The Smiley Smile Message Board

I wonder if Brian just happily went along with Murry's idea for speeding up the song (and if Brian actually truly thought this was a good idea), or if he just did it to shut his dad up as a quick fix. I don't think Brian sounds "younger", just a bit different and unfortunately, not like his actual self.

I, for one, find it hard to listen to the sped-up album version, especially once I heard the original-speed version, which is just that much more real and heartbreaking. Brian's emotions in his voice come through more nuanced and real in the normal version.

 As my 12 year old ears heard the LP on first release, I never gave it a second thought, I was just SO happy grooving along...

I completely agree.

What's funny is that when the band dusted the song off in 1971, it was performed in the original key. Clearly Carl thought the original key was better as well. I'm torn. There's something about the released version that feels more vulnerable than the non-speeded up version, but maybe that's just due to years of listening to it as opposed to the version at the original speed.

Probably what you are used to hearing.     I like the slow version of Its Over Now better than the normal speed heard on the last box set.   but I do also like the original speed Caroline No

I'm surprised that the band has not released the original speed version of Surfin' (or have they at some point?)

It's been dusted off since Lost and Found.

Is the original speed Surfin' on there? If so, I must have totally forgotten.

Side note: I always felt like I heard some unknown instrumentation on Surfin', something that almost sounds like an organ (though I'm sure it can't be)... right around the "only way for me" chorus bit.  I can never figure out if that's a vocal or something else that seems to be doubling the vocal line melody. Has anyone heard what I'm referring to?

Murray sped up Breakaway as well. He also had Carl sing the entire song.

Weren't some of Brian's vocals from the early 70s sped up too to try and make him sound more like his early 60s self?

ie.  Coda of Surf's Up ("A children's song, have you listened?")

Til I Die ("I've lost my way, hey hey hey")

Intro to California Saga: California ("On my way to sunny Californ-i-a") 

I think he sounds a lot like Al on all three of these occasions.  Were these vocals sped up, or did his voice just start sounding like this at the time.  I thought Peter Carlin mentioned in Catch a Wave that these were sped up.

That's Al, not Brian.


Recorded in '69. Brian still sounded like his old self.

BTW, I have a theory that what we hear on Pet Sounds is the backing track of "Caroline, No" sped up, with Brian singing to the sped-up track. Brian's vocal on the original-speed version that's on The Pet Sounds Sessions actually sounds like a slowed-down record; his voice does not sound natural on that...

I think that may possibly be your mind playing tricks with you, maybe because as fans we all went into hearing the PSS original speed version knowing it was slowed down from the sped up LP version we had heard for decades... I think it sounds normal.

I dunno...I always thought Carl's voice sounded weird on "It's Over Now," but when I heard the sped-up version on a bootleg, his voice sounded perfectly normal...and it suddenly became aware to me that it was a WOMAN singing the short bridge!