The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hello all,

Regarding the album In the Garden: The White Whale Story . . . The CD Universe site has an audio preview of "Vegetables" by Laughing Gravy. Click here (http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/6586059/a/in+the+garden%3A+the+white+whale+story.htm), scroll down, and listen.

Can anyone confirm that this is indeed the original 1967 White Whale version of the song, based on this short clip? Or is it a mistake? Dean Torrence is clearly not the lead singer on the version linked here.

Dean has told David Beard (his main outlet for public consumption) that he does not remember the differences between the original 1967 version and the later Anthology version with Brian Wilson and Spring singing harmonies along with Dean's lead.

The J&D Anthology album was apparently released in late 1971 (the year listed on the back cover). The album was reviewed in Billboard in January 1972.

It's NOT the version from the 45 ( WW-261) or the later repackaging, Gotta Take that One Last Ride

I've got the 1967 version by Dean... sounds pretty close to the 1972 version, with fewer vocal overdubs... slightly thinner sound, but definitely all Dean Torrence.  So it sounds like somebody screwed up when compiling this collection.

I agree.  This sounds like a contemporary recording.  Although I don't have the White Whale compilation, I would be surprised if it didn't have the right version, and that it's CD Universe's database of samples that's picking up the wrong version.  I'll have to listen to my collection of tribute CD's to see where this version originates.

Lee

well it definitely  a brand new recording, I can hear Dean in the background doing falsetto but the lead singer sounds like Jeff Foskett to me.. also the Laughing Gravy/J&D version doesn't have the "eat a lot sleep a lot etc" section.. but it's interesting to hear this version.. maybe Laughing Gravy made a comeback or something recently.. BTW Laughing Gravy is based on the Laurel and Hardy film of the same name... :p

Agreed - that's neither the 1967 nor the 1972 version. Someone's dropped a mighty clanger here.

Laughing Gravy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_oTSCWr8UI)

I have the white whale cd and it does indeed have the original laughing gravy version without the 71 vocal overdubs.

That sounds like the version from the CD "A Tribute to Brian Wilson" by Cameron Michael Parks from around 10 years ago.

I don't hear Dean on this at all.  His falsetto is very distinctive and I don't hear it on this track.

Sounds Exactly Right!!    
Here,  http://www.ftpsearch.co/browse-en/71.225.112.170/MEDIADRIVE2/Music/Cameron+Michael+Parkes/A+Tribute+to+Brian+Wilson/08+-+Vegetables.mp3

Okay, good. I thought I had both versions, but that audio clip gave me a Twilight Zone moment.

That clip is not Cameron, but he did include the "Eat a lot" part on his version.

M.

I am fairly certain this is Cameron's version....I was obsessed with his tribute album, it's one of my favorites. I think there was a second version on the album as a bonus track, so it may be that version. There's just something about his recordings, they sound very particular. The whistling, eat a lot part, the instruments used....all on Cameron's version(s).



What overdubs were recorded for the early 70's version? Was the photo of that session the one with Brian, Dean, Marilyn, and Diane in the studio?

If it's not Cameron, since you seem to know now,who is it?

I have no idea who it is.

I've worked with Cameron, and it just doesn't sound like his voice to me, in terms of lead vocal. If it's something he did with his band, I've never heard it before.

Oh, OK. Your ears are probably better than mine. The link  I posted  to his track sounded like the same version to me. The alternate version seemed much slower. 

Both versions:  http://www.ftpsearch.co/browse-en/71.225.112.170/MEDIADRIVE2/Music/Cameron+Michael+Parkes/A+Tribute+to+Brian+Wilson/

Ok I just listened to Cameron's version on his A TRIBUTE TO BRIAN WILSON album via iTunes, and I am 100% certain that it's the same as the CD Universe preview in the original post.  Mark, CD Universe compresses those previews so much that it probably sounds foreign to your ears, but it's definitely Cameron's version.

Lee

Well, here's the hilarious thing. I just went back and listened at CD Universe, and now it IS playing Cameron's version.

But when I made the original post, it was playing a completely different version. Different arrangement and different voices. I'm so familiar with Cameron's voice, I would have recognized his version immediately when hearing it; and there would have been no reason for the post.

Strangeness . . .

Around 1991 I picked up The Early Years version of Smile on CD from Red Eye Records in Sydney. The quality was obviously from cassettes and some songs were not from the SMiLE sessions such as Heroes and Villains and Wind Chimes (both from Smiley Smile) and Vegetables (which was the Laughing Gravy version!). A year later I got the Chapter One release which was way better in terms of audio quality. Anyway, this was the pre-internet era (that is 1995 onwards and Windows 95 made us all computer/internet users) and I wasn't to know that this version of Vegetables was not by the Beach Boys until a few years later. It's a great cover version though, I've always admired it!

The CD "A Tribute to Brian Wilson" by Cameron Michael Parks. Very good CD. Highly recommend searching it down.

Seems to me I remember......wasn't the Laughing Gravy version of Vegetables also on one or more of the early vinyl SMiLE bootlegs?

So... WW have replaced the faux LG version... with another faux LG version ?  Mark, I think you need to put these boys straight !

