The Smiley Smile Message Board

Does anyone know of the possibility of Dennis and Carl being present on the new album? Are there any unfinished works in the vaults of their vocals that perhaps could be added to the new material? What would you think of that idea? It worked for the Beatles with FAAB and Real Love, maybe our boys can do the same.  8)

Check out the "new album"-thread. There's an interview posted today in which Al mentions that Carl's vcals from the song "Waves of love" from the aborted '95 album will be used

Sounds great Rocker, thanks, anything with Carl's angelic voice on the new album would be a worthy addition.

I think if Do It Again is on the album then Dennis is already on it...since they sampled the '68 drum track.

So there's no chance of getting a 'new' (unreleased but worked on) track with Denny's vocals? His only musical presence on the reunion album will be the drum track on "Do It Again"?

I don't know about no chance. But the group seems to want to work on relatively recent (or recently recorded) material -- Waves of Love is from 95 or so. And going back to the 70s for Denny tracks just seems odd, somehow. They didn't do it for BB85, or Still Crusin, or SIP (admittedly, they did recut Forever on there).

Carl left lots of recent, digitally recorded vocals that could be used if they needed him on the album. The three unreleased 95 BW tracks -- Dancin' the Night Away, Soul Searchin, You're Still a Mystery -- and some Al tunes (Waves, Don't Fight the Sea). For that matter, Carl wrote several tracks for the Beckley Lamm Wilson album that seem to date from the same time.

But how does that work for Dennis? Most of his unused vocals are on songs he wrote that are unreleased. And I don't know how they would fit or flow on a BW-Joe Thomas written, largely AC-sounding record (which is my guess for what this will sound like by the end). Frankly, they might be worried he would overshadow them.

Finally, Dennis has been gone for more than nearly 30 years. At this point, I think the respectful thing to do for him -- and his work -- is to present it on archival releases. The less present-day mucking about, the better. (My preference would be to not have Carl vocals on the album either -- just present the group as it is today.)

I think it's only right to have some Dennis and Carl input on this new album. They need to see it out to the end. I don't think going over the top with vocals etc would be a good idea, but they need to be on the last BB album in my opinion.

"WoL" was 'recorded' May/June 1994, according to my site.  ;D

Yeah, I guess you're right...

You mean... he died back in late 1981 ?  Dammit, I need to rewrite my timeline. ::)

I don't know that for a fact, actually.  :P But I don't really trust the rest of the group to do Dennis or Carl's work justice at this late stage. And if it's going to mainly be "new" material anyway, old tracks could seem really random and shoe-horned in.

I mean, if they wanted to be super-ambitious and put together a double album, and use a lot of unfinished archival stuff, and bring in the 70s touring band and Blondie and Ricky, and have the Honeys and Danny Hutton guesting -- that would be cool. I think Dennis and Carl tracks would be essential for something like that. Have Van Dyke and Tony Asher co-writes! Use some of the Wilson project material! But all of that, as amazing and cool as it would be, doesn't seem likely to happen.

It kind of looks like they're trying to make a 2012 version of BB85 instead. And if that's the case, I'd rather them keep it clean and recent.

Dur. (Slaps self in side of head.) Yes, 1983. I know that. Rather, knew that.

Well...yeah, according to Barbara Wilson that's about right.

I wouldn't be surprised if they did use a Dennis song in some way considering the high esteem Brian holds his work in.

And, we can't forget their penchant for using old songs to fill out albums, the most notorious (other than Still Cruisin') being "Good Time" randomly thrown into Love You. As well as "When Girls Get Together" on Keepin' The Summer Alive.

I very much hope they DON'T re-do one of Dennis's old unreleased songs. Whatever song it would or could be, i want to hear the original, thanks.

Agreed. Does anybody really want to hear a bunch of almost-70-year-olds singing along with their brother who passed away almost 30 years ago?

A song similar Lay Down Burden would be a much more fitting tribute than old man karaoke.

"Old man karaoke", that is so disrespectful, I'm speechless. :(

THAT"S WHAT IT IS IF THEYRE JUST GOING TO RERECORD/SING OVER/WHATEVER THEYRE PLANNING ON DOING WITH THAT SONG APPARENTLY OF CARLS VOCALS.

It's the future now. No need to work out things that couldn't be worked out and the people working on is dead back then now.

