The Smiley Smile Message Board

I know the Beach Boys are known for occasionally not playing on their own albums. Does this apply to Carl's solo stuff as well?? There's some pretty cool guitar playing on some of those songs.

probably Skunk Baxter on Youngblood

Carl was one of the guitar players on his two soloalbums. I don't know how many solos he did play though. I'd guess the one on "Rockin' all over the wolrd" is his, because he also did that live.


Does anybody know about "Like a brother"?

Carl played no solos, unless the little Chuck Berry-like intro on Rockin' All Over the World is a "solo". As someone who DOES play guitar, it isn't, so...:)

How do you know he didn't play the "real" solo on that one?

This is kinda off-topic, but I always wondered why the BB didn't put more guitar solos on their albums, or guitars for that matter.  I'm mainly talking about their albums once Blondie & Ricky left. 

I've seen video of Carl playing solos, yet once he was in the studio, I guess he concentrated on vocals & didn't worry about his playing too much, which was a shame in my opinion.   The same pretty much applies to his solo albums.

Yeah, I wonder about that too, though he did play on alot of the early stuff (incl. Pet Sounds) which he didn't get credit for I believe. From what I've heard (and I'd like to get this confirmed or cleared up) Carl was a well respected guitar player in the business.

It's about time people start respecting Carl for his guitar playing. I'm so sick of "Jimmy Page this, and Eric Clapton that"...it's time for Carl to join the pantheon of the guitar greats!!

Carl seemed to focus more on simple little underlying riffs that don't really call attention to themselves, similar to Dennis' approach on drums.

Carl (and Al too) never flaunted his guitar playing. He didn't ham up a solo, he just played it and I always respected him for that.

He seemed like  a very solid player but not overly spectacular. Dave Marks seems to have surpassed him by branching out into different styles. I am sure for what Carl played he really did well.  Didn't Marks try to encourage Carl to get more experimental?

I can confirm that Alex Chilton said in an interview (circa 1992) that he pretty much learned all he knew about guitar playing from Carl Wilson.  To paraphrase slightly, what he said was pretty close to "He taught me a f*** of a lot of guitar.  That man is one good guitar player". 

I wish the BBs played more on their own records once Brian had stepped back. I'd rather hear Carl or Al play all the guitar parts than have some session guy play it slicker and "correct". I don't mind imperfect musicianship as long as the feeling is there.

I haven't listened to Carl's albums in ages, but I remember thinking you could drop his guitar playing from the songs and you probably wouldn't notice. I could be wrong.

I was listening to CSNY's American Dream today. Some of it is shockingly bad, but the worst offences are caused in the songs where their buddies play most of the instruments. What happened to Stephen 'Captain Manyhands' Stills?

I really have a lot of respect for the BBs' approach to playing.  Those guys are all about blending and simplicity; very few bands are like that.  When working out stuff for the tribute album and elsewhere, I was struck by how many times there was a simple guitar hook buried in the track somewhere that you never noticed until you broke the whole thing down.  After awhile I'd go, "there's Carl."

Didn't Bruce have a quote from around '71 saying something like, "If you listen to the band, you'll notice nobody solos.  But the blend is so full, it's incredible."  This hit me the first time we played with Al Jardine.  I always wondered, "what the heck is the guy playing?  Is that thing even on?"  And my amp was right next to his and I couldn't pick it out, and then I leaned in and it was just a part that blended totally with what was going on, and it made it sound "Beach Boys."  Check out the FRIDAYS clip where there are very few sidemen and they're doing KTSA.  Carl goes for the solo and you can pick out what Al is doing, and it's a rhythm part that blends perfectly with the clavinet.  You can't pick it out on its own unless everything else is out.

I know it's not flashy but I really respect that approach.  It takes real discipline and restraint to go, "I'm NOT going to solo, I'm going to do this cool background thing that nobody will notice."