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It's one of the classic Pet Sounds sessions anecdotes; I'm sure we all know it by heart but here it is from Billy:



Now, this is a great story, and I have no doubt that there is truth to it, but some things about it seem off.  Forgive me if this has been discussed before.


So first -- None of the Sloop John Sessions were on a Sunday.  Second, Billy had heard the track before when he played on the complete backing track session, and had played the figure for, you know, many takes that day.  It would not have been new.  Third--He had an electric 12 string for the basic track; why would he not have had it a few months later?  And along those lines, let's not forget that Billy had done so much work by then that it is almost inconceivable that he wouldn't own an electric 12.

Now, if he DID own one, maybe it was not available to him on that day.  If he was indeed at his ex's house, and his guitar was at his home in Northridge, sure that's an out of the way trip.  But isn't it more likely he had his arsenal stored with the presumably open 24/7 cartage company?  Couldn't he even have called one of his many crew-mates to borrow one?  Certainly he would've had access to a stash of amps on hand in Hollywood at all times?

It just seems to ring a little "off" for me--perhaps it's a conflation of events, or maybe it was a different song recorded earlier in the 60s when electric 12-strings were still emerging?

Thoughts?  The one thing I am sure of is that Brian showed some sort of great generosity to Billy and that's memorable.

I've always wondered about this as well.
If not this, could it have been the remake of Help Me Rhonda (guitar solo at end of instrumental break)

And at the end of the day perhaps that's the most important thing. :)

Nope, that was Carl on that overdub. Plus, that's only about 9 months or so before the "Sloop" overdub, so availability of a guitar & amp shouldn't have been an issue then, either.

where is there a 12 string solo in that song?

In Sloop John B?  There isn't one, as such.

I believe it was the interlocking part to the main guitar figure.

Well, I think the point is that that goes the whole song vs. Billy's recollection of it being 8-16 bars.

I believe he is talking about the musical figure he played throughout the song. That's how I interpret it.

But Billy remembers:

"I made one pass at this thing, it was either eight or sixteen bars"

Which could indicate he is remembering a different song?

Maybe this has been brought up before, but what if Brian had asked Billy to play a third line above the other two for the eight bars before the double-tempo passage and then decided against using it?

Of course, if Billy ever said every time I listen to that passage I feel so proud there's my theory out of the window. :smokin   

The Fender Electric XII was not available in stores until November or December of 1965, and most of them were manufactured in 1966. So unless he has the guitar model wrong, the session could not have been much earlier than Sloop John B in December '65.

It couldn't have been an earlier session (e.g. "Help Me Rhonda") because the guitar didn't exist yet. Fender rushed it into production due to the success of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and other such recordings. Carl had an early prototype, but I don't think he had it before the middle of 1965.

There were other electric 12-strings available at the time, e.g. Rickenbacker and (much cheaper) Danelectro. But the Fender was the only solid-body one so it's quite a different instrument.

Carl had his by February '65...he's seen holding one in that shot with Glen and the other touring guys, standing in front of a truck with a sign promoting their show of Feb. 21st.

I wonder if he's talking about the specific part of the song where the drums drop out, and it's just guitar and bass behind the vocals (the final verse, where Brian sings, "The poor cook he caught the fits", etc.). That's an 8 bar figure...maybe when listening back years later, that part jumped out at him as clearly being overdubbed?

That is exactly the part with the overdub being referred to.

I don't think the story is off. Surely not based on session sheets. If there is that much detail in the story, with that many minute details, it lends more credibility to it because human nature says unless some guy is just completely making stuff up out of thin air, you don't include that much minute detail when retelling something like this, which is minute anyway to most but the diehard fans and guitar obsessives.

And - Some backup from someone is needed here - I have heard other versions of it besides the one clipped above, perhaps even from Brian himself, where the detail got into a call made to the owner of Wallich's to have the store opened to fill the request for this guitar and amp and then to arrange it getting to the studio that day. In that version - and the help would be in finding that quote - Wallich's was not yet open when the call was made, and the owner himself helped fill the request.

Again, with that detail, why would someone go that in-depth if the story were exaggerated or juiced up for effect?

