The Smiley Smile Message Board

"ruined" may be a bit melodramatic, but hear me out.  I'm sure a number of us would like to regard "God Only Knows" as perfection, but the flaw--and it grates my ears--is Bruce's vocal part near the end: he sounds off-pitch, nasally, and doesn't blend with Brian & Carl.   :wall

Am I alone here?  Does anyone else feel this way?

Sounds poyfect, to me.

Okay, to tally the votes, we've got:

1 vote for ruined
1 vote for poyfect

 :-D

I love that part, sounds perfect to me as well. And I believe there is no Carl in that coda, just 2 Brians and a Bruce.

Right you are, mostly--but isn't Carl the first "God only knows what I'd be without you..."?

Brian chose for Bruce to sing that part because his voice suited it. No offense but I side with Brian over you on this one. :)

The stereo mix has Carl/Brooth/Brian, the original mono mix features two Brians and Bruce.

It's always sounded fine to me.


Is this the start of Bruce bashing (now that folks are starting to let up on Mike)?  >:(

One if my favourite Bruce moments in Beach Boyville. Very distinctive and I reckon he nailed it.

Bruce's vocal fits perfectly during the tag to God Only Knows, just like it did on the chorus of California Girls. Brian knew what he was doing.

I'n not a big fan of Brooth, but his vocal on God Only Knows is one of the highlights of his career in BeachBoydom. Brian made a good choice. His voice on that sounds great to me. 

Wish I could say the same for his voice now....

I think it's broothiful.

It seems I am alone...I'll show myself the door.  :-[ lol

That tag justifies Bruce Johnston being in the Beach Boys.

I think Bruce's singing on the tag makes the song a little more uplifting-his voice sounds cheery and sweet. Compare it to Denny singing on the tag, and it sounds sad and soulful. Both add something great to the song.

False: "Deirdre" justifies Bruce Johnston being in the Beach Boys.  :)


Well, unless anyone else comes forward, it looks like I've found my unique controversial-Beach-Boys-opinion!

I consider the tag of "God Only Knows" to be Bruce's finest hour...

I don't give a $hit about the man's politics; his shorts; his peculiar, constant need to adjust his microphone; his blind allegiance to the Lovester; his stupid baseball caps; his Hawaiian shirts and ever present squinty smile; the NASCAR salute; his flip flopping stance on Brian; his dissing the Friends album; his love for contemporary country music; or any other nonsense. I think his voice is amazing and really distinct. His falsetto is one of the purest in all pop music. He sounded great every time he was spotlighted in a little part of a Beach Boys song. A very welcomed addition to the group, in my opinion. And he keeps going -- he's a highly skilled and disciplined pianist, the kind who could just sit at the piano and at the drop of a dime play anything (okay, maybe not a Rachmaninoff cadenza, but he does have an impressive handle on so many different styles of playing). He tore it up all over Wild Honey with his organ solos. He played bass whenever he was needed. And, while not a prolific songwriter by any means, when he did write/arrange/produce his few songs, they were little smashes of gold nuggets. They added a different flavor to the group's sound, something a little more refined, with a certain elegance and old world charm. Pour some Bruce syrup all over me, i happily have my mouth agape waiting to receive it all. Cum on, Brooth, give it 2 me good.   

Oh, he also sounded better in the blend than Dennis Wilson did. Way better 8)

Naw, I feel you on this one, too.
"Baby 1-2-3, and you're back with meeee"....

Well, don't feel too bad -- I posted "We're Together Again" bears some similarity to the chorus in "Love Is All Around" by the Troggs and didn't even
get a post to challenge it!

 ;D ;D ;D ;D

I wouldn't be surprised if Brian wrote that line actually, especially with Love is a Woman's "One, two, three, she's falling in love with me..."

The only line Brian wrote for "Deirdre" was "His name is Bob/He has a job", which understandably didn't make the cut!

Partly because he was talking about Bob Johnston. Who is somebody I haven't thought about in around six or seven years. Just looked him up in Wikipedia and he's still alive. Still producing, even.

