The Smiley Smile Message Board

Sorry for the "newbie" type of question but I couldn't locate any info through the search function nor on Google.

This is something I've been curious about for a while and the MIC box set has gotten me interested again in learning more about the band's recording sessions primarily (but not limited to) personnel on who played what on each track.  What do you guys use as references to check on this information?  Has there ever been a book published on the subject or any book that details the sessions to this extent?  Wikipedia has the information for some songs but I'd love to have something to flip through while listening to the music and I was curious if there ever was a reference.  I wish there was something following the format of Jon Stebbin's new book about the band's live career--that would be ideal.

If there isn't a book, please do share whatever references you find useful for this type of info!

The closest thing to what you're looking for is probably c-man's great site: http://www.beachboysarchives.com/

There are two primary sources for such things.  One is the series of documents, mostly in the form of Union sheets that were the initial documentation of who gets paid for playing a session.  Since these documents were filled out on or close to the actual date of the session, they are very important, and since they were ultimately the source of a player getting paid, they tend to be pretty accurate.  Many of these have been published in various books, and some have been circulating in private circles.  The Keith Badman book has a lot, but the most complete set is probably the Our Favorite Recording Sessions book, which I suppose is out of print?

The other, an in many ways, best reference is bootlegs of complete sessions, because people call each other out by name, etc, and that's of course the best way to confirm that somebody was actually there.  This also helps clarify the documentation, because sometimes a person would not play what you'd normally expect them to, like, you see Billy Strange listed and you'd think guitar, but he actually played tambourine on a few things--presumably Brian tried him on guitar first, didn't like it, wanted a tambo and assigned the already present Strange to the task.

I agree that a studio book on the Beach Boys would be wonderful.  C-man, Craig, also has done a lot of work on this and you can check out very detailed information at his website.  beachboysarchives.com  Which I think takes a good format for a complete book type of thing.

I have been threatening to write such a book myself, in collaboration with some other experts like Craig.  I think it might be best to make it a broad look at the LA recording scene through the prism of it's best exponents, the Beach Boys.

My book The Beach Boys FAQ has a chapter devoted to the issue of the Beach Boys being under-credited as musicians on their own records by too many writers and "experts". It includes a detailed list of selected songs from the 1962-1965 period with musician credits featuring the Beach Boys...as in which Beach Boy played which instrument on those specific songs, it also includes credits for some of the session men that joined them on those recordings. C-man helped me put this list together and for some reason people seem to forget about it. Its a very good reference if you are interested in finding out if Brian played bass or piano, if Dennis played drums, and if Carl, Dave or Al played guitar (or bass) on many of those  62 - 65 songs.

A comprehensive Beach Boys Studio Sessions book, along the lines of what Brad Elliott (supposedly) started work on, would be most welcome.

Hope you do end up writing that book---the Beach Boys deserve it!  Thanks for the info...I may have hunted down a copy of "Our Favorite Recording Session."  It only goes up to 1970 though.  Would love to have something that includes the 70's as well.  A  comprehensive book is waiting to be made!  ;)


Thanks Jon yes I did think of the chapter in your book and remembered that you did provide information for selected tracks.  That section really helped me with their early sixties tracks.  Perhaps you could join forces with C-man again and give us the end-all/be-all resource for the band's studio work much like you did with their live work?   ;D

Perhaps it could be written such that part of it is a book on their studio work, and part on all the equipment they've used over the years.
 Subject, of course, to your being able to sustain interest as the project evolves. 

Justin - stayed tuned.  Very soon there will be a sessionography for MIC appearing online.  More info to follow...

Oh, now this is VERY good news.  :)

Ah... excellent news.  ;D

Problem with that is that as they recorded more and more at the home studio, the record-keeping became increasingly lax and/or sloppy. Likewise the Holland sessions: the dates on some of the AFM sheets are clearly incorrect as it has the band recording in Baambrugge when they were touring the US. In fact, the very first BB AFM sheet is patently made up after the event as it lists one session for six songs in early 1962, thus inferring that they recorded "Surfin'" after it was released.  ;D

That said, a book covering 1962-69 could be achieved. Russ Wapensky was working on a project to document all the post war sessions in LA, then revised it to all the sessions for Top 40 hits, before abandoning it entirely. I contacted his publishers in 2003 about it (as CK was giving me grief all over the net and saying when the book came out it would prove me wrong) and they told me the contract had been cancelled a year earlier. Emails to him went unanswered. Great shame as he had the co-operation of Local 47.

Hi there,

for a start, there's Stephen McParlands "In The Studio with Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys: Our Favorite Recording Sessions". And in "LLVS" are some of the session sheets reprinted. But those sheets aren't gospel...sometimes creating paperwork where there wasn't any in the first place...

Alex

Splendid – deserves a thread of its own!

 :thumbsup

There IS a full sessionograpy for "The SMiLE Sessions" included in the book accompanying the box set version.

Needs to be done.  I mean-it has already been done for the Stones, Bob Dylan, Elvis and the Beatles.  Beach Boys deserve it too and if done right it would be fascinating. 

This is an understatement.

Yeah that will be really cool-but I'd still like to see C-Man do a real book-like the one Jon and I did-which not only details sessions but also has interviews with all the musicians that played on the cuts.  When I was working on The Beach Boys In Concert I interviewed a lot of them (Sterling Smith, Phil Shenale, Bobby Figueroa, Ron Altbach, Daryl Dragon, etc) and it was fascinating.  They told me a lot about sessions-though much of that material didn't make the book-as we were focusing on concerts more.  I keep hoping that C-Man's Beach Boys sessions site will be updated (still waiting for the details on the Party album!!)

This is most excellent news!!  It was MIC that prompted me to want to look further into this and to have a sessionography for this set would be perfect.  Please do keep us posted when you will have it available!


Thanks for the info AGD.  I never considered that issue with the record keeping at the house studio.  That really doesn't make things a whole lot easier for researchers trying to put things together for this time period. 

How many people exactly have officially started working on this type of project?  Mikie mentions Brad Elliot supposedly working on this, you mention Russ Wapensky.  It seems like a few people have tried to give this a go yet no one actually completing the project.  It's understandable considering the mountain of research needed to pull this off properly.

They aren't gospel, but by and large they are very accurate.  I have trouble thinking of many instances where an AFM sheet has listed someone who wasn't at a session or hasn't listed someone who was...at least in a Beach Boys session context.  These were part of a mechanism by which musicians got paid, so there's certainly an impetus to get it right.

Dude called Frank DeVito would beg to differ.  ;D

This is great news indeed! Though why are you talking only to Justin? We're all look forward to the MIC sessionography.

C-man's site is fantastic. I would love to see that stuff, plus additional sessions, in a book. I'd pay good money for something like that (hint hint). Also, can't wait for the MIC sessionography!

Also, there is some info available here http://web.archive.org/web/20080218021756/http://www.beachboysguide.com/index.php/Main_Page

I think all of the stuff for 1966 and 1967, plus some for the other years are still there... It's not much, but might be of some help.

I assume he directed his comment towards Justin since he started the thread. I don't believe he was intentionally being exclusionary.

WOW, let's go back to our childhoods....   

Well, I didn't say I couldn't think of ANY instances.  Poor Frank.