The Smiley Smile Message Board

1) Apologies if this has mentioned before, but on "Johnny Carson" Mike is doing a take off of Mick Jagger, yes? "Microphone" "manly tone",  etc

2) Wiki says the BV is Carl, but that nasal tone sounds like Brian circa 1977 to me

BVs sound like Brian, Al and Carl to me--all three. Note that they're in harmony. But it could be several different Brians as well. I'm assuming of course that you mean the bvs in the verse: "Joh_nny, Car_son."

As for your observation about Mike pulling a Mick, never noticed it before but I think you're right!

I always wonder if some vocals were planned for the bridge on this song - where you just get repeated piano chords on the offbeats before the final coda. It sounds like one of the bits of SMiLE or Smiley Smile where Brian played basic piano to keep tempo in the initial recording, and then put some mind-blowing vocal wizardry over it at the overdub stage. Well, Johnny Carson is not as complex as something from SMiLE, but you know what I mean. It's crying out for an interesting Brian vocal arrangement with passing chords to play off those repeated stacatto piano jabs, before you go into the coda to finish up the song. But maybe he just never got round to it.

Or, who knows, maybe he just liked it that way. I can also imagine bearded mid-70s bear-Brian doing that. "Now... bridge, lemme see... uh. Piano. ...*Yeah*. JUST piano!! [gruff cigarette-addled laugh] Hah-hah-hah-hah! I'm outta here guys, I gotta go meet Danny Hutton...!"

I should really have written "co-vocals" in the OP because I'm thining of the "Ed McMahon comes on and says "Here's Johhny"" verse, which to me sounds like Brian but wiki seems to think is Carl

Because it is ?

It's Carl.