Mikie - yeas, the first (1983) Smile vinyl boot. Brad didn't have the pukka version then...  :)

I only know the track on the Smile boot.  Is that one the 1967 or 1972 version?  Just curious.

Bizarre, sin't it?

That is weird -- but you are right Mark; the first time I listened to the CD Universe link, it was a version with just two acoustic guitars and vocals -- but still a "modern" re-recording, and IMO having nothing to do with the Beach Boys, Dean Torrence, or anyone else of the period.  Now the link definitely goes to Cameron's version.

Lee

Yeah, Dean had said there were multiple early versions . . . and I just wanted to make sure that White Whale release wasn't throwing on some alternate version, like Dean producing a take with other vocalists in Joe Osborn's garage studio.

Some of the same vocalists who sang on "Yellow Balloon" also did vocals for Carnival of Sound.

Stupid interwebs . . . Ha!

Okay, so this is all quite confusing. Can anybody tell me how I can identify which version is the 1967 Laughing Gravy version and which version is the 1971 Jan & Dean Anthology Album version? Are Brian and the Rovell sisters not on the 1967 version? And the version AGD posted upthread, that is listed as the Laughing Gravy version, is that correct? Cuz it sounds just like the version I have.

And anyways, I have Dean's "Vegetables" on two CDs. I have it on the Jan & Dean Anthology Album, which I assume is the version with Brian and the girls, right? The one that was released on a Jan & Dean single in 1971. Then I also have, The Dean Torrence Anthology — Legendary Masked Surfer — Unmasked . And the liner notes indicate that it features Brian Wilson and the Rovell sisters. Confusingly however, the song is credited to Laughing Gravy. I haven't done a side-by-side listen to both versions in a bit, but I'm pretty sure they are both the same. Anybody know though?

Also, if neither of these include the 1967 Laughing Gravy version, does anybody know where it truly can be procured?


Bicyclerider, so the CD mentioned in this thread actually has the original Laughing Gravy version?

I've just confirmed that the version that is on Varese's JAN AND DEAN'S GOLDEN SUMMER DAYS - THE LEGENDARY MASKED SURFERS AND Varese's DEAN TORRENCE ANTHOLOGY -- LEGENDARY MASKED SURFER UNMASKED are one and the same.  They are the later version overdubbed by Brian, Marilyn, and Diane.  Brian is most audible on the line "I'm red as a beet, cause I'm so embarrassed."

The Laughing Gravy version uses the same backing track, but the vocals are much sparser.  The easiest way to tell the Laughing Gravy version is at the end, where the background vocalists chant "Carrots, celery," on the original 1968 version you hear some young children (who must have been asked to help with the chant) squeal in amusement.  I wonder if Dean remembers who they were.

Lee

Talking about The Laughing Gravy, this was just posted on facebook. Brian doin' his best Stan Laurel:

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/p480x480/15279_10152768229397241_1755343128187263480_n.png?oh=03bfd71fe572c096184fd9bd23a458cd&oe=54AD8B73&__gda__=1421486682_a091a92ef89f538e7fb388f81fe8c7fc)



(http://s3.vidimg.popscreen.com/original/2/NTkyNDUwNTM%3D_o_rowby-at-stan-laurel-tribute.jpg)

I wonder if there's one from Mike somewhere

There is potential...


(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ca/JamesFinlaysonPublicityHeadshot.jpg)

I don't see anything addressing this here, so I'll just ask: is the backing track to the Laughing Gravy single a backing track from Brian's actual SMiLE sessions or no? (I haven't had the SMiLE #2 vinyl for years, so I haven't heard it in so long I can't recall what it sounds like. Other than I always liked the list of veggies sung over the outro--wish the BB's had done that too...)

I don't think so, though it was rumoured to be at the time.

The Brian/Spring version is also on the Pet Projects CD. Don't think I've heard the original! (the link AGD posted I think was the Spring one; sounds like the one I've got)

I think the assertion that the Laughing Gravy track was an unused SMiLE track originated in Brad Elliott's book.  Since then I think facts have proven that that assertion was incorrect.

I've always wondered about the session for "Vegetables" that Rodney Bingenheimer says he attended.  He says that he yelled "TV dinners and tomatoes" when asked to yell his favorite vegetables.  "TV dinners" a vegetable?... I don't think Rodney was a Rhodes Scholar...

Lee

It's easy to see where the yelling would fit in. Imagine that a capella bit with someone shouting out the name of their favorite vegetable at the end. Then people shouting out all kinds of stuff during the more fleshed out instrumental.

Nope. Long-disproven BB urban myth.


Correctamundo: on p. 180 of the original edition, it is stated "According to [Dean] Torrence, "Vegetables" was recorded during the Smiley Smile sessions. Dean sings lead over a backing track that may be a Smile relic."

In fact, subsequent research established that Brian had no direct involvement with the LG version whatsoever.

Hope they get it right.

<<Correctamundo: on p. 180 of the original edition, it is stated "According to [Dean] Torrence, "Vegetables" was recorded during the Smiley Smile sessions. Dean sings lead over a backing track that may be a Smile relic.">>

This was tracked in Joe Osborn's garage, same place Dean produced the sessions for the first, mono version of Save For A Rainy Day.