The Smiley Smile Message Board

Came across this recently on line and thought it was of interest.

Someone posted "She's Got Rhythm" on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXsx2w8Em_8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXsx2w8Em_8)

In the comments of the video is one by "Ron Altbach" which reads as follows: "Here's the story. I was sitting at the piano in our studio at MIU, playing what became the verses of this, and Brian walked in and just started singing his falsetto. He liked the energy of what I was playing and it became my first co-written song with Brian and Mike."

I wasn't sure the comment was legit, so I clicked on the name and found Ron Altbach's channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/raltbach (http://www.youtube.com/user/raltbach) It turns out the guy is a very talented classical pianist.  He has a number of videos of himself performing Chopin, Debussy, and most recently Beethoven's Waldstein sonata.  I listened to the Waldstein, which is a beautiful piece.  Altbach's performance isn't quite at the level of Horowitz or Schiff, but it's still very impressive.

There is another video on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SVB-EvYtNw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SVB-EvYtNw) from what appears to be the late 70s in which Altbach talks about his classical music background, training with Nadia Boulanger, his rock and roll work with King Harvest, his meeting of Mike Love, and then his creation of "Lady Lynda" (which seems to have been as much Altbach's work as Al Jardine's).

I've always been a big fan of the MIU album, and learning what an extraordinarily talented guy Ron Altbach is really helped me understand why the album turned out so great.  Makes me wish the band had included him (along with Ricky and Blondie, of course) in the 50th reunion.

Great news! You've got to love "The Professor". That genesis of "Lady Lynda" clip was fun to watch. (It's the same one that shows them tracking it in the studio, yes?) Hopefully they filmed a lot more of those sessions, and we can get to see them someday. Like you, I enjoy MIU, and I found the "Our Team" documentary and that "Lady Lynda" clip very enlightening.

Did Ron include anything about how the tune of She's Got Rhythm was (I THINK) an earlier song on the Almost Summer Soundtrack called Lookin' Good? It's just an instrumental but you can tell it's the same tune. I have it on that album (Almost Summer) and as a B-side to Almost Summer's A-side.

Why don't you invite him to the board?

I've head the pleasure of corresponding with Mr. Altbach several times over the past few years...nice guy.  I first contacted him to see what his involvement on Dennis' POB sessions amounted to, when I was preparing the musician credits for POB/Bambu at Jon Stebbin's invitation (Ron played accordion on "Only With You" and one other tune that he couldn't recall...from the AFM contracts I secured around the same time, that turned out to be something called "Flying", which I believe is likely a working title for "Taking Off", sadly still unreleased).  More recently, I "introduced" (over the internet, that is) Ron to Ian Rusten, so Ian could interview him for his coming BBs In Concert book with Jon.  Anyways, Ron and the other "Harvest" guys, Rod Novak and Ed Tuleja, provided me with some great tales of their days with the Boys.  Last year, Ron attended one of the C50 Beacon Theatre shows, and spent some time catching up with Mike backstage.

Is he "the 3rd person" on this board?

I love the song " She's got rhythm " and the whole album is under appreciated.

Is that him at Knebworth?

No, that's Mike Meros (RIP)