I've always thought of Bruce's line in GOK to be the final touch that the song needed to make it what it was. Same with his line at the end of California Girls, actually.

I noticed this difference only recently & have to say, the tag with 2 Brians & Bruce is the better option. Don't know how to explain, it just is beautiful that way. Enough of Carl on leads.

Re original question of the thread, I won't say that Bruce ruined GOK, in fact, his voice went together with Brian's very well. It gave an element of innocence & lightness in response to Brian's determination & outright honesty.

Related question - sort of - Does Bruce sing the tag on Oh Darlin' (ie the god only knows part)??

As to the original question, could not disagree more that Bruce's voice doesn't fit in on GOK.

Yes, it's Bruce. The same guy whose biggest claim to immortality is the GOK tag. I mtean, his voice makes that part, and years after his passing he will be remembered by that. Whoever produced that song sure did know how to pick just the right voices.

Yes! Forgot about that one. The end of California Girls. That Bruce counter-vocal always sounded real good on the end there.

He once said that the first Beach Boys song he ever sang on was "Girl From New York City", though I don't hear him on it.

Bruce- absolutely awesome on GOK! Perfect for his voice . I think the Carl/Bruce/Al live tag can sound even better than the recording ( depended on the night)  California Girls I'm less sold on. I feel like Carl or Al might have sounded better.  Carl nailed that part live in the years Bruce was gone from the group.

Did it take anyone else a long while until you realized that Bruce wasn't just singing "wish they all could be California" during the tag? I always thought it was Brian's idea to drop the "girls" from Bruce's tag, which kind makes it a fragment of a sentence, but very cool nonetheless. It took me hearing the accapella mix on the GV box to realize he actually WAS singing the full line!

Bruce sounds great on the end of GOK, but I tend to prefer the live version with Dennis singing the part...just brings it to a whole new level.

Isn't it Bruce singing the falsetto?

Always thought it was Brian but I guess it coulda been Bruce on that falsetto.

Regarding God Only Knows, when I first heard that a cappella tag, I wondered why they didn't use it. I played that thing to death when it came out on the Pet Sounds box.

That's what I always thought too but I seem to recall somebody saying it was Bruce. Might have been AGD?

edit: according to the Definitive Vocals Credits thread (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,5525.msg69109.html#msg69109) it's him. So not sure exactly where the info comes from but I'm sure if you went through the original thread it would have been discussed.

Here's one more vote in favor of Bruce... GOK as well as Cal Girls (even though that wasn't in the original question).

Where did "Brooth" originate? OSD? More important... why does anybody else ever use it?

More important than that, how could somebody who calls himself a fan start a thread saying that there's a flaw with Bruce's vocal on God Only Knows, that it "grates the ears, sounds off-pitch, nasally, and doesn't blend with Brian & Carl"?

I noticed that too, but hadn't had the time to post it. The bridge doesn't bear similarities, it's an unconscious total rip-off!


And though I'm not a big Bruce fan, neither of his songs, his voice, or his political views, the tag of GOK is so beautiful it is actually painful to listen to for me in mono from vinyl. It is THAT beautiful!!! The best moment in last year's BB concert was when Bruce came on in the tag, answering Brian (who sang lead in absence of a screen) just like on the mono version.

Just because no one else (literally, no one else lol) shares my sentiment doesn't mean that I'm not a fan.  My ears can't help but feel the way they do  ;)

Not liking the vocal is one thing, but saying it is flawed when it is not, is just wrong. People will call you out if your facts are flawed. ;)

Ah, I see what you say!  :) I suppose the I find the blend of voices in the GOK tag not to my taste, to put it better.  I have always heard something off-pitch when he sings "without" the first time--but I showed it to my dad, and he didn't really hear anything off-pitch.  Honestly, I've begun to question whether it is off-pitch, and not just "off-blend"...whatever it is, it still really turns me off.
Forgive my dramatic post--it seems mostly a matter of taste.  :-D

I like Bruce's vocal on GOK, but I really like his vocals on the Smile version of Wonderful.

