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Smiley Smile Stuff => General On Topic Discussions => Topic started by: Mr Fulton on June 06, 2017, 11:27:04 AM



Title: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: Mr Fulton on June 06, 2017, 11:27:04 AM
Did Brian Wilson have a go at singing Long Promised Road?



This may be the biggest long-shot in the history of long-shots, and I posted this on the Pet Sounds forum too but I swear I hear Brian Wilson in this version of Long Promised Road. Carl's Vocal has been taken down and the backing vocals have been slightly lifted, and when I was listening to it I reallocation y thought I could hear Brian in the chorus, and I kept listening and I really do think it's his voice singing the chorus next to Carls voice. Now this may just be me but i'm interested to know what you guy think, you can call me an idiot if you want. Listen to where the chorus starts to come in where it goes "of climbing up to reality's goal" and the "knock down all the road blocks, a stumbling' me" then you may hear it, but listen through the whole song cause I think he is in every chorus and maybe even buried in there in the verses. Of coarse this does not necessarily mean Brian attempted the lead on this song it could just be standard overdubbing.

If its not Brian it's still somebody

USE HEADPHONES


https://youtu.be/ZpfZx1bL6ng

By the way, I love this song!!


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: adamghost on June 06, 2017, 12:19:23 PM
I took the challenge.  I do hear what you're hearing.

Question:  how was this version generated?  Is this some kind of phase cancellation?


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: seltaeb1012002 on June 06, 2017, 12:39:06 PM
I hear what you're hearing, but I don't think it's another lead. There would be some slight differences in the timing of the consonants. I think what we're hearing is just the high frequencies of Carl's vocal popping out.


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: JK on June 06, 2017, 12:43:28 PM
Looking around, I found this comment by Glenn Greenberg:

"Not only is it Brian doing the ba-ba-bas on 'Long Promised Road,' he also harmonizes with Carl at the end, repeating 'I'd love to see you' as the song fades out."

Source: http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,9253.45/wap2.html

On the subject of "LPR", I've seen Marilyn and Diane named as the backup singers. But I seem to remember reading ages ago that SWD said it was Alan triple-tracked during the verses. I could be wrong...


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: Wirestone on June 06, 2017, 12:51:13 PM
I hear it too. Wouldn't be shocked to learn that Brian added buried parts on songs we still don't know about. It's always easy to discount his participation in later BB (or even his own solo) music, but he's a wily one.


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: Kid Presentable on June 06, 2017, 01:08:19 PM
Maybe somebody should simply ask S.W. Desper.  I would bet he could give a good long-form focused merely on single songs from this era- LPR included.


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: CenturyDeprived on June 06, 2017, 02:32:52 PM
I kinda sorta hear it, but I think it's certainly inconclusive.

I always wonder in situations like this, where there are a couple of Honeys present, and only spotty BB member vocal participation present; was this presumably due to simple availability of who was around on the day it was recorded?

Like I don't assume that Carl wanted to leave out Denny (providing he's not on it, right?) but that maybe Denny was busy the day the vocals were done, and maybe it was hard to get Brian and Al together, so Carl maybe asked his sister-in-law and her sister. Thoughts? It seems lots of BB songs have random combos of people present (or not) and that many times this may simply be due to chance of who could do it (or sub in) that day.


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: Mr Fulton on June 06, 2017, 02:46:31 PM
I took the challenge.  I do hear what you're hearing.

Question:  how was this version generated?  Is this some kind of phase cancellation?

came from a Rough Mix of Long Promised Road. And I played around with it on Adobe Audition. I think I could do a much better job of bringing those vocals up


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: adamghost on June 06, 2017, 03:44:44 PM
I took the challenge.  I do hear what you're hearing.

Question:  how was this version generated?  Is this some kind of phase cancellation?

came from a Rough Mix of Long Promised Road. And I played around with it on Adobe Audition. I think I could do a much better job of bringing those vocals up

I'd buy that it's Brian mostly on the basis of phrasing...but it's impossible to know how much what we're hearing is an illusion created by artifacts.

