The Smiley Smile Message Board

So I'm in the grocery store the other night and I hear a rather tepid cover version of "Sail on Sailor."  I thinks to myself, that sounds like Jimmy Buffett.  So I go on wikipedia, pull up the page for SOS, and find out that yes, indeed, Buffett recorded a version in 2003.  Good taste, bad artist.  Reading further in the wikipedia article, I come to this:


AGD's book -- a phenomenal resource as always -- tells the story as I have previously understood it: that VDP "sat Brian Wilson down at a piano, told him to write a song and arrived at Warners offices about half an hour later with a cassette copy of 'Sail on Sailor'".  This is the story also told in Gaines's book and the two-fer liner notes (which add that Van Dyke wrote the middle eight, which would seem to be a very significant contribution).

AGD adds that "Brian had already recorded an early version with Steve Desper engineering back in late 1971 (Desper contends that the Holland version "sounds awfully like the one I recorded")."

I have also read somewhere a story that Carl was in the studio unsure of how to handle the rhythm and called Brian on the phone, who gave him the distinctive chugging waltz beat (BAH -buh-buh, Bah -buh-buh).

I guess my main question is: is there any truth to this Wikipedia business about Van Dyke really being the true author of the song, and Brian's involvement being minimal?  What is the latest consensus as to the composition and creation of this extraordinary Frankenstein's monster we know as "Sail on Sailor" -- one of the best tracks of the 70s by any act.

I was recently listening to the Sounds of Summer podcast, and Brian seemed very detached about the song. Has he ever spoken like that about any other composition of his? I think it's possible that he had the basics of SOS and it was taken from his hands and finished by any number of those people listed as songwriters. If Van Dyke really wrote the music for the bridge, then Ray Kennedy wrote his set of lyrics ("when you're coked out" etc) after Van Dyke, right?

For one thing, I have a hard time believing that Van Dyke Parks went on the blueboard and posted that he, and not Brian, wrote the majority of Sail On Sailor.  It wouldn't surprise me if Van Dyke said that on his own website, or in an interview, but I don't think he'd say that on Brian's own message board.  Actually, that quote might not be far from the truth.  The song as released only has a few chords and a small melody.


"Cut the crap, Brian, and write a middle eight."   

VDP also, allegedly, gave the song its title.

Exactly.  There isn't much there musically...just the little change up at the end of the verse, and then the middle eight.  Brian could have come up with those parts, left the lyrics to others and been done with it.

Is it know what the lyrics are that Van Dyke Parks wrote? Peter Carlin in Catch A Wave quotes a line that goes "Fill your sails with fortitude, and ride her stormy waves". Ever since I read that line I've always wondered what Van Dyke's original lyrics are/were.

We've had threads on this before and there seemed to be a lot of confusion over who wrote what and even when it was recorded.  I'm sure I've read that Desper seemed to think an earlier version had been recorded close to the Surf's Up sessions, but this doesn't fit with Parks' recollections.  Who knows?  Or who's prepared to tell the truth? What was Kennedy's actual contribution to the song as it ended up on Holland? I'm sure I've read that the answer is close to nothing.

...which really made me wonder why in the world it has been on his very own setlist for such a long time. I mean, he once even introduced it as "a song I don't like at all". Doesn't make any sense to me.

Two questions: Is the middle eight the "Caught like a sewer rat..." part or the "Seldom stumble..." part? And can someone post the lyrics to Ray Kennedy's version?

I really want this to be a (at least partial) BW composition. A thing that could speak against that would be how much it differs from any other BW song, with the unique (for a BW song) rhythm in the "seldom stumble" parts for example.

KGB version:

I am a singer
A gospel singer
I sing for people
I sing for pleasure
Only a dreamer
Who came from nowhere
Sail on, wail on sailor

Over the cities
I see the rooftops
To soothe my poor throat
I pop the cough drops
Often frightened
Unenlightened
Sail on, wail on sailor
Sail on, wail on sailor

Just like my mama said.
"Ray, there's a way
But you gotta get yourself out
That ghetto today

You might stumble
You could fumble
When you're down though
Don't feel under"

And the thunder
And the lightnin'
Lord it's frightnin'
When you're coked out

Heartbreak city
Ain't so pretty
When you're down the
Nitty gritty

Sail on, wail on sailor
Sail on, wail on sailor
Sail on, wail on sailor

And the thunder
And the lightnin'
Lord it's frightnin'
When you're coked out

Heartbreak city
Ain't so pretty
When you're down the
Nitty gritty

Sail on, wail on sailor
Sail on, wail on sailor
Sail on, wail on sailor

The Ray Kennedy solo version changes the 'cough drops' couplet a little "to soothe my poor soul/I thought a whole lot". He also changed the "wail" to "sail".

'70s classic rock deep thinking at its finest.

Here's something to think about. According to AGD's Bellagio site SOS was recorded in November '72, however SOS was used in the soundtrack to the Greg MacGillivray and Jim Freeman surf film, Five Summer Stories, which was released in September '72. So is the FSS version different from the Holland recording?

