The Smiley Smile Message Board

I just heard this incredible track yesterday for the first time. Does anybody have any information on it? When was it recorded? Who played on it? Why wasn't it ever finished?

ehm... it was finished. That is, unless it was a hurriedly copy-paste job they did on the the POB legacy edition. It is part of "Love Remember Me" (track 4, 2nd CD)


I think this specific part was recorded around 1977 with the Double Rock Baptist Choir.

Funny you should say that –  it DOES sound spliced on to me. Both halves of the song are incredible - some of the best stuff in the entire BBs and related repertoire - but somehow they aren't the most comfy of fits, together.

Maybe Jon S. can shed some light? 

You haven't heard the Sony Legacy Edition of POB/Bambu that came out last year?????
Or are you referring to the early '70s DW outtake that goes something like "My love...deeper than the ocean"?

DW's edits(BW's too) were often a little less than slick, to me it adds to the organic and slightly frayed quality of some things to great effect. LRM had the A section virtually intact, which in itself was already both messy and glorious, (Hanlon used a rough reference cassette of a '77 Dennis mix which he had unbelievably saved for all those years. This was his guide in mixing the A section multi-track , i was blown away when he pulled that cassette out) There were multiple B sections available, Dennis had recorded several. Hanlon overlaid multiple elements of these various b-sections in the way he(and Gregg) believed Dennis was headed with this track. FYI- Hanlon originally engineered and played guitar on the track in '77 so his sense of how it should be assembled was strong. This was one that kind of fit together in a fairly obvious way. And I agree it could have been pro-tooled into a much slicker, smoother form, but that was never the goal with these tracks. The goal was to get the DW sound, warts and all.

Just the idea of all these songs sitting unheard but for a few people for 30 years is crazy. What else is there?

To answer your questions (except for the last one)...go to:
www.beachboysarchives.com
Click on the "Bambu" button on the left, follow the Adobe link, and scroll to page 46.

Man, am I embarrassed now.  ;D I don't think I've ever really listened to Love Remember Me before. Sorry guys.  :) By the way, is it just me or is this track basically a reworked version of the melody to the earlier outtake, Carry Me Home, from Holland?

I think both songs are very good examples of Dennis' style but other then that I don't hear too much in common.

To me, the lines "carry me home, to my daddy" and "our love, is coming down on you"(I can't remember the exact lyric) sound similar.

That is a GREAT article.  :)

Thanks.  It's a labor of love.

It must have taken a long time and a lot of effort to do. As a Dennis/Beach Boy fan it's much appreciated.  :)

I took a quick look at the beachboysarchives website article, and I just about fell out of my chair.  Several of Dennis' solo works features JAMES JAMERSON on bass??!??!  I truly had no idea.....wow.....

I see what you mean as far as his phrasing.

Probably JJ junior.

Man, if even the tr00 fans on the forums can't be bothered to listen to archival stuff, we're really foda now! :)

I thought I read somewhere that Love Remember Me was a reworked version of I Don't Know. If that's true, then we've got ourselves another lost SMiLE-era track unearthed!

It is not.

The first part of Love Remember Me with the clarinet, acoustic guitar, and pained Dennis vocal was logged as "I Don't Know" on the session sheet and tape box. It has nothing in common with the 1967 I Don't Know, which was just a basic track.

Something tells me the title 'I don't know' is rather literal...

I just noticed something about the "My Love" recording I have as bootlegged. On the bootleg version, the drums sound very different from the version issued as part of "Love Remember Me" on the POB/Babu cd. Was there more than one version of "My Love" recorded? Or is the poor sound quality playing with my ears?

Yeah, there's something 'better' in the bootlegged version.

Did you read my post? I already answered your question way up this thread dude. "There were multiple B sections available, Dennis had recorded several." I'm sensing Jay is not a very thorough researcher...considering his orig. post that began this thread...and now this already answered question. Take a break from the bong brother.

How do you post nearly ONE THOUSAND times on a hardcore, in-depth Beach Boys message board -- yet HAVE NOT listened to 'Bambu" in it's entirety???

What are the odds?

