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When I get more time, I'd like to post some more differences I notice in the different mixes/versions of songs I hear between what we used to have as "Bamboo" (old boots) and the new issue of Bambu.
First off, is there any difference between Love Surrounds Me on L.A. and Bambu?
Next, I was listening to the earlier mix of School Girl and I notice it's about a minute shorter. Also, I notice when it goes into the "play out" part, you can hear a "wooo," which to me, sounds like Blondie C. (that's just a guess though). Then you have that vocal that keeps going on during that last part: "Don't let me down, Don't Let Me down........" which I don't hear on the released version.
Of course the Get the Boot "cut" of Love Remember Me is totally cleaned up and I thought I heard such a different drum mix but as I listen closer to the released version, it's just turned down and cleaner. Obviously the whole song is presented on Get the Boot.
Another question that I can't remember the answer to is why Baby Blue Eyes isn't on Bambu? And if you made a fan mix of Bambu cuts, where would you put Baby Blue Eyes?
I feel like there's a huge difference in sound on Wild Situation...I'm not gonna go into is at the moment. And why was the tasteless line deleted?  :p ("She's got it hard now it's a big erection")

The only version with a CW vocal is the BB version: can you say "licensing" ?


'Cause it's missing on the original multi-track. Dennis erased it.

Was "Baby Blue Eyes" intended for Dennis's solo project? Was Carl going to make a "guest appearence"? Same question with "It's Not To Late".

Yes... don't know... and yes.

Well what about Love Surrounds me? Aren't some of the BB on that track? (Does it matter if it was on L.A. or not?)

Bambu "LSM" came first - I've heard it disputed, but what's on LA sounds awfully like a sweetened version of the original to me.

I'm kind of surprised the Baby Blue demo that was included on most Bamboo boots wasn't included on the Bambu release.

I'm very surprised to find Baby Blue on my copy of Bambu!


And is there actually ANY difference between LSM on LA vs Bambu?

Additionally, I was listening to the "track" of 10,000 Years that's included on a lot of Dennis Wilson raritiy discs and decided to listen to 10,000 Years from Mike's Unleash the Love and at first, I didn't really hear the similarities...but I listened closer on headphones and could hear the drum part on Unleash that I could hear on the 'track' version; on Mike's cut, the drums seem to be turned down our buried a little more in the mix...anyone else hear this?

I miss the Constant Companion intro, and the drums/handclaps on Under the Moonlight sound much better imo on one of the Dumb Angels than the one on Bambu...While I'm at it, It's Not Too Late sux, it is one of the worst songs I ever heard.... >:D

I personally preferred the much raw sounding  Constant Companion but didn't like the long drawn out intro in fact I'd made a video of the song and cut out the intro lol. To me  Constant Companion sounded much better than the version on the POB reissue IMHO it had too much going on eg the background vocals "I am your Constant Companion" felt forced to me but what do I know??

Oh yeah, I forgot about the intro, it's alright, but I enjoy the reissue best. (Constant Companion)
I forgot about the handclaps on Under the Moonlight; what happen to them? lost in a mix?
What's wrong with It's Not Too Late? I love Carl's and Denny's vocals, it sounds like such a 70s ballad and wouldn't feel left out on L.A. Or are you talkin about a specific version of It's Not Too Late.

I can't remember if I heard the bass on Mike's version that's very present on Denny's...I can't listen to it at the moment, perhaps later on after work, I could find out.

Just messin'...its one of my most favorite songs. I couldn't think of the words to describe it so I said the exact opposite of how I feel..

I really miss the harmony vocal on He's a Bum. In fact, the original lead vocal is also better than the released.
And yeah, Wild Situation is definitely lacking without the Wood singing about his Wood.

WHat's the difference in the lead vocal on the released and unreleased versions of He's a Bum?

Also, What's with the intrumental/reggae version of He's a Bum? What's the story on that?

I feel like there's different riffs and parts from POB songs that find their way into Bambu songs, I can't remember them as much now, but I remember hearing a part from Time on Love Remember Me.  On Time, there's the lyric that says: "But they don't fill my heart," it reminds me of a part right before the big (Spector-like) section where they sing: "LOVE KEEPS TUMBLING DOWN ON YOU."  Does that sound familiar to anyone?

Another similar part I just remembered off the top of my head.

On School Girl, there's that part with the lyrics that say: "Every night when the whole world's sleepin, I think aboooout..."

Which reminds me of the lyric part on Baby Blue Eyes: "Every night when the whole world's sleepin, I think about you...Is this an intentional reference or maybe it just morphed into the song...like Dennis worked on School Girl during POB and then re-wrote that part for Baby Blue Eyes for Bambu?
I don't know, just a theory I thought I'd throw out there.

Carl told an interviewer in Australia (early '78) that he would be "doing Dennis' album with him". so I guess that means he was slated for guest vocal appearances on those two tracks.

