The Smiley Smile Message Board

Does anyone know to what extent the IN CONCERT album was subject to overdubs, if any?
It's an amazing sounding album, in my opinion, so I'm just wondering.

i'm no expert but yes there were some.

here is what jack rieley wrote about it:

During the tour that produced In Concert, Carl and I went out to the mobile truck after the gig to listen to what had gone on tape. Outside of a few out-of-pitch harmonies and the odd flub, one problem real got to us.

The two tracks upon which the grand piano was recorded seemed to be out of synch to the rest of the multi-track. We couldn't figure it out. The engineers swore there was nothing wrong with the tape transport. Cables were always a problem, but could they produce a delay? It was eerie. The next day we listened again and the problem remained. Spooky. Eventually we got round to listening to the piano tracks while muting the rest. Nothing seemed really wrong. In fact an engineer put a stopwatch to the solo piano tracks and it never varied in beats-per-minute, from beginning of each song to the end. At last that was our clue. We began muting just the piano and listening to the rest and, sure enough, the band started at a certain b.p.m. but, as a song went on, often speeded-up a bit. Enthusiasm, the live-vibe, whatever you wanna call it, inevitably caused the tempo to increase as songs went along. But Darryl Dragon, who wore earplugs, stayed consistently at the original tempo. He was right, the rest of the band was wrong, but we had to re-record numerous piano parts after the tour.

Otherwise, In Concert was really a live album. There were studio overdubs but certainly the album was not "faked." The bit about them not knowing the words to Don't Worry Baby is utter bullshit, as is the assertion that Caroline No was only a studio job.

The last time I listened to the album, maybe a year or two ago, it still sounded fuckin great.

- Jack


you can even read some post of his here on this site.

Lesson: don't wear earplugs during a performance!

Thank you Steve and thank you Jack. That was just what I was hoping to hear.

I'm a drummer and have never worn earplugs to either a rehearsal or performance. My timing is great, but I can't hear a damm thing anyone says!

(http://www.morrisonhotelgallery.com/images/medium/PeteLoRes%20copy.jpg)
"Whaaat ? ? ? ? ?"

That's a strange story. I find it a bit hard to believe that a skilled musician, on a big stage with a big sound system, surrounded by about a dozen other musicians, doesn't hear that everyone else is playing at a different tempo, or that everyone else is finished sooner than he is, and that he just stubbornly keeps playing to his own counting. Just as I find it hard to believe that apparently nobody else noticed it during the concerts.

Well, hey, of course everyone was DEAD SOBER at those shows, right?  Dennis and Carl wouldn't allow any funny business, would they?

Yeah, I'm a bit skeptical of this story, too.  For one thing, most of the tapes actually used for the "In Concert" album were from the '73 tours, after Daryl was gone and Billy Hinsche was playing grand piano for them.  Secondly, by Fall '72 (when they taped the original, single-disc version of "In Concert" that Warners rejected), Daryl had moved from the grand piano to organ & synth, and Toni was playing the baby grand.  So even if they did use some of the '72 tapes, as has been suggested, it would be Toni, not Daryl, on most of the piano parts.

well, as some here know, i have been going thru a ton of old magazine articles, newspaper clippings, things like that. from the 60's to late 90's. refound them in boxes while cleaning out my office. i haven't came across this item yet but i remember in 1974 in a magazine (forgot which one) carl talking to the interviewer about the then latest lp..in concert. he also said that a few instrumental and vocal parts were redone in the studio to correct flubs in the live preformance. i remember him saying the major thing they had to correct was the keyboards. in time i will find that article. but he did say basically what jack said in the above post of his years ago. carl didn't say exactly why some keyboard parts were redone just that that was the biggest correction.

Not everyone, but at big rock shows there usually are thousands of people and chances are that some of them were sober... And of course it's not like all the Beach Boys were wasted all the time...


They were the stars, no doubt that they could get away with a little more than a hired backing musician could.