Print Page - Has anyone heard any of the new boots as mentioned here?

Here are some comments on All This is That I posted on another board (which no longer exists), and some observations on In the Beginning:

All This Is That, the new Sea of Tunes boot, is a superb collection of outtakes, many of which were first heard during that “Busy Doin’ Somethin’” Beach Boys convention several years ago, and some subsequently appeared on the MP3 sourced Get the Boot collection. In all instances, the songs that are on ATIT are a major sonic upgrade to the same songs on Get the Boot. Most are official release quality. One downside: in addition to the obviously fast Cottonfields vocal track, all of the disc runs 4-5% too fast. Here’s a rundown of what’s on the CD:

1. Time to Get Alone – stereo instrumental track, new to boot. Proof Brian hadn’t lost any of his abilities in the post-Smile/Smiley Smile meltdown.

2. Country Air – stereo mix, new to boot. Narrow stereo, with Brian count-in and some organ noise before the track starts. Organ more to the right, guitar and piano more to the left.

3. Won’t You Tell Me – on Get the Boot, major sound upgrade, narrow stereo with vocals mostly centered. The Get the Boot version has additional studio chatter at the beginning (“Brian and Carl up, background down, mix one”) before the count-in.

4. Tears in the Morning – stereo instrumental track, new to boot, nice wide stereo, with some “tears” backing vocals.

5. Slip on Through – stereo, new to boot. The slate says take 12. Badman claims the final take was 18, with a pickup piece added to the end. This is a vocal take, not the instrumental track on Get the Boot and Dumb Angel Rarities. Listening to the lead vocal, it is identical to the finished vocal on Sunflower, and the ending is intact. It is apparently an underdub tape of the released version, missing some backing vocals and instrumental overdubs. There’s 13 seconds of introductory studio chatter, and the compressed cowbell is buried in the mix. No bongos on the fade. Either Badman is wrong (no big surprise) or take 18 referred to the pickup piece which has been spliced onto take 12, or to the additional instrumental overdubs. An interesting but hardly essential track.

6. When Girls Get Together – stereo instrumental track, new to boot. This is the track from the “Last Capitol Album” tape. I like it better without the vocals but it’s still . . . underwhelming.

7. Cottonfields – stereo vocal only version, new to boot. Runs too fast – there’s a “chipmunks” quality to Al’s vocal, especially in the beginning.

8. All This is That – stereo, alternate version with sax solo, new to boot. From the 93 Red Barn rehearsal for the Good Vibrations box set tour. Carl laughs at someone coming in too early half way through the song, great vocal work by the group, beautiful version.

9. It’s a New Day – stereo, on Get the Boot. This is the Dennis song sung by Blondie that was considered for a toothpaste commercial. A great uptempo song, it would have been a highlight on Carl and the Passions or Holland. There’s studio chatter at the start not on Get The Boot.

10. Hard Times – stereo, on Get The Boot. Recorded after Holland, it’s the best song Blondie and Ricky ever recorded with the Beach Boys – although I don’t know how many Beach Boys were in attendance at the sessions. Would have made a great single after Sail on Sailor!

11. Blueberry Hill – stereo, alternate mix, new to boot. Vocals are up in the mix, you can hear Mike swallow before he starts singing and some background talking at 0:43. A few seconds longer fade than on 15 Big Ones. I’m not a fan of the released track so this is a minor rarity at best.

12. Had to Phone Ya – stereo instrumental track, on Get the Boot. This has the strings that were mixed out on 15 Big Ones. An amazing track up there with some of the best Brian’s done.

13. Palisades Park – stereo, alternate mix, new to boot. Sounds like a rough mix not dissimilar to the released version – the guitar is lower down in the mix.

14. Short Skirts – stereo instrumental track, on Get the Boot. ATIT claims this is the “correct speed,” i.e. previous releases run slow. On GTB it runs 2:46, here 2:41.

15. Shake Rattle and Roll – stereo, on Get the Boot, “corrected speed.” Runs 2:51 on GTB, here only 2:41.

16. Just Once in My Life – stereo instrumental track, new to boot. It’s all piano, synthesizer, guitar and drums, one of the least interesting tracks on 15 Big Ones. For the completist only.

17. Running Bear – stereo, on Get the Boot. Although the liners don’t indicate corrected speed, this runs faster than on GTB – 2:55 vs. 3:01.

18. Let Us Go On Our Way – stereo backing vocals only, new to boot. You can hear the headphone track bleed into the mikes in the beginning. For the hardcore Love You fans.

19. Sherry She Needs Me – stereo “complete” version – this runs 3:01 with a count-in and no fade - comes to a cold stop, with additional singing by Brian until the end, compared to the shorter versions on Dumb Angel Rarities and Vigotone’s Lei’d in Hawaii. The mix is also different – the guitar and horns are higher up in the mix. It’s nice to have this without a fade.

20. The Night was So Young – stereo vocal only version. One of the highlights of this release, new to boot.

21. Shortenin’ Bread – mono alternate mix, new to boot? Same version as on Adult Child (numerous boots) but in mono rather than stereo. No lead guitar, much more prominent Moog bass, fades later but same track length (a quick fade in other words) as the L.A. version.

