The Smiley Smile Message Board

I love "Guess I'm Dumb", and I'm still holding out for some Brian vocal on the song to be unearthed. Does anyone know if Brian ever recorded even a scratch vocal for it? Like, are there any session notes that would indicate such a thing? Or has anyone heard it rumored that Brian recorded a vocal? (Is there any hope for this dream of mine?!)

that would be a great find eh?  but as far as i know, there is no known lead vocal by Brian in existence.
only what we hear on the tag of the song.  As far as Brian goes, he said somewhere he doesn't even
remember the song at all  ???

Is there a Brian lead for "Sweet Mountain"?  ???

Those BW bass vocals really show how BW had his "gruff" voice all ready for the 15 big ones era.

Yes. On the line "Well it rained on the mountain, the mountain of love" at the end of the song sounded like he was maybe just trying to sound that way but after hearing "In The Back Of My Mind", it does tie in.

I agree with you it was put on voice to deal with the Myke touring machine of the time. ;)

The Spring LP was released in 72. Was Brian's voice starting to change as far back as that?. The ITBOMM demo was recorded in 75. Was there a three year period of voice change?

Kinda with  the falsetto getting thinner, but the California feeling demo of 1974 showed BW at his rock bottom could still do the "classic" voice.

Yes it was.  Brian' vocals on So Tough bear it out (although buried a bit in the mix). Somewhere in my collection I have  Brian's vocals isolated on the songs he's there vocally but I need to hunt it down (burned to cd before my old computer died; it's packed up in a box somewhere).

From memory...he's the high part on Mess of help (sounding more like his MIU era falsetto). He's doing the "Marcella Hey" tag on Marcella, in addition to the higher part on the "hey yeah Marcella" part.  And on He Come Down, the "eee-ee" part on the left channel is indeed Brian, sounding EXACTLY like he did in 1976 (right channel is Mike).
https://youtu.be/4ExZZH1v0TM?t=3m37s

I asked someone who would definitely know and without hesitation got confirmation.

Regarding "Guess I'm Dumb", I'd find it more of a bummer that we don't have a Brian lead on it if Glen Campbell's lead was sub-par or something. I'm not a huge Campbell fan or anything from his later work, and one wouldn't think based on his 70s hits that he'd be able to do a Brian-esque mid-60s vocal. But, while he's not like a full-on doppelganger for Brian on "Guess I'm Dumb", he turns in an excellent lead in the same general vein as a Brian vocals from that era.

A good song is a good song, so I'm fine with Campbell's vocal on that song. It's as much of a Beach Boys song as, say, the "McGear" album is a defacto Paul McCartney & Wings album.

As for Brian's voice change, I find it fascinating that his vocals on the 1974/75 impromptu "demos" for "California Feelin'" and "In the Back of My Mind" sound *exactly* like what one would guess: It's literally 50/50 right in between his circa 1970 "still fully intact" voice and his 1976 "15 Big Ones" voice.

Thanks for the clarification, Billy. Is there additional info concerning Brian's voice change during these few years? For example, why was his voice improved for MIU?

By the time of the XMas/MIU sessions in 1977, Brian's voice was "in shape" somewhat more just from more regular use in concert and in the studio. A little bit of vocal EQ and whatnot, added to picking songs in an appropriate mid-range key, and I think that goes some way to explaining Brian's voice on those sessions. And maybe not doing as many hard drugs while in Iowa?

Really, the "smooth" Brian voice is really mainly in evidence only on two songs: "Wontcha Come Out Tonight" and "Matchpoint of Our Love." I think they just coaxed some solid vocals out of Brian on those tracks. He croaks out a decent but not exactly ear-catching falsetto on "She's Got Rhythm"

Actually, Brian's falsetto on SGR is somewhat ear splitting. But I do hear him doing some nice work on "Winds Of Change", "Pitter Patter", and "Bells of Paris". It was very reminiscent of the original mix.

Also don't forget Winter Symphony,  which was around the same period

A shame a great vocal was wasted on matchpoint's inane lyrics as well.

I don't know...the lyrics don't really bother me as much as, say, Belles of Paris.

Yes. ..he had been "experimenting" with different vocal stylings for a while. His voice was indeed changing but not as drastically as it would first appear. He did indeed have an issue with laryngitis as mentioned in his book which is why 15BO featured his vocals being raspier than anything before or since until 1979 or so. Course, recording and touring while having laryngitis is not conducive to healing the vocal cords. Throw in smoking like a chimney and there's already a recipe for disaster even before you add drugs back into the mix.

