The Smiley Smile Message Board

Maybe it's been mentioned before (if so, apologies) but... aren't the similarities between this and Alan's cover on his solo album, well, striking ?  ;D

Alan who? What solo album?

Jardine. A Postcard from California, to be exact.

Ahhhh yes. The extended "Three arch bay" bit.

I did notice.  :p

I'm more blown away by the similarities between 1974 CF and Brian's intro on the 1978 version. Not exactly the same but much closer than I expected

For my money, Al's version might be the best single take on the song out there.

1974 version: Fun but definitely with a tongue in cheek.
1977 Spring version: Definitely a BW track, but the lead is lousy.
1978 version: A little sterile, although the harmonies are nice.
2002 BW version: Like the added call-and-response at the end and band's playing, but BW lead is a bit muddy.
2010 Al version: Committed, clear vocal, nice harmonies, respect paid to the song.

I would rank them thus: '10, '78, '02, '77, '74.

I also noticed. Al cheated and got his MiC back in '09 then made everyone think he came up with it!


But seriously with the release of this demo, Barnyard Blues and My Love Lives On, while knowing that Good Timin, River Song, Hard Times and I think Pacific Ocean Blues, Make It Easy, All Of My Love and a few others were basically in the can it's amazing that nothing of this material surfaced on the following album. We were lucky enough to get It's Ok and Had To Phone Ya with terrible vocals instead.

Utterly amazing how they could fail to capitalise on this. What wereCARL AND DENNIS thinkin???    T_T

I thought the same thing as soon as I heard the 1974 version! It seems pretty likely to me that Al was referencing this version when he recorded his own. Pretty interesting.

Plus they worked on Angel Come Home during the same time frame!

 I think Carl and Dennis were out-voted

 The Honeys version on the Stephen Kalinich lp is pretty nice

 I am not famieler with make it easy can someone clue me in ?

Al's is definitely the greatest - but given the pool of versions he (and Matt) had to draw upon, and the time taken to complete, there's no way he could blow it.

Al has a particular knack for refining Brian's gear.  It would be great if he was producing the forhcoming Brian solo - although we'd have to wait until 2035 for the actual release.

Easy for me to say, but an ideal situation to me would be an album written by Brian, sung by Al (largely anyway), and produced by a third party who can really be objective and tell them what is good and what sucks. Joe Thomas got them closer I suppose on last year's album, but he's embroiled in group politics as well. They need someone to do with Nigel Godrich did to McCartney; just tell them when something kinda sucks. The BB's over the years have not only needed someone to tell them what sucks, they've also clearly been ignorant and too subjective about what is actually really good!

Back to "CF", I see the '74 recording as nothing more than an interesting curio. It's interesting as any demo-type recording is. It's interesting in the same way the "Hamburger/Cocaine Tapes" are interesting. The only other thing particularly interesting to me about the recording is that it does indeed sound *exactly* like what would happen if one crossed Brian's 1970 voice with his 1976 voice!

I gotta agree with you on the demo of "California Feelin'" basically being a curio. I waited all this time for it, and I guess I kinda built it up in my mind as some epochal event in Beach Boys history. Which it isn't.  But it is super interesting, especially knowing Brian's story as we do, but at the end of the day, it was just him excitedly layin' down a demo of a new song that he wrote. It surely isn't the definitive reading of the song, as it sounds like he's somewhat doing a Righteous Brothers impression on both the low (Bill Medley) and high (Bobby Hatfield) parts. Now what is the definitive version? I'm not sure many would agree, but I think the version from on disc four of MIC is. But I'm sure some people prefer Brian's solo version and some Al's. So to each his (or her) own.

I'm very glad to see that at least a couple of people here appreciate Al's version as much as I do. Frankly, I had trouble understanding the excitement over the release of Brian's demo and the Beach Boys' aborted attempt at the song when it seemed to me a a definitive version has been out there for a few years.

In most people's defense, I think the reason a lot of us were most interested in the demo version because we were interested to hear what a November 1974 Brian Wilson lead vocal would sound like on this tune.

Talking about Brian's voice now on the Sunflower thread, I do hear the damage on the 1974 demo far more than I thought. Not Back Home yet, but even Rollin Up To Heaven from a few weeks before sounds much less strained.

I know I've said this before, but...there are two things that struck me...

1)When Brian puts on a 'goofy' voice* he still sounds like young Brian. When he sings 'for real' he sounds like 78 Brian, which leads us to...

2) Going from everything we've now heard,  Brian sounds similar in 1974 and 1978 , which is just nuts.

* Surprised nobody commented yet that Peter Carlin's description of CF74 in his book is backwards? He writes it as 'normal at first,  goofy in the second part'!

AGD has also described the CF demo the same way that Carlin did.

Much prefer Al's version to anything else heard thus far. A gentle reading, with everything in proportion.  And And the backing vox are the most Beach Boys-like, somehow. And I like Beach Boys product when it sounds at its most Beach Boys-like.  :D

I'm fascinated by the '74 California Feelin'. It's absolutely clear now that Brian's original intention was to emulate a Randy Newman-style song. Now that I get this, I realize this is the only recording of the song to get the vibe right, despite its quirkiness, and that includes Al's version (though of the more "professional," shall we say, recordings, it comes closest). This will be my go-to version of the song, believe it or not. It speaks to a whole new direction that Brian could have gone in. A road not traveled.

