The Smiley Smile Message Board

Do we know if Dennis conciously rewrote Barbara as I've Got a Friend or is the similarity coincidental?

Same with It's a New Day and I'm Going YourWay?

Has anyone heard It's A New Day?

I'm Going Your Way is usually known as California Slide. Very interesting track but perhaps ultimately not solid enough for release in this creative period the band was enjoying.

It's A New Day is on Get the Boot. It's alright, but not up to the standard of the Sunflower jeff.

Had it been arranged more like Slip On Through, California Slide had the potential to be one of the better of Dennis' early songs.

Barbara and I've Got a Friend were played consecutively as 2 different songs at the 11/7/71 show in DC.

Oh now I remember how it is. I still think it's better than "com'on and do the chickun!" but that's just me. This and Cal Slide are quite nice. Better than some of the stuff included on C&TP, but understandably they didn't want to include older material on it.

I'm sure this topic has probably been run into the ground, but was I've Got A Friend every professionally recorded? For possible inclusion on the live album, for instance?

There is a basic track that is relatively minimal, piano, bass, drums, maybe some guitar...not much of a production, and no vocals. It seems like DW just got started on this in the studio and then, for whatever reason, dropped it.

Damn! So, the live boots are all we have?

About 5 different versions.

How does all this material remain unreleased for so long!

Am I right in thinking that one of the live versions that's circulating is a home recording of a (Radio Luxembourg?) broadcast, and that a master or close to it exists in the BB vault?

I may have dreamed this

Because it's locked in a vault in Sunny California.

I'd put a mask over my face and steal it.

Make sure you take Tonto along

There  is a live boot of the song that underneath all the nth generation noise sounds like it is a very clear recordig.

Does anyone know if a multritrack recording of one of the live versions of Barbara or I've Got A Friend exists? If so, they could maybe fly the vocals of I've Got A Friend in on the studio backing track.

Regarding IGAF ...Nope. Just a mono radio broadcast of a live performance that is not great quality, and an even worse audience recording of another. That it as far as i know.

I know this question was asked over a year ago, but I thought I'd throw in a little tidbit...

"It's A New Day" actually made its public debut on the fan-made tribute compilations Net Sounds IV around 2003 or 2004. It's pretty much the same story as "Soulful Old Man Sunshine" on that other album: the performers never actually heard the song at the time they recorded it; they were working off of sheet music, in this case provided by Adam Webb, who found it when he was researching his Dennis book. One of the performers is a known Dennis aficianado, so Webb contacted him, said "I have this sheet music for an unreleased Dennis song. I can't read music, and I'd like to know how this sounds. Can you record a demo of it for me?" And so these guys did so and, IMHO, it's way better than the Blondie-sung version. They did an amazing job of channeling Dennis.

It's A New Day was pitched by Dennis and Stan Shapiro for a Shampoo or Deodorant commercial. I doubt he ever thought of it as a potential Beach Boys song. And I think it may have been Blondie's first BB's related session.

From those liner notes: 
>>It's A New Day - Dan Addington and Jason Penick
Dan Addington: vocals, percussion
Jason Penick: guitars, percussion, engineering, programming, backing vocals
Recorded at the Columbia MIDI Lab, Chicago, IL. Overdubs and sweetening at Brother North, Chicago, IL.
Produced by Jason and Dan
Thanks to Adam Webb, Stanley Shapiro and Brad Elliot. Dedicated in loving memory to Dennis Carl Wilson.

Here is a Net Sounds series exclusive: What you have before you now is a cover version of a Dennis Wilson song that was until now almost completely unknown except amongst an extremely limited number of the inner circle of Denny cognoscenti. Dan and Jason’s sound gets bigger and more impressive with each new NS recording; their performance here fully captures Denny’s big heart and joie de vivre. Listen and enjoy—and maybe, mourn a little also for the loss of what might have been, had the Beach Boys’ drummer lived past 39.<<

Is it true that they were threatened with defenestration when they pitched it?

I think the amount of $$ Dennis asked for led to something like that.