I swore once it was Brian doing the falsetto on "Baby Blue" - and my ears are better than most for picking this stuff out - until Alan Boyd played me the solo track and demonstrated beyond a doubt it was Carl...


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: Steve Latshaw on June 07, 2017, 07:54:53 AM
<<I swore once it was Brian doing the falsetto on "Baby Blue" - and my ears are better than most for picking this stuff out - until Alan Boyd played me the solo track and demonstrated beyond a doubt it was Carl>>

I thought the same thing for decades until Alan put me right.  I was also convinced Brian sang bg on Good Timin' (the "...good, good ti - min'" section just before the first and second verse).  But Alan explained that he'd had a discussion with Bruce about putting out a vocals-only mix of the song.  Bruce told him he'd only hear "Carl and I" on there.  Apparently the multi-track confirmed it.  Carl could certainly sound like Brian when he wanted to. 


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: Joel Goldenberg on June 07, 2017, 10:34:44 AM
<<I swore once it was Brian doing the falsetto on "Baby Blue" - and my ears are better than most for picking this stuff out - until Alan Boyd played me the solo track and demonstrated beyond a doubt it was Carl>>

I thought the same thing for decades until Alan put me right.  I was also convinced Brian sang bg on Good Timin' (the "...good, good ti - min'" section just before the first and second verse).  But Alan explained that he'd had a discussion with Bruce about putting out a vocals-only mix of the song.  Bruce told him he'd only hear "Carl and I" on there.  Apparently the multi-track confirmed it.  Carl could certainly sound like Brian when he wanted to. 

One thing that had me thinking for years that Brian was doing the high part on Good Timin' was a picture of a 1978 or so vocal session including Brian, in which the caption seemed to indicate Good Timin' was being recorded. But that could have just been a set up shot to create an impression of total participation by Brian.


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: Steve Latshaw on June 07, 2017, 11:48:25 AM
<<One thing that had me thinking for years that Brian was doing the high part on Good Timin' was a picture of a 1978 or so vocal session including Brian, in which the caption seemed to indicate Good Timin' was being recorded. But that could have just been a set up shot to create an impression of total participation by Brian.>>

I think that shot is from the Criteria sessions.


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: HeyJude on June 08, 2017, 06:56:13 AM
In, I believe, the 1999/2000 Goldmine interview, Al Jardine spoke with familiarity and detail about recording the vocals for "Good Timin'", specifically mentioning that they "quadruple tracked" the vocals at the suggestion of Guercio. Now, I don't know if there are actually 16 (or 20 or more) discernible voices on that song, but it definitely sounds thicker in that regard than a typical group vocal arrangement/recording.

I would think, even if "Good Timin'" might be heavy on Carl and Bruce, with perhaps just the two doing some of the vocal passes, it's possible some other BBs (at least Al) are in there somewhere. Al seemed to speak with a level of knowledge that would seem less likely were he not involved in the vocal sessions. (There's obviously also the possibility that Bruce wiped the other voices and re-did them with just he and Carl).

I'd also say that stacks of Bruce, and stacks of Carl, and just the two together, have a distinct sound that doesn't necessarily match what we hear on "Good Timin'." Then again, the vocals have been overdubbed to such great extent for the song that perhaps stacks and stacks of Carl and Bruce would sound a bit different. If "GT" really is just the two of them, it's pretty heavy on "Carls" then, because the "stacks of Bruce" sound as heard on some of the backing vocals to "Full Sail" sound very different.


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: Steve Latshaw on June 08, 2017, 01:52:16 PM
<<I'd also say that stacks of Bruce, and stacks of Carl, and just the two together, have a distinct sound that doesn't necessarily match what we hear on "Good Timin'." Then again, the vocals have been overdubbed to such great extent for the song that perhaps stacks and stacks of Carl and Bruce would sound a bit different. If "GT" really is just the two of them, it's pretty heavy on "Carls" then, because the "stacks of Bruce" sound as heard on some of the backing vocals to "Full Sail" sound very different. >>

That was my thought as well, but Alan Boyd set me straight.  He's heard the multi-track and knows what's on it.  So I would defer to him.