No, I have absolutely no interest in hearing a bunch of 70 year olds sing ANYTHING! They should've quit long ago.

Have you no sentiment? It's not just 70 year olds, IT'S THE BEACH  BOYS!

Don't worry. Sounded troll-like to me.

Whew!  I...what?

My personal opinion is that the best tribute to Dennis and Carl would be to use their songs, but not their voices or production talent.  Pick one Dennis song and one Carl song that was never finished, perhaps "I've Got a Friend" for Dennis; I don't know Carl's catalogue very well - and then record from scratch a cover of the song with the living beach boys singing.  They could even take a song that never had words written and write new words, as long as they rerecorded the backing track from scratch.  That way the fans get a new Dennis/Carl song which they never could have heard in completed form otherwise, the record doesn't suffer from continuity issues, and Dennis and Carl get a fitting tribute to their incredible talents and a voice on the Beach Boys last album, not literally, but in the songwriting, which is where it really counts anyway. 

Carl was more of a singer and musician than a composer. I'd much rather hear him sing and play. Besides, except for Angel Come Home, he pretty much sang lead on his own compositions.

At least in Dennis' case, I think this is an outstanding idea.  I'm dubious it would really happen, but great thought.

YYYYYYYYESSSSSSSSSSS

Also, I don't mind them redoing a Dennis/Carl track from the 70s/80s as long as we get to hear the original production eventually. Can't find a problem with that. I'd really like both of them to make some kind of appearance on this album.

It would be a nice idea to re-record/ complete one of Dennis' good unreleased songs from scratch with the modern group, then maybe include a little sample of previously unheard studio chatter or laughter from Dennis himself at the end. IMO it would be quite fitting if vaguely morbid, I suppose  :-\. Agreed, doubt it'll happen.

I agree. But if I recall correctly, AGD says Dennis never recorded a studio lead vocal for "I've Got a Friend". If I had a vote (don't), I'd do that one with David singing the lead.

I kind of hope they don't.  It sounds really macabre in my opinion when they do that.  Real Love and Free As A Bird both make John Lennon sound like a corpse.  I mean they're great songs, but do I want to hear Carl Wilson singing to me from beyond the grave?  Hell no.  I'd rather remember Carl as he left it, on his terms, the songs he sang while he was with us, not some cobbled together frankentrack he never would have released.

For similar reasons I haven't listened to 1 Michael Jackson song that came out after he died, he wouldn't have released that stuff so I'm not into it.

Now, it's their perogative and if that's what they want to do, they should go right ahead, but if I had my druthers I'd prefer Dennis and Carl respectfully stay among the dead and the gentlemen who are actually still alive handle all the vocals. 

There's actually an argument to be made that it's disrespectful to their memory to drag them back out for a reunion decades after they've passed away.  They already did their work, let them rest now.   

And it's a good argument, too.

If Carl's just singing one little bit on a bridge on one song, fine, that's not really that big of a deal.

We've had Soul Searchin' and Don't Fight The Sea come out with Carls vocals featured and both times it sounds great, therefore I'm not sure why some people are so against Carls voice being on the new album.

Does it feel like he is singing to you from the grave everytime you hear God Only Knows, Good Vibrations, Darlin', etc.? I really don't see the difference here with the new album. It's an old song, same as the others, only you've never heard it before.

Whatever the other Boys decide is cool with me.

That'd be due to working with ancient, heavily manipulated cassette tapes, which is kind of a different scenario. Also, everything drbeachboy said is pretty spot on. So hay.

To each his own.  When I hear "God Only Knows", I hear a 20 year old Carl singing at the top of his talent, a timeless song that he lived and loved in 1966. 

When I hear something that wasn't good enough to be released, cut into pieces, autotuned into a syllable-pieced-together jigsaw puzzle with 70 year old men singing over it.....

I hear Carl singing from a coffin. 

We're not talking about 'unreleased' songs, we're talking about studio trickery that exploits something Carl didn't think was good enough to be released. 

Well, the comment was "They could do it like Free as a Bird, or Real Love" to which I said "John sounds dead".

So since you agree, what exactly are you arguing with me about? 

"Soulful Old Man Shunshine" was just as much pieced-together and trickeryish, and way more explicitly a case of Carl not thinking it was good enough.  Did that get your back up too, or did you not notice?

"Unreleased" songs were unreleased for a reason...

Regards,
Jon Blum