The Smiley Smile Message Board

Well, its good to be back. Ive been a way for quite a while. Anyways, I have something interesting I would like to bring to your attention. Have you guys ever notice the sloppiness of some of the recording the Beach Boys did?
for example

In help me ronda, single version, at the end of the chorus before keys and guitar solo you here this little bit of racket.......

"Help Me Ronda Yeah! (in the backround it sounds like a music stand falling over)

or in Friends

Just before the verse......"you told me when my girl was untrue" you hear this weird vocal slip up and it sounds like crap

just a thought, any body else notice this stuff?


windchimes

I love to hear these little mistakes in the old recordings personally!  It is refreshing to hear as opposed to the overly slick, sterile, "perfect" production in modern music.  I think the little slips that occasionally appear are endearing and give the tunes a little bit of charm not present in most new stuff.  As long as slips dont take away from the song, I am cool with them!

It reminds us that music doesn't have to be perfect, but these imperfections can make a track seem perfect.

I just find it hard that something like that can go un-noticed. I mean, yeah, obviously have mistakes and slip ups add to the coolness of it all, but back then wouldnt they have tried for perfection?

That depends. Take the camera conversation during the bridge of Here Today. Brian didn't seem to catch that and it remained in the song. Over the years, people began to remark about this "message" seemingly hidden in the bridge and people began to accept it as part of the song itself. Of course when the stereo mix was created, Brian wanted the talking removed. Ye of little courage.

And then there's the cough in "Wendy"...

Cam (I think) presented a theory once with an interesting name (something about tapestries or something? "Broken....") that the imperfections were an intentional design element.  You here, Cam?

I have no proof whatsoever to back up my claim, but i'll say that every single noise that *could've* been removed but wasn't was intentional. Of course some sounds may have been passed down and impossible to remove. All the noises throughout Smiley/Honey/Friends I believe to be entirely intentional. Obvious exceptions to the occasional buzz which is on tracks like "When A Man Needs A Woman" and "Country Air".

It often adds a fantastic sensation of reality to the music. I don't know if that line made sense but what I mean is, you can feel the shuffle of the studio floor and that's an amazing thing to capture.

"I'm Waiting For The Day" has one TERRIBLE mess up which bugs me to no end. "for the day when you can....love...again.......GEEN". The previous take just pops up so annoyingly and it shocks me that it wasn't noticed.

There's the really loud chair squeek on "Waiting", too.

Winchimes, what do you think of the end to "Guess I'm Dumb" with Brian's warm words to Glen?

Welcome back, windchimes!

The most obvious mistakes, and the ones that surprise me the most,
are the double tracking mistakes..  Especially with how picky Brian was,
about supposedly hearing everything and doing a song dozens of times
until it was right..  I wonder why these things weren't done a second time.
You don't hear the Beatles leaving this stuff in.  Our putting out "Hey
Little Tomboy."  SOMEONE in the camp, band member or producer,
would point out this is just wrong and a slap to our image.

I've wondered about this, too.  I don't really hear - or perhaps *notice* - the anomolies, but i know they're there from all the discussion.

Brian was SUCH a perfectionist...but he's also a "let's get it done and move on" kind of guy - has been forever.  I guess this is where those two aspects of his personality collide.

This is a could analogy for SMiLE...Brian spent his time to perfect it and get it out the door...but because of all the hassling and negativeness around him he just said forget it and moved on.

No?

We keep hearing what a slave driver he was during the vocal sessions, but there
are mistakes like "break" (instead of "broke") sung in "Sloop John B" and all those
double tracking errors.. most of them are Mike but a few are Brian.

Then there is a the mixing of Pet Sounds in a single day.  It's very interesting.

I got something to throw under thsi topic (instead of a new one with the same title)

Has anyone ever noticed the similarities to the solo from 'Got to know the woman' and the solo at the credits theme song for Double Dare?

!

Girls on the Beach-ch-ch . . .

M.

Thinking about it now, I guess it does kind of add the human side to music. Brians music, to me, is so soulful and un-reachable as far as how it makes you feel. It is nice at times to see the human side of the man.

I'm here. T'wrnt me, Joe, but I wish it had been. Good to see ya here.

You, too, Cam- I'm guessing now it was Peter Reum who presented that theory (with some evidence to back it up, I think).

I made a mistake

the solo of "It's About Time" sounds exactlyt the smae as the solo of the ending credits to Double Dare

anyone?

The folk version of Sloop uses "break" instead of "broke" - "I feel so break up, i wanna go home."  Maybe that one was Al's goof.

Yes it was..  but everyone else sang "broke" so therefore it's a mistake.
In the vocals-only version, after someone says "break" by accident, you
hear a little moan like "damn! why did i do that?"  it's left in.

I have a Pet Sounds bootleg that was put out before the official PS box set.  On it, there's multiple versions of Sloop where the BBs use "break" instead of "broke."  It became my impression they sang it the traditional way but decided to change it before the final recording.