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: HeyJude on June 08, 2017, 02:40:50 PM
That was my thought as well, but Alan Boyd set me straight.  He's heard the multi-track and knows what's on it.  So I would defer to him.

Interesting. I suppose if there are individual tracks with just one or two guys each, it would indeed be evident that it's just Bruce and Carl over and over.

Al's comments may just have been the conversations he recalls from around that time. Or, maybe he was involved in previous sessions that weren't used. Or, if we take Al's joke at face value in the interview segment below, he took off to Monterey once he found out Guercio wanted quadruple-tracked vocals. In any event, his comments still make it sound he was involved at some point even if it didn't make it on tape.

Here's the pertinent question and answer from that 2000 Goldmine piece (the bit about "Good Timin'" was actually just a sidebar to a question about Steve Levine and the '85 album):

Q: You revisited California with "California Calling" from the 1985 Beach Boys LP, and Ringo Starr plays drums on that track.

A: Wow, I totally forgot about that. The producer, Steve Levine, was from England, so apparently he was able to get him to play on the track in England. I co-wrote it with Brian. That album was such a difficult project for us because it was the melding of certain forces. Unfortunately, Steve was so dedicated to computers that we weren't able to sing very much. It was like, "Okay, sing a verse or a chorus and I'll just put in all the 'oohs' in later. I'll multiply that ad infinitum." [laughs] We would say, "We can sing the whole thing, really Steve." And he would say, "No, it's better if I do it this way. Plus I can pitch correct it, and you guys will be perfect." But again a perfect-sounding record does not always make for a perfect result. I have to admit when we were working on the LA (Light Album) and we were working with Jim Guercio on the song "Good Timin'," a beauty. And Jim wanted us to quadruple-track our vocals. We were triple-tracking everything, which I thought was okay. But then when we got into quadrupling I thought, "I'm on the way to Monterey." [laughs] Jim is a great producer and he really does get a great sound. But as the engineer for Steve Levine, all he had to do was put as many voices on there as he wanted. But then you don't get the diversity of the part because it's the same part multiplied over your own part. The character's gone. We do fatten [vocals]. If you're flat or sharp even, it flattens the harmony vocals on the overdubs. It may not sound great by itself, but when you blend it all together it starts to sound really big.


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: Mr Fulton on June 08, 2017, 02:59:13 PM
Nice find. Is the rest of the interview easy to find ?


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: Forrest Gump on June 08, 2017, 03:15:37 PM
Google. Al jardine 2000 goldmine interview. On tripod.com along with other interviews


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: c-man on June 08, 2017, 04:05:53 PM
Bobby Figueroa once told me he sang on "Good Timin'", but later said he thinks that might have been a version for a T.V. special or something, and that he sings elsewhere on the Light Album.
Bruce has said they did the background vocals in October. Engineer Tom Murphy told me they really wanted Brian to do the lead on "Good Timin'" (even though Carl did the original verse lead on the '74 version), but he was in the hospital (Brotman, as we know), and they couldn't wait for him forever, so he recorded Carl singing the lead. He said although Carl sang it beautifully, it broke their hearts not having Brian on there vocally. Personally, I think Carl singing the lead and Brian signing a response vocal, like he does on the live Knebworth and D.C. versions from the following year, would have been cool.

The final "Good Timin'" track sheet breakdown for vocals is thus:

10 - vox Carl 12/13/78
11 - Vox 2 Carl 12/13/78
12 - Grp 1
13 - Grp 2
14 - git
15 - Carl work vocal - vocals
16 - vocals
17 - Pt 2 voc grp Carl/Bruce
18 - Pt 1 douuble Carl and Bruce
19 - Intro dbl chorus Bruce and Carl
20 - Lead vocal 1 Love (erased?)

