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I've been debating with a fellow BB nerd and he claims "Al may be a great singer, but he can barely play guitar! When he does, he's barely even audible in the mix, like the Concert album!"
I reply with, "Al is usually low in the mix, but I have heard guys on Smiley Smile praise him as a lead guitarist when playing with his Endless Summer band."

I honestly think Al is a pretty good guitarist. He may not be as good as Carl Wilson or Blondie Chaplin, but he can sure play.

My main question is- does anyone have any videos of Al Jardine playing lead guitar? Thanks!

Dunno, but I certainly saw him play the guitar solo in "Dance, Dance, Dance" during a BW show.

There some videos on You Tube with Al playing acoustic guitar and singing along to some Beach Boys classics. I thought he was good. As far as lead electric guitar, I don't know of too many on stage.

Al would commonly play lead guitar on Sail On Sailor when it came back into the setlists in the mid-1990s and again when he went on tour with his own group.

I've always thought he was a good solid rhythm guitarist.

Check out the "Doin' It Again" performance of SOS from 2012...Jeff, Dave and Al take turns at the leads. I believe Al plays the final one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpy4NfDQjio#t=2m50s

Did Al or Carl ever attempt to play any of the more 80s-souding guitar solos in a live setting (which are natively found on their 80s studio catalog, played by studio musicians)?

 :lol

That clip never fails to make me laugh.  Thanks.

Oh wow, thanks!

If you can' t play it with your teeth are you really a serious guitarist?  I mean seriously!!!

Al is almost as good a guitarist as he is a dentist.

I  always thought Al was a much more gifted guitar player than myKe luHv. He could sing better, 2.   :p

When I was much younger I used to confuse that era Al with Will Millar of The Irish Rovers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOtUP7iU6wE

We could always assume he never picks up the guitar at home and just hasn't practised or improved the years. Not really likely, though, is it?

The latest issue of Guitar World magazine has a feature article on Al. In the interview, Al describes the chops of Carl, Ed Carter, Brian's band, and the Wrecking Crew. He says "someone told me Hal Blaine considers me the best rhythm guitarist. I said, 'Is he crazy?' (laughs) There are so many better players than me. But there's a trick to good rhythm guitar, so I take that as high praise."

Carl certainly did ("Still Cruisin'", for instance), but they used Eddie Carter for some ("Somewhere Near Japan", "Summer In Paradise").

During the early 90s they had an extra guy come on stage and add the licks to Under the Boardwalk. Who was he?

I always thought that praise was addressed at Carl. Nevertheless, among the guys Alan is probably the one who could play more stringed instruments (still does), and he's solid enough as a rhythm guy. He chooses some cool voicings too.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QrGrOK8oZG8

I’ve talked about this before in past threads. Al has rarely been able to demonstrate on stage over the years much elaborate guitar playing. He would probably be the first to admit he never a big lead player, especially doing improvisational stuff (e.g. that awesome train wreck “American Bandstand” jam).

But he’s a solid player, and much better than he has usually displayed on stage over the years at BB concerts, especially by the 80’s and 90’s when the shows were often rather rote. But I’ve seen him live on his own doing some nice guitar work. As I’ve mentioned numerous times before, I saw him solo at a little charity gig in 2005 (no Matt or other normal backline guys), and he was doing he lead guitar parts on stuff like “409” and “Fun Fun Fun.” As others have mentioned, since at least the 90’s he has seemed to enjoy doing the little guitar riffs during “Sail on Sailor.”


Let us not forget as well that he did some solid bass work on some early BB tracks as well.

I think most of these guys including Al have a lot of music sort of built in; they were born with some innate musicality. So I liken it a bit to what Eric Clapton said one time about George Harrison in an interview. I’m very much paraphrasing, but Clapton essentially said that Harrison could have been a more epic guitar player on the order of some of the flashy guitar players of the day, but he chose not to because he was into other stuff. I think that’s true a bit about Al. Not that he could (or would, or would want to) be a “shredder” or anything. But he’s a better musician than he  usually gets to display, and probably could be even better if not for the fact that he, like the other guys, have always placed vocals first.

I'd love to hear Al playing through some boutique guitar effects pedals like Death By Audio's Supersonic Fuzz Gun and Echo Dream Delay. He needs to get his dreamy fuzz on :)

What guitar effects pedals have Al, Carl, and Dave used over the years? And during what eras?

Al can play guitar. That's a known fact, I suppose. He is a solid rhythm player, I'll give him that.
But I can think of multiple instances since the 80's where his guitar has been inaudible on stage. I remember him saying he did this because he was such a "perfectionist".

Not going into the discussion (although it is a very interesting topic), just advising you to listen to the '66 live medley on "Endless harmony" during Surfin' USA's solo. You hear almost only Al's guitar as Carl's was almost inaudible (and from other performances it seems that Carl's guitar never was that loud on stage).

Does Al play the guitar on the acoustic solo version of California?

Al is a good guitarist. So was Carl. Neither of them demonstrated any advanced proficiency on the instrument. It wasn't called for or necessary.
Listen to their early rhythm tracks. The instrumental playing propels those songs and also provides most of the underlying harmonic content. They were a great band made up of decent musicians.
That's not a bad thing.

hey Olmec, do you think that Al clip is for real,   He sounds Awful.   Like someone dubbed in a bad off key solo....He'll I can play a better lead even with a bad case of stage fright and no monitor.............?????

Well, for about a year after Jeff F. left, they had a guitar tech named Stanley T. in the band playing the whole set (including slide on some song or another...maybe it was "Island Girl", I can't quite remember). A few years later, after Eddie C. left, they had their guitar tech come on to play the "SIP" lead, and also "Barbara Ann".

