The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hey all,
I was wondering if anyone had any information on the alternate version of "We're Together Again".  The one that has the pedal steel, acoustic slide, and that awesome sounding overdriven instrument which comes in right at the end (I still can't figure out what it is, to be honest!) Who are the musicians?  I'm thinking Brian is most likely on keyboard. I believe it was on Get The Boot but I might be wrong!   

If this is the version I'm thinking of it's one of my favourite unreleased tracks. It's like an early 70s George Harrison outtake. I wish they'd done more in this country vein. When they got it right it had real potential.

Sorry, can't help with the info but would also love to hear more.

deleted.

Thanks for reminding me of this unreleased gem of an instrumental!

I agree it falls very neatly into the 1973-1975 country/folk rock vibe the Boys were attempting. With some touches it would work well with tracks such as Barnyard Blues, Back Home (1970) and Out In The Country.

1974 album:

Side A:

River Song
Hard Times
Out In The Country
Barnyard Blues
We're Together Again (instrumental with different title)
Back Home (1970)


Side B:

California Feelin'
Good Timin'
Had To Phone Ya
It's OK
Pacific Ocean Blues
Holy Man
Carry Me Home



Just something remotly similar to this would be far better than 15BO

Yeah love it!

What is Hard Times? I can't place that one.

Was there ever such a band that squandered so much great unreleased stuff in favour of poorly put together albums?

Uhm, correction.  I believe it is on the Alternate Dumb Angel boot. 
And yes, it is possibly one of my favourite unreleased recordings.  Lovely, lovely, lovely...

I've never heard this alternate version... does someone have a link to it?

the overdrive is on the pedal steel. the acoustic slide is a dobro, also known as an acoustic lap steel or resophonic guitar.

I'd also like to know who the musicians are. I want to say it's Red Rhodes on steel. Brian used James Burton on dobro for Cabin Essence so maybe he's on there too.

has this version ever been synced with vocals? I've only ever heard it as an instrumental backing track.

I really want to hear this.

Would also love to hear a fan mix of vocals on the alt version...

Per the AFM contracts, the musicians on this ALTERNATE (NOT the Beach Boys original as heard on MIC) are:

Jim Ackley (who played keyboards on the "Friends" album)
Jim Burton (paid for guitar & dobro)
Alan Estes (percussionist)
John Guerin (paid for drums, blocks, and percussion)
Mike Rubini (keyboardist)
Al Vescovo (guitarist)
Carl Wilson (by default, I guess he's playing bass)
plus an overdub session or two, mostly for strings, but which also included Orville "Red" Rhodes (pedal steel guitarist) and James Burton, once again paid for guitar & dobro

Can you link to a YouTube clip of this version? I'm trying to ascertain if it's the Pro Tools mix we did of the original version with the unreleased backing track we did back in the pre-Get the Boot days.

As far as I know, there's the Friends/ 20-20 bonus track, the unreleased backing track with the steel and the version on MIC. Could be something else is "out there". I've sort of lost track!  :o

Thank you, C-man!  Boy, it pays to check in here occasionally.  Like OP, I've always wondered about this track...
figured it had players other than the Beach Boys.  I remember now ... a cd called "Lei'd in Hawaii Rehearsal"
(Vigotone 133).  At least that's what I recall from the distant past. Before throwing the cd away.

I believe OP is talking about tracks 11 and 12 on that cd.  Especially track 12.  The instrumental is gorgeous,
such a light touch and expert arrangement.  A remarkable build, leading to that instrument near the end, which
OP mentions.  It almost sounds like a kazoo.

Track 11 is mostly instrumental (a little thinner) but with some backing vocal harmony.

More info please!

 

the instrument near the end is the pedal steel with fuzz tone (but a kazoo would have been kazool  :) )

i'm working on a mix. should have it up soon

There's definitely a mix with vocals (albeit just the backing/chorus harmonies) - I'm listening to it right now. Sounds like an original recording too, not a fan mix.

Yep, I think it's on the SOT U.M. boot "Alternate 20/20" (don't have it with my right now, so can't say for sure).

CM and DB...yes, and it would seem to be track 11 on the Vigotone cd that I mentioned.

I'll try to shut up after this...

The version with the background harmonies seems to be (with a little listening on my part) the full gorgeous instrumental
track--but with much of it mixed down.   Sadly, because the instrumental track alone is so polished, so complete when up front.

