The Smiley Smile Message Board

I've been trying to figure out how much the BBs contributed instrumentally to their records since BB85.
I have read that that on BB85, the BBs were actually contributing a lot instrumentally. I have read that Carl played a lot of the guitars and keyboards. I have also read that Al played a lot of the instruments on California Calling. From what I've researched, the BBs instrumental contribution on Still Cruisin' was hit or miss. On songs like Kokomo, their contributions are only vocal, but on Island Girl, Carl and Al played guitars. On SIP, Bruce was the only BB to make instrumental contributions, he played keyboards on almost every song I believe. Finally, on TWGMTR I believe David played guitar and Brian played Piano, but the BBs made no other instrumental contributions. Thoughts?

Check out albumlinernotes.com

He's credited with keyboards, but i'd be surprised if he played on more than his own (half) song. Why do you believe he's on almost every song?

It was merely just an assumption, although it is known Bruce is a big fan of that cheesy 80's electric piano sound, which can be found all over the album. Keyboards are also credited to Terry Melcher, Richard Titus, Keith Wechsler, and Van Dyke Parks on the album. I doubt VDP plays very much, probably on a song or two.

I think VDP only appears on the "Jesse & The Rippers" version of Forever.   Which, while not on far with the Sunflower version, really isn't bad. 

I doubt Van Dyke is on that - more likely it's Gary Griffin playing the accordion there, since he produced the track (I think the musician credits on the album only apply to the tracks Terry Melcher produced, and "Forever" is considered more of a bonus track). There's a couple of tracks, like "Remember (Walking In The Sand)" and I thnk "Lahaina Aloha", that probably have VDP accordion and keyboard contributions.

According to the notes, Brian does not play on TWGMTR.