The Smiley Smile Message Board

I was listening to IJWMFTT this morning and it sounded to me like Al might be trading lines with Brian on the overlapping parts at the end.  I checked the Definitive Lead Vocals thread, and it says that it's just Brian.  I know that at the C50 shows that Brian and Al traded the closing lines on the song because, of course, Brian can't overlap his own vocals.  But it made me wonder if that was the way it was on the original studio recording.  I only listened once this morning, will listen again later...maybe I'm just hearing things. But it's worth considering as a possibility...

Thoughts?

Sounds like it's all Brian to me.

Al's "I guess he just wasn't made for these times" echoes at the end on the tour last year were super cheesy. I mean it made me giggle, but such a song should not make one giggle, amirite? AMIRITE

I thought it was rather sweet, myself.

I could be wrong but it sounds like Brian is the only voice on the recording at all.

I think it was Al's attempt at paying tribute to Mr. Wilson

There is (at least) one track of group vocals.

(http://kdjelaj.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/misterwilson.jpg)

Yeah, I know, and it was sweet. But it still made me giggle.

Someone with connections needs to ask Al if he sang on the studio version. Maybe Brian would remember too. But I would trust Al's memory more.

This is how the vocals look on the Columbia 8-track, according to a "Tape Identification Data" sheet:

1 Bryan - chorus
2 Bryan - lead no. 1
3 vocal group no. 1 - might have to key out
4 orchestra
5 Bryan - lead no. 2
6 Bryan - chorus Bryan w/tape reverb at end
7 vocal group no. 2 - might have to key out
8 Bryan - no. 1 - echo Bryan w/tape reverb at end

I'm guessing it's just one of many instances of people confusing Al and Brian, which I think just about everyone here has probably experienced at least once. Pretty sure it's actually Brian, though, although obviously I'm not an authority on the matter.

On a somewhat related note, am I the only one who thinks Brian's sped up vocal for "Caroline, No" sounds pretty darn Jardinesque in several spots?

Who wrote that? Awldsyrfahdood? ;D

I have no doubt that it was all Brian. But it blew my mind when I found out Al was singing the middle section of I Know There's an Answer, followed by Brian. It sounds like the same person! Also on Be Here in the Morning it is hard to tell the difference. Amazing that Al sounds more like Brian then Dennis or Carl.

So yeah. Basically the group on the "Quando sere" lines and on the pad vocals at the end. Everything else is Brian.

Probably Al is not on the "Quando sere" lines because he never knew the were Spanish lines until an interbview last year! :-D

Al's memory isn't as good as Brian's. Not even close. Unlike Brian he'll always tell you what he thinks is the truth, no head games...but he's bad at details. Sometimes really bad. When it comes to details about the songs Brian is pretty good, although usually uninterested, and often evasive just to get it over with. But on something like this trusting Al's memory over Brian's would be a bad bet. BTW...no need to ask anybody because we know its Brian on the closing lines of IJWMFTT.

 :lol

I always assumed that it was all Brian. I thought Al would at least remember what he sang, but I guess not.

So who was correct when Mike and Brian argued about where they recorded Fun, Fun, Fun. Was it Australia or Salt Lake City?

I've always sided with Brian on that.  My guess is Mike wrote the lyric to "Brian's Back" with either a hazy but incorrect memory or a picturesque line with no actual merit and over time just convinced himself that that was the way it went down, thereby making the song's lyric more meaningful. :)   That's not an anti-Mike dig.  I just honestly think Mike never thought to ask Brian or anyone else's opinion to confirm the truth of that line before committing it to tape.  Either way, it still works in the context of the song but I just think Brian has the edge in that argument.  YMMV

All you have to do to see that mike was right is to look at bb chronology.  Fun, fun, fun" recorded on january 1 1964 and the bbs didn't go to australia till january 13

People tell me jokes I told them three years ago and I have no memory of it at all. We're talking asking a 70 year old man to remember a vocal line that he did during probably one hour of his life 47 years ago which was subsequently buried on the track so that you'd have to listen closely to it to find it, if you even listen to your own work.

Hell, Van Dyke couldn't remember his own lyrics to Child is Father of the Man!

Good point! Probably like someone asking for my stats in a highschool basketball game. I remember a few, but most of them, I can't remember the score, or anything else about them.