Funny you mention that. California Feelin' does have a bit of a Randy Newman style to it, although, of course, without the biting satire.

I was interested to hear it because of the way Timothy White built it up after he'd heard it.  I don't think it's a great song, but it is a good one and I love the demo and the fuller version on the box (though I also have a sneaking preference for Al's rather reverent version as far as 'finished' versions go).

Yup.  ;D

Which means, either they chopped up the tape...or the Brian Wilson saga just got a lot more interesting.  :o  ;D

There isn't another take is there?

Such a fascinating track to hear, because of Brian's vocals. One second you'd swear he could still nail Surf's Up, and the next his voice sounds so darn close to the 15 Big Ones one.

Maybe they're referring to Brian's "CANTCHA FEEL IT?!?!" stuff, specifically. The first part isn't Brian's most serious attempt at a vocal, but I'd say it feels more loose than outright "goofy" or anything.

AGD is this MIC version the demo you heard? :o

The interesting thing -- to me anyway -- is that I'm now pretty much convinced that Dennis was worse off for wear in late '74, vocally, than Brian was, and using these precious morsels such as CF, Child Of Winter and Rollin' Up To Heaven vs., say, Barnyard Blues and a few live audience recordings of Dennis from that era as the litmus tests (I guess the jury is still out as to when *exactly* that vocal for My Love Lives On was done). That is, perhaps surprisingly, I think Brian was still closer to his "younger self," with the better potential of "turning back" than Dennis was had things turned out differently. On the other hand, it really wasn't a case of just a straight spiral downward for either of them in the immediate years to come. There were moments of peaks and valleys as we already know (though there was also an obvious point of no return for Dennis just a few years later).


I'll also say this much: Even if the CF demo had zero musical merit, it's an amazing piece of the puzzle, and it's the best example we have yet from that era. The one we've all been waiting for -- for about as long as internet message boards and mailing lists have existed -- and the real dead sea scroll of BW vocals. Now...if we can only hear that In The Back Of My Mind remake!  :)


(Mind you, this is just my own personal opinion. FWIW.)   

I'm addicted to the 74 demo version now. It is not taken seriously and just so much fun to listen to yet there's some strong emotion in there here and there (just listen to that fantastic outro to the song! Brian can obviously hit high notes pretty well at this point). I have to agree I love the Randy Newman type style done with this song. Makes it quite beautiful. Brian didn't screw it up enough for it to sound totally goofy IMO.

However I also love the Beach Boys version. The MIC version sounds fantastic and in my mind, that is the definitive version to me. The vocals sound amazing and it is so "Beach Boys" in style that it is almost a crime this was never released on an album AND as a single. "California Feelin" even the title is so beach Boys and sounds really commercial to me too. Maybe by 1978 it wouldn't have done well on the charts, but earlier in the 70s,I have no doubt it'd be at least a decent sized hit.

I love the BB's full-band version... BUT, the little BW bit where he says "like most days" seems almost like a joke that was tagged on there, and I question if it would've been included as part of the song if the song had been released back then. It makes me cringe a bit... then I go back to liking the song when Carl's vocal comes in.

Oh I agree. I was really confused when I heard that intro BW bit, because I've been familiar with the BB's version of California Feelin on boots for years and never heard that part before. I don't think it should have been tacked onto the intro of the song like that, but then again it does fascinate me how BW's vocals are so similar to the 1974 Brian here for it being done in 1978.

I love the 1974 demo version.  I remember hearing it for the first time over at Alan's house a few years ago.  But at the time I didn't read a lot into it being some sort of "missing link" between the classic Brian voice and the post-cigarettes-and-cocaine Brian voice, because I immediately recalled Brian's voice on the original "I'm Bugged At My Old Man" -- and the particularly lines "but I got suspended...from school" and "and he doesn't even know where it's at."  He could do that put-on voice way back then.

Lee

Where does that Brian intro line come from? Could we not have heard the full version of that on the box too?  It would not have been on a final version as it sound rushed, as in trying to fit it in before Carl starts singing.  I'm sure if it had been released it would have been all Carl.  I've always loved the song.

Brian also sounded pretty good on "Matchpoint of Our Love" for a guy who's voice was apparently shot to pieces by then!  Had he wanted I'm sure at that point he could still have a good go at singing most of the songs he had sang before.  The 80s was when the biggest damage occurred IMO. 

Point of no return for Brian vocally was in the  early sessions for what became LA Light, where he really started going downhill. His MIU-era voice was basically his 1974 voice with a bit more wear. With a few exceptions, his voice sounds like it made a logical progression. 1976-early 1977 was an anomaly.

The beginning of the '78 "California Feelin'" is from Brian's initial attempt at the lead vocal until Carl did it. A full Brian vocal and a full Carl vocal exist (the latter of which is the one on the bootleg and the one that features on most of this mix).

Thank you for that Runners. I take it there wasn't much more worth salvaging from the rest of Brian's take?

We don't know for sure, as I'm nearly positive runners himself hasn't heard it. However, Adam Marsland (aka adamghost) heard it and apparently he didn't think it was very good.