The part itself: It is that final verse, "the poor cook...". There is *another* layer of guitar arpeggios added to beef up this final verse, leading to the full volume climax when it switches to double time in the drums. It is a full 16-bar phrase just as Billy said, and it is an additional electric guitar arpeggio figure added to the existing figures from earlier to beef it up.

According to Brian, he had a sound in mind after hearing the records Sonny Bono had been cutting with similar layered guitar figures (with Don Peake usually playing lead electric and others filling out the layers), and it reminded him of a Sonny And Cher record when the layered guitars kicked in on Sloop.

He probably wanted an extra sonic "push" on that last verse, which was not there, and hence called Billy in after the other parts were in place to add that final layer of icing to the cake which was missing. And it's a brilliant wall of sound as a result, for the final sections of that song. And it does sound very close to the type of guitar layering Sonny Bono had all over the charts in 1965.

As far as Billy and the 12-string electric. Perhaps he didn't own a Fender XII? Maybe he would borrow an electric 12 string on dates if he needed one? Maybe he had a Danelectro but his supply of guitars was not available that day when he got an unexpected call to come to the studio? Who knows.  

Cartage was different in 1965 than it would become soon after. The standards were not the same. If you check out Hal Blaine's book, he talks about how he helped change the way other drummers would cart their gear to studios...and how they got paid extra for it. Hal was one of the first to hire a "tech" to move and set up his drums for him. And he had multiple kits and setups cased up and ready to travel, so he could be playing one studio date while his tech was across town setting up his kit for the next one. All Hal had to do was show up. This was previously not a standard thing, and the issue of charging cartage fees on a union contract became a newer issue as well. So Hal would bill for this stuff, and soon other first-call players did too.

It suggests the business of these guys lugging gear to sessions changed not long after this mid-60's period, and when Billy Strange got this specific call, his gear may have been locked in storage miles away to where he didn't have easy access to it, he did not have a tech or a runner to pick up his gear, and perhaps if he even had an electric 12 string he couldn't access it that day, so he showed up to find the guitar and amp Brian wanted used on this track waiting for him having just been purchased from Wallichs and delivered specifically for this session. And consider there were some players who became known for carting around rather huge supplies of guitars and string instruments to sessions to cover all possible requests, while others generally did not unless there may have been a specific call for something different. (And they would share and swap sometimes too, on the session.)


I think we can all hear the results of this Billy Strange Electric XII overdub on the final mix of Sloop, and there is more to suggest it happened as described multiple times in several sources versus saying it's doubtful it happened.

Well, and it is--but of course the figure is overdubbed throughout the song save the first verse.

The real issue I'm getting at here is that Billy used a 12-string electric guitar on the Monday July 12, 1965 track session.  Then suddenly on Wednesday December 22, 1965 for the overdub session he has lost access to it?  Just seems like there's more to the story to me...

Which, as I've typed this, Craig has illuminated out what I was really getting after: the logistics of studio cartage.

Like I said above, I don't think it's a made up story.  I'm just curious as to, if every detail is right, the circumstances that lead to it.  And if some details are off, which ones.

So by a miracle I managed to find the Guitar Player interview with Billy Strange and other studio players who worked with Brian in the 60's, from December 1993's issue, piled up in my magazine stacks.

Here's the transcript of Billy's account from that interview:

"I was finally spending a quiet Sunday with my son, the phone rang, and it was Brian. He said I had to get down to Western 3 right away. I went, but I didn't bring a guitar. As soon as I buzzed in, he played a song - Sloop John B - and said 'I want you to solo right here'. I told him I didn't have a guitar, and he asked what kind of guitar would sound good on the track. I said I thought an electric 12-string would work, and that I'd bring one in on Monday. But he said he had to have it right then. He got people on the phones to find some music store owner to send over a Fender 12-string and an amp. We waited around until they delivered this brand-spanking-new guitar and amp. I played my eight bar solo and told Brian I wouldn't bother to charge him for it. He insisted I turn in a bill. Then he said, 'By the way, take this damn guitar and amp home with you in case you need it again.' He never asked me to play electric 12-string again, but I got a guitar, amp, and $500 for eight bars of work."


