The Smiley Smile Message Board

I've always loved this guy's name since I first read it in the Gaines book. He seems rather enigmatic. Other than writing a few things with Brian and Curt Boetcher all he seems to be known for is a bong he invented. What am I missing? AGD?

He got it on with Brian AND Marilyn. Well, that's what "Brian" says.

Well, he also wrote "Along Comes Mary" for The Association, so he's not gonna be hurting for $$$ for a while yet.  ;D

Was he IN the Association?
Their appearance on the Monterey Pop DVD (well worth a punt, despite the absence of BBs) is one of the most bizarre performances I've seen by a 60s group. They look like Kraftwerk a decade early...

Nope. Just penned the song.

Curt and Tandyn had a fallout resulting from the fact that Tandyn got the writer's credit for that tune. Curt maintained that he co-wrote it - there seems to be an acetate in existence where he is mentioned as co-writer. A demo of him singing the song can be found on the Rev-Ola release: Curt Boettcher: Chicken Little was right (CD REV 073) from2004. Later Tandyn was in a group called KGB, they covered SoS on one of their albums.

Don't think Tandyn was ever in KGB - the members as I recall were:

Ray Kennedy
Barry Goldberg
Mike Bloomfield (hence KGB)
Rick Grech
Carmine Appice

In the very ealy 80's Curt Boettcher told me that he sold his portion of the song to Tandyn for $500.00.

He´s mentioned as co-writer on promo copies of "And Then ... Along Comes The Association" (Valiant 25002) not on the acetate containing the demo played by Curt Boettcher and Association member Jules Gary Alexander.

(http://i33.tinypic.com/qso4rs.jpg)

He also told me that he released a 45 of the song locally in Virginia, before the Association association. Curt was known to have given up producer credits (or rather, have them taken away). He basically said he needed the cash.

Not a nice man, according to Desper.

Let us not forget Almer's apparently important contributions to Bong technology.

What's Almer done since the 70s? Is he even still alive?

I saw, somewhere, something about the possible release of a CD with Almer's demos from the 60's and 70's. I guess he's still 'around'.

I read that Tandyn Almer is living in Washington D.C. Not sure what he's doing now though.

 8)

Huh..

Does that mean what I think it means?

 ;D

"Brian" alleged in his "autobiography" that he, Marilyn, and Tandyn made "the beast with three backs", as it's called.

wow, I'm seeing Marilyn in a whole new light now  ;D

This was first mentioned in the 1986 Steve Gaines book.

Yeah, as a victim.

What is a beast with three backs?

A beast with two backs, with a third back thrown into the mix! >:D

*sigh of relief*  oooff... I was afraid that it had something to do with sex. My mother always told me that sex is bad, and that I never should do it.

Let us hope you never do.  ;D

Lollergram. :)

Let's stop beating around the bush here..

Brian, a 3 way with a dude, not cool.  ;D

Why not, maybe they just serviced Marilyn.

I cannot believe you said THAT in this conversation... :lol

Holy innuendo, Batman.

 ???

 :-[ :-[

Bwahahahahaha

Yeah, that's funny, I think I remember the book saying something about Brian and Tandyn trying to sleep together and that it turned out 'to be more than [Brian] could bear'.  :o The possible implications of that statement are many, many, many. Definitely one of the most bizarre things I ever found out about Mr. Wilson if true. Makes you wonder about Mr. Landy and Mr. Wilson as well. Scaaary,

Watch what you say about Brian here dude. The book said he had a threesome with HIS WIFE and Tandyn Almer, which may not be true. It didn't say anything about them being a homosexual couple. And Dr. Landy was a surrogate father to Brian, not a boyfriend.

Man, I hope this topic will be seen by blueboarders everywhere.

I think it's sort of funny how freaked out everyone is about the possibility that Brian was part of a bisexual 3way. Aren't there Queen fans here? Lou Reed fans? Elton? Bowie? The '70s, as far as I can tell, were not lacking in such dalliances by gay, straight and just experimental people. Who cares? Maybe Brian felt like trying it out. (Considering where we read it, quite possibly not.) But either way, he obviously didn't pursue that path long-term. And if he had ... so what?

Also, he was probably high out of his mind.

Oh, no doubt. I just assumed that was a given.

Glad to see some Tandyn discussion on here....there are a few pics of him hanging out with Brian + friends that surfaced on here a while ago. he kind of looks like a tall Mick Jagger. In addition to writing Along Comes Mary for the Association, he also wrote the song 'Message of Our Love', also with Curt Boettcher, also on the Along Comes The Association album. He co-wrote Musty Dusty (also played by Sagittarius, Karen Karsh) and wrote You Turn Me Around by The Ballroom. He also has one solo 45 release, on Warner Brothers, called Degeneration Gap (killer tune). He wrote/produced Butterfly High/Sleep Hollow People for The Paper Fortress. This came out on VMC, for whom he also produced the only full lngth known to have his production stamp - Dennis Oliveri's Come To The Party. Another album he's on is the Afro Blues Quintet Plus One's New Directions ESP Jazz LP. Victims of Chance, Mystic Mambo and Incantations were all arranged by him. Wrote Poor Old Organ Grinder for Pleaure, co-wrote/produced Little Girl Lost-And-Found by The Garden Club with Larry Marks. Also had a song called Alice Designs recorded by a Seattle band called Mr. Lucky, and a song called Bring Your Own Self Down was recorded by The Purple Gang (he apparently wasn't happy with the bass on this recording though). I have made a nice mix cd with all these songs on it :) And as this is a Beach Boys board, most people will recognize his name on the revised credits to Sail On Sailor...Other than that, the only other thing that is known to exist of his musical is a mythical songwriters demo LP that was sold on ebay once...would've been nice to snag it for $200:
http://www.popsike.com/php/detaildata.php?itemnr=4037944049


