The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hope this thread stays afloat even amidst all the SMiLE stuff on the board!

Been listening to this the last couple days...so fantastic.  One of a few real gems on the So Tough album.  Anyone else fancy this cut?

Found a couple cool live versions, I didn't know existed.

1994 (cool that they played it but it's a little sped up)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqHr1pQ1az8

1978 (sweet)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F78xX9LCgRM&feature=related

Sublime song.

My favorite Al vocal ever.

Almost my fave Carl vocal but Trader wins out by a hair.

Is it Mike or Al on the first verse?

Listened to this song today. I had a good time at it. I jacked my mother for dope money. I did it by threatening her life with a semi-automatic.

Completely agree...it's a heavenly track.

Mike or Al...good question...I always assumed it was Mike?

I always assumed it was Mike too, but the annunciation on those verses sounds a lot like Al to me. Either way, it's fantastic!

...and coupled with the overwhelmingly gorgeous "Cuddle Up"?   Amazing!

Such a great album!

Always knocks me on my ass!


 

Carl on the outro is simply amazing! As sweet a vocal as it gets.

All This Is That.  But, yeah... great song.

Very good song. Perhaps the best Brian and Dennis had little or nothing to do with. So Tough is a gem really.

I agree. The eclectic mix of musical styles throughout CATP may provide a fair amount of "wtf!?" moments but somehow it still manages to be an incredibly pleasant listen from start to finish... Definitely one of my favorites.

"Mess of Help" may be the one I like best here, with "All This Is That" being a close second.

Yeah, for all the WTF moments, The Beach Boys actually sound like a band on this album! Like a cool, early 70's band along the lines of Neil Young, CSN and the like, only with singers at the caliber of Carl and Al and with Brian Wilson and Dennis Wilson kicking in some tunes!!!! Can it get any better???

Not only are Brian and Dennis' songs (at least Cuddle UP) really cool, but Here She Comes is great early seventies rock.

Yeah, I don't consider (though some certainly do) Make It Good a great song exactly, but it's an impressive production, is really like nothing else ever found on a pop/rock album, and it serves as a GREAT lead-in to All This Is That!

Yes.

You mean when you have John Phillips, Terry Melcher, and Scott Mckenzie helping out as well?  :lol

Yeah.  The whole song is great, then Carl just goes Super Nova on us and sounds like Jesus Christ or something.  Or Budda I guess since it's got the eastern chants going on. 

Definately one of their best ever.  Everybody on it does a great job too, and it doesn't really get old.  Really universally warm sounding song. 





When you step back a few feet, and look at a song like that with fresh ears, just ignoring what you know about the Beach Boys... why did Carl sing like that?  It's not really natural to sing Falsetto, hell the name itself means False Voice, right?  Yet on a song like this, he just hits the most beautiful, unnatural, even a little bit spiritual vocal, lol.  I mean whoa.  If aliens came to earth, and saw somebody sing like that, they'd wonder what the hell?  We go through our lives speaking to people and laughing, and whispering, but rarely does a human, especially a male, do *THAT*. 

Beautiful song. 

Hell yes! If you jack up the volume on the fade it will give you goosebumps!

I think Carl sang that way to take up the slack for Brian when he pulled back vocally, but Carl just has a different voice. I find it amazing that the three Wilsons could do things with their voices that each other one couldn't yet they still complemented each other perfectly.

The voices are coming from all directions...it's a wonderful overload in the most gentlest, beautiful way.  The outro is a spectacle no doubt, bringing a very special song to an end.  Simply stunning arrangement. 

One of my all time (non-Brian) favs.  Great collaboration between Al, Mike and  Carl.  Always wondered who wrote the bulk of it? Or did the three combine three different tunes together.

Well i'm a shill for the Lovester, but you've got to admit it has a lot of his esoteric bullshit sprinkled all over it.  My money's on Mike wrote a lot of it. 

OK, upon listening to the song about a hundred and fifty times with headphones, I'm pretty sure it's Mike on the first verse ("life supporting waves of bliss") and then Al on the second ("Golden auras glow around you")! Both guys sound so calm and lovely I"ll bet even oldsurferdude wants to give Myke a hug when listening to this one!

An amazing example of what The Beach Boys, sans Brian and Dennis could put together when their talents were pooled. Wish they had created more in this vein!!

I think Pitter Patter is an amazing track! That's mainly Al and Mike, right? Not the greatest song ever but a cool, catchy production and Mike and Al sound really really good together on that one.

A recording exists of the boys sans Mike rehearsing this and other gems for the 1993 Fall tour. Superb.

Proof that Carl/Mike/Al were capable of true art.

Yes indeed!  That's a great set.

"All This is That" is all that.  This.

You're right, Erik...that is the arrangement on the live recording I have from 1993 in New York. 

"All this Is that" and "Marcella" are the only beautiful songs on that whole album. :)

I'd count He Come Down and Cuddle Up as certainly beautiful!

sounds to me like Al on both those verses.

great song

I'd really like to see this.  Does anybody know where it could be found?