To me, Bruce is the perfect backup singer for these types of tags.  His voice is melodious and pretty and doesn't dominate the section of the song but when you hear it, you realize it's perfect.

yeah, I don't get it. Not only is it lame and gratuitously disrespectful, it's utterly childish. I just don't get it.

Bruce can be a d--k, but he has a voice and presence that perfectly suited the group when he first replaced Brian on the road, and  still does. He's no more or less cheesy than either Mike or Al and has just as much, if not more, natural musical ability than both. IMO.

It came from OSD and was (just like he) very childish and not befitting an individual of his (claimed) age.

He sure can be!


The "still does" part is where I beg to differ. Case in point: His lead vocal on the song "Wendy" on the C50 tour. Example" C50 CD. Very weak.

Bruce doesn't do a lot during the Mike & Bruce shows. Sing a couple of leads, a few backgrounds, walk across the stage smiling, waving, and clapping his hands. Then back to the keyboard to adjust his microphone a few times. Then back to being a dick to a few fans with verbal sparring and unwillingness to sign an autograph....

I love how Bruce sounds on Wendy on the 50th Anniversary Tour cd.

haha - ok, yeah. you have a point. Still, I'm glad he's still around and involved. (although of course I'd much rather see him with ALL the beach boys, not just M&B....)

Really? He sounds like he has a chronic lung deficiency.

I'm not sure what "OSD" is...but I just said "Brooth" cause I saw someone else say it and it made me laugh--didn't intend for it to be really mean (likewise with my entire initial post).  :-D  So...what's "OSD"?

I'm with ya, Tim!  :)

Short for oldsurferdude. He was a member here for years until just recently when his shenanigans led to the banhammer.

It is funny how Bruce seemed to consistently struggle with the Wendy lead during the C50 tour, yet did very well with Disney Girls which is surely a more challenging song to sing lead on.

I found that strange too. He sings what, 4 lines total in Wendy and sounds like a bronchitis sufferer at 3,000 feet but on Disney Girls he sounded consistently great. Weird.

Oh, great news to me! >:D What did he do now?

His voice has thinned out a bit, but wasn't he ill for part of the tour, too? Wouldn't put it past ol' Joe-Tom to have this recording and say, "Bruce was sick? Fuck it, we can fix that with a few filters right quick. I got places to be, man. In front of the bathroom mirror, the hair salon etc."

Agreeeeeeeeed   

Is he gone for good?
He contributed such positive things when he wasn't repetitiously voicing his dislike of the Love

Yes, for good. I agree that he did contribute some great material to the board, but the fact remains that his constant badgering of some members became disruptive after a while.

He did? Missed that. Went unnoticed from me.



I didn't notice that either - must have avoided reading his posts after I got fed up with his childish "Myke and Brooth" bashing. I mean, I don't like everything those two do either, but man, "Awldsyfahdood" had a really childish attitude that got on my nerves.

Did you apply the 1 week - 1 month - permanent rule on him?

It was applied, yeah.

Ha - not sure how "Brooth" is funny (to each his own I guess), but this reminds me of when I was 12 and I called another kid in class a "dildo" having heard it somewhere and thinking that it was just another way of saying "idiot".  The teacher overheard and called my parents.

Well that makes sense, because I find your story funny, even at 23.  :-D

Reminds me when I was 10 or so and calling my brother a jerk-off in front of my mother and father. I had no idea what the term really meant, as I just thought it was a cooler way of just calling him a jerk, which he was being at the time. ;)

haha - "cooler way of just calling him a jerk" - that is hilarious.  :lol

I didn't pay attention and missed the week and month bans, that's why I'm surprised to find him permabanned.

I think he hides cold Pacifico's under his keyboard seat! Beer does (short term) wonders for the throat actually!

Micha, you seem to be wallowing in the details of OSD's banning(s) and savoring it. Remember, there are some on this board who never had a problem with OSD, including myself. I appreciated his stories of Beach Boys fandom and his joking around and he was good for a few laughs. I'm really surprised he was banned for the final time and it's very unfortunate that it had to come down to that.

