The Smiley Smile Message Board

Smiley Smile Stuff => General On Topic Discussions => Topic started by: buddhahat on August 08, 2006, 12:32:19 PM



Title: River Song/Rio Grande lyric
Post by: buddhahat on August 08, 2006, 12:32:19 PM
What's the story behind Brian using the Rolling, Rolling, Rolling On lyric in Rio Grande? It's obviously very similar to Dennis' River Song on POB. Was this a homage, a rip off, did Brian write that lyric with Dennis or what exactly? Surely not a coincidence.


Title: Re: River Song/Rio Grande lyric
Post by: 37!ws on August 08, 2006, 02:07:54 PM
It's not the first time -- 1987's "Let's Go To Heaven In My Car" takes its title from "Dreamer," IIRC, which has a lyric that goes something like "They couldn't get to heaven in their car."

And it also wouldn't be the last time, either -- if you have one of the many Sweet Insanity boots (or know how to work an eMule client!) listen to "Someone To Love" from said album, and sing "San Miguel"'s lyrics.


Title: Re: River Song/Rio Grande lyric
Post by: Rocker on August 08, 2006, 03:09:54 PM
In 1980 or something Brian said that he wrote "City blues" with Dennis and some other guy. But on the released version on GIOMH Dennis doesn't get any credit. That's a thing that kinda makes me wonder


Title: Re: River Song/Rio Grande lyric
Post by: Jon Stebbins on August 08, 2006, 03:57:22 PM
There is definitely some snippets of the '81 collaboration between DW and BW known as the "Cocaine" or "Hamburger" sessions that ended up in later Brian "solo" material without any mention of Dennis. But Dennis did his share of lifting from Brian as well. The trumpet solo on Time has the Child is Father to the Man thing happening behind it. Of course its pretty common knowledge Brian contributed to Little Bird too without credit. If you added it all up I'm sure Dennis took way more from Brian than the other way around...however since Dennis is DEAD it would be nice if Brian gave his brother an acknowledgement. City Blues would have been a good one to do that on.


Title: Re: River Song/Rio Grande lyric
Post by: HeyJude on August 08, 2006, 04:25:55 PM
It's particularly off-putting that Dennis didn't get a credit on "City Blues" if he indeed did help write it, since, if I recall correctly, even Scott Bennett gets a co-writing credit on the released version for some additional lyrics or some such thing.

I hear a lot of pinched melodies and chord progressions on Brian's late 80's and early 90's work in particular. I hear a bit of "City Blues" in "Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long." I also hear a bit of "Looking Down the Coast" in "Walkin' the Line." I think I even hear a bit of "I Sleep Alone" in that Duck Dodgers song "Believe in Yourself."

And then in some cases his "new" songs are of course simply new recordings of old songs. The two new "Roxy" songs were old. You can even hear his earlier version of "This Isn't Love" on the "Cocaine/Hamburger" tape (I think he sings "I Said a Prayer" on that recording). I think there was only one or two songs on "Gettin' in Over My Head" that couldn't be traced back to an older composition.

Jon, do you know anything about Brian's attempt to record "Oh Lord" for the '85 BB album? I vaguely recall reading that Brian talked about that song being a Brian/Dennis collaboration. I always got the feeling that if they had released that particular song on the '85 album, Dennis may have actually received a co-writing credit on that one. I asked Alan Boyd on an older thread a while back about whether an '85 recording of the song had been found, and he said that it hadn't, but that all of the '85 DAT tapes hadn't been listened to yet, and some of the tapes had generic song titles that could potentially include "Oh Lord." I guess the Beach Boys ran out of time on that one, what with all the effort they put into the masterpiece that is "At the Hop." :)


Title: Re: River Song/Rio Grande lyric
Post by: Howie Edelson on August 08, 2006, 07:36:26 PM
How about Brian pinching some of the melody from the Jardine/Wilson "Lookin' Down The Coast" for "Walkin' The Line" -- listen to them back to back, especially the "mountain lion's lair (?)" vs. "and that's no lie" bit.


Title: Re: River Song/Rio Grande lyric
Post by: 37!ws on August 09, 2006, 07:39:52 AM
In 1980 or something Brian said that he wrote "City blues" with Dennis and some other guy. But on the released version on GIOMH Dennis doesn't get any credit. That's a thing that kinda makes me wonder

What? Makes you wonder whether they didn't use Dennis's contributions? Or perhaps even remember that Dennis had a hand in it?