I have to agree wholeheartedly with all of the "All This Is That" praise.  Amazing song.  My favorite thing said in this entire thread has to be this excellent statement from Ron.


Too true.  The Je guru dev extended ending is amazing.  The track fades away until we're left with Carl's soul on tape.

I used to think so too, but I'm pretty sure now it's Mike on the second verse!

Erik, have you seen the live clips in my first post?  It's interesting to note that in the 1994 video, Mike takes the first verse and Al takes the second verse but then in the 1978 clip, both guys take both verses together!  It's a mixed message, for sure, but my own take is that I"m going with how they sang it in 1994 to represent how they did it on the original track.  I think they began to stuck with original arrangements in their later years and didn't bother straying away from the original tracks in the spirit of being "adventurous."  My take on it, at least.

but they aren't as beautiful .. they are simply mediocre at best.

I don't know what the music theory involved would be... but it's so beautiful, he keeps going and going too.  It starts at the root note and does this beautiful little melody, then he does it again... like you said it's like he's singing above himself, it's soulful like you can't teach.  The only reason he sounded like that was because he really was a pretty gentle soul, so at the end of the song you can really feel his ... gentle soul!  So natural and beautiful, the Beach Boys at their best were natural, and beautiful.  Really makes you miss Carl, too, especially when we're talking about it late at night, it's 1a.m. here while I'm thinking about this.  I'm sure Carl's off somewhere beautiful and soulful waiting for the rest of us! 

I have watched them and, though I get what they were doing in the 78 clip, the 94 one just nails it so much better.

and, speaking of Cuddle Up, He Come Down: it took me a long long time to see the beauty in those songs. Cuddle Up is indeed ragged and ..... well..... so Dennis, and I stupidly wrote it off as sub-par to his Sunflower songs for a long time. It is just such a unique composition/production, you have to let it work its magic on you no matter how long it might take.

And He Come Down: sure it's not the greatest song ever written, but just listen to their voices on the lyric-less humming section that precedes the big "He come down to make heaven my home" part!

yes with certain songs it takes mea while 2 get used 2 them or "like" them.
it took me a whole month 2 get into wild honey and now it's like my 3rd favorite album :)

Well, ya know, that's art! Sometimes it has 2 be the right moiment or the right mood 2 get into something. Sometimes you read a book or watch a movie and it goes right over your head. Then sometime later you try it again, and after whatever life experience you've gone through in the meantime, new colors amd shades come 2 the fore!

Brian's presence helps out here.

It's around on several *koff* archive releases.

Have seen the touring BB's perform All This Is That in 2004 and 2008, wonderful song !

Haha thank you AGD.  I'm sure I'll come across it in the near future!  I'm going to keep my eyes open.


Once again, well put Ron.  The beauty of Carl's performance is something to marvel at here.  Though I'd say he provides the highlight with the "Je Guru Dev" ending, the song as a whole is a beautiful composition that builds perfectly and soothes the soul.  The "golden auras glow around you" line is so incredibly sung.  Each contributing member's performance is something special, and there is no doubt there hearts went into the track.  Wish we could pinpoint once and for all which parts are Mike or Al, but it's fun to speculate.

Here's my best stab at who sings what:

Alan
Mike
Carl
Ensemble

I am that, thou art that, and all this is that
I am that, thou art that, all this is that
I am that, thou art that, all this is that
This is that

Oooo

Daybreak and I take a glide
Into the pool of peace inside
(Two ways travel by)
Two ways and I
both travel by
(And that makes all the difference to me)

Life supporting waves of bliss
Mother Divine's precious kiss
Brings with love the light of wisdom
And the gift of eternal freedom

Two ways and I both travel by
(... and the nature of man...)
And that makes all the difference to me
(Krishna...)

All this is that
I am that, thou art that, all this is that
I am that, thou art that, all this is that
This is that
This is that

Dusk time the shadows fall
Into the timeless time of all

Two ways and I
Both travel by

Golden auras glow around you
Omnipresent love surrounds you
Wisdom warming as the sun
You and I are truly one

Two ways and I
Both travel by
And that makes all the difference to me

Jai guru dev
(I am that, thou art that, all this is that)

Would you mind doing this for ALL Beach Boys songs?  :lol

Seems damn right on the money!

I seem to remember hearing that “All this is that” started off as a song that Al based on the Robert Frost poem “The Road Not Taken” :

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

and then that was added to by Carl and Mike (Mike specifically adding all the TM references.)

I always thought that it sounded a lot like the folk tune “Raspberries, Strawberries”, especially the “Daybreak…” verses.

Also, the tune to:
“Two ways and I
both travel by”

sounds a lot like the tune to “His dreams have turned to dust” from “Raspberries, Strawberries”, the same melody The Beach Boys quote in “At My Window.”
Al does like quoting folk tunes.

Also gets my vote for the best Beach Boys’ song Brian had nothing to do with!