The Smiley Smile Message Board

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJpj_EgrIiQ

(round 5:25)

Mikes vocal attempts on the verse of I Know There's An Answer!

Brian was trying something that didn't work, is all. Plus, you're hearing Mike's vocal in isolation, unprocessed: Brian's solo lead on "YSBIM" isn't pristine.

Also, does he sound like someone really pissed off with the lyrics ?  Or pissed at all ? ::)

Need to sample him saying 'That's a bass, mudderfudder' if i ever foray into dubstep ;D

Shelve waterboarding completely-they want answers from the guys at Gitmo?? Myke's unprocessed vocals for Caroline,No, Don't Talk or God Only Knows  should get it done. :o

Has anyone transcribed all the talking in the backgrounds?
I try and try, but can't hear everything that's said, and it seems it would be cool to know what Brian was saying.

He's just playing the producer, telling Mike to do this, do that, try this...

actually sounds pretty good, didn't know mike had that kind of voice in him. sounds a lot like brian actually.

Curious about this, has it been said/written that it was Mike that wanted the lyrics/name of the song changed? I honestly don't remember what the deal was. He sounds like he was having a regular ol time...

Allegedly, he wouldn't sing the "hang on to your ego" lyric and demanded it be changed.

Allegedly.

After that, I found this, an alternate "We're Together Again", well ,the track is alternate with the familiar vocal 'fan-dubbed' on. Can anyone shed any light on this backing track, sounds pretty good to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdzDdcQCKy0&feature=related

That "country" version of WTA is pretty good. All it lacked was a lead vocal.

Anyone else digging the ML brand of humor here?

With some of those allegations coming from Mike Love himself.

From Mike's interview in Goldmine, Sept. 18, 1992...

That brings up the song "Hang On To Your Ego," which was going to be on Pet Sounds.

That used to be "Hang On To Your Ego" and then it became "I Know There's An Answer." I changed the lyrics because I thought it was too acid for me. That was those guys doing acid, Van Dyke Parks, and Brian and Tony Asher.

http://troun.tripod.com/mikelove.html

Nice. I could see that being the final product.

You know what? I'd still rather hear bad Mike singing than a lot of today's good singing.  ::)

Yep. Mike sounds really good here. Very Wilson-y and Jardine-y in his way. Too bad he didn't sing like this on record more often.

I'm not Mikes biggest fan ,but i must admit some of his humor on this recording cracked me up!

At the beginning of the recording it sounds like Brian is pissed about something,but i'm pretty sure he's  enthusiastically saying "We're fucken off"  
 It's also interesting, near the end of the recording when Mike has finished his part, Al comes to the microphone and pops down his "Milk crate"- he often used -to stand on, because he was to short to reach the mic.

ACID :spin :spin :spin :spin :spin :tm :tm :tm :tm :tm :tm :tm :o :o :o :o :o(dftt)

Agreed - he could sing really well when he wanted to ("well" meaning like a singer who doesn't sound like their nose is being pinched).  Not sure why he thought nasal was the way to go as opposed to this approach.

Unfortunately I've voluntarily deleted this and several other videos due to apparent copyright infringements, after warnings by Youtube & Brother records.
Sorry about that guys!!

That simply means you should transfer them to cds/dvds and sell them on ebay as "yugoslavian" or "east european". Nobody really knows what was legitimately released there.

It wasn't so much that he couldn't reach the mic, but they'd have a better blend if his voice were as level to the mic's capsule as the taller members of the band when they stood around it. You also don't really get to see how close or far away they were from the mic in most of the staged photos we've seen: They'd step back or move closer depending on the blend they wanted and balance themselves naturally.

Microphone placement = Lost art in the studio in 2011.  :)

Maybe the producer chose the approach.

It was all Brian's idea! He had it all in his head, man! And so on  ;D


I think Mike's voice just deteriorated, not that nasal sounded better - Night after night of belting out songs and doing your best Jagger impersonations for 2 hours plus could certainly wreck an untrained and not especially powerful voice like Love's, especially as the band grew rowdier throughout the 70's.

Yeah I agree that the passage of time didn't do his voice any favors, and in the early days, the nasal tone wasn't as annoying as it would later become.  I just wish he'd sang like this more often in general - his singing on stuff like "Please Let Me Wonder" (the original version where he does the lead and the finished product where he does the chorus with Brian) and "Kiss Me Baby" is so much more pleasing aesthetically, to my ears anyways.  In those days, it didn't seem quite as put-on as it was later.

I can't really add anything here, just to reiterate that it is indeed a shame Mike didn't use this voice more often.

Then again "Meant for You", "All This is That" etc. do also show another dimension to his voice.