TANDYN ALMER (Los Angeles, CA)

    "New Songs Of" 196  (Davon demo 2257)  [no sleeve] 

        Songwriter's demo LP with unknown performers, showcasing recent compositions by mysterious Boettcher associate Almer, who wrote "Along comes Mary" for the Association, among other things. Includes "Menagerie of man", "Face down in the mud", "Sunset Strip soliloquy", "Alice Designs" and other promising titles. The latter was recorded by Pac NW band Mr Lucky & the Gamblers in early 1967, which may indicate a 1966 date for this demo album.
[http://www.lysergia.com/AcidArchives/lamaArchiveA.htm]



And then yeah, he obviously has notoriety for inventing "the Tandyn Slave-Master, a waterpipe that was described in the headshop classic A Child's Garden of Grass as "the perfect bong." Quite the dude, and as you may be able to tell, I am fairly obsessed with him...

No wonder the poor guy's the way he is now.   :p

Even Hef admitted to an experiment in the 70's....as did Grace Slick.....both learned from the experience....that fad or no fad swingin 70s or not, they were, in fact, after all, hetero, and just couldn'tn help themselves...they loved and preferred the opposite sex.
Just showed they were open minded to those who felt ambiguity. 

Coke makes you do some things.

Just saying.

Brian had an affair with his sister in law, for years. Come on, this is heavier than a consensual 3 way with his wife and a dude.

Depends on how heavy the dude is.   >:D

True dat. I always tried to picture in my mind how Marion Jones and C.J. Hunter would have sex. I never could.

Also, I forgot to mention that he of course co-wrote Marcella and was lurking around during the CATP sessions. And he is also reputed to have been a part of those early 70's BB hit re-write sessions in which Tandyn and Brian re-wrote the lyrics to all of the Beach Boys' biggest hits, to bring them up to date/modernize them and then I guess the rest of the band was really unimpressed or something? I've actually always wondered about these sessions, so if anyone has any more info they could share it would be much appreciated

The last known whereabouts of Mr. Almer was aparently in Washington as he wrote something in the MENSA newletter there, which must mean he's a smart guy.

Great to see Tandyn being discussed again. In addition to the above info, I have a songbook of Tandyn-composed tunes (mainly those included on the Davon publishers demo LP):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22035232@N07/2400334593/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22035232@N07/2401166944/

Thanks, never seen this!


Great little song in Curt Boettcher/Sagittarius-style. BTW, this song is available on Ruthann Friedman´s CD "Hurried Life- Lost Recordings 1965-1971" (Water 185).

From the CD booklet: Tandyn Almer (the strange and brilliant) gave me the sheet music from his song "Along Comes Mary" which was an enormous hit for the Association. He had signed the front cover with the words... "to my female counterpart". How prophetic those words became.
A few weeks before the Association recorded "Windy" Tandyn asked me to do the vocals on a project he was working on with Larry Marks. "The Little Girl Lost And Found" is the result of that collaboration. It was released as performed by the Garden Club who existed in someone´s pop imagination but actually was myself singing many voices (with the exception of Tom Shipley, half of the wonderful folk duo Brewer and Shipley, who lent a masculine tone in a few select places). Larry proceeded to speed the whole thing up a taste, which makes me sound a bit like Alvin and the Chipmunks, but as a whole it is a funny delightful way ... way ... way ... produced song that still gives me a chuckle.

Van Dyke Parks lent a hand in the production of Ruthann's 45 Carry On (Glittering Dancer) Reprise 0941

I recently scored and just spun tonight the Paper Fortress 45 on VMC about a half-dozen times--it's that good! Both sides are written/produced by Tandyn & Eddie Hodges (and both arranged just by Tandyn) and it's one of the most impressive floral power fruitcake slices of '60s psych that I've heard in decades. Plus it's a definite 2-sider. Did some research on this disc and found out that this is Erik Braunn's (of Iron Butterfly) first band circa '66 - '68.

It's definitely got the Boettcher stamp of approval sound and is a pretty darn sophisticated disc with all sorts of meter/tempo changes, amazing backing vocals, and (on my favorite side "Butterfly High") remarkable bass harmonica rifs reminiscent of some Smile arrangements. Surely there is a story here! Anybody got anything to add?

Brian can do what he likes, the worst thing about the 'menage a trois' is that he might have squashed you, seeing as this was late 70s and he was prone to eating lots of food and not showering! (I'm sure somebody here knows the precise date and can verify it! :p)

Most interesting thread on this forum for a long while.

Can someone remind me exactly what TA's contribution was to Marcella and Sail On Sailor?

He wrote the original lyrics to Marcella, from what I've been told.

He also wrote the lyrics to Beatrice from Baltimore, which was changed into You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone.