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Smiley Smile Stuff => General On Topic Discussions => Topic started by: Smilin Ed H on August 15, 2015, 10:51:35 AM



Title: Constant Companion
Post by: Smilin Ed H on August 15, 2015, 10:51:35 AM
What the hell is this about?


Title: Re: Constant Companion
Post by: bgas on August 15, 2015, 11:30:55 AM
What the hell is this about?

Hey, It's your thread, you tell us


Title: Re: Constant Companion
Post by: c-man on August 15, 2015, 02:27:15 PM
Carli has said it's about the idea that we have "spiritual companions", like a guardian angels, or maybe God, traveling through life with us.


Title: Re: Constant Companion
Post by: Moon Dawg on August 15, 2015, 05:35:02 PM
 I'd like to love this one but it never did much for me. Not bad though. Would have been OK as a BAMBU track.

 To elaborate, BAMBU would have been inferior to PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE in every way. Dennis's voice was shot and the tunes as a whole weren't quite up to the majesty that is PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE.

 I believe the best remaining BAMBU tracks should have been used to improve KEEPIN' THE SUMMER ALIVE, as "Baby Blue" and "Love Surrounds Me" solidified L.A. Imagine a side 2 of KTSA going something like this: "Goin' On", "Love Remember Me, "It's Not too Late", "Endless Harmony, "Still I Dream Of It". The fading keyboards of "Not too Late" segue perfectly into Bruce's opening tinkling on "Endless Harmony." Commercial fate aside, that would have been 1/2 of a very good 1980 album by The Beach Boys.


Title: Re: Constant Companion
Post by: Smilin Ed H on August 16, 2015, 02:45:54 AM
Thanks (as ever)  bgas!

Gotcha, c-man - that was what I suspected. I'm fiddling with cover art for my custom LA and need to find some sort of relevant image that doesn't look like it's an ad for some awful bible channel aimed at dimwits.

And... from what we have, I don't think Bambu would have been as good as POB either, like it though I do. Constant Companion is replacing She's Just Out to Get You on my custom LA (which had replaced something else - Shortenin' Bead, maybe...)


Title: Re: Constant Companion
Post by: Dudd on August 16, 2015, 03:02:45 AM
Yeah, on the whole the Bambu stuff doesn't touch POB, but this one's a highlight. The Dumb Angel Rarities version opens with 50 completely gratuitous seconds of percussion, which might be why I prefer it.


Title: Re: Constant Companion
Post by: rogerlancelot on August 16, 2015, 06:25:05 PM
I listen to the Legacy edition now and then and I'm really glad they cut out the intro percussion on "Constant Companion". I think it would have made a great opening track to any album but I wouldn't have wasted it on KTSA.

I love the Bambu tracks they gave us (my favorite is "Are You Real?") and usually spin that second disc more than the first although I love it all. Would like more, please (and less BB outtakes like "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Summer In Paradise (Live)" - still sucks ass, etc.).


Title: Re: Constant Companion
Post by: kwebb on August 17, 2015, 01:04:26 AM
Love Remember Me is my favorite Bambu track by a longshot


Title: Re: Constant Companion
Post by: Smilin Ed H on August 17, 2015, 01:07:32 AM
I listen to the Legacy edition now and then and I'm really glad they cut out the intro percussion on "Constant Companion". I think it would have made a great opening track to any album but I wouldn't have wasted it on KTSA.

I love the Bambu tracks they gave us (my favorite is "Are You Real?") and usually spin that second disc more than the first although I love it all. Would like more, please (and less BB outtakes like "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Summer In Paradise (Live)" - still sucks ass, etc.).

I believe that at one point there was a possibility of it being on LA not KTSA


Title: Re: Constant Companion
Post by: Smilin Ed H on August 17, 2015, 01:09:29 AM
... but yeas, it would've been wasted on KTSA where there isn't much of that quality (excepting Goin' On and Santa Ana Winds, the latter of which should also have been on LA, making KTSA more of a stinker).


Title: Re: Constant Companion
Post by: Jay on August 17, 2015, 01:22:54 AM
I truly believe that if Bambu had been completed and released, Constant Companion would have been a MONSTER hit single. It has "commercial" and "radio friendly" written all over it. It's a perfect mix of funk and soul, with a bit of Latin influence. It's got great lyrics, and a very good vocal from Dennis(one of his best from this period, in my opinion). I can just imagine cruising down the highway in a 1970's muscle car with this song blasting on the radio. It's anything and everything the disco version of "Here Comes The Night" tried to be, and failed. 