I will miss OSD as well. Things don't be the same without his jokes.

My impression is that OSD is probably a decent fellow in person, but DAMN was that childish language irritating. It's unfathomable to me that a grown man thinks it's funny or clever to spell the names of people that he dislikes phonetically.

It doesn't ruin it for me (far from it), but I can't help but hear Bruce's voice and think "that's not The Beach Boys," as ridiculous as that sounds, since he's been in the band for almost 50 years. The rest of the guys can sound alike. Mike can sound like Dennis, who can sound like Brian, who can sound like Carl or Al. Bruce just sounds like, well, Bruce.

I actually prefer Bruce's leads more than his backups. That way I can just say, "this is a Bruce song" rather than, "Oh, that's Bruce on a Beach Boys song."

I'm also a weirdo who's not a big fan of half of Smile, Friends and Smiley Smile. So, feel free to dismiss my opinion.

Well, the guy who wrote Barry Manilow's biggest hit says Friends is wimpy, so feel free to dislike some of it.

I don't mind Bruce one way or the other. He's harmless. But you're right, he really does stick out from the rest. And not in a cool way like Blondie did, either.

That's actually a good point. And I love the Blondie and Ricky era. Sail on Sailor and Hold on Dear Brother are two of my favorite Beach Boys songs. Maybe you're right, Blondie just sounds cooler than Bruce.

But those songs are also a very different style, obviously. It's not like you're getting a random bit of Blondie in California Girls or God Only Knows.

It's impossible to describe what I mean. But I get a mid-70s cheese when I hear Bruce, even in 60's Beach Boys.

Oddly, I also really like the Bruce & Terry stuff and think Deirdre and Disney Girls are good songs. It's just always a little jarring to hear Bruce in the mix with the rest of the Beach Boys.

To me, I'm not ever sure Bruce wasn't created in a lab! The Beach Boys needed a new Beach Boy, so they all donated blood and some team of Capitol Records scientists put Bruce together via the other Beach Boys DNA..... He's second only to Ron Wood as the most perfect replacement guy in music history.

He was witty for sure but I never understood how a guy who claimed to be such a big Beach Boys fan could spend so much time running on about how much he hates Mike Love, how Mike had no talent etc... Mike co-wrote lots of their songs and sings about 50% of their catalog - you can't seperate the two, you can't block out Mike's voice when you listen to their stuff.  OSD should be very happy on the Mullet board where you can't have a BB chat without the Myke bashers charging in and stinking up the thread.

Always liked Bruce in the vocal blend, though I don't care for his songwriting.

GOK with Bruce is perfect.

Never liked OSD or his stupid "Myke and Brooth" talk.  Good riddance.

100% agreed. Except I'd add Kenney Jones to the list. Kidding.

Bruce added a very important yet sometimes subtle element to the background vocal blend. He would usually sing the very highest part, sometimes really, really way up there. Bruce had, and still has from what I heard on the 50th tour last year and the new album, the ability to sing this super high, pure falsetto. And Brian knew how to very cleverly take advantage of it with his background vocal arrangements. It added a certain fullness and upper-end sheen to the blend. You can really hear it more clearly on some of the vocals only mixes.

I'm not a big a fan of his lead vocals, but heck, how many singers would fare well against the likes of Carl Wilson or Brian in his prime? But I think too often Bruce's role gets shrugged off as superfulous or insignificant, when I think his voice was often very integral to that full, magical BB blend that we all love so much.

His falsetto is still very strong, though you don't see him flex it, unless it's the end of Fun Fun Fun. It would be interesting to know just how strong his falsetto actually is.
His voice isn't too strong in the natural register anymore however. It's like he can't get enough air out while he's singing, though he can still hit all the notes.

That is an accurate observation. ;D Yes, I'm really curious what events led to his bannings. Even though personally I'm glad he's gone I can't remember him insulting other board posters so harshly that it would justify a ban, maybe those postings were deleted.

Of course I sincerely respect the opinions of everybody who enjoyed the less childish postings from him.

Sorry for the late answer, somehow I had overlooked this thread for a while.