t anywhere near the actual session.

Dennis wasn't on "EMW" according to Bruce. Thus the last session they were both on was during the recording of KTSA. Denny's last known session was "LaborDay" on 9/3/82 at Unicorn. Carl's last known session was his bvs for a couple of Michael Angeloff songs: with the BB, the 6/13/96 session, probably at Emerald, for the Tammy Wynette cover of "In My Room".

1) I'm pretty sure, if you're asking when they both were last together in the studio, it'd probably be for either "Johnny B. Goode" or "Endless Harmony" during the Keepin' the Summer Alive sessions. As far as I know, Dennis had nothing at all to do with the Four Seasons collaboration. And now that I think of it, it woulda been cool if they coulda worked Dennis' voice into the song, as it already had Brian, Mike, Al, Carl and Frankie Valli. Woulda been neat, even if Dennis' vocal probably woulda stuck out like a sore thumb.

2) I'm nearly positive Dennis' last studio session was for the song "Labor Day" on September 3, 1982. I suppose it is possible that Dennis may have done other studio work after this though.

What truly interests me is whether there really are any post L.A. (Light Album) Dennis recordings that are in any way releasable. Did he ever record anything with vocals after 1978? Or even finish an instrumental track after that time? Does anybody know?

3) I'm assuming Carl's last studio work was probably for Beckley-Lamm-Wilson.

I've never heard anything from it, but there's a bootlegged recording session with Brian and Dennis that's from, I think 1980. 

Wasn't the Beckley-Lamm-Wilson material done in the early 90s? Sure sounds like it.

This is a striking example of how far Dennis had fallen at the end. For a man who was driven to record, who had music pouring out of him for years, to go the last 15 (or is it 21?, depending of what dating system you are using) months of his life without entering a recording studio? Really brings home how troubled he was :(

AKA The Cocaine Sessions.

1982.

Ah, that's right, the Cocaine Sessions. 

I need to start investigating the many BB related albums that were not released. 

I know that's when it was started, but I figured work continued through to his death (and after of course).

Or was it indeed a dead project which was picked back up after Carl died? I thought they were still working on it right before he died.

Robert Lamm has said Carl was not working on that project after he was diagnosed, although no doubt Lamm and Beckley did even after Carl's passing

I would love to hear "Labor Day",,,, any info on it? why was it not released? was it a BB's song or a solo track?

  My thoughts as well. As a working songwriter/recording artist, Dennis Wilson falls into the proverbial black hole after BAMBU, even though there are a few glimmers of hope among the "Garby Leon" sessions.

If I remember correctly the tapes were retained by the studio due to problems with payment for the session.

I had always thought that "Wish For You" was recorded post diagnosis. It sure sounds like a goodbye.

Big part of that was due to the defunct status of Brian's home studio and the sale of Brother Studio. Dennis had nowhere to record for free, and no money to book studio time himself (hence the "Labor Day" tapes apparently remaining at the studio). The one "Garby"-era recording that we know was done in a professional studio was "Stevie", paid for by CBS out of the BBs' recording budget, and likely intended for the BBs, had they shown interest in finishing it. Since they didn't, it remained unreleased (and they shut down funding of further Brian-Dennis recording activity out of fear - and knowledge - of Dennis supplying Brian with dope). Dennis and Christine did some recording together, and it's a safe bet she footed the bill herself, and likely retains the tapes somewhere.

Man. So sad. I wonder if the band and those around Dennis had any concept at the time of how much the lack of a recording studio left him rudderless. I imagine hindsight is 20/20. Not that it's anybody's fault, but just that it's what he truly needed (amongst other things).

How rare were home recording studios at the time? I guess also, since Dennis had tasted the real deal high-end studio, and knew of the capabilities of using the studio as an instrument (as he did on POB), he'd have found it hard to achieve fulfillment just doing rough demos at makeshift studios.

I suppose that besides Brian's Bedroom tapes (which I think are mostly known and now archived properly, right?), the amount of unreleased, unknown, and hopefully vaulted (somewhere in the world) late-era Dennis tracks must be the real Indiana Jones moment left in the BB saga, that hopefully one day will be pieced together as a puzzle... Hope they aren't decaying too much. It's the Beach Boys' Magnificent Ambersons moment.

It sure does, but Beckley has said when those songs were recorded, Carl was healthy, no hint of what was to come.

No vocal, is my understanding... and of course the title is also something of a pun.

My understanding is that the album was done and shopped around, unsuccessfully, in the early 90s. Herbie Hancock's label (Transcopic?) put it out after Carl's death when demand for it was probably higher than in the early 90s.

Any "goodbye" type feeling from Carl in the songs is unfortunate coincidence. The songs are also not very good :(

Not so according to Phil Galdston, the co-producer: Carl called him up to say he had set aside time to finish up the tracks and complete the project. The official cancer diagnosis was announced shortly thereafter.

The label was Transparent, and it was released in 2000, so unlikely there was any pressing interest.

IIRC, the track sheet had notations for "piano" and "bass" - with a line drawn through the latter and replaced with "vocal". Ed had it posted online for awhile.

Resurrecting this thread - AGD, could you provide some clarification on this: do you know if Phil Galdston meant that Carl did indeed finish up the tracks prior to the cancer diagnosis announcement, or only intend to but not actually get to it b/c of the cancer diagnosis.

My reading is that Carl's diagnosis scuppered any future recording plans.

Dennis is known to have done some recording at engineer's Tom Murphy's home studio after the sale of Brother, however I believe "Murph's Place", as it was called, was running 16-track at the time - definitely professional-grade, but the standard for some time had been 24-track. A great-sounding record could still be made with 16-track, no question, but I think more to the point was Dennis' increasing lack of focus, along with the fact that Tom Murphy was probably not willing to put up with Dennis' erratic behavior at his home studio any hour of any day, at least after awhile - and who could blame him? Incidentally, there was one Dennis session at the former Brother Studio between the summer '78 sale to Tom Scott, Roy Cicala and company (who changed the name to Crimson Sound), and the 9/82 "Labor Day" session (by which time it had evolved into Unicorn Studios), and that was for the lead vocal on "Love Surrounds Me", 1/2/79 (he redid his lead in the second verse the following day at a Britannia Studios session).

Many years ago l had a fascinating chat with Tom Murphy at his studio and between playing me (then) unreleased tracks he told me some great Dennis tales, including the sessions at his home studio. At his request it was all off the record, but l think it's not betraying any confidences to say that Craig's observation about Murphy's tolerance for Denny's increasingly erratic behaviour is on the money.

Murphy went on the record for my book (with Jon) The Beach Boys In Concert and you will find comments by him in the chapters for 1978 and 1979. Very nice man.  I taped a long interview with him but only used a small portion.  If I ever get a blog running I may listen to it again

One quote from Tom Murphy (Page 244 of Beach Boys In Concert) on Dennis that speaks volumes about that tragic period: (By that time) "Drugs and alcohol were his life and music had become his secondary hobby."