The Smiley Smile Message Board

I read somewhere that Carl was tired and left the GOK sessions before the coda at the end was completed so Brian sang on that.

My question is did they ever do a take with Carl singing at the end and does it circulate if they did?

Carl is on the coda of the stereo mix.

As drbeachboy said, Carl IS on the stereo version.  Bruce Johnston told me this is one of his problems with the stereo mix.  He strongly prefers the two Brians on the vocal round at the end (clearly so did Brian when he mixed it).  Bruce has every respect for Carl as a vocalist and loves Carl's lead but says he was out of gas by the time it came to laying down vocals for the end of the song.

I love the stereo mix as the seperation is wonderful and it reveals so much, but details like this (and especially the verse leads of You Still Believe in Me) keep me going back to the mono as it better represents Brian's vision for the record.  As I say, no disrespect to Mark's wonderful remix it is just that several bits that were added at mixdown couldn't be accessed.  Such a beautiful song...

Really, I didn't know that, thanks.

Yes, Carl is a bit wavery isn't he, but after his first part of the coda he sounds ok.

...and on the mono mix, Brian only replaced Carl's vocal on the first line of the coda, right?

I thought it was the opposite. Carl on the mono coda (Carl, Bruce, Brian) and Brian on the stereo (Brian, Bruce, Brian)?

Nope, exactly the opposite of that - on the mono mix, it's Brian/Bruce/Brian, with Brian taking all of Carl's part from the stereo mix.

You lot are starting to confuse me! On the stereo, Carl is there for the first two 'rounds', to be doubled by Brian after that. On the mono, Brian overdubs himself over all of Carl. Got it?

Here's how it happened.

Carl became tired (or fed up or just wasn't in the mood) and decided to leave the vocal session.

Therefore, Brian records a guide vocal of himself singing Carl's part.

Brian makes a mono mixdown of this version containing just himself and Bruce on the fade.

At a later time, Carl returns to the studio to record his part of the vocal round.

Carl records his part, simultaneously erasing Brian's guide vocals.

Brian later decides he likes the ending with just him and Bruce sounds better and splices his original mono mixdown containing just him and Bruce on the fade into the final mixdown.

This means in 1996, when Mark Linett creates the stereo mix, all that exists on the multi-track tape is Carl, Bruce, and Brian's falsetto parts.

.