The Beach Boys vocals were removed from the Bambu version of "LSM" so that it could be used without having to license it.  They could have done the same thing with "Baby Blue" and inclulded it, but they would have had to take Carl's lead vocal off, and it would have then lacked a lead vocal for most of the song, so they didn't bother.  "It's Not Too Late" is a different story, b/c it hadn't been released on a Beach Boys album, so there wasn't a licensing problem there. 

Random question on the topic of Dennis/Carl collaborating on Dennis' stuff. How come Dennis was never included in any of Carl's stuff? Was there tension around the time Carl was recording his (self-titled) album?

Re: Jonas, this is my theory: Carl's desire to break free of the BB world for a bit, which was rapidly disintigrating as of 1980-81, included, however unfairly, Dennis. That said, Dennis sure supported Carl and went to Carl's Roxy show with Brian (Ed Roach has some great pictures of this).

This is just me thinking out loud, but I've never considered the fact that Carl made significant appearances on Dennis' records as further ammunition as to why there was friction about Dennis' solo career within the BB: think of it this way, Dennis is saying "well I'm gonna make records on my own, and include my brother Carl, the best singer in the band, whenever I can," and then he one-ups the BB release in 77 in terms of sales and mounts his own solo tour...including Carl...it's starting to come together. Brian's the wild card of the group, and Dennis+Carl are going to progress with the POB band. That just leaves Mike and Al as the ones furthering the BB.

Take out of this what you will ;D

The next BBs album after Pacific Ocean Blue was MIU, helmed by Mike and Al, which I guess could be seen as a precursor of a Dennis & Carl-less band, and if you're in any way suggesting that MIU has less musical, artistic or spiritual value than POB then you'd better think again. :)

Carl Wilson was recorded September-December 1980, and at the time, the band weren't touring anything like as much as they usually did: from August 11th to October 16th they didn't play a single show, and from 10/17 to 12/31, they only played a further 17 or so. I'd say you're right, there was something going on.

He takes requests, ladies and gentlemen!

Wow, "a fly on the wall" moment for sure. I wonder if Denny and Brian sat together...just to hear their conversations would be great...
"hey Brian, you wanna go do snort that stuff before the show begins?"
"Denny, give me your flask!"
"Woah! Dennis, what song is this? I've never heard it."
"Come on Bri, it's Long Promised Road, you weren't out of it that much back then."
"Let's go work out some songs after this, I gotta song called City Blues that really rocks, and we can get back to work on a couple other tunes, Stevie and Night Bloomin' Onion, I mean, Jasmine....as long as you bring the hamburgers and cola!"

Thinking about it, it seems like both Wilson's were completely out of the loop during "Carl Wilson", which is weird since Carl was Brian and Dennis' biggest supporter. Kind of a bummer.

If Carl had big problems with substance abuse in the late 70s, substances which in the early 80s Brian and Dennis were currently abusing, then surely it would make sense for Carl not to get himself into toxic situations.

Brian and Dennis were hardly in peak mental or musical form when Carl was recording and I doubt he wanted to act as a babysitter to coax something out of his brothers for his potential solo career.

I believe even the liner notes to the recent POB deluxe edition state that The Beach Boys version is a 'sweetening' of Dennis' version.

If I'm not mistaken, the band's contract with CBS forbade them from performing on each others' solo albums.
At least, officially.

Was that Brian's favorite shirt or something? I think that in every picture or film of Brian from 1981 that I have seen, he's wearing that same shirt.  ;D

Regarding the differences between the bootleg "Bamboo" versions versus the official "Bambu", I have to say that I think the bootleg version of "Constant COmpanion" is better than the version that was released. I'm not to thrilled about the percussion intro(it goes on for way to long), but I love that sound effect on the vocal. But I've never known for sure if it was present on the rough mix, or if it was something that a fan did. There is an interesting echo applied to the vocal that I think is really cool. It kind of reminds me of Carl's vocal on "Feel Flows".

I just had an interesting thought. It wuld have been great if Dennis would have worked with the group Chicago. I mean, wouldn't it have been great if Terry Kath would have added a great guitar solo to "Constant Companion"? Danny Serephine could have been on drums and percussion. Peter Cetera could have put in a funky bass line. Man, sometimes I wish I could put a tape recorder in my head.  :lol

It's backward reverb. Basically you isolate the track you want (in this case the lead vocal) and bounce it on to another track backward (in this case spooling the tape in reverse) so that when you play it back the effect leads into the sound. I can't think of too many instances where the BB recorded backward except for the intro for "Never Learn Not To Love". It was a technique used a lot by Beatles and Hendrix amongst others.

...but in a parallel universe, he phoned Denny up and said "Hey bro, remember that song we did together a couple years back, "It's Not Too Late", hey if you're not doing anything with it you mind if I record a little bit more of a lead and we put it out as a duet on my album, is that cool?"

I wanna live over there for a while...

Cheers,
Jon Blum

Your idea about Chicago working with them is interesting, think of what they could have done with the POB track: Time in a live setting? AMAZING is what comes to my mind.

I think a parallel universe thread is needed...what specific time frame is up to you.