The Smiley Smile Message Board

Some posts in the Dennis thread inspired me to make this one. I had no idea Ricky played on It's OK. He's listed as one of the drummers on KTSA, so Endless Harmony isn't out of the question, but are there any other KTSA songs or any other CATP or Holland tracks he played on? And for that matter, is all the drumming on CATP and Holland done by Ricky?

He was more or less the drummer on CATP:ST and Holland, yeah.  That era's not my area of expertise so I don't remember all the specifics, but a lot of the basic tracks were just Carl, Ricky, and Blondie "jamming" it out.

Ricky's the drummer on all the CATP musicians contracts.  Ricky says Brian played the drums on "Funky Pretty" b/c Ricky was sick with a bad cold and didn't make the session. 

As for KTSA tracks:  Keepin' The Summer Alive, Sunshine, and Endless Harmony.  Plus some outtakes.

It's Ricky and Dennis drumming together on It's Ok. It's pretty cool. On the four beat, Dennis hits his floor ton instead of the snare, while Ricky hits the snare, creating a killer effect.

The credits for "It's OK" as printed on the album aren't accurate. Many years ago I asked Roy Wood what it felt like playing sax for Brian on the original session (late October 1974) and without a pause he replied that he didn't - he'd played drums. The horns were Nick Pentelow & Mike Burney. Not saying that Ricky and/or Dennis didn't overdub or replace the drum tracks, but..

"The credits for "It's OK" as printed on the album aren't accurate. Many years ago I asked Roy Wood what it felt like playing sax for Brian on the original session (late October 1974) and without a pause he replied that he didn't - he'd played drums. The horns were Nick Pentelow & Mike Burney. Not saying that Ricky and/or Dennis didn't overdub or replace the drum tracks, but"


Well, I'm inclined to believe it's Dennis/Ricky... If you watch the 76 "NBC Special" footage, Dennis plays the drums exactly like on the record, which was kinda rare for him with parts he didn't originally play. A lot of people were probably around the studio and sitting in and playing on this and that and memories can get muddy. Just look at the wrecking crew's comments for proof of that.... Of course, I could be completely wrong.

Well I know it's been said (back in the days) that Roy Wood played drums on Brian & Marilyn's version of "Honeycomb" (which I've never heard), and I think that was cut at the same session.  Like Andrew said, Roy could've drummed on the basic track of "It's OK" and Brian could've enhanced or replaced that part with Ricky and/or Dennis.  Matter of fact, I recall Earle Mankey saying that the Roy Wood session produced only PART of the track for what became "It's OK" (without getting up to look, I think he said it was the "Find a Ride" part, in other words the part that became the verse and tag).  The rest (the chorus) could've been taped at a later session and edited together with the track from the Roy Wood session, ala "Good Vibrations", and then the whole thing could've been overdubbed with vocals and other instruments to make it flow as one unified song.