Title: Re: Constant Companion
Post by: Ian on August 17, 2015, 04:04:18 AM
I'm drawn to the melancholy "cocktails ." There is something infinitely sad and haunting about it.


Title: Re: Constant Companion
Post by: Ed Roach on August 17, 2015, 05:32:31 PM
I truly believe that if Bambu had been completed and released, Constant Companion would have been a MONSTER hit single. It has "commercial" and "radio friendly" written all over it. It's a perfect mix of funk and soul, with a bit of Latin influence. It's got great lyrics, and a very good vocal from Dennis(one of his best from this period, in my opinion). I can just imagine cruising down the highway in a 1970's muscle car with this song blasting on the radio. It's anything and everything the disco version of "Here Comes The Night" tried to be, and failed.  

Does my heart good to read this!  I've often told the story of walking in to Brother very shortly after Dennis recorded the scratch vocal for this, and telling him he had a song that had chart potential.  He got real aggressive with me, and told me only Carly should sing this song!  He proceeded to have Carly do it on stage, when the back up band for The Boys were the openers before they backed Charles Lloyd - then went on to do a Beach Boy set!  (Where did Carly, Bobby, Billy, Eddie, Sterling & those guys get the energy?)

I think Carly is a little more comfortable singing it today - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKjw70Xmfds - but I'll never forget Dennis & I first hearing him do the song at The Come Back Inn in Venice...


https://www.facebook.com/roachclips68


Title: Re: Constant Companion
Post by: wantsomecorn on August 17, 2015, 07:20:38 PM
I truly believe that if Bambu had been completed and released, Constant Companion would have been a MONSTER hit single. It has "commercial" and "radio friendly" written all over it. It's a perfect mix of funk and soul, with a bit of Latin influence. It's got great lyrics, and a very good vocal from Dennis(one of his best from this period, in my opinion). I can just imagine cruising down the highway in a 1970's muscle car with this song blasting on the radio. It's anything and everything the disco version of "Here Comes The Night" tried to be, and failed.  

Does my heart good to read this!  I've often told the story of walking in to Brother very shortly after Dennis recorded the scratch vocal for this, and telling him he had a song that had chart potential.  He got real aggressive with me, and told me only Carly should sing this song!  He proceeded to have Carly do it on stage, when the back up band for The Boys were the openers before they backed Charles Lloyd - then went on to do a Beach Boy set!  (Where did Carly, Bobby, Billy, Eddie, Sterling & those guys get the energy?)

I think Carly is a little more comfortable singing it today - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKjw70Xmfds - but I'll never forget Dennis & I first hearing him do the song at The Come Back Inn in Venice...


https://www.facebook.com/roachclips68

Thanks for sharing that Ed, it's cool to see him singing his own song.


Title: Re: Constant Companion
Post by: puni puni on August 17, 2015, 08:55:02 PM
What are the chords? Sounds like it's in G


Title: Re: Constant Companion
Post by: Steve Latshaw on August 19, 2015, 11:14:17 AM
I'd be curious to hear, from our guests, what the general reaction was from Dennis, Carl, etc., when the planned Beach Boys Constant Companion single was vetoed in favor of the disco Here Comes the Night.



Title: Re: Constant Companion
Post by: CenturyDeprived on August 19, 2015, 01:37:44 PM
I truly believe that if Bambu had been completed and released, Constant Companion would have been a MONSTER hit single. It has "commercial" and "radio friendly" written all over it. It's a perfect mix of funk and soul, with a bit of Latin influence. It's got great lyrics, and a very good vocal from Dennis(one of his best from this period, in my opinion). I can just imagine cruising down the highway in a 1970's muscle car with this song blasting on the radio. It's anything and everything the disco version of "Here Comes The Night" tried to be, and failed.  

Does my heart good to read this!  I've often told the story of walking in to Brother very shortly after Dennis recorded the scratch vocal for this, and telling him he had a song that had chart potential.  He got real aggressive with me, and told me only Carly should sing this song!  He proceeded to have Carly do it on stage, when the back up band for The Boys were the openers before they backed Charles Lloyd - then went on to do a Beach Boy set!  (Where did Carly, Bobby, Billy, Eddie, Sterling & those guys get the energy?)

I think Carly is a little more comfortable singing it today - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKjw70Xmfds - but I'll never forget Dennis & I first hearing him do the song at The Come Back Inn in Venice...


https://www.facebook.com/roachclips68

Both Constant Companion and School Girl could have been hits. Lots of hit potential there.

School Girl especially sounds to have been crafted with hit song + radio play specifically in mind, to my ears.