Notice Track 14 is apparently a guitar overdub stuck right in the midst of all the vocal tracks! Notice that Carl's lead was done in December - two months after they did the backgrounds, which implies they waited two months in hopes that Brian would get released and sing the lead. Tracks 12 & 13 could have been the initial two rounds of Carl, Al, Bruce, and maybe Mike (I swear I hear Mike's tenor voice in the middle of the chorus stack), and who knows what's on Track 15 (besides Carl's work vocal), Track 16, or Track 20 (I would think that's Carl's high "I love you" going into the middle chorus), so one of those could be the third ("tripled") track that includes Al. But Tracks 17, 18 & 19 are clearly identified as just Carl and Bruce. I count seven tracks of probable background vocals, with Carl and Bruce the only two on at least three of them, maybe more.


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: c-man on June 08, 2017, 04:27:04 PM
Oh, and to the point of this thread - I wish I had track sheet info for "Long Promised Road", but I don't! But, in his book, David Marks recalls being present for the session and the band coaxing a take of "bop bops" out of Brian. And, I definitely hear one female voice on there, but not two - I assume it's Marilyn rather than Diane. It sounds very Marilyn-like.


Title: Re: Did Brian Attempt The Lead Of Long Promised Road?
Post by: HeyJude on June 08, 2017, 07:10:27 PM
Bobby Figueroa once told me he sang on "Good Timin'", but later said he thinks that might have been a version for a T.V. special or something, and that he sings elsewhere on the Light Album.
Bruce has said they did the background vocals in October. Engineer Tom Murphy told me they really wanted Brian to do the lead on "Good Timin'" (even though Carl did the original verse lead on the '74 version), but he was in the hospital (Brotman, as we know), and they couldn't wait for him forever, so he recorded Carl singing the lead. He said although Carl sang it beautifully, it broke their hearts not having Brian on there vocally. Personally, I think Carl singing the lead and Brian signing a response vocal, like he does on the live Knebworth and D.C. versions from the following year, would have been cool.

The final "Good Timin'" track sheet breakdown for vocals is thus:

10 - vox Carl 12/13/78
11 - Vox 2 Carl 12/13/78
12 - Grp 1
13 - Grp 2
14 - git
15 - Carl work vocal - vocals
16 - vocals
17 - Pt 2 voc grp Carl/Bruce
18 - Pt 1 douuble Carl and Bruce
19 - Intro dbl chorus Bruce and Carl
20 - Lead vocal 1 Love (erased?)

Notice Track 14 is apparently a guitar overdub stuck right in the midst of all the vocal tracks! Notice that Carl's lead was done in December - two months after they did the backgrounds, which implies they waited two months in hopes that Brian would get released and sing the lead. Tracks 12 & 13 could have been the initial two rounds of Carl, Al, Bruce, and maybe Mike (I swear I hear Mike's tenor voice in the middle of the chorus stack), and who knows what's on Track 15 (besides Carl's work vocal), Track 16, or Track 20 (I would think that's Carl's high "I love you" going into the middle chorus), so one of those could be the third ("tripled") track that includes Al. But Tracks 17, 18 & 19 are clearly identified as just Carl and Bruce. I count seven tracks of probable background vocals, with Carl and Bruce the only two on at least three of them, maybe more.

Amazing info! Thank you!

So perhaps it's plausible that Al and possibly Mike are on a few of the tracks.

Interestingly, a mix of "Good Timin'" circulates that is just the backing track and Carl's verse leads (I think this is from one of the "Get the Boot" volumes). No chorus lead and no backing vocals anywhere. I had guessed this meant Carl's verse leads are from the 1974 session, because the lead heard in that version is the same as the final released record. But apparently all of Carl's lead was rerecorded in late '78? So I guess that rough/alternate mix maybe was just a latter-day creation perhaps made to emulate how the song sounded in '74?