22. Life is for the Living – stereo instrumental track, new to boot. Amazing, this really swings. Another highlight.

23. It’s Like Heaven – mono alternate version, new to boot – with Rocky on backing vocals and the bridge. It won’t replace the official Spring version that’s been released in anyone’s collection.

24. Our Love – awesome stereo Dennis track that’s been released on various Dennis boots, sound quality a step down from the rest of this CD but still quite good.

25. Da Doo Ron Ron – stereo. Get the Boot has some studio chatter (“what goin’ on”) that’s missing on this, but the step up in sound quality is remarkable.

26. Oh Darlin’ – stereo alternate version – this is the one with the Brian lead vocal, on Get the Boot.

27. Where We Are – stereo, Carl’s 1980 track, on Get the Boot.

In the Beginning:

"In the Beginning" is even more interesting than All This is That, because it has many previously unknown tracks like Marie, Mother May I, and "unknown instrumental."

Disc 1: In the Beginning. The Beginning of the End takes and Visions are better sound quality than on Get The Boot, although still not great. The Usher vocals on One Way Road to Love and My Only Alibi are rough but the cuts are still interesting. Beach Boys are the backing musicians (with David Marks).

Mother May I is a great early style uptempo Beach Boys song, not documented in Brad’s book or Andrew’s sessionography. The Big Beat is mentioned in Brad’s book but only dated to sometime in 1963 – it's a precursor to Do You Remember.

Runaway With You is "Ride Away" - listed by Andrew Doe as recorded 1/18/63 with no vocal recorded, yet here is a duet between a male singer (with a good falsetto, unless Brian provided the falsetto line) and a female singer - probably Bob and Sheri but the female singer sounds stronger than Sheri, more like Sharon Marie, or Ginger of the Honeys. The liner notes, which have several errors as noted above and so are not the most reliable, list the composer credits as Wilson/Norberg/V. Kocher, so maybe the woman singing is Vicki Kocher. Thoroughly enjoyable track on the level of "She Rides with Me."

Marie - this song is not on Andrew's sessionography or the list of unreleased songs. It's reminiscent of The Wanderer and the verses of Pamela Jean, with lead vocal by Brian.

Funny Boy - by the Honeys, lead vocal sounds like Ginger to me. Likely recorded December 1963 (it was copyrighted Dec 18).

Unknown instrumental – This rocks! It has this alternating guitar/piano/sax solo that repeats and is interesting because the guitar solos are way ahead of their time, getting progressively wilder and "Hendrix like" (kind of like Ed Carter's in Bluebirds Over the Mountain. Probably Glen Campbell? Billy Strange wasn't working with the "crew" in 63, was he?).

Hawaii takes - Al on bass and David Marks on guitar!
Rabbit's Foot - also known as Our Car Club, this is session musicians with Hal Blaine on drums.

Little Saint Nick - I remember someone (Brad?) suggesting that Capitol overdubbed the album basic version to make the single version without the participation of Brian, but that clearly is not the case - Murry is playing on the overdubs (vibes or xylophone), along with Al and Brian. Carl and Mike are in the control room as well.

Disc 2: The Garage Tapes - I was surprised to read in Carlin's book about how much home taping Brian was doing of himself and his friends in his high school years prior to and after the Morgan sessions - here's the proof of that. First up are vocal rehearsals of Surfin', before the studio recording, with an acoustic guitar added on track 7. Excerpts of this are on Hawthorne, but this is much more complete. What's interesting is how questions of song credits and money come up, a harbinger of legal hassles to come:

unknown adult: "Who wrote it?"
Dennis: we all did
Brian: Mike and I had a few ideas.
Mike (sarcastic): Yeah, we had a few ideas like the music and most of the words.
Carl: Brian, tell him about that argument . . . (referring to an previous argument about who wrote the song)
Mike: It's not worth arguing about until the coin starts coming in.

Singing are Brian, Mike, Dennis and Carl. Dennis develops hiccoughs, Brian gets mad at him and Dennis gets a drink of water.
Brian: I'm not kidding - I'll get Al Jardine, I swear to God.
Dennis: I get the hiccoughs and you kick me out?
Brian: It's your attitude - he's more experienced, he's willing.
Dennis: So what if Surfin' has hiccoughs on it.

Good News - a female friend is singing this (Carol Mountain? Judy?) and Sloop John B. This is a gospel song about the "chariot's comin' and I don't want it to leave me behind." I"m wondering if this song is the same "Good News" unreleased track Brian recorded during the Smiley Smile sessions! If so, the Beach Boys singing a gospel number like this would have been a great addition to Smiley (perhaps meant to replace the "Prayer" of Smile).

Last track on the Garage Tapes (Murry Directs Brian At The Organ) isn't a home tape at all, it's a Western studio session with Chuck in the control room, Audree present, and Murry on piano and Brian on organ - probably recording a song of Murry's, as he plays the melody.

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Smiley Smile Stuff => General On Topic Discussions => Topic started by: brother john on September 04, 2007, 09:59:33 AM