The Smiley Smile Message Board

Just wondering.

Well, discounting the obvious (i.e. songs like "Caroline, No" or "Don't Talk..."), all the voices on "The Surfer Moon" sound awfully similar to me.

Of the seven vocal tracks on "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times", six are Brian.

Which part is not Brian on that track? I thought they were all him...

Sorry, misremembered it slightly.

The 8-track sheet from Columbia looks like this (all spellings, etc. as on sheet):

1. Bryan - chorus
2. Bryan -  lead no. 1
3. vocal group no. 1
4. orchestra (i.e. instrumental track - AGD)
5. Bryan - lead no. 2
6  Bryan - chorus
7. vocal group no. 2
8. Bryan - no. 1 - echo

I think "Transcendental Meditation" is all Brian.

Although not strictly songs, "Unused Backrounds" from "Don't Talk..." and the radio spot for KOMA are all Brian.

Side comment - I always thought Carl Wilson sang all the vocals on the song "Maybe I Don't Know". 

Beyond the instrumental track, I believe Brian sings all vocals on the "Break Away" demo (Endless Harmony).

No, Brian and Bruce are heavily featured in the backgrounds.

A correspondent of mine told me that, during the Pet Sounds and Smile eras, Brian would often make vocal tracks of him on all the parts as a reference for the rest of the Boys.

Can anyone back me up on this? Do any bootlegs exist?

Theres an inference that Brian did that with "I'm Waiting for the Day," but the jury is still out.

Isn't there's a demo of BW doing all the vocal parts on "Wouldn't It Be Nice" over the full backing track?   And of course the afore-mentioned "Break Away" demo (later period, but same design).

Craig, do you think Brian's doing most of the bvs on "I'm Waiting for the Day"? To these ears, there's a certain quality to the bvs that most other BB recordings don't have, I tend to think it's Brian multi-tracking himself.

EDIT: Just listened to the stack-o-vocals verison and the bass line sounds a bit like Mike, and I'm thinking that Dennis was doing they "NO!" and "AHH-AHH!"s on the fade. Make of this what you will...

There are a lot of folks who feel that all the vocals on "Wipe Out" are Brian.  (My opinion is the bass vocals are Mike, but I've never listened that carefully)

Td, yes I've long thought it's Brian on all of "IWFTD".  I'd have to listen to see if I agree on the possible Dennis and Mike parts. 

Adam, I've always thought the bass vocal on "WO" was Mike (with Brian on all the other parts).  Others disagree.

Isn't Brian singing all of the parts on the demo of "In My Room" from the GV Box Set?

A bit of a cheat, but I'd bet Brian sings everything except for Carl and Al's chorus leads on "In My Car."

I'm pretty sure that the three parts of KOMA are Brian doubling with Bruce for the two high parts, and Mike for the low part.

Why would he sing the instrumental track?

Because he was that good of a vocalist, obviously!

Higher bits definitely sound like Brian, but since when could anyone other than Mike hit those low notes?

:D

How about Brian on his self-titled solo album?  There's lots of "Mike-like" bass parts there that Brian covered.  And personally, the timbre of the low parts on "IWFTD" just sound more like Brian than Mike.  IMO, there's a few of those on "Wouldn't It Be Nice", as well...if you compare the finished version to the afore-mentioned "Brian-only demo" version, some of those parts sound identical...even though Mike DID sing on the final version, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they just carried-over some of those Brian parts to the final product.

I've been bopped for this opinion in the past -- one therefore wonders why I'm bothering now -- but I still swear that the entire a cappella section of "Salt Lake City" is Brian. (Assume defensive crouch.)

One problem I have with theories about Brian singing all the parts on any pre-16-track song is that surely, in most cases we'd have additional bounces to tape.  Which is of course possible, but not desirable for a producer if it can be avoided.  For instance, if Brian did a demo of WIBN with all the parts, at its thickest, WIBN has what 6 bgs and the lead?  If a lead is double tracked then you're already using 3 tracks of an 8-track, leaving 5 to play around with.

On IWFTD, some of the bgs are double-tracked as well, so there would have had to be internal bouncing to accommodate everything.  So I feel like there would probably be singers other than Brian on that.

I mean, he probably used Bruce on K.O.M.A. for the same reason, in that case, wanting double-tracked texture on a limited track situation--so he and Bruce sang both their parts on the same track.

Just something to have in consideration.

Blue Christmas.  Passing By.

And is Winter Symphony all Brian?

Thought Al is in the Winter Symphony mix.

This is certainly a consideration, and I thought about it. Still, with eight tracks, minus one for the backing -- I'm thinking "Salt Lake City" here -- and four- or even five-part doubled harmony, the required bouncing wouldn't be too insane. Certainly not something you'd wanna do every day, obviously.

Bass vocal on unreleased BB version of "Shortenin' Bread" - Brian.  ;D

I've just done some basic tweaking on "Wipe Out", and if you Oops it, then filter what's left and add a little subtle EQ, to these ears the following points emerge:

All the bvs are Brian. Fact.

The bass vocal - whoever it is (and I still say it's Brian), it sure ain't Mike in 1986/87: the tone and timbre is all wrong. Mike has a very recognisable bass voice: this is not it. Compare it with his work on "Somewhere Near Japan" - not close.

For me, the bass vocal sounds exactly like Mike's.

Those bass notes aren't very low, though.

Brian, even prior to "the change" in the mid 70s, could pull off a pretty good bass vocal. I don't think Mike is doing them on this song.

Brian actually has quite a powerful bass register. His work on OCA is pretty impressive -- listen to the low notes in Summer in Monterey.

I was listening to Wipe Out this last week for the same reason -- and yeah, the bass could definitely have been Brian. The sound isn't quite Mike.

So what we can infer from this is, while his voice was still good in the 60's, he could pretty much make it do whatever he wanted?

That's awesome.

I'd say he could make it do nearly everything he wanted through the early to mid 90s. The second bout of smoking caused some problems for a few years afterward, and now he's a bit aged. But certainly in the 80s and the early 90s, Brian could multi track to beat the band.

My wife thinks  it's Brian also, but that there was a bit of "doctoring". Wouldn't surprise me though, as it wouldn't be the first time (Too Much Sugar and such).

Definitely just brian on Da-Da.

I could swear it's Mike doing the "wa wa hoo wa"s.

Me too, and dammit, I'm RIGHT !!!  ;D

Second (or third) that.  Mike does the "wa wa hoo wa"s on "Love To Say Da-Da".

Put me in the "That's Brian, dammit" camp. Sounds absolutely nothing like Mike and everything like I'd imagine a 1967 Brian singing a bass vocal to sound.

If not Brian, then someone else who is not Mike.

I agree, I've always thought that was Brian...even though it's a low part, it doesn't have Mike's nasal quality to it.  Brian's "Don't Talk" demo is more than enough to prove that he could pull off a great bass vocal back then, and given that he did a lot of work on Smile by himself while the Boys were on tour, I can very easily see Brian just going in and doing it. 

Mike doesn't typically sound nasally on his low (bass) parts.  Come to think of it, I don't think anyone does.  So that's not a good criteria to go by.  Brian could definitely have sung the part, but I believe it's Mike.

You know...could it be Mike AND Brian on Da-Da? The end sounds like 2 voices instead of the one throughout most of the song.