There is another account in the book "The Wrecking Crew" too, if someone wants to transcribe that here. That account suggests Billy brought his son with him to the session that day.

And one of the keys to confirming the story is how the accounts I've seen besides these mentioned how Wallich's store was closed on Sundays (confirmation?) , but a call was made to arrange this special delivery to Brian's session. Key to remember is that the owner of Wallichs Music City was Glenn Wallichs...who was also a co-founder and president of Capitol Records. So the process would have been somewhat easier for one of Capitol's biggest selling acts and producers in 1965 to arrange this with the owner (and co-founder of Brian's label) as was done for Brian versus someone not on Capitol, I'd think.

That is certainly a more satisfying account.

Still seems a little strange to me (get it?): the day of the week being wrong, the fact that Billy had played a substantially similar part on the basic track (although it was 5 months between, to be fair, and it wasn't a solo.

But ultimately these things aren't that important to the overall story.

I have to think one of the takeaways of the story Billy Strange told was how it showed the mutual respect that existed between Brian as producer and the musicians whom he most often contracted to play on his sessions. Here's Billy Strange, who - for those who don't know - was a successful songwriter and arranger in his own right besides his career as a first-call guitarist, remembering Brian's gesture that day years later, with such detail...compared to some of Brian's producer peers in that same era and time who some musicians would refuse to work for because of how they were treated. I've heard from quite a few of those musicians who worked Brian's sessions say that they'd cancel other dates to work with Brian. He always treated the musicians well, and he respected them, and it was reciprocal.

Brian pays Billy 500 on the spot and gifts him a new Fender guitar and amp...for coming down to play a track on his day off with his son. That's the stuff people remember.

And Billy, in return, told Brian he didn't have to pay him anything for his studio time that day. The guy takes time off with his kid to come to Western 3, and says Brian doesn't owe him anything before being paid 500 bucks and a new Fender rig. Who does that, right? That's respect.

Compare that to the stories of other producers, one comes to mind specifically who Howard Roberts refused to work with ever again after said producer made him run take after take on an acoustic 12-string track that ended up with Howard needing medical treatment on his hand which sidelined him for months. Or producers who would cut the session with 10 seconds left to save money versus Brian who would deliberately run a minute into overtime even though he had the final take...so the musicians could get more money.

In that way, the story does shed light on the working relationships Brian had with these musicians, and how he'd be overly generous to those who were doing such great work with the tracks he would bring in. And that's not myth...it's backed up by those musicians who were the core group of those who Brian regularly used on these dates.

And just to add a little perspective to the known date of the 12-string overdub session...as I put it in my Pet Sounds essay (at www.beachboysarchives.com):

NOTE: despite the session date of 12/29 appearing on the AFM guitar overdub contract, the first guitar overdub was clearly done simultaneously with dubdown A, as evidenced by the multiple takes made during the process (takes 1A-5A), and the date of 12/22 is inscribed on the tape box track sheet from that session (sessionman Billy Strange later recalled that his second guitar overdub was done immediately after the first, on the same day). Vocals were also added on that date, and probably on 12/29 (onto dubdown 1B) as well - so it would seem that the AFM contract for the 12/22 guitar overdub session wasn't drawn up until the 12/29 vocal session, and the then-current date was simply used.

And, guitarfool2000, didn't you once mention on a similar thread some time ago that there's a chance Wallichs' was actually closed on Wednesdays? If so, Billy's recollection may have been wrong about the day of the week, but correct in regards to the store being closed...

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Yeah...the common assumption is that those were recorded shortly after the July tracking session, before work on the song was temporarily abandoned.

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Right.

Here's something interesting I found on a youtube video I just happened across trying to find an instrumental track of Sloop John without the overdub(s) (since my BBs hard drive is not with me right now).  Jerry Strange, Billy's son had commented on it.  From 8 months ago, so about February 2019:

Also, what do we think the first overdub....is?  Did he just double the exact part from the basic track?  And then added the higher part six months later?

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Yeah, the first overdub was a double of the original 12-string part, and the second overdub is the same part played a third interval higher.

