The Smiley Smile Message Board

I know this has been covered countless times but I couldn't find much in the archive. Is it known with any degree of certainty that the 1/23 Surf's Up session really happened? If so is there any written evidence that shows some material was recorded? I was wondering if this might have been Brian showing up at the session, not liking the vibes and calling it off.

Assuming the session did occur and a second movement or re-make of the first movement were recorded would it tapes be missing as early as 1971? If so wouldn't someone remember what was recorded or at least planned 5 years later?

OK, one more question and then I'll stop. It drives me crazy that we don't know the '66 Child lyrics. In all this time hasn't anyone asked Van Dyke about them? Surely Darian asked Van Dyke at some point if he remembered any of the original lyrics right? Has anyone asked Darian? It seems like these guys aren't that inaccessible.

were the lyrics for Child on BWPS not the original? 

I don't think anybody really knows except for Van Dyke, Brian and probably Darian.  They don't sound like they're of '66 vintage to me, but it's certainly possible that they are (at least in part).

It happened. There's an AFM sheet for this session, 3pm-6pm at Western - from the players present, looks like it was for string bass/horn overdubs, though Carl & Hal Blaine (as leader) were also present. They were paid full union scale for all three hours, so there was no cancellation.

as far as i know (and i'm always ready to be corrected by the real brains round here)...

there were two sessions on 23 jan 1967, with AFM documentation of the former and capitol documentation of the latter.  what we know from them is this:

3.00pm-6.00pm

Studio: Western Recorders
Date & Hours of Employment: January 23, 1967 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Master No.: 57087
No. of Minutes: n/a
Title of Tunes: Surf's Up
Session Musicians: Hal Blaine, Diane Rovell, Charles D. Britz, Roy V. Caton, William E. Creen, James R. Horn, Jay Migliori, William Pitman, Lyle Ritz, Carl D. Wilson

so that's drums (HB), a contractor (DR), an engineer (CDB), trumpet (RVC), sax (WEG), sax (JRH), sax (JM), guitar or bass (WP), double bass (LR) and guitar/moral support (CDW).

6.30pm-9.30pm

Capitol Records "Popular Session Work Sheet", which gives some of the players' names:

Jesse Ehrlich (cello, arranger)
Ralph Schaeffer (violin, arranger)
Robert Hardaway (oboe, English horn)

this session may have yielded the recording (if it exists) that alan boyd is referring to here:

I've heard about the existence of a tape of a full arrangement on that second section of SURF'S UP. It's been described to me, third-hand.  Supposedly it's pretty weird, lots of strange horn and string parts.  But I haven't heard it.  We don't have it in the Beach Boys' tape library. And it's not among Brian's tapes either.

these facts and much else courtesy of http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,4165.0.html 

props to agd and c-man.

I hate threads like this. Thinking about things like this:

"I've heard about the existence of a tape of a full arrangement on that second section of SURF'S UP. It's been described to me, third-hand.  Supposedly it's pretty weird, lots of strange horn and string parts.  But I haven't heard it.  We don't have it in the Beach Boys' tape library. And it's not among Brian's tapes either. "

.. make my brain turn to liquid sh*t and make me cry.

Absolutely. I'd rather have it be an elaborate lie than have it actually exist, but never be able to hear it....

I think the germane phrase here is "described to me, third-hand", i.e someone told someone who told Boyd. For me to accept that even slightly, I'd need to know the other two names involved. Note that Alan doesn't say in any way or form that the tape exists. FWIW, my explanation as to why neither the BRI vault nor Brian has a copy is simple: the session didn't meet Brian's expectations, and he junked the tape. "Ah, but it's been described!" I hear you say - well, given such info as the Capitol sheet contains, it wouldn't be hard to come up with such a description (especially iffn you'd heard "George Fell Into His French Horn".

File under "pending - provenance unproven".  :)

Thanks for that AGD! Has Desper ever commented on this session? I was wondering if he was aware there was a later tracking session for Surf's Up.

I know this sounds silly but (assuming there are people here with their contact info) can someone email VDP or Darian if the 1966 CITFOTM survive?

Yeaaahhh. Still, the fact that it was apparently at least attempted but may be lost forever makes me cry, as well.

Just more, "What could have been?" sort of stuff, really.

On that note, ever notice how the vast majority of what has been described, but not heard, falls into the brilliant/classic/at-least-interesting territory? Remarkable how memories work when there's no available evidence to contradict them. I'm with Andrew's thought: it happened, it wasn't very good (or at least not what Brian wanted), and thus it was dumped.

Is there any evidence that the 6:30 to 9:30pm recording was for "Surf's Up"?

Some dude called Elliott said so, so it must be true.  8)

Aha! I believe when pressed he realized there was actually no evidence that the second session was actually identified with SU only IDed as "Part 1". Maybe he could come by and clarify or PM someone. ???

The 6:30-9:30 session was actually a 6:30-11:30 session (up until 9:30 it was just a "basic" session, meaning at regular pay; from 9:30-11:30 overtime kicked in).  So...a nice, fat long five hour session, which followed a three hour session earlier in the afternoon.  Eight hours of recording, with a half-hour break in between.  That's some serious work!  However, a closer look at the documentation would seem to reveal that the last hour-and-a-half was non-productive.

Besides the Capitol Popular Session Work Sheet, there's also a full AFM contract for the day's second session, and it does just list the title as "Part One".  If this session wasn't for "Surf's Up", it could very well have been for "Heroes And Villians", since all the sessions surrounding this day's sessions were for "H&V".  The master numbers on the contracts don't really answer the question (57087 for the 3:00-6:00 "Surf's Up" session, 57086 for the 6:30-11:30 "Part One" session).  Interestingly though, from notations on both the AFM and the Capitol worksheet, one could conclude that a 10-piece string section was recorded from 6:30-10:00, and a performance (likely an overdub) by 7 other musicians (harp & horns) scheduled from 9:30-11:30 was NOT recorded ("Services were not rendered of the following musicians" on the AFM and "3 HRS - NO TRACK" on the Capitol worksheet), although they were present and therefore paid for their time.