The Smiley Smile Message Board

Where did Brian sing on these two albums??  I know his involvement in the recording process had greatly decreased by this point.  But I'm pretty sure I hear Brian on Mess of Help but what else?

He sings "On My Way to Sunny California" on the California Saga intro...He also does most of the voices on the Fairytale. On CATP I don't hear much of him, but the AFM's show that he was involved in many of the tracking sessions-everyone agrees that he was pretty involved in the sessions for the songs he helped write-notably "Marcella" and "You Need a Mess of Help"...but not so much vocally

I hear him on He Came Down (right after the "Yes I Believe it" part, singing in a lower register making him sound like his 1976 self minus the rasp)  and Marcella (one of the backups on the tag)

He's also on the tag of Funky Pretty, buried, but still audible (again singing in a lower register).  I always thought that was him doing the high part on Steamboat, but apparently that's Al.

I thought he was pretty prominent in the tag of funky pretty...hmm whoever it is, fooled me

He is and he isn't. He's prominent once you know what to look for. Or listen for, that is. It's the "Funky Girl, why" part (I think that's the correct lyric).

...And from 2:20 to 2:35, you can hear him sing "funky pretty gone" three times!

Sure as merda! Good hearing...I've never noticed that before.  But yeah, once you know what to look for it's obvious.... on my headphones the part you pointed out to me is on my right headphone, and the part I pointed out is on the left headphone.

Im 99% sure hes in the oooh funky for the tag, I remember reading Marilyn is in that too...

Im sure Stephen can clear a lot of this for us, he engineered it!

I think so too...and if that is Marilyn, that explains the one voice that's in there that I couldn't place. Solved one mystery for me!

No, he didn't. The last work he did with the BB was Surf's Up. CATP & Holland were engineered by Steve Moffitt (with Rob Fraboni doing "Leaving This Town" and both doing the "SOS" remake - which was originally engineered by SWD, as were Dennis' cuts on CATP !)

Gotcha, I wasnt too sure. I just remember Desper answering questions on Funky Pretty for us, so I figured he was at the desk for that. I remember he said that Brian played the drums on the track...oh well.

Just a matter of personal opinion, but I think Moffitt's grittier  style suited CATP & Holland better because of the nature of the material (more rock oriented), just like I couldn't imagine Chuck Britz engineering Desper's material, which suited that period better (more along the lines of ethereal pop).

I didn't know Moffitt engineered LTT, though. Rob Fabroni...I heard that name elsewhere. Didn't he do some work with the Band?

I just did a slight remix of it, and in it you can here Brian's parts better. The tag has two Brian vocals, one of them sped up (the part with Marilyn), the other is a lower register in his mid 70s style voice minus the rasp. The part that Alan pointed out may be slightly sped up as well. Not that the vocal is sped up by itself, more like it was slowed down, Brian sang , then the entire part was put at the correct speed right afterwards.

He's also on Cuddle Up. I still think Steamboat could be him.

Funky Pretty.  Love it.  Everyone taking a turn.  A lotof Brian involvement from what I have read.  There is even talk of the little synth counter melody you hear running through the song....sort of a mini-truck driving man sort of thing....

Rob was an engineer at the Village Recorder in the early '70s, which is where the post-op work on "Holland" was performed.  A decade ago he engineered some of "Bridges To Babylon", which is probably how Blondie came to be involved with the Stones. 

Yeah, at the time Rolling Stone (I think it was RS) said something to the effect that the song sounded like "Vivaldi on a magic synthesizer". I love "Funky Pretty", it's like a 15 Big Ones/Love You song except we still can hear Brian's classical influences. It was said that Brian wanted to make "Funky Pretty" and "Mt. Vernon & Fairway" the centerpieces of a new BB album, and when some people balked at the idea, he stopped working with the band. I think it's a crying shame we never got our early 70s magical classical synthesizer album from Brian Wilson. It's like a missing piece of the puzzle now. It could of had "Sweet Mountain" on it and a few others. Jack Reilly, the band's manager at the time, said Brian was very creative in Holland, so I think we would of had it had the band just 110% supported Brian. Instead, people like Mike Love felt we needed songs like "We Got Love" or "California" more (hey, it's a good song, but it's just a Brian Wilson pastiche).

I listened to Funky Pretty and I honestly can't hear Brian.

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,5291.0.html