The Smiley Smile Message Board

I posted this in the media section but it seems that many people don't go there, so here it is as well:


Dennis Wilson (Beach Boys) • Interview in Brother Studios • 1977 [Reelin' In The Years Archive]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF4ALWODxbs

Amazing and revelatory!  Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for sharing, that really made my day! He was such a great spirit during this era  :hat

Dennis at his best!

It's really strange how Dennis almost looked like a completely different person with and without a beard. It's also a bit strange seeing what I perceive to be "young Dennis" with a rough voice.

The man had such great charisma and charm - not to mention his talent. A real shame he lost control over his life and died the way he did. He drowned long before he fell in the water that last day.

He's so relaxed and charming there.
I didn't know Dennis played guitar!

I guess it was nothing more than a couple of chords here and there. There's a picture of him "playing" the guitar on the "Party!" bonus photos. Now, of course you don't need chords to play the Dobro buthanging around a lot of guitar players he probably had some help and figure out some notes to play. I don't know though if he played the Dobro on his actual recordings. It just as well may have just been laying around and he picked it up during the interview.

IIRC, c-man and friends have determined that Dennis plays guitar on Slip on Through, Got to Know the Woman, and at least one of his solo songs from Bambu (I’m blanking on the title).

The rubbery lead parts in the chorus of GTKTW and the Leslie'd guitar in Slip on Through were claimed in Desper's book, but with Ed Carter and Carl around and the former theoretically requiring some very tight punch ins, those might be a case of misremembering. I suppose the Slip on Through part is simple enough that he could've done it. Dennis probably played the Dobro parts and maybe the acoustic guitars on Wild Situation, though.

Why is it so hard to believe that Dennis could play the guitar? Isn't he playing acoustic on one of The Beatles covers on the Party album? I also thought he played acoustic on I'd Love Just Once to See You

It's been said by friends that he could play rudimentary guitar, strum a few chords, but for recording professionally he usually had others available and would use them. He also didn't play guitar on any of those. He's just holding a guitar in one of the Party promo photos.

Just as a more general point, I have to say that “I can technically play that instrument a little bit” is a pretty low bar with which to decide to play on a recording when one has dozens of excellent musicians at one’s disposal. If I have Ed Carter, or any number of other session pros, sitting there or one phone call away, or Carl for that matter, I’ll have them play it. Dennis played little guitar for the same reason Brian played little guitar, and eventually little bass as well.

While I have no reason to think Dennis couldn’t have learned guitar as much as he wanted to, it also makes total sense that he never delved into it much. Writing and in the studio, he had a piano, and a myriad of musicians to work with. On stage, he was usually drumming, and also eventually had a bunch of musicians around there as well.

As with most of the guys in the band, I think Dennis had music running through him such that he probably could have learned and done well on a number of instruments. But he didn’t usually, for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, as folks like Al have pointed out, they were vocalists and writers more than instrumental musicians.