The Smiley Smile Message Board

Okay...while reading the Sloop John B thread, Mitchell posted something that I think really needs to be discussed. Let's list *all* the inaccuracies found in BB reissue liner notes. That will help cut down on all the "who really sang...?" questions.

Go.

Well, I'm going to start going through some, I'm sure I'll miss some things.

Surfer Girl LP:  Leaf says Brian's arrangement of Our Car Club was so sophisticated he found in necessary to replace the Beach Boys with session musicians, when in fact, it was because the song was originally cut as Rabbit's Foot for the Honeys that session musicians were involved.  It was not a Beach Boys song at the time.

Pom Pom Play Girl:  Carl has the lead.

Today:

The bassline isn't buried on Do You Wanna Dance.  OK that's a stretch, but I hear it just fine.

Girl Don't Tell Me...I don't think it's proper to insinuate that it was unusual for the Boys to play on their own cuts at this point for one, for the other it's Bruce and not Brian who plays Celeste.

Pet Sounds:  A lot of the musician credits are not quite right across the various releases.

That's all I have time for right now, do carry on.

Andrew said the same thing in his book.

How about the claim in Love You's liner notes that Brian rather than Dennis is singing Mona?

Peter Buck's liner notes for LY were terrible. I can just imagine Andrew Doe's reaction to Buck plagarizing the comments for "Johnny Carson" for his comments on "Roller Skating Child".

I thought back in 2001 (my first experience) and still think that the "celebrities" writing Beach Boys liner notes was a very bad idea. I much preferred the work of Timothy White or AGD.

You think that is good (considering that White copied most of his notes from his earlier book)?  Brad Elliott was supposed to do all of the twofer notes with major scholarly info (which he donated to AGD for the one twofer he got to do).  But as AGD has pointed out elsewhere, things took a bad turn.  That's all I will say on that.  Except that Brad's notes would have been superior to most of what did get used.

There is of course the whole Be Here in the Morning debate. David Leaf says Brian, AGD Al, and I don't know for sure.


Here is a question I have always wondered.  In the Today notes, Leaf refers to Tedesco and Brian hooking up over a guitar line.  Tedesco said it wouldn't work, Brian said play it anyway, the strings were overdubbed and it was amazing.  WHAT SONG AND PART IS THAT?????  I can't for the life of me figure it out.

How about  Tom Petty's claim that Brian didn't make it to Holland?
What he shoulda said, was Brian didn't make it over with the rest of his family,
but joined them later, after missing (I think) two fights, and then disappearing
after the third, only to be found asleep on a couch in the airport lounge.

C-Man

Could someone explain to me why the "eyechart" pic isn't included in the "Friends/ 2020" booklet? They mention it and that's it. In fact I've never even seen it.

Get it on vinyl, buddy. Sounds better anyway.

Can't recall offhand, but I do recall Tedesco's comment - "Brian, I take back everything I ever said about you !"

Things is, those original 2fer liners were written in 1990, and we've learned a lot since then. That said, some of the errors in the 2000 2fers notes were unforgiveable, and to simply reprint the original booklets was a huge cop-out.

And if I'd know Tim wWhite was going to recycle chunks of his book... hell, I'd have done exactly the same.  ;)

C'mon Andrew! I just *know* you have to have *some* comment about Buck ripping you off...

Anyway, I'm glad you came up with original material. Honestly, your liner notes were the best thing about that particular release  ;)

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery ?

Well, Desper called Al, and Al says that he sang it, and it sounds exactly like Al, so I think it must be Al.


I think the whole story is either made up or exaggerated.  It's one thing to offhandedly question a note choice, but if you're around music much at all, it's not unusual to get a part that seems wrong when you look it over.  I mean, it happened all the time when I played string bass in an orchestra.  A note seems a little fishy, you verify it's correct from the conductor, the ensemble plays it through and then you see it's fine.


That was actually supposedly Barney Kessel's reaction to a multi-overdub vocal thing Brian did, according to Carol Kaye.  I'm betting it's something like the unused "Don't Talk" segment.

Didn't Carl say to Brian that the fuzz tone he wanted during the "Little Honda" session sounded "like sh*t", only to be told to "play it" ?

They got the mono and stereo classifications mixed up in the Surfer Girl and Shutdown 2fer.

Which 2fer had the liner notes written by AGD?

I don't think I have that one!

Keeping the Summer Alive/BB 85

So said Brian

"Louie, Louie" -- definitely Carl singing

Has any Pet Sounds issue correctly identified Al as one of the "I Know There's An Answer" lead singers?

And of course, "Summertime Blues" - Carl on at least one of the vocals, and according to the engineer voice-over on UM1, "Ni[c]k."

Not to mention countless Theremin references (then why did I mention it?)...most recently appearing in a Goldmine article, which prompted a letter-to-the-editor from, as Domenic Priore would say, "yours truly."

You sure?

Which means that the comment about Girl Don't Tell Me being Carl's first lead is also incorrect.

Not that it really matters, but I don't like that they slight Al's Christmas Day lead by saying it's an inconsequential Christmas Album song and therefore doesn't really count towards being his first lead, making Ronda the first 'real' lead in the Today!/Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) notes. I don't like it because it lends a bias towards the Christmas Album as not really counting as a Beach Boys album.

Both the Pet Sounds box set and the 1999 mono/stereo twofer have this one correct. "Mike and Alan on the verses, Brian on the choruses".

So does the DVD-A.

David is audible on Summertime Blues too. Probably his only lead.

Isn't the recording date of "Surfin' Safari" in the booklet way too late...like after the release date of the 45?  Tell me, how did THAT happen?

Yup. Listen to the vowels, the "sh" sounds and the "ch" sounds. Now...compare to the concert rehearsal of the same song. Terribly obvious.

If you're talking about Brian's comment on the back of the SD(ASN!!) cover, then, well, it's not necessarily incorrect. Brian doesn't say it's Carl's first lead, but that it's the first song he wrote that Carl LIKED to sing. Carl had three other leads, two of them covers; the third was pretty much filler.

Nope, David Leaf said that in his notes about GDTM.

This isn't necessarily an "error", but it's still wrong..

You know those blurbs by Brian about each album? Well, on the Friends/20/20 twofer, in the one where he's describing the songs on Friends, he mentions how great Al sung on Cotton Fields, which as we all know is not on Friends!