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While I was looking through the "Let's Go Away..." thread, I was inspired to make this one. I considered posting my question in that thread, but I didn't want to "hijack" it. My question is about a specific lyric. Everybody I have ever talked to, and every lyric website, states that the lyric is "The theme of U Say Asee", a mangled pronunciation of "USA". In all the years that I've been listening to the song, I have never heard "U Say Asse". Any and every time I've listened to the song I've heard it as "Greasy Ah Say", as in a reference to Greece. I've also heard it this way in every single live version of this song as performed by The Beach Boys. On the "In Concert" album, and on every bootleg I've heard. I've always heard a very distinct "G" sound. Does anybody else here hear it the way I do? Has anybody here heard the isolated vocal track, to confirm the exact specific lyric? This has been driving me crazy for years now.

Probably just from the background vocals going "funky pretty, pretty funky" at the same time as Carl's lead.

That's what I've always heard as well. So there are at least two of us. 

Thank you!  ;D I especially hear it on the "In Concert" album.

Have you consulted the official lyric sheet included with the Holland album?

Make it three!

4.

Could it be Greasy Icee? As in, greasy Beach Boy hands at a burger stand (greasy from haven eaten a burger) holding an Icee frozen drink?  ;D

 :lolI thought it was "Greasy Ass-y"  :lol

I don't have it on vinyl, so no.

Lyrics are in the 1990 and 2000 reissues. I never heard it as anything but "Usay Ass Eee"... but it did take me about as long to work out that meant USA as it did to twig the cover of the album was printed upside down. That is, about five years...

Going all the way back to when I first bought the album in Jan 1973 (which still has the shrink wrap on it with a $3.95 price tag from The Wherehouse) ($21.09 in today's dollars) I have always heard it as "Gree See Ah See".

When looking at the lyric sheet I've always considered the "U Say Asee" to be some type of bizarre misprint, and until reading this thread today had never considered that it could stand for "USA".

Anyway, there is absolutely no way Carl is singing "U Say Asee". He's singing, without a doubt, "Gree See Ah See". (And I'm sure Stamos would agree.)

While "U Say Ah See" may have been part of the original lyrics (from Mike, and/or Jack), it's easy to see why Carl would have changed it to a reference to Greece, given that two cities in the US, "Los Angees" and "Manhattohsee," already take up one quarter of the places mentioned, making a reference to Greece a much more logical lyrical choice than an additional reference to the US.

So how are BW and band singing it in concert today? Hopefully they're going with Carl's "Gree See Ah See" and not the published lyric, which was never sung on the original recording.

Edit: Thanks Ognir for starting this thread, and I agree with your comments below:

Thanks for your thoughts on this. For as long as I can remember hearing the song, I always heard a "g" in there. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one.  ;D

I've noticed that more than one live version leaves out this bit...

I've never heard a version without that part.

Don't worry your not the only one, took me a very long time until I realised that too

I find it very hard to hear the lyrics of the middle eight of "Funky Pretty" as anything other than toe-curlingly embarrassing, one of my least favourite lyrical moments in the entire catalogue.  Cracking tune, mind.

Yeah it's pretty funky dumb.

+1. Love the song otherwise though.

A most provocative statement, the more so because it's entirely erroneous.

Has anybody heard the isolated vocal?

No need. It's the bvs causing a non-existent audio artefact. If you tweak it with a graphic, you'll clearly hear Carl sing U, not G.

As you were. I must have missed it the first time round----not paying attention as usual.:thud

I have to agree. Listen with headphones on.

I have. I still hear a "g" sound. More so on live versions of the song.

You're right, I listened the ´73 live version and there he seems to sing that "g" there. But in the studio version I don't hear it.

sounds like Greece-ee-ah-see to me too. makes sense after the line about gay Paris-see. there's really no mistaking the "ee" sound of Greece even if you don't hear the Gr... it's not an "oo" sound.

also there's no background vocals during that section on In Concert and it still sounds like Greece. because it is.