So yeah Brian's voice did change for a variety of reasons. Had he taken care of himself his voice might have come back a bit more. 1976 was the outlier. MIU was the "real" mature Brian voice. Sadly afterwards is when the real permanent decline came...

Mike sounds like he is reading out of a geography book....

 :lol :lol :lol

I initially misread that as "pornography book" which would definitely change the song. ..

Belles of Paris (Hilton) ;)

it's a shame Brian didn't record more demos of his songs featuring his own lead vocal, at least not many that we know of.

sure would love to hear him sing God Only Knows and many more when they were hot off the press!

:lol

Agreed
 Actually my favorite recordings generally are the Love You era demos with just Brian and his piano

 :lol :lol :lol :lol

 :lol :lol :lol :lol    You guys!!!!

I thought the "Marcella Hey" part was Jack...

surely there must be multitracks for 'marcella'.  would have had 16 track at least by then.

It's possible that he might have doubled him, but IMHO it's way too on pitch

https://youtu.be/TmkyOD714PA?t=3m11s (left channel)

Let me load this in Adobe Audition and see if I can isolate it...one moment..

Here we go...

https://soundcloud.com/billy-castillo-2/beach-boys-marcella-tag

Here's the higher "Marcella hey" part  and right after it you here another one at lower pitch with a very familiar vocal  "ring" answering it (with a bit of a twang) with a "hey Marcella" (but pronounced kind of like "Mahcella" . I hadn't thought about the higher part being Jack before, but it really doesn't sound like him unless there was some pitch manipulation going on. The answering part I pointed out, though, is unmistakingly Brian. (Incidentally, the doobie doobie doo-oo part, is Al. ;) )To compare...this is what Jack sounded like vocally other than on A Day in the Life of a Tree. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W65YuoRkpM 

So yeah, unless his vocals were sped up, I can't hear that being Jack at all.

that's gotta be Carl on the top, and Brian answering back an 'octave'? below with that husky voice

Not Carl...voice was too thin.

Could it be Billy?

sounds like Carl to these ears

Another option...possibly David Sandler?

i immediately heard 'Carl', but i'm no expert.  it's just what i hear...
clarification would be nice.

I'd put money on him being the "mystery voice". Or Rocky Pamplin.  :lol

Isn't he also doing the "What's in her head" part?

I'm pretty sure that's Al.

nah! it's gotta be Dylan, or Elvis or McCartney......maybe Johnny Cash
just throwing some names out there...  ::)

Maybe it's Doe.  ;)

By process of elimination, "Marcella hey" is definitely not Brian, Al, Mike, Dennis (tho not sure, did he ever do the smooth high vocal? The Wilson bros can be tricky to ID at times). Could be Jack Rieley but 1) he sings offkey 2) can't hit the high notes easily - that tag sounds like smb. confident in that register. Either Carl or Billy Hinsche. There's sth. suspicious about it that doesn't give away "Carl" to ears. FWIW, 2cents.

I thought it was Ricky Fataar.

He did that part whenever it was performed live.

Based on hearing the track I have concluded:

"Marcella Hey" is Carl
"Heyyy Marcella" is Brian I think...
"Doo be doos" is Al.
"One arm over my shoulder" (not the melody but the part above, answering Mike's melody) is Blondie or Ricky... not sure..

I've always thought that last part was Dennis...and I also hear him, or someone like him, on another part...

Here's some track info from the console strips:

11 - ONE ARM first chorus
12 - ONE ARM 2nd chorus
13 - Mike Du Be Du Be Du Be
15 - Al extra
16 - Mike and Al
17 - Carl and Jack

Any possibility this could be incorrect? Something has to be missing unless there was some mislabeling.

FWIW- Jack himself once stated that Brian was on the tag some years ago, so who knows...

Brian's in there but in the lower range, i don't think there's a disagreement with that thou..

Definitely hear him but he's not listed on list that c-man posted.
  Oddly, the original source on the higher part being Brian? Jack himself some years ago. SO who knows? Funny part is, I never heard Brian's lower part before this thread so that was found by accident :lol

me too Billy about Brian.  That's why i love this investigation stuff after so many years of hearing!

Let's not forget Bruce is on there somewhere (certainly a high part), and Dennis too (I think the "Knock you right over" part of the chorus, as well as maybe another part).

Oops...I left out a part from the same console strip:
7 - tag MARCELLA

That could be any of them...