The Smiley Smile Message Board

Stop me if the subject is covered elsewhere on the vast pages of this board but the "3 clicks" post earlier this week reminded me of another background noise on a Beach Boys song that has always intrigued me. The chatter during the intro to "Do It Again". I have at least 3 versions, all with it.

Any others? I'm sure I've heard a sneeze on one tune but can't remember which.

The chatter on Here Today and Wendy are famous ones.

I believe the original-mono-mix of "Wendy" hasn't that noise, so it's not that famous....

http://www.cabinessence.net/essays/noises.html

http://www.cabinessence.net/essays/noises2.html

The noises, edits, bum notes, are what make those recordings real in a sense. They're totally perfect in an absolutely imperfect way. A common problem to the lifeless drivel we hear of a lot of modern recordings is the lack of imperfections that were present in all past recordings.

Well, famous to Beach Boys fans, anyway.

Peter Reum once cited a theory on an earlier version of this board that Brian had some kind of philosophy, with a name including the word "tapestry", if I'm recalling it correctly, about leaving mistakes in place here and there.  Artists call them "thumbprints".  They become an element of design and give the work a human touch.

I don't think I've ever heard "Wendy" without the cough.

The form of "imperfect perfect" is what makes Rock'n'Roll. That's what Sam Phillips of Sun Records called his sound. The feel was the most important thing, and I think that's one thing Brian learned from Rock'n'Roll

@Joe: I believe you can hear it (or can't hear it) on the original mono-mix, like I said. Have to listen to it again to be 100% sure, but I think I remember it that way...

I believe that.

I think the "Here Today" stereo mix sucks without the camera chatter. It sounds lifeless, empty, robotic, computerized. Those voices gave it that human element.

The "thumbprint" theory makes sense. I'll buy some of the studio chatter as intentionally left in, such as "Here Today".

But some does surprise me that Brian left in, especially when you read stories about his perfectionism and countless takes in the studio.

The most perlpexing one for me is Dennis's "stutter" on "Auld Lang Syne". After hearing the playback, you'd think Brian would have to say, "Could we try that one again, Dennis?"

What was a Perez Prado record without him throwing in a good grunt or cry of "Dilo!" (something like "Give it!") whenever he felt like it? Grunts and yells were often thrown into recorded Latin music, even in the 50's. Anytime there's live music done by a hot band, theres a chance the participants will be so into the proceedings that this sort of thing will happen. I suppose that with the increased use of electric instruments and overdubs (never mind digital recording)this sort of thing died out - or at least you didn't get to hear it.

As far as 'letting the seams show' here and there - yeah, it's a thing that craftspeople will do. It's a favorite trick of needlepointers - "There is one mistake in this; try and find it!" Peter Reum saying 'tapestry' brings this to mind.

I'm not sure, though, that anybody cared too much at the time about what was left in, especially on an album track. A lot of those tracks were done pretty quickly, right?

rb...

I know what you mean re: digital recording. That's why I personally try to leave any outside "noise" in when my group makes music.  For instance...I was recording the sound of my wife opening up the front door , and planned to use it as a sound affect. Unbeknownst to me, the mic was also picking up my next door neighbor cursing out her husband on her cell phone from next door.. After I had already finished recording the song, we were listening to the playback, and kept wondering what the hell we were hearing in the background. Listening to it on headphones told the story. Sad part is, it sounded 100% intentional.

Something similar happened later on. AGAIN I was trying to sample the sound of the door opening and closing, except someone was mowing the lawn. This time, I was aware of the fact that the mic was picking it up. What was different too was that it helped me finish the song...I turned the lawnmower UP in the mix, looped it, and changed the name of the song from "Glastnost" to "Stalin's Lawnmower".  :lol

So, yeah, surface noise can enhance the sound.  That's why personally I like using a combination of digital and analogue recording. It really is all about the human element.

I've never noticed any of this stuff, but I don't want to listen for it in fear that it'll ruin the track!

