The Smiley Smile Message Board

I was wondering, how many Beach Boys versions of this song exist on tape, as done in concert? The only version I have heard is from Hartford, 1973. The sound quality is pretty darn good for an audience tape. Are there any other live versions that sound better? What is the "best" version to have?

There are several on tape, I can think of...three off hand.  Can't remember what shows, but I remember there are three of them.

I have an audience recording from an unknown date. Blondie sings lead. It rocks a bit harder than the album, but they don't do the bridge ("breaks my heart to see the city") and kinda jam out for a while. I wonder why Dennis didn't sing the lead live? Maybe he wasn't there that show! I wonder if the bridge wasn't written till much later.

I wouldn't be too surprised if there is an excellent multi-track recording in the vaults. there was a lot recorded for the "In concert"-album and maybe "River song" was in one of those concerts...

Man, I wish they woulda' put out an expanded 2-disc "IN CONCERT" like they did with The Talking Head's "The Name Of This Band Is....."

maybe someday!

Dennis didn't sing lead on all of his songs. It's like how Carl sang Steamboat. Why doesn't Mike Love sing Darlin'?

He only sang River Song on his solo album because, well, it was his solo album and he had to sing lead on all the tracks.

I like Blondie's lead better, actually.  Dennis must have liked his voice too, because Blondie did a few leads for Dennis songs...  Few if any of which came out as Beach Boys tracks, but still.

The two live versions I have are from the Nassau Coliseum, and Hartford CT.  Both shows were professionally recorded. 

In reference to the Hartford show, are you talking about the 1973 show? The one where Dennis told a Nixon joke? I'm pretty sure that's an audience tape. At least the version I heard. The audience is very loud...to loud for a professional tape. Especially in the intro. Jack Riely(sp?) is talking about almost drowning last time they were there(?), and an audience member can CLEARLY be heard screaming "This time we're gonna get it on!".

Yea i have the Hartford show..1 disk.. Not complete show...Wish i had the whole thing..BTW..i didnt know jack  did the talking at the begining...Sounds like an excellent audience recording to me..

I suspect that the recording may actually be a "stage tape", or an audience tape placed near the P.A. system.

Yes, the tape of the Hartford show that circulates among collectors is an audience recording from close proximity to the P.A.   However, it WAS professionally recorded, as the group members mention several times throughout the show.  At one point they stop and wait for the reels to be changed.

Actually, In Concert was a double-vinyl album back in the day.  I would love to hear more live tracks from this period.  I really was impressed with the overall sound of the band when Blondie and Ricky were a part of it.  They just sounded harder and ballsier than they ever did before or since.

Yes, it was a double LP that got slapped onto one lil ole'  "digital-audio-disc"
Same thing with the Talking Heads double live album. Only with that one, they added la whole second disc's worth of cuts for a true "expanded" version. Man, if they had done something similar with "In-Concert'....

But, hey, I shouldn't  cry too much, POB is getting released at least

....... right at the curtain call for the CD format where a lot of people will simply download the thing for free!


:(

I plan on buying POB.

Interestingly the CD has a Dennis intro to "Surfin USA" ("This is for all the surfers here tonight", which my LP doesn't have 

The Band's Rock of Ages is like that too. I must admit I'm kinda baffled by In Concert's tracklisting, from an artisitc point of view - though not a commercial one - putting in the hits like they did, whereas Wonderbill, Surf's Up, River Song, Jumpin Jack Flash, Only With You, California, It's About Time and the like would have made for a much more enticing album.

If I had been in charge of releasing a live album from that period, I would have included at least half of the Carnage Hall 1972 show.

The Beach Boys in concert should have had at least 4 songs sung by Dennis on it. I've Got A Friend, Forever, Cuddle Up, perhaps his lead on Help Me Rhonda. They would have made this a killer album. Top it off with Blondie doing River song and it would have been perfect. The original 1972 version looked sloppier but it had a more daring line up. Wonderbill, Surf's Up, Long Promised Road. Nothing from before 1966 should have been used.

I've always thought a live Steamboat would be cool.

Yeah! With an extended steel guitar solo, longer than the album version.  8) It would  have been great to hear the Blondie/Ricky era lineup do "Got To Know The Woman", or "Slip On Through".

A live Slip On Through exists but it's from a 1970 TV show. For a track released as a 45, it was odd that it never seemed to have a live shelf life.

But that would've been pretty unlikely. I agree that Dennis should have had some of his songs on it and Al too, that way each member would've been represented. But I think 4 songs by Dennis would've been too much, no matter how great they are/were. I also think that the pre-66 songs have their right to be there. After all they made  the Beach Boys famous and they really rock. I think the released album is great and shows almost every side of the band. But I also would love to hear some more stuff from that time, especially Dennis. I just don't think that they should have built this album around that....

I agree 100%

at least 1 Dennis song would have been, uh, fair!