I hear it (in the studio version) more like "Uh-See", no "oo" but no "g" or "ee" aswell.

Ah, the mystery of the human body. Exact same recording, diametrically opposed conclusions. Splendid.  ;D

I suppose that the infamous "power of suggestion" is also at play here. The brain hears what it's told to.

I wonder... I'm trying to hear G, really I am, but I can't. Of course, subconsciously I know it's not there, so that must be a factor.

 Can we just all agree that this section of lyrics is incredibly awful and move on?

I have no problem with these lyrics (whatever they are).

They remind me of the last free-associating lines of "The Black Angel's Death Song" from the Velvet Underground's debut album:

"Start the game I chee chee chee chee I
Chee chee ka tak koh
Choose to choose
Choose to choose, choose to go" 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgAn0AEqgsc

For a different experience, I would suggest listening to the "In Concert" version, around 2:18

No mystery, really. Your inability to hear the "Gr" in "Greece" simply means you're suffering from poor auditory discrimination. My condolences!  ;D

 :lol

Greasy Ossie.

Greecie-Lassie. I just remembered that's the way I heard it back when a heard a lot better. I'll trust my younger self.

My dear sir, I have never discriminated against anything or anyone, I'll have you know !  ;D

Eh... OK, except maybe f*ckwits and sh*tweasels. Maybe.

Am I correct in saying Brian played piano and drums on this track?

Correctamundo.

On the topic of stuff misheard: for years, I thought the bvs on the second chorus of "Trader" was "And they believed him": sounded like it, and it fit the rest of the lyric. Then, when scheduled to do a live rendition at a BB fan gathering and having Jack's email addy, I decided to double check. Back came the answer:

"They don't believe our deity".

Ah. And um.  :o

My point: what you think you're hearing isn't necessarily what you actually hearing.

My second point: listened to "FP" again. There's no "g". None at all. Nada. Zilch. Diddly with a light frosting of squat.  ;D

Thought so but wasn't sure if I just made that up in my head.
Thanks Andrew

More of interest to me: At the end of FP, does the background part (Brian?) say “Someday come back” or “Funky come back”? Or neither?

Brian, and it's "Funky come back".

Thanks AGD.

Where in the song does that occur? I've never noticed it.

As best I can render it, on the closing round, when Blondie (?) sings "Funky.... I still remember funky pretty", in the gap Brian sings (deep in the mix and mostly in one channel) "funky come back, funky come back." It's most audible, to me at any rate, at 3.28.

Or is it "greasy ah see" ? Confussed.

OK, now we have clear proof, Andrew, that you simply lack the ability to hear the obvious "G" sounds in this song. Despite that fact that roughly 90% percent of the posters in this thread hear the "G" in "Greece-ee-oss-ee," you have stubbornly maintained that there is no such sound. And now you claim, at the end of Funky Pretty, that Brian is singing "Funky Come Back," when the fact of the matter is that he is clearly singing "Gunky come back!"  ;D

Touché, monsieur pussycat.

Oh man, this brings back memories of learning that for LONG PROMISED ROAD.  John Perry took great delight in reminding us to sing "they don't believe our deity" at every opportunity.  I can't recall who put us hip to the right words.

The King of Greasy Gunky....FP as dishwashing liquid commercial.

Agreed.

**koff**

  Who is the primary culprit for these words? Mike Love or Jack Rieley? Brian Wilson? All three?

Sounds Mikey to me. Great lyrics.

Given his previous track record, gotta be Jack.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who, spurred by this discussion, went back and looked in detail at the lyrics to this song with fresh eyes.

.....Wirestone is right. Good lord.

Maybe they *should* switch over to "Leaving this Town" on the current BW tour.....  :lol

I find Leaving This Town plods. It would seriously slow any concert. And if it meant not hearing Wild Honey by Blondie, I would be most upset. Just my opinion.

I would say the studio version of "Funky Pretty" kind of plods too. The live version does have more energy.