 

 

Yes, the pedal steel is mixed wayyy down on the version with background harmonies  unfortunately. The instrumental is a bit "thinner" but you can hear each instrument much more clearly.

here's the track mixed with lead vocals (not perfect but it gives you an idea): https://soundcloud.com/bossaroo/wta-mix

wow, thanks everyone for the information!  Pedal steel with a fuzz tone.  That's awesome.  And I was thinking that was a dobro!  I remember hearing it on the "Lei'd in Hawaii" boot as well but it seems to have appeared on a few others.  Thanks again!!

Many thanks for that mix. Not perfect as you say but gives fine idea of what we migh hav reasonably expected… I hope we get that, perfected of course, officially some day (soon)

Hey all,
I took Bossaroo's lead and created a version of "We're Together Again" using the released vocals and syncing them up with the alternate version of the backing track, just to give us an idea of what it may have sounded like.   Anyway, here is the link:

http://jmp.sh/934GIH3

Hope you enjoy!

First off - I love We're Together Again, it's one of my favorites from the late 60's Brian period.  Second, for any of your who haven't heard a pedal steel with fuzz, it wasn't that uncommon - for example Sneaky Pete Kleinow of the Flying Burrito Brothers used it all the time. 

I'm a huge country rock fan of the late 60's/early 70's LA scene and I have to say this countrified version of We're Together Again doesn't touch the original.   

Thanks for the info Ram4.  I must've heard fuzz pedal steel many times before but didn't know what I was actually hearing 'til now!  I agree, the released version of "We're Together Again" is my favourite version.  I like the gentleness of the production and the string addition found on the MIC boxset is wonderful.  Still, there is something about this countrified version that appeals to me. 

Fantastic! Beach Boys meets the Flying Burritos meets Mike Nesmith.

great job silodweller!

i'm fascinated by this track. the song was Brian's baby wasn't it? so cool that he featured pedal steel and dobro so prominently, even if it never got used.

there are so few instances of Brian using pedal steel. Little Pad and Diamond Head are great but I love the country sound they got here, as opposed to the Hawaiian sound.

makes me want to hear Fred Vail's 'Cows in the Pasture' even more.

I think "Little Pad" is lap steel. Maybe "Diamond Head" too, since lap steel is more associated with the Hawaiian sound, and pedal steel is more for the country sound. Still, steel is steel. :)

Diamond Head is definitely pedal steel. can't say for sure about Little Pad, but it could be either.
it's nearly impossible to get a pedal steel sound out of a lap steel, but pretty simple to get a lap sound out of a pedal steel.

there are 2 tunings most commonly associated with pedal steel, and most double-neck pedal steels are tuned this way...
E9 is the more "country" sounding tuning. C6 is the more Hawaiian sounding and also used more for jazz and western swing.


just for fun, here's a couple Beach Boys tunes I recorded utilizing the two different tunings:

Warmth of the Sun (E9) (https://soundcloud.com/water-and-wine/warmth-of-the-sun)

Don't Talk (C6) (https://soundcloud.com/rscottmurray/dont-talk)

Bossaroo, absolutely love your recordings!  They just take me away to a really cool place.  Well done!

So on "Diamond Head", do you think the pedal steel was played pedal-less? Or can you hear the pedal bends?

the pedals on C6 are used more for getting different chords and less for "bends" as they are on E9.

thanks silodweller  :)

Sounds good but the instrumental track at the end gets obscured by the vocals.  Maybe the vocal could fade out slowly at the end leaving the track more prominent.

Bossaroo...I too loved your two song versions with the steel.  Thank you for sharing.

Bossaroo's pedal steel performances are terrific, I highly enjoy and recommend them!

To Bossaroo: We've talked pedal steel on this board before, I just wanted to pass on the word of a terrific player who I saw live this fall, and also address one of your statements about lap and pedal steel.

I agree, getting pedal steel sounds from a lap steel is tough, but if I had not seen and heard this with my own ears and eyes, I would have thought it was impossible too, but it's not. I saw Chris Scruggs play with Mike Nesmith in November, and Scruggs handled all string duties. He had an old Fender Stringmaster lap steel on stage, at least that's what it looked like from the audience, and I'll be damned if he wasn't getting pedal steel licks out of it. Naturally he was playing many of the parts Red Rhodes had played for Nesmith over a few decades (Rhodes also played pedal steel on 'Cottonfields' for the BB's), and if I didn't know he was playing that old Fender lap I'd swear he was playing a pedal steel.

Incredible player, touch-feel-tone-intonation-volume swells, the whole deal. Bossaroo, especially, check out Nesmith's upcoming live releases from that fall tour to hear Scruggs, it was truly great steel playing from a lap steel. As far as I could tell.

