The Smiley Smile Message Board

hey just wondering if anyone has ever heard any tapes of the 88 solo albums with studio chatter, etc. it would be interesting to hear how Brian was in the studio at this time and compare it with sixties session tapes

Nope, but as you might imagine, I'd love to...

I'd guess there's less of it around, considering how different the recording process had become by 1988. That is, unless someone set mics up just for that purpose.

Yes, most of the AFM sheets indicate the basic track sessions were just Brian, Andy Paley, and Andy Dean, and their individual parts were likely added one-at-a-time on top of a drum machine or sequencer track.  Other musicians were added as overdubs individually for the most part.  So nothing but the final takes probably exist on the multi-track.

But if a separate mono or stereo reel was running at the same time (as was the case at many sessions in the '60s, as well as the for the KTSA sessions), it would make for worthwhile listening.

Apparently no master exists for the whole album - which is why when the tapes were pulled for the 2000 reissue, some wrong mixes were used.

They way I remember it being described (and please someone correct me if I'm wrong) was that they simply never made a banded album master where they took each song master and spliced them together on a single reel. They simply kept each song on its own reel and did the mastering that way. So, as AGD alluded to, when they went back to do the 2000 remaster, they didn't have a single master reel to go to, but rather had to pull each individual song master, which then resulted in more chances for a mis-labeled or otherwise incorrect tape to be used, which is how we ended with the two or three incorrect mixes.

I remember reading, I think it was in the Timothy White book, about how there was supposedly an entirely alternate mix done for the whole album spearheaded by Landy, which nobody seemed to like. I've always wondered if the sort of overly-hot, more sort of muddy mix of "Let It Shine" accidentaly used on the 2000 remaster was perhaps that supposed "Landy" version. Probably not, and that whole story of the a "Landy Mix" seemed kind of vague anyway.

I've also always wondered if there truly was an alternate version of "Sherry She Needs Me" cut during those '88 sessions as "Terri She Needs Me", and if so, what it might have sounded like.

Don't know what it sounds like, but it definitely happened...check out the story and the links on the below site...great info about the mixdown sessions for that album.  One of the links displays photos of Hit Factory rough mix cassette inlay cards, and "Terri She Needs Me" is one of the titles listed:

http://www.bobvogt.com/high_bias/bw_was_here.htm

Oh wasn't that the site edited after a threat by Paley?

I remember the original site, and yes, it looks like some editing was involved. It involved something that rhymes with my name. Good times.

You know I just thought of this. Dr. Landy filmed and recorded Brian on a continous basis from 1983-91. If they weren't destroyed what may lie in that archive would be interesting to say the least. Probably very sad overall, but who wouldn't want to see some of the recording sessions, and interaction with the Beach Boys.

When you consider how much studio material from the 87-90 era has circulated among collectors, it's surprising no-one has heard "Terri She Needs Me".

Also surprising that we didn't get it on the 2000 reissue of BW. I mean, we got a completely unnecessary backing track for "Night Time" and we got the half-written "Night Blooming Jasmine" -- why not "Terri She Needs Me"? Unless they thought it would reflect unfavorably on "She Says That She Needs Me", released only two years earlier on IMAGINATION.

(We also should have gotten "Daddy's Little Girl" on the 2000 BW reissue, as it was recorded and released during this same period, with similar production values, but now only available on a long out-of-print soundtrack).