The Smiley Smile Message Board

Written by a pair of friends of mine almost 20 years ago. Recorded a week ago Friday (piano and most vocals) and today (the rest). It doesn't sound like most of my tunes (in that I didn't write it, plus my arrangement is kind of odd) or the original (see: arrangement). But someone might like something about it, eh? Never know.  This link is to a download of the mp3. http://www.sendspace.com/file/fsu79t

hey luther, what's shaking? Haven't seen you around here for a little bit, although not that I'd blame you. Bad vibes around the Smile box and all that....

You're right about the arrangement - it is weird! Love the fact the second verse is mostly acapella Definitely a worthwhile experiment, and you're a fine bass player btw. what did you do to your piano - that's the distorted thing in the verses, right? Are you the only voice in the harmonies, too?

And what inspired you to do it? Have you sent it to the friends? Are you still in touch?

So many questions!  ;D

Hey there. Thanks for listening.

To your questions and comments... just not all that interested in this place lately, to be honest. Smile box or not, it's just not as appealing to me as it used to be. Plus, base of much of my musical love as it may be, Beach Boys are just one great band of many. So... That said, plenty of awesome people, still some great discussion here and there.

Bass playing: thanks! It's my favorite thing to play lately, actually. By far. Go figure.

Piano: good call, that is what it is. I took one of the two piano tracks (the mic over the treble side of the piano) and copied it, then took that copied track through an overdriven preamp. I could have just done guitar, but I had already done the piano with what I would have wanted while fiddling around. So why not? (I pushed down the remaining right-hand piano to avoid going too far to that end.)

I am the only voice, as well as all instruments you hear.

What inspired me to do it? Weird fetish with all my friends' old songs, I guess. Around the time they were writing, I was just beginning to realize people could write and play and record real songs. These guys were the first people I knew who wrote songs I could like regardless of them having been written by my friends. They were just good songs anyway. (The others from this series, I actually prefer. I'll get around to them eventually, I assume.) But specifically, I don't know why I did it. Probably because I just felt the loping 12/8 sort of time of the verse all of a sudden.

Too bad you're not around as much anymore, Luther...you're one of my favorite posters on here.  But I totally get it.  I'm not here as much as I once was, either.  It's great that you still share your creativity and talent with everybody here...because folks need to hear it!

I really appreciate that, Adam.