The Smiley Smile Message Board

I was just wondering if an interview has ever been published or posted with Ed Carter?

Anyone know?

He was interviewed in bb fun years ago. I tried to interview him for my book but he's a pretty private guy. I think he's pretty loyal and not interested in telling anything too revealing

Ed gave me an interview for my Dennis book back in 1999, but as Ian said he's very careful when it comes to on the record quotes. I think the guys from his era had to sign some kind of non-disclosure or privacy agreements when contracted with the group. He was still aware in '99 that whatever he had signed years earlier could be legally dangerous if he revealed too much. I think this was the case with Mike Meros too, who I also interviewed for that book. Mike's  off the record opinions were , shall we say, somewhat colorful...but on the record he kept it similar to Ed, not real deep.

Thanks for the insight guys, I appreciate it.

In this case it may be hard to believe but I was interested in some info regarding Ed as a musician (guitars, amps, influences, etc.) as opposed to a witness to some of the most over the top band drama ever, LOL!

I find him to be an outstanding musician, I wish someone (Guitar Player magazine?) would have interviewed him over the years from that perspective.

The BBFUN interview is pretty good in that respect. It's in two parts. Maybe it's scanned in the media section of this site?

Old interview here.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=894&dat=19970820&id=z7oKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gU0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6477,2965721

Interesting to see that Ed apparently sang backup at times. I always thought he was just an instrumentalist.

Ed can be seen singing backup on "Lady Lynda" from the Midnight Special in '79, as well as all songs at the '81 Long Beach show (when Carl was absent). In the late '80s/early '90s he also doubled Carl on all his backups, IIRC.

When I first saw a clip of the Beach Boys playing with Ed Carter, I thought, wow, who knew David Letterman played with the Beach Boys?   ;D

 :lol

As with Ian, Ed politely declined the offer to participate in my book. I believe Jon is correct about a non-disclosure agreement. But he does speak in Billy Hinsche's 1974 doc.

I recall the bbfun interview. He mentioned some of the Brian sessions circa the LA Album... Brilliant stuff that he regreted was kept unreleased. He describes this carrousel-type effect Brian achieved by having the guitars play slightly off tune.

Let's no forget that Ed wrote a song and rejected ( Surfin' Susie ) for the BB's in the late 70's

Ed also sang Al's part (or was at least an understudy/doubler) for the 1993 Box Set tour for "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring."  There is a rehearsal recording where Al says something like "here is Ed Carter's part" and then sings whole song with his harmony part way up in mix.  Sounded like a recording was made so he could listen and learn with the recording.

Thanks for reminding me of that recording. Pure, unadulterated Al Jardine voice. Sort of makes up for his reluctance to sing his part on the 20/20 program in 1981:

http://youtu.be/0bxqX4FuZnA?t=4m