The Smiley Smile Message Board

There is a part of Al's song "Looking Down the Coast" that sure sounds to me like it was lifted from Brian's "Walkin' the Line", anyone else notice this?

Yeah, I hear the similar sequence, but thought Al had Lookin' Down in the can by the late 70's

1978 i thought, but let's not let small things like temporality get in the way of conjecture.

 :lol

Well, with Al being a Grandmaster of Transcendental Meditation by the late 70s, perhaps while at Maharishi International University in 1978, he was one day surfing the astral/ temporal plane and channeled into the future, and thus heard Brian playing the chord sequence on his piano  ;D .

Or, more factually, looking online, it appears that Looking Down the Coast was originally recorded by Al and the Boys in 1969-70, as it's often included on the so-called Landlocked fan-album  :) .

The Al track definitely pre-dates "Walkin' the Line" (I think the Al track dates from circa 1978 and the "LA (Light Album)" sessions from what I remember), and that bit from "Walkin' the Line" has too many consecutive melodic similarities to not at least subconsciously have been sourced from that.

An indication perhaps that Al wasn't/isn't as sue-happy, or, just as likely, never listened to all of Brian's '88 album.  :lol

The Al track is good, one of his better, more involved productions. Too bad the original BB take has the cheesy 70's synths, while the 2010/2012 version on his solo album, probably recorded at varying moments in the late 90's or 2000's, has kind of cheesy, reverb-laden 80's drums. With some dry drums and a few tweaks, his solo version would be pretty darn impressive.

I think Al's solo album has elements that are some of the strongest of any BB solo set. A remix on some of the tracks pulling out some of the overproduced flourishes (basically all the tinkly bits on the title track, for instance), and maybe chucking at least some of the covers (Rhonda at least), and it could be a minor masterpiece.

Hmm I just noticed that similarity. Has Lookin' Down The Coast ever been officially released aside from Al's solo? I always liked the song but the version I have is very grainy.

There's just the booted circa 1978 version as far as I know. Sound quality on that version isn't too bad, kind of average for that era compared to other circulating material.

I'm curious if it was attempted for inclusion on the MIC set and Al nixed it, or if it wasn't considered.

Thanks for the info, guys. I didn't know the song had been around that long. So how many of the songs on Al's cd are actually "new"?

Too bad that and California Feelin' didn't end up on L.A.  Remove the worst bits of that album (side 2 minus Baby Blue) in place of a few other tracks lying around and you could have a decent if unspectacular album to end the 70's.

Title track, San Simeon and Drivin', I believe.

I love "Looking Down The Coast". I've been noticing a bit in there that actually reminds me of the "clouds in the sky" part of "Airplane". Still probably my favorite Al Jardine song from an era of his crappy covers and unnecessary remakes. "Santa Ana Winds" is very nice too. I could live without "Lady Lynda" if only because it's a rip-off of "Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring". Why don't I just take Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and play it backward and call it a song? Oh, wait, John Lennon did that in 1969 and called it "Because". Roll over, Beethoven!

Although Al does love to take inspiration from other music for his songs, I believe it was Ron Altbach who was responsible for the music for Lady Lynda. Al wrote the words.

Not exactly a prolific songwriter, is he?  ::)

What I'm curious about is that in Brad Elliott's book, there's an unreleased Jardine song listed as "Song of the Whale (Down Along the Coastline)" -- this wouldn't be the same song, would it??? No whales mentioned, but still...

To be fair, he did write other stuff on the "Postcard" album as well. We just know those songs had been largely written years earlier. I don't have any problem if it was written years ago if it's me to me and is a good song. More problematic are self-covers like "Rhonda."

I would guess Al is probably more prolific in writing songs than he is finishing and releasing them.

Don't get me wrong, I find it a very enjoyable cd, probably the only one he will ever do, so maybe the remakes are intended to give the uninitiated some context. But people have said Carl was not a prolific writer - compared to Al he was a Brian Wilson, lol.

"The California grey whales playing there, haven't got a care". So there are whales mentioned. Maybe it is the same song.

I've always loved this song and Brian and Al's vocals.

It’s hard to say. I think a lot of these guys may have *written* a lot more stuff (and possibly recorded more) than they released. We know there are other Al tracks that he has toyed with over the years. I remember he mentioned one called “Crumple Car” back in the late 90’s or early 2000’s.

A quick perusal of lists of songs written by all these guys (solo and collectively) over the years shows they were (and perhaps still are) far more prolific at writing and recording than actually releasing material. 

I’ve always understood that “Song of the Whale” was indeed another title for “Looking Down the Coast.” 

One would hope so. Everyone, no matter how good, needs to edit himself or to be edited by someone else (or both). The best evidence for this are those people who release the most material. A lot inevitably ends up repetitive, boring, half-baked, or just not very good. (That's actually one of the most persuasive arguments against leaking unreleased original material: it's almost the equivalent of someone's sketch book or diary as opposed to finished work. Interesting, but none of our business.)