But let's not worry about the original release. This is the "expanded and remastered" age we're living in. What about the other shows that were recorded from those tours? The record company wouldn't sell a single copy-less if they'd put something extra on there, but they would sell more!!!!

And about the pre 66 stuff:

The bad rap all that stuff has gotten is from lazy "fans" who can't wrap their minds around the supposed leaps and bounds made by Brian and Co. from 65-67. It was always there!

As I've said a million times, the pre 66 stuff is earth-shattering in it's historical and sociological signifigance. Plus, it rocks! How can you go wrong with a good Surf song? And why should the Boys have been upset when crowds went into happy hysterics when the opening chords of Fun Fun Fun rang out? Before you judge and dissect and go the "allmusic-guide-Dominic Piore-route, just imagine how it must have felt on stage to have the crowds going insane as you busted out hit after hit after hit after hit after hit!

This is some powerful $%&%% we're talking about here.

You can see how that would lead to a bad thing, though. The 1974 Nassau Coliseum show (with Blondie already gone), is where you can really see the oldies creeping back into the setlist - they even played Barbara Ann and Little Deuce Coupe! But because they still played a few of the newer ones (and I guess had a reputation for not playing much of the older stuff those days) the audience was freaking out when they played the hits. Sure, everyone on stage probably felt great (except Ricky, I guess) and the audience loved them, but playing the surf/car/fun stuff only took the band so far.

Well I just think Dennis was doing the most interesting stuff at the time. He could have been give 4 out of say 24 songs to do, his voice was still good enough. I didn't say that they shouldn't do some of those older songs in concert, but on this live album they didn't quite fit. Why? Because their last 9 studio albums were not in that mold. They had worked so hard to shake the old image and then to just launch back into it wasn't the right move at the time. People had Beach Boys Concert, and Live In London and they were full of old hits, In Concert was a chance to show them as a contemporary live band, and it was only half sucessful. The old songs were and are great but they were far too much of a focus on here when they had so much wonderful material from the last six to seven years. Today yes it's fine to reissue whole concerts and the oldies fit in the context of that, but again the album made the most impact in 1973 and I think it was just wrong to regress at that point.  Perhaps a two or three song oldies encore would have been ok for the album.

Warner had been carrying the Beach Boys load for four whole albums - and no Smile was ever delivered. I think they considered a live offer a chance to recoup the investment first, promote a struggling band second. Thus the oldies.

Down here in Oz by 73/74 just about every Beach Boys album was out of print and not available at retail, the only Beach Boys product in store were cheapies such as the Pickwick and Axis labels. For a new generation of kids the In Concert album was a revelation, a great mix of new material and oldies - In Concert made the Beach Boys a contemporary band and not some oldies group from 10 years before. The In Concert album was very much the soundtrack to our summers during our latter years at secondary school, hanging at the beach, surfing, girls, getting cars and partying.

For me, via In Concert, I finally understood Heroes & Villians - I never could get into the 67 produced track - still struggle today and its was only through the Cantina vesion and the various boots that I began to understand that I really didn't like the production of H&V 67 single. I also to this day prefer the In Concert version of Don't Worry Baby over the single version, as great as the studio version is the live version just kicks arse!!

That said yes it would have been better if there had been some contemporary Dennis tracks on the album - and what was recorded for the album and today lies in the vaults is for me one of the holy grails of the Beach Boys vaults.  FREE THE LIVE TAPES!!

I doubt In Concert would have as successful as it was without those oldies..sorry to say! The records weren't selling, why would the new songs have sold live..even if they were done better.  I doubt many people outside of hardcore Beach Boys fans bought the record to here We Got Love or Funky Pretty.  The key is balance, and that album has it. A few oldies, 4 Pet Sounds!! Good Vibes and Heroes 2 off Wild Honey! Plus some of the new stuff. I mean being only 20 songs, they couldn't get everything on there. I would have tinkered with a few things to make it perfect. I would have liked to see a Dennis song instead of We Got Love. That one could have stayed in the can as far as I am concerned, stuff 10 times better certainly did.  I also never cared for Funky Pretty, give me a live California  or Long Promised Road instead and thats a perfect album to me!  Ok I might Leavin This Town off also to get something from 20/20 on there (Do It Again, Hear Music, or Cottonfields  but Blondie and Ricky did need a song on there.

While we're at "In cocnert", here are two original reviews from '74:

http://www.superseventies.com/spbeachboys3.html (http://www.superseventies.com/spbeachboys3.html)

I do understand why they were there, but again I think it pointed ahead to a future that would never come close to what came before. I stress again I love the old songs but it just a shame they "had" to include them over River Song, I've Got A Friend, Long Promised Road. I would love to hear the You Need A Mess Of Help the was to be on the single LP version.

I actually like We Got Love and think it was a wise choice. It really cooks to me, but I admit the only Blondie and Ricky track I don't like is Hold On Dear Brother.