I'd say the odds look distinctly Bloo-ish.  ::)

These are the same kinds of folks who thought the backing track of Don't Run Away by Bruce and Terry was the long lost January 1967 recording I Don't Know. And even when corrected about it endlessly it still ends up going around. And we sit back and wonder why the record companies are hesitant to release new stuff. Christ, if the hardcores can't be bothered to listen to it, what makes them think they could even sell any of it? Think about that.

I always thought the drums on the boot version sounded very 80s, though i know it wasnt recorded then.

I'm sorry, I guess I misunderstood you or something.

I agree. The drums on the boot version sound more "full", if that makes any sense.

I now fully understand why Andrew Doe has adopted a cranky sense when it comes to repeating the same information over and over again. :)

It's not the repeating, especially if it's a newbie asking... it's the answering questions and having your reply either dismissed or - as Jon's was - ignored.

We scholars have all the trouble. :)

It makes me feel smart when answering questions that may have been addressed in the past .   :-D

"I Don't Know" is also the title listed on the AFM contract, but it was almost certainly just a working title, as Dennis had also used it in January '67, and Brian used "We Don't Know" as the working title of "California Girls".

If it bothers you guys that much, then feel free to delete this thread. I already apologised.

Jay, you're not the first to ask a question that has been discussed before, and you'll definitely not be the last one either. No reason to delete this thread at all.

Agreed... are some folk here being unnecessarily harsh? When someone - even a hardcore fan -  discovers something new in the Beach Boys' back catalogue that's surely a beautiful moment, not a time to chastise them for not listening to every thing in their collections, or for not having closely read all the 12 billion posts on this and other boards?

I remember the first time someone on this board (or was it the old Smile Shop? – I think it was Charles, actually) pointed me towards the "truck driving man" lyrics... revelatory -  even though I'd been listening to them, unknowingly, for about 30 years!

I like the thought that boards like this can steer me towards more great listening that lies buried in my own collection!

So then you agree with encouraging someone to pay closer attention to what is right in front of them before they start asking already answered questions that are in the very thread they started (with an already answered question BTW)...because doing that, paying attention to what they have, paying attention to what is readily available, and paying attention to what people have taken the time to inform them about right here in this thread, will surely steer them towards more great listening. If that's the goal then its the harsh guys who have gone that extra mile to help achieve this hallowed mission. Glad we are all in agreement about that.

What Jon and Andrew are saying, which I agree with as I've had the same problem, is that we answer all of these questions about easy stuff, simple stuff, stuff right under everyone's nose even, but they just seem to go by the wayside by either a casual overlook or, more likely, pure ignorance. Being a broken record isn't fun after a while.

Of course no one will delete the thread.

Plus... there's this wonderful thing called the internet: all sorts of answers and information to be found there iffn you just dig (google) a bit.

OK, so let me get this straight: Dennis recorded more than 1 version of "My Love"? Is that what you're saying?

I don't envy the new asshole you'll have after that little bit of antagonism.

No. Not exactly. When they came to assemble the song for release, they had one (1) tape for the A section, but several (three or more, I think) different treatments for the B section. Jon can enlighten further, but I gather a reference cassette helped sway the decision for the one that was used (and that was a very good thing).

Yes...and out of these three B sections various elements were combined to create the B section as heard on the Legacy edition. It was discovered that they fit together like a puzzle. So you are not hearing just one of DW's separately recorded B sections, but an overlay of elements contained in two or three of them. Remember John was working with multi-tracks. Gregg and John had a sense of what Dennis was building on this track from their work on it in '77, plus John had the old rough cassette he'd been saving. One thing that could not be adjusted was the vocal balance on the A section, two of DW's vocal tracks were inherent, or combined, or bounced down to a single track...therefore the way those vocals sound on the beginning of the track, and the balance between those multiple DW voices had to stay just as you hear them. To me this track, Love Remember Me is one of Dennis' very best. The louder you crank the Legacy version the better it sounds.

For what it's worth, the 1971 Dennis track Ecology was done in a similar fashion. The piano melody in River Song was adopted from the sessions for this track.