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Title: Surf's Up - 1971 work on track questions Post by: onkster on September 03, 2020, 09:26:17 AM I can't recall the original source of the quotes I read--maybe it was Jack Rieley?--but I remember mention that a lot of parts from the 1966 version were replaced or rerecorded when the band worked on finishing it in 1971. The words "because they were so rotten" really stood out.
Gee, I don't recall any of the original '66 tracks sounding "rotten"--did that mean instrumental tracks or vocals? The only thing I can imagine is maybe loss of fidelity due to bouncing (kind of like what happened on the original single mix of H&V). Anybody have any stories or details on this? Title: Re: Surf's Up - 1971 work on track questions Post by: Steve Mayo on September 03, 2020, 09:58:45 AM Jack spoke of this in the 1974 bbc special “the beach boys story”. he said they re-recorded surfs up in 1971 but didn’t use the new recording because It was not as good as the 1966 one. They did add some new parts to the 1966 tapes.
Title: Re: Surf's Up - 1971 work on track questions Post by: WillJC on September 03, 2020, 10:34:45 AM .
Title: Re: Surf's Up - 1971 work on track questions Post by: Tom on September 03, 2020, 02:05:19 PM That would be an interesting listen considering the tempo would be more scattered than usual. Presumably it wasn't working and that's why they canned it.
I recall the Desper video said they did subtle overdubs to the 'second movement' - not the brief BVs and moog, but some piano and vocal 'tidying up' by Carl to fix dropouts in the apparently damaged tape. I hear no evidence of this on the recording tbh, and I suspect it would be audible if so. Someone feel free to tell me if I'm misremembering Desper's claim Title: Re: Surf's Up - 1971 work on track questions Post by: Sam_BFC on September 03, 2020, 02:37:13 PM Perhaps that attempted remake would have been (will be :'() part of the Feel Flows set
Title: Re: Surf's Up - 1971 work on track questions Post by: WillJC on September 03, 2020, 02:52:53 PM .
Title: Re: Surf's Up - 1971 work on track questions Post by: juggler on September 03, 2020, 11:04:44 PM After all these years, I still hope that some day, somehow, some way... the original Surf's Up Part 2 instrumental track surfaces.
Quote c-man: Here's something I copied from one of these message boards some time back: Here's a post from Alan Boyd in response to a question about if they ever found a tape of Surf's Up Pt. 2 in the vaults... ******* I wish I could offer something a bit more concrete here... I've heard about the existence of a tape of a full arrangement on that second section of SURF'S UP. It's been described to me, third-hand. Supposedly it's pretty weird, lots of strange horn and string parts. But I haven't heard it. We don't have it in the Beach Boys' tape library. And it's not among Brian's tapes either. There is an enormous amount of SMILE material that's missing. I recently saw a photograph on Ed Roach's site of a tape shelf at Brother Studio, late 1970s. Right there, along with safety 1/4" masters of all the group's albums, is a tape labeled "BRIAN - DUMB ANGEL." Probably a 1/4" or 1/2". I nearly had a stroke when I saw that, and I immediately called anyone and everyone who ever had access to tapes at Brother, and asked what they knew about it. No one knew. What was on that reel? Where is it now? It certainly wasn't listed in the 1985 inventory of the group's tapes. What WAS listed in that inventory are the many empty tape boxes from the SMILE era, on titles like "Heroes and Villains," "Cabinessence," "Surf's Up," "Vegetables," etc... they were empty in 1985, they're empty today. I'm certain, however, that excerpts from at least one of them (overdubs onto the last verse of "Vegetables") showed up on one of the SOT discs. They're almost all 1/4" mixdowns. Other SMILE tracks were assembled onto some of the 1/2" STACK-O-TRACKS assembly reels, and those SMILE songs are also....missing. Did Brian actually destroy some tapes back in the day? I think he just might have... Are there one-of-a-kind tapes that have been stolen and are now in the hands of collectors? Yes... Were there tapes that Brian somehow left behind at a studio after working on them that have since found their way into the hands of collectors? Probably... Are there acetates of missing material in the hands of collectors and/or people who were around at the time? Absolutely... Are there people reading THIS now who may know where some of this material now resides? Wouldn't surprise me in the least... Would anyone "in the know" feel at all inclined to help us find some of these missing tapes? I sure hope so.... (BRI is willing to pay for material, no questions asked, just in case you're reading this and you happen to be holding onto a dub of the second movement of SURF'S UP, hint hint, or anything else you know we DON'T have, so please get in touch with me through Jon Hunt, OK?) *sigh* Your Friendly Neighborhood Vault Rat Alan http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,4165.35/wap2.html Title: Re: Surf's Up - 1971 work on track questions Post by: WillJC on September 04, 2020, 02:42:42 AM .
Title: Re: Surf's Up - 1971 work on track questions Post by: juggler on September 04, 2020, 08:31:55 AM For a lot of reasons, it's unlikely that such a thing was ever recorded. Disagree. To just dismiss it and say it never existed is the easy way out. I do think it's more likely than not that it DID exist and was lost/stolen/damaged at some point. For what other Smile song on the Dec '66 track list, is there NOT an instrumental track? The Elements remains a vague wildcard, but for everything else we can point to one or more matching instrumental tracks. Surf's Up was one of the centerpieces of the album that, remember, Brian was still promising in March/April 1967. That he would just blow off the 2nd half of the song and not do an instrumental track defies logic. We don't know the identity of Alan's 3rd hand source who described the section as "pretty weird, lots of strange horn and string parts," but that description is consistent with the session logs in terms of the roster of musicians present. Remember, the original multitracks for Surf's Up were taken from the tape library to Carl's home in June 1971 and reviewed by Carl and Jack Rieley without an engineer present, according to Keith Badman's book. Under those circumstances, would it shock anyone if a tape got lost/misplaced/damaged/discarded? It doesn't take a huge leap of imagination to guess that Part 1 didn't suffer the same fate *because* they used it in the '71 reassembly. Title: Re: Surf's Up - 1971 work on track questions Post by: WillJC on September 04, 2020, 09:07:15 AM .
Title: Re: Surf's Up - 1971 work on track questions Post by: juggler on September 04, 2020, 09:22:54 AM Would Carl really misplace such an important recording he supposedly played on? God bless Carl, but his lifestyle in 1971 was more "rock star" than "tape archivist." |