Truly, GREAT find on that youtube vid!  Helps clear up the mystery - apparently Billy merged his memory of Brian giving him the Gibson 12-string with this memory of overdubbing "Sloop" with a Mosrite 12!

Clear up the mystery? How? Lol. Billy's son contradicted the story his dad told repeatedly, and told it with the same details every time. Like the gifted Fender amp and guitar, not a Gibson. And barely anyone played a Gibson electric 12 string in 1965...

We can't just dismiss what Billy said based on his son's retelling, right?

And unless Billy got a prototype,  the first 12 string electric from Mosrite was available in 1966. The one prototype we do have evidence of was owned by Glen Campbell, and he's seen playing it on an October 1965 Shindig broadcast.

So the Mosrite info...doesn't quite add up unless Billy got a prototype from Semie Moseley in 65.

I could try to invite Jerry here?

Well sure, but there are some pretty obvious contradictions in his reply beyond the guitar issues...like saying Billy had played on the new album Pet Sounds and *then* played on Sloop, when obviously Sloop was recorded and came out before Pet Sounds.

Is it just me or do you see the problems in his retelling of the story? I hate to be that person to call it out, but it doesn't line up with things we know are true, and with details about the guitars and whatnot which his father had spoken of specifically.

Yeah, there are issues with the story, but he was pretty young so it's not surprising that there would be some details amiss.  Nevertheless, he was there, and I'm sure he'd have some interesting things to say.  Maybe he remembers Billy getting his hands on an early Mosrite Mark XII -- there were definitely a few specimens floating around in '65 and regardless of whether Billy had it in time to play on Sloop it'd be interesting if he was an early owner.  Also interesting to consider a Gibson XII, which, as you say, seems to have had zero cachet with studio folks.  I wonder if Jerry remembers (again, rightly or wrongly) the circumstances of Brian (allegedly) giving that to Billy.  What Electric 12 was Gibson doing then?  Was the 335-XII out by 65?  I've seen some 66 and 67 specimens for sale.

Anyway, yeah, Jerry could be interesting to talk to but I wouldn't want to bring him here to have his memories systematically challenged by us berserker detail junkies.

My thoughts are the same on bringing someone in and putting contradictions on the table. But when things don't line up, it's fact versus memory.

The first Gibson electric 12 was on the 335 body, but they were flawed in design as Carl Wilson among others found out.

The Mosrite 12 wasn't out until 66, so if Billy had one it was a prototype like Glen had on Shindig in Oct 65.

Apropos of little, I found this cool picture of Billy recording with a Mosrite six-string:

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-nancy-sinatra-and-billy-strange-in-a-recording-studio-in-1966-133318296.html (https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-nancy-sinatra-and-billy-strange-in-a-recording-studio-in-1966-133318296.html)

Sorry I can't embed it.  Love the guitar and the 545.

Between Billy's relationship with Mosrite (in that he played them in the studio) and his reputation as an acoustic 12 specialist, it wouldn't be so far fetched that he and Glen could've got Mark XIIs pretty early.

What year did Gibson put out the 335 XII?

It'd be interesting for someone to do a timeline of initial electric 12-string offerings.

I agree,  if he had one it was a prototype due to his status as a player of 12 strings, like Glen.

I'm going to guess it was late 1965 or 1966 for Gibson? I dont think I've seen many, if any 65's out there but I could be wrong.

I think the Danelectro was the first one, and the bandwagon started after Harrison and McGuinn played them on number one hits.

Guitarfool2002  :)

I may have, but I honestly don't remember. If I did, I'd go back and say I was mistaken...and here's why. From what I heard, Wallichs was open 6 days a week through late nights, to accommodate their customers who would be out late lol. They stayed open until I believe at least 2am, Monday through Saturday.

Here's the kicker: the one day they closed early was Sunday. As of 1966 I think they closed Sunday at 6 pm. So *that* would line up with Billy's account of having to call Glenn Wallich himself to open the shop to get that Fender gear since they were closed...and that would back up that all this happened on a Sunday.

Interesting to note, according to Allison Martino, people have said Frank Zappa worked there for a time in 1965. What if Zappa was involved in Brian's order?  :o