The Smiley Smile Message Board

There was supposedly a planned live album that would be both The Beach Boys and Chicago. I believe that this was around 1975. I read that the tapes were supposedly lost, or distroyed. Does anybody know anything about it? Do any of the tapes survive? These shows, from what I've read in reviews, were supposedly incredible. They are also an important historical item. I believe that it was around this time that the first evidence of Dennis's voice damage became noticable.

All I know is on Andrew's site.

Hmm...I must remember to check his website more often, before I create new topics.  :lol

His site helps me almost every day figure out questions I have.

My understanding is that half of the tapes are gone.  Not meaning that half the SONGS are gone, but the fact that the concerts were recorded with two separate machines synchronized to accommodate enough tracks for all the instruments... and a set of those tapes are missing.  In other words, half of the music/instruments are missing.

I hope it's the Chicago half..

Do you think any of the tapes could be salvaged? A similar thing happened to The Doors. There was a concert  tape discovered from 1967, and the organ and drum tracks were missing. There was talk of Ray Manzerek and John Densmore going in the studio to "fix" it. But the idea was so controversial with the fans that the idea was abandoned.

In March 1985 a fire destroyed the control room of the Caribou studio, allegedly also some of these live tapes.

Anyway, here you can see how they were recorded:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZTZVBBh27jQ
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rr0WB0lRqPw

Certainly some tapes exist - I've heard a great quality recording of Peter Cetera singing "Darlin'" from the tour ... and that must've come from somewhere ! Until then - tapes of various shows do circulate (in varying quality) ... or so I'm led to believe  ::)

Way to go, fans.  Run your traps until you've absolutely made sure that history is denied and nothing new is created. Better to have it sit in the vaults unheard and unconsidered.

Big question: do they have an entire pro-shot show anywhere?

The outfit Mike is wearing while being interviewed is probably his most hilarious ever. I'd love to see the whole of Fun Fun Fun and Good Vibrations from these shows. Too bad there's so little of Al and Dennis here. Didn't they play In The Back Of My Mind at some of these shows? I guess that'd be easily number one of my 1975 footage wishlist.

They played "In the Back of my Mind" at some shows. I have a recording of that, and it's spine-tingling; despite Dennis' raspiness his vocal is still great and sung with great feeling. I too wish there was footage of that.

What's kind of funny about that is that in 1975, The Beach Boys Today!  would have been available on Capitol only as part of a truncated two-fer, with Shut Down Volume II, I believe, as Dance, Dance, Dance and Fun, Fun, Fun..  The two tracks cut from Today! were "Bull Session" (of course) and "In The Back Of My Mind". So they were featuring a song that hadn't been available in their catalogue in many years.

There is a 1989 tape floating around from the beachboys/ chicago tour in A- sound  ;D. some songs have gaps in them but who cares.  ::)

True... but it's not the 1975 tour we're talking about.  ::)

For me one of the coolest parts of that footage was being able to hear Carl's harmony part in "Fun, Fun, Fun" pushed to the fore especially from 4:22 onwards!

I'm hoping that eventually a computer program will exist that would enable us to isolate the individual harmony parts of Carl, Al, Dennis, Bruce, Brian, Mike, Marilyn, Murry etc.   8)

I know Andrew, couldnt resist  :wink :laugh:

the 1989 tour shows were so bad compared to '75

In Toronto, the encore combined set was so loud and distorted that all it did was drive the people out of their seats towards the exits...

two bands two sound systems?  both trying to drown each other out...  euggh
 :P

i agree that the 75 show is far superior to the 89 show. I heard the Darlin 1975 version somewhere in A sound. I guess there must be more songs in the vault that werent burnd. I think there was a topic earlier here abouty this. There was talking that many songs were discovered in the vaults. Maybe AGD or Alan Boyd can tell us more 

Did Brian participate in any of the 1989 shows?

Yes - had his own little solo spot, three songs: "L&M", "Melt Away" & "Walkin' The Line". This was the January BB/Chicago tour - he wasn't there for the one later in the year.

Did any of the Beach Boys play or sing on those songs at those concerts?

Nope - it was his own little mini-set.

With just the backing musicians, or solo on piano?

I'm pretty sure he had Michael Bernard up there with him. Got photos somewhere. Nice suit & pink shirt, I do recall.

I have two of the recordings of his solo sets, and he's surprisingly good on stage for the time period.

I wonder how the rest of the group felt about that?  ::)

Check the Endless Summer TV series. Brian  was backed by the BB touring band (Foskett, Hinsche, Carter, Kowalski, Meroes and Matt Jardine).

I never figured out why he didn't do the whole show or have at least Carl and Al add some harmony. I guess Landy wanted it that way. Brian played some full shows in 1990.

Dennis allegedly did it circa Pacific Ocean Blue - played the first three songs of the solo album. If anything, the BBs have a healthier attitude toward live solo material than most.

Mike did "Almost Summer" and "Country Pie"
Carl did "Heaven", "Rocking All Over The World" and "What You Do To Me"
Bruce did "I Write The Songs"

Any more?

I saw one of those spots at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. When Brian was announced, I swear many of the people didn't know who he was. The applause was lukewarm. Remember, this was a new, young, "Kokomo" crowd. I was going crazy; I couldn't believe what I was witnessing.

Brian played a Fender bass and he sang pretty well. He performed three songs, and then he was gone. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I don't think Brian played the Beach Boys' set. If he did (and someone who remembers correct me if I'm wrong), it was only for a song or two, like "Surfer Girl". But I don't think he did. I do remember during the Beach Boys and Chicago alternating songs/jamming at the end of the Beach Boys set, Brian did come back out. It was strange; Brian lingered and wandered around the very back of the stage. He had the bass on and off. He didn't sing, he just kind of stood there, then walked back and forth, like he didn't know what to do. Some guys would come up to him and say a word or two. Very strange.

Wow, Brian played bass on those songs?

A high school friend of mine saw one of those 1990 Canadian shows w/Brian. She specifically made a point to mention Brian.'s appearance. 

The mini set i saw BW play was..L+M..In my Car..Country Feeling..

I would love to hear that live version of "In the Back of My Mind" if someone could point me in the direction of it. Sorry I know its cheesy ;D

Didn't AGD say that the fire was contained to the control room and none of the Caribou tapes were lost?

I assume you refer to the Beachago live-recordings?
Not sure if AGD mentioned it, but I was under the impression that part of the recordings hasn't surfaced yet.


EDIT:

Ah, here it is:

I thought the fire story was apocryphal...?

During the '89 tour, did Brian and Landy travel separately from the rest of the band, or were they on the same planes, buses and hotels? If so, did Brian and Landy interact with the other guys, who was there pretty much silence.

Not exactly - for many years the understanding was that the whole studio burned down, storage and all. However, later it transpired that the fire was contained to part of the control room.