BTW it was the late Al Vescovo on Diamond Head, and it may also have been Al on "Little Pad". He was one of the first call LA steel players, who also played a number of other instruments on studio sessions, and I've heard he was one of the few pedal steel players in that era in Hollywood who could read charts, so he got reading gigs that a lot of Nashville players who read chord charts or number-system head arrangements wouldn't play because of the standard notation. That's what I heard, at least.

Now, I always assumed Diamond Head was done on a non-pedal lap steel, in the Hawaiian traditional technique and sound. Al Vescovo was a jazz steel player, so he was also well-versed on C6, obviously. His last steel before his death was one of those hybrid universal tuning 14-string single neck models, but in the 60's it would have most likely been a regular doubleneck E9/C6 steel.

I don't hear pedal bends on Diamond Head. Definitely not on Little Pad which is a simple gliss/slide part anyway.

But reading this, I'm rethinking it as Bossaroo has said, and thinking it may have been Vescovo playing on a C6 pedal steel neck without using the pedals for bends. I just don't hear 'em, not saying they're not there.

And again, I always thought that was Vescovo playing a lap steel, non-pedal...doesn't the tone sort of sound like a 50's Fender type, with that upper-end twang or "bite" to the tone versus a warmer C6 pedal steel tone? Open for suggestions...

Aside...on my "bucket list" is setting up and learning C6 style jazz on the pedal steel. I've only learned, played, and worked with E9. I'm the one with the Sho-Bud Lloyd Green ps, which has the pad where the C6 neck would be. I also have an early MSA 12-string universal single-neck, but the previous owner had it reset as a 12-string E9 extended tuning copedent, so there are some pedals and rods missing from the case. If I could get that instrument set up as a C6 or equivalent with help and suggestions from other steelers, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I love pedal steel jazz, and among my favorites is the amazing Curly Chalker and of course Al Vescovo. Curly was a genius, absolute genius, and could be more flashy than Vescovo who played more understated. But both of them, for jazz, are tops in my book.

Sorry for rambling. I do that when talking pedal steel.

PS...there is a story about someone who had seen the Beach Boys in the 70's where Steely Dan was on the same bill. The Dan at that time had Jeff "Skunk" Baxter on pedal steel, this had to be '74 as the Dan never toured for decades after that one. So Skunk comes on stage to sit in on pedal steel with the Beach Boys' set, and proceeds to blow away Mike Love with his playing, to the point where Mike says to the crowd how great it was. This coming from the person who saw the show, third-hand information, but still cool.

And as far as the Blondie/Ricky BB's era with pedal steel in their music, according to Ricky as told by someone who worked with him in the 80's (steel forum member), the band bought a pedal steel for Carl to learn and play, but he didn't, so Ricky picked it up instead.

thanks for the compliments, guys. much appreciated.

some great info there gf2002...
I've seen Chris Scruggs in action and he is an absolute mind-blower! as i said, it's "nearly" impossible to get pedal licks on a lap steel but i have no doubt that Scruggs can make it happen.

it was indeed Al Vescovo on Little Pad, and i assume he was using the same steel he used on Diamond Head but there's really no way of knowing now that he's gone. i don't hear any pedal bends on Diamond Head either, but it would be really tough to play all those chords on a non-pedal. i have the song tabbed out for C6 pedal steel somewhere.

i would love to be a better jazz player in general, especially on C6. it's amazing how many of the country steelers in Nashville and elsewhere are also jazz monsters on the C6. Curly Chalker was in a league of his own, but so are guys like Buddy Emmons, Doug Jernigan, Paul Franklin and the list goes on and on. if you haven't seen it yet, they did a tribute to Emmons recently at the Country Music Hall of Fame. check it out HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mTE-caOoq8)

great story about Skunk sitting in with the Boys. lord, how i'd love to hear that set! here's a cool memento from those days:
(http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/ODUwWDcwNQ==/$(KGrHqN,!ikE7Cp3Oq2lBO8innic0Q~~60_35.JPG)

i'm a huge Danfan too, love Skunk's playing. here's another recording i did recently: Aja/Third World Man (https://soundcloud.com/ks-fontes/aja-third-world-man-medley)

i took silodweller's mix and added the extra background vocals:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT9uNkMOdNk

Just listened....great job!

Who is the Ron Wilson who shares the songwriting credit on this track - is it really the drummer of the Surfaris as suggested by Wikipedia?

wow! these sound great guys!! 

darn..... I also wish they did more work in that kinda country/rock genre.... beautiful sounds

RickB

According to AGD, no, and no one has ever been able to track down the correct Ron Wilson who wrote this song.