Has anybody heard of the Beatles background noises? I think the most famous one is in "Hey Jude" Just before they go into the "na na na" bit and after the "Remember to let her into your skin" line, if you listen to the right channel (from memory) someone shouts "F**kin Hell"  I think this is intentional, imagine the irony that the biggest selling Beatles single has a swear word in it.  >:D

Of course, there's the BBC broadcast of "King Lear" that was mixed live into the final third of "I Am The Walrus". It's hard to believe hearing it that it wasn't carefully positioned there.

T Bone Burnett, who is in the midst of a return as a songwriter/performer (after a 14 year absence to produce others and compile movie soundtracks), metioned in a recent interview how he will introduce noise into his mixes to contrast or enhance the performance. His new album is about as "unclean" as you can imagine; a direct response to the slickly "perfected" fare on radio today I suppose. Startlingly, he even went back and remixed/re-recorded tracks from his classic "Proof Through The Night" album for a new two-disc compilation to make them noisier and more abstract!

Back to Brian: while I'd like to think he intended to include some noise/chatter in the mid-60s recordings, it's more likely an indication of his depression. When he was tuned in, he was a perfectionist; when depression set in, he just wanted to be done with the session. That seems to be the case with the initial rush mix job done on "Pet Sounds" which Capitol rejected. Or course, Brian was always under pressure to turn out product quickly in the 60s and the stereo mixes were always treated as an afterthought anyway.

There's only very little new artists that understand that the feel is more important the faultlessness of a take. But one that really understands it is RYAN ADAMS!

I'm sure that he rushed a few mixes in his lifetime. Perhaps they each had a different reason to them. I would never call Pet Sounds a rushed mix at all; It is in some places, flawless. The only songs which seem a bit rushed are God Only Knows, You Still Believe In me, I'm Waiting For The Day, and Here Today. Everything is is perfection. Sloop John B sounds absolutely fantastic, as does Caroline No, I Know There's An Answer, etc.

His mid-to-late 60's music is art-pop-weird-stuff-odd-ball type of things. To say that he rushed recordings is false and too presumptuous for the info we have of the sessions. These sessions had engineers most of the time, an engineer wouldn't let obtrusive noises fly unless it was okay'd by the producer. The "curtain closing" noise in Wake The World is just too perfectly placed to be mistake. I bet that Brian was searching for a sound to imitate the pulling of curtains. Similar to him having the Beach Boys whack things during the chorus to Let Him Run Wild. 

Someone from the inner circle (was it Terry Melcher in the "Endless Harmony" documentary?) claimed that the first mix of "Pet Sounds" submitted to Capitol sounded very sloppy and was rejected. Brian then went back and created a new mono mix which is the one released in 1966 that we've known all these years. If this is true, I could only imagine something was up with Brian personally for him to rush the mixing of an album he envisioned as the "greatest pop album ever".

I agree that there is probably a myriad of reasons for the various coughs, murmurings, stray noises that crept into Beach Boys recordings. Some, like the "Wake of World" example, are certainly intended; I'd say the same about "Smiley Smile" as a whole.

I think it has to do with something that Steve Desper once touched on. Brian was more of a performance idealist. He would rather, to use Desper's example, get a perfect performance rather than a cool kick drum sound. Perhaps Brian thought that the music itself would outweigh the confines of a mono, sloppily mixed recording. Maybe it was some deranged joke to present finely tuned and crafted music in a sloppy mix. That's doubtful but it is Brian Wilson we're thinking of here.

You know what album has a GREAT mono mix? The 'british pet sounds' of course: Odessey & Oracle

Eh, some of it is excellent. Some of it, like its American brother, is sloppy.

The best mixes are:

Care of Cell 44 (The chorus of which, in its mix, is jaw-dropping)
A Rose For Emily (The reverb is too heavy on the stereo mix, this is more subtle)

The worst are:

Maybe After He's Gone (The guitar/bass parts are muddled in the mix.)

..........

I haven't listened to it in a while, I'll have to put it on again.