The "A Postcard from California" version? Guitars on that are credited to Al and Michael Lent. Incidentally, even though the electric Danelectro part on the title song is credited to Al, Al himself told me that's actually Glen Campbell. Which makes sense.

Al's a very good acoustic guitarist - when he appeared on Pete Fornatale's WNEW-FM radio show in '83, Al performed a solo acoustic version of "Sloop John B.", and it's quite good - he plays the intricate arpeggio while singing.

As for electric guitar, dig the way he and Carl mesh up on the "Dance, Dance, Dance" backing track - driving rhythm guitar throughout, including during the solo (which Carl played live on the basic track).

Onstage, Al may be mixed low a lot, but from the mid '70s or so on, they always turned him up for the intro to "Do It Again" (where he played a syncopated rhythm part behind Carl's main riff). Then there was the live "Fridays" performance of "Keepin' The Summer Alive" - when Carl goes for the solo, Al steps on a pedal and activates a wah or phase effect on his own rhythm guitar - sounds pretty cool. Lastly, in case someone's never  noticed, Al has typically doubled the main lead riff on a few songs like "You're So Good To Me", while still covering the rhythm chords, and has played the counter lead on "Sloop" and "Wouldn't It Be Nice".

I think the previous poster was referring to the acoustic version that was on the ESQ Dennis CD (and featured a little in the Endless Harmony doc).

At the time I remember it was stated that Al did play guitar on it.

No the one allegedly done for the country album (was it a guide track specifically for Merle Haggard to sing?)

Maybe not always audible, but following his playiing onstage, A looks more than competent in switching chords at the right rhythm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsaTtfRKJdg#t=20s

When's the last time that a proper BB live show was played with Al and Carl as the only guitar players present onstage?

Hmm… There were lip syncing performances with only Carl and Al, but for an actual LIVE CONCERT, I'd have to say 1966. With Al playing rhythm guitar, Carl playing lead guitar, and Bruce playing bass guitar.

The mid 90s?

Seems like I saw Carl and Al on guitar and Ed Carter on bass a LOT of times.......no other axes on stage.     Edit that to include Jeffrey for many shows at some point in the 80's

Here is Al playing the lead on the opening to Fun Fun Fun : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en1O0Ip3SUk

I guess my question should have been worded more along the lines, of when was the last time that a proper BB live show was played with Al and Carl as the only guitar players present onstage, before anybody additional was regularly added to supplement on guitar?

That`s the song I was referring to.

And I recall Al saying he did it for someone like Merle Haggard to do. But sadly they went for the more obvious hits route.

Thanks. I always found intriguing that the would have a roadie play a more prominent part than Carl's.

You sure that's not the guitarist in the back?

For most of the set in '95 and '96, Carl and Al were the only guitarists. They only moved Ed to lead guitar, or brought out the roadie, for one or two songs. It was probably that way in '94 and the second half of '93 (after Adrian left), too. In '97 they had Phil Bardowell as backup. Check out the July 4th '95 Philly show, which is on Youtube. Carl and Al were also the only guitarists for most of the set in '79 (first time I saw 'em) and the second half of 1980 (e.g., the July Fourth show that year). And '74, '75, '76 and '77 (in '78 Eddie mostly played guitar 'cause Bri was on bass).

Interesting info, thanks c-man! Your research is much appreciated for the entire fan community. I guess Al/Carl being the only guitar players happened for quite a bit longer than I realized, though it was still sporadic.

Well, I would say having a third guitarist throughout most of the show was actually more sporadic for the first twenty years of their career...two guitars (plus bass, of course) had been more the norm prior to 1981. The first years they added a third guitar on most songs were '72 and '73 (Blondie and a sideman, such as Ed Carter, rotating guitar and bass throughout the set)...and then '78, first half of '80, most of '81, then '82 through the first half of '93, and finally '97 (if we're just taking the Carl and Al years, which we are). Overall, including the Carl and Dave years, through to Carl's departure, that's 17 years with three (or more) guitarists playing most of the set versus 19 with just two.

Some close ups of Al playing GV here.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZDpP_a4Nvg

It's pretty obvious that Al's a solid guitarist - playing the chord changes to a set of Beach Boy songs is no small feat.  Now that being said, he's not a blues/rock soloist style of guitar player.  He's really strong on bass as well.

You know, it definitely does look like he's playing the principal guitar part in this clip

Definitely 1994. I saw them twice that year and they had the roadie play the busiest part on Boardwalk and probably a another song (Summer in Paradise? Barbara Ann?). It was Carl and Al on guitars for the rest of the show and they kicked ass.

Another tune where Al has traditionally played a dominant guitar part onstage: "Don't Worry Baby" (the middle break). It might be pushing it to call this a "solo", but it's definitely a "break", where the lead guitar is turned up to play those loud rhythmic stabs. Al can be seen taking this part at the 1981 Long Beach show, and in 1995 I was about ten feet from the band when they did this song, and witnessed Al taking that part while Carl continued strumming the basic rhythm part on his guitar.

Side question: am I imagining this, or do I recall reading that David Marks plays this part on record and that Brian asked him back into the studio to play this part even after he'd otherwise parted ways with the live band?

As far as I know, Dave has been quotied as saying he "thinks" he might have played that part on the record...if you can provide a source for the above detail, I'd love to read it! Incidentally, when Dave joined Mike & Bruce and company for their Grand Island, NE show in late summer 2011, he played that part with a vengence, throwing in a Townshend-like windmill or two for good measure!