I wouldn't say "Leaving this Town" plods so much as simply is a slower mid-tempo ballad type of song. Musically, I find "Leaving this Town" more interesting than "Funky Pretty." More interesting chord changes, and better group harmonies, etc. A good marriage of Blondie's voice/sound and the BBs.

What we really need is a version of FP channeled through LOVE YOU--the missing link between Brian's "funky" writing style in '71-'72 and the up-tempo "grea-selassie" (as in the Ethiopain emperor, with or without clothes--your choice!) that "gr(e)aces" so many of LOVE YOU's up-tempo tracks.

They could let Al sing the lead, thereby ensuring that in concert it was never, EVER sung with the "correct" lyrics...  :hat

Not if they played it as an encore. :hat

What is the meaning of the lyrics at all ? I never really got it (Sorry, I´m German, that´s not my mother language).

In the whole song or only that section?

In the whole song, but especially that section.

He's in love with an awesome Pisces woman who's ethereal and into astrology. She's away but she'll be back when the 'aspects' (the astrological signs) indicate that 'back' is where she should be. 'That' section is mainly nonsense listing places that she goes at which she's the most awesome person.

Ok, thanks.

   I've never understood the fascination some have with this tune. It's a throwaway with grimace inducing lyrics. Everything "Marcella" was, "Funky Pretty" is not. HOLLAND's only blemish.

  The live version is better.

Bad lyrics? Sure. Better live? Maybe. Throwaway?! Hell no!

I'm going to agree with you on this one.  The song has grown on me a bit, but I think it's still the weakest track on Holland by far. 

Holland might be said to have its imperfections but in my opinion "FP" isn't one of them. The coda is one of the album's crowning glories! If only more albums ended in such fine style...

Agreed. Leaving This Town is my least favourite track on this - in fact it's my least favourite BB Chaplin/Fataar number. I still like it, however.

Leaving this town has very clever piano harmonies, the bass is very Brian-like, the song structure is interesting and I love the Moog solo.


Funky Pretty is also very clever (I´m musician myself), the ascending bass line is very fine and all the vocal-functions are really good. And again the Moog fits in perfectly. The song has - like Leaving this town (and before "Here she comes" and "Hold on dear brother") very much soul > thanks to Ricky and Blondie.

"Leaving" has the (almost) unique distinction in Beach Boy Land of a central instrumental workout over a repeating pattern ("Feels Flows" is the other.)

And does any other BB song end the way "Funky Pretty" does? It really builds up a head of steam, not least thanks to Mr Chaplin.

Songs like Leaving This Town, Steamboat, and The Trader made me really sad that they didn't keep this version of the group together longer. 

Going from stuff like that to 15 Big Ones.  Wow. 

My favorite part of the live Funky Pretty are the drums.

I prefer the live versions of the Ricky/Blondie era songs. There is a sense of urgency and additional soul that the studio versions lack.

"Songs like Leaving This Town, Steamboat, and The Trader made me really sad that they didn't keep this version of the group together longer. 
Going from stuff like that to 15 Big Ones.  Wow. "

After Carl & the passions and Holland, 15 Big ones was exactly the reason that I turned my back on the Beach Boys for several years !
I also love the Ricky and Blondie time. Ricky was / is a fantastic drummer. Yes, live it was even better.

Well of course Blondie and Ricky were long gone by the time of 15 Big Ones--Carl had lost his writing impetus, Dennis had decided to save his stuff for a solo LP, Brian was heavily intermittent in 1973-75. All of this underneath a massive comeback and return to prominence that further distanced themselves from the direction they'd taken with CATP and Holland.

Funky Pretty moves on from Mess of Help by applying Moog in place of guitar as the dominant instrumental tonality; it has one of the longest "tags" to be found in their work, in what was the overlapping vocals style of arrangement that had come to the fore as a replacement/alternative for more conventional harmonies. The section that elicited the question, however, contains a truly fey vocal delivery from Carl that's a 180 from the grit on Mess of Help; and, as with SOS, it's Blondie who picks up the slack and provides the funk, soul and fire that Carl seems to have mostly backed away from on Holland.

Well said!!!!