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I have been searching high and low for this. I have the 'instrumental' that was on the Hawthorne CD, but it doesn't span the whole song. Does anyone know of any other albums that may contain an instrumental version of this song?

Sea of Tunes Unsurpassed Masters Vol. 11 has 15 takes of what I assume is the instrumental track for The Little Girl I Once Knew (I haven't heard it myself someone will need to confirm). Other than that I don't think there is a complete instrumental track for it although there really should be, Hawthorne gave us the instrumental tracks for Surfin' USA and Fun, Fun, Fun for some reason, I mean they are great songs but did we need the instumental tracks for these songs? The Little Girl I Once Knew and Surf's Up would have been better choices.

Not exactly complete, I think.

Take #1 - 1.37
Take #2 - 2.32 (released track is 2.39)
Takes #3-#6 - 4.09
Takes #7-#10 - 3.44
Takes #11-#15 - 4.41

Now, someone will correct me on this should I be wrong, but didn't Brian run short of tape during a later session and tape over the master take of "TLGIOK" (which had been mixed to mono by then) ?

The same with 'Stack-O-Tracks' - they had a wealth of instrumental tracks to choose from and they wasted two slots with 'Wild Honey' and 'Darlin'.

Thanks a bunch for the information!

Indeed. I just finished listening to most of the takes. Nothing really definitive, but Take II was good close enough.

I don't think the multi's for the master take exist anymore.

There are a few brief snippets of the session for the tune (with the working title of 'Carol K') on the Hawthorne, CA set as well as an interesting alternate mix.

I believe Brian used *one track* of the session tape for "Little Girl..." to record what became "Psychedelic Talk", which you can hear on the SOT set.  If you listen closely, you can actually hear bleed-through of the session behind the talking.

The "Psychedelic Talk" recording ends halfway through the master instrumental take of the song.  So, if you turn off that track for part of the song, you can hear the master inst. track, minus that one track.  The last half of the song is complete.  Hope that makes sense.

What exactly is this "psychedelic talk"?

An outtake from the SMiLE era. It's nothing but Brian, VDP, Mike Vosse, Danny Hutton, David Anderle, Jules Seigel, etc. talking nonsense and doing different skits and games.

Well worth erasing the master for "The Little Girl I Once Knew", I might add.

Because that track was taped over, to look on the bright side at least, we can at least perform some interesting experiments.  Since the SOT producer hard panned the two remaining tracks of the 3-track, we can actually hear what one track of a Beach Boys multitrack sounds like.  We can hear how much leakage there is into the horn track, for instance.  You can really hear the sound of the organ.  I think it's a gift, frankly, until they start putting out Beach Boys multis for fan remixes.

Wow, for a genius, Brian sure could be a real dumbass sometimes!

It's a damn shame, too. I consider "Little Girl..." one of Brian's most important works. I look at is as the "bridge"between albums, leading up to "Pet Sounds".

Well he probably figured the song was a "failure" due to it's stale performance on the charts and thought nobody would miss it.

He recorded over something to make the final mixdown of "I'm Waiting For The Day" too. That bleed-through is terribly obvious on the mono mix of Pet Sounds.

TLGIOK is the #1 track-I-want-to-hear ... Oh well ...

I wouldn't call a song that goes top twenty without any promotin on TV and in concerts and that wasn't radio"friendkly" a failure. but he probably expected a no.1 (which it would deserve imho)

Meh. Considering the two albums it came between, I never thought this song was all that great. Certainly good, but not great.

There's a certain euphoric quality there that is truly glorious, IMO. I remember first hearing it on the"Spirit of America" comp
in about 1984, when I was first getting seriously into the group, and the ecstatic emotional wallop it packs really floored me. I love the smoothness of the alternate mix on Hawthorne, CA, with the a capella section (part of the original mix) being a highlight. A major piece of work, again IMO (I'm obviously not alone). To each their own, of course. :)

one of my absolute favorites. Brian at the height of his powers.

never fully "got" this song til I saw Brian do it live for the first time in Ann Arbor... back in '99.

opened the show with "Little Girl" straight into "This Whole World". floored me.

"where can I find an instrumental track for 'The Little Girl I Once Knew'"

Underneath the vocal tracks ?  ;D

I thangyow, I thangyouw...

That isn't what was taped over 'The Little Girl...' master, though. The 'party' Brian taped was a 'word association' game he played with Marilyn and 2 other people. It isn't very interesting. I think this is on the same SOT that has Brian directing a version of 'Row Your Boat', which also isn't all that great.

Yes, you can clearly hear Marilyn, and I think Mike Love as well.

Interesting tune -- it's one of the few times that Brian consciously tried to follow up a hit record with another that sounded kind of like it. That is, TLGIOK has a lot of the background feeling of California Girls, especially on the chorus. But he clearly didn't want to make a carbon copy, so he ended up producing a song that is in some ways an exaggerated, gonzo view of CG, with tricks and hooks aplenty shoehorned in. Not to mention the fact that the verses have two different melody lines -- sung at the same time.

In a way, TLGIOK is like the Smile album. Brian is trying to follow up a hit, but by going the furthest out he can imagine at the time.

Along similar lines, I found an instrumental track for 'Cabinessence' on youtube (one of the best tracks he ever did, imo) but I can't find it on any Beach Boy's album. Anyone know where I can find this gem?

I could rip the song directly from youtube, but I'd much rather do this the legal way  ;D

5th disc of the 1990 (91?) box set.

1993.

LIAR!

The Good Vibrations - 30 Years Of The Beach Boys 5CD box set was released June 1993.

I don't take kindly to being called a liar, even as a joke. Please apologise.

eh, I know what you meant. Thanks a lot! Wow, with a simple google search I could have found this out...thanks for dealing with my ignorance  ;D

Hay, I'm sorry, I figured you'd know I was just kidding. Why would I call you, of all people, out on the date of a Beach Boys release?

my mind must be going senile :-[

I find the sessions on "Secret Smile" breathtakingly beautiful, especially the coda.

hang on to your ego.

...I'm just teasing

Nothing to do with ego, a lot to do with something that happened at school when I was six or seven and accused of theft. As a result, I have:

1 - no respect for any 'authority' who won't listen to both sides of any given situation but jumps to a conclusion...

2 - an aversion to being called a liar that borders on the pathological, even in jest.

well, that is to do with ego. nothing to do with being egotistical, if that's what you mean by having an ego.

But regardless of that, I'm not sure I believe your story...




sorry, couldn't resist.  :-X

Gee, funny guy. I mean, my side are literally aching from laughing so much. With such wit abroad in the world today, Oscar Wilde must be heaving a sigh of relief at being dead.

There's no need to bring Oscar Wilde into this. At school when I was six or seven my lack of wit and social tact was criticized. As a result, I have:

1 - no respect for anyone that takes themselves too seriously and jumps on the defensive...

2 - an aversion to light-hearted jokes at my expense that borders on the pathological.

But I'll tell ya what, I'm working through this issue of mine and I won't hold it against you. Friends?  :)


I don't know if any of you have heard this before, but it's a different mix of The Little Girl I Once Knew: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XolOuPK4PsY

Friends ?

No, I don't think so.

It sounds much like the Hawthorne mix only they left out the a cappella break in the bridge....LOVED the footage....though Mike looks like he just spent 50 years in the Alaskan outback.

First 25 seconds is Brian's home studio - the session is for "Time To Get Alone".

at least we see eye-to-eye on that one  ;D


yeah the video is great. The dancing scene is hilarious.