And even more to think about - Five Summer Stories is listed as having been released 3-24-72.  I first saw Five Summer Stories on July 9, 1972 (at a rented out high school auditorium, which was the kind of place they were showing it before it ended up in theaters).  I next saw it on May 23, 1973, this time in a regular theater .  At the time of its release, Five Summer Stories contained three unreleased Beach Boys songs - The Trader, Calif Saga (On My Way to Sunny Calif), and Sail on Sailor.

When was the KGB version released?  What was Ray Kennedy's role in writing the original song? Did Ray Kennedy write his lyrics after the Beach Boys version, or did they exist prior to that, but he didn't release the kGB version till later?

KGB version was released in February 1976.

Steve Desper told me he recorded a version of "SO,S" with Brian in late 1971, and that what was released in 1973 sounded a lot like the track he engineered.

First off Ed I just want to say thanks to you for coming to this site, you add a wealth of knowledge and experince for all of us and I for one appreciate it .... now about Five Summer Stories ... yeah, I have an old VHS tape (but no longer have a tape machine so can't do the A/B on SOS) which I guess would be totally useless for you being in the States. I did a quick check and it is available in DVD through Amazon.

I live in one of Australia's larger beachside towns (Cronulla) so will do the rounds of all the surf shops this morning to find a DVD copy of FSS and do an A/B on SOS.

Oh yeah Ed, purely for the sake of "getting it right" ... and I know as well as anyone how memory can fail us all ... Jim Freeman died in a helicopter crash not a hang gliding accident. Perhaps the hang gliding recollection is coming about because the Sail on Sailor sequence in FSS was hang gliding off the Na Pali coast on Kauai.

Thanks for the correction on the dates ... the mystery deepens even further - and yeah, I too remember the days of seeing surf movies in school auditoriums and community halls ... and then they moved up market to the Sydney Opera House!! I actually went to a new surf movie premier on Monday night called "Last Hope" by Andrew Kidman (straight from the Morning Of The Earth / Albie Falzon old school) it was held in a local bar with a screen set up just off centre to the stage while the band jammed along next to it - wonderful stuff! Surf movies, music, beer and the waft of herbs in the air ....  :smokin ... the 70's is sooooo back in fashion in the surf community!

Ed - I bought a VHS copy of Five Summer Stories back in 1996, when I was first aware that the film was available on VHS, and upgraded to a DVD copy two years ago when I found out it had been released on DVD.  I then got rid of my VHS copy, but not before checking to see if there were any musical differences between the two, of which I found none.  As Tony mentioned, used VHS copies are available from Amazon, but you can get DVD copies from various sources, mostly surf shops and surf related sites.  I did a quick search and found the DVD available from http://www.surfvideo.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=31_35_66&products_id=542 for 19.99.  (If you have difficulty getting a copy, send me a PM.)

To the best of my knowledge, the BBs music was never pulled from the film.  It was still there when the film was rereleased in expanded form as "Five Summer Stories Plus Four" in 1976.  I'm guessing you're thinking of the Soundtrack album,  which was by the group Honk, and never did contain any BB material.  I do recall hearing back when the film was released that Brian Wilson had given MacGillivray and Freeman permission to use the BB's music at no charge.  It was great publicity for the band at that time, and really cool to hear some BB stuff which had yet to be released.

Here's a link to an original poster advertising the film's showings  June - Aug 72. http://www.classicsurfads.com/catalog.php/classicads/dt70778/pd1921360/FIVE_SUMMER_STORIES_SURF_FILM_AD_1972

Tony - Cool to hear about your recent surf music premier, "Surf movies, music, beer and the waft of herbs in the air .... the 70's is sooooo back in fashion in the surf community!"

:lol
so Brian...!

I actually saw this film on TV maybe a year or two ago, it was on late, maybe it was IFC or some specialty channel like the documentary channel. The BB's music was in there, and the versions all sounded like the normal ones to me. I thought the film had a great beginning, a great initial premise and then it completely fizzled, like the filmmakers ran out of money and just threw the last third of it together.

Just went back and listened to SOS on the Five Summer Stories DVD.  While it's possible there are some minor differences, the version found on the film sounds completely identical to me to the released version on Holland, with the exception that the Five Summer Stories version fades out about 30 seconds sooner than the Holland version.

And that's kinda like what happened ... Five Summer Stories came out in 1972 as 5 interlinked stories - it was shot in 35mm (a rariety for it's time) - so to keep it with some movie theatre "shelf life" 4 extra stories were added in 1976 ... and the updated version was known as Five Summer Stories Plus 4 ... and that's what you probably saw as being so disjointed towards the ending.

The version of "California Saga" on FSS was very slightly different, what seems like a minor edit toward the end.

Something very odd is going on here - logically there's no possible way that three songs from the Holland sessions could be included on a movie released in March 1972. But in the recollection of many - too many - folk here, that's what happened.  :o

According to some consumer reviews on Amazon, the current DVD version lacks the Beach Boys' music. 

For what it's worth, I'll add that Stephen Desper played what he thought was the '71 version of SOS over the phone for me a few years back. He wanted to get a fan's perspective on who the lead vocalist was since he thought it was Carl. The track in Mr. Desper's possession sounded almost identical to the released version and I could have sworn the lead vocal was the same Blondie Chaplin lead we're all familiar with (this was over the phone, so I can't be definitive). What was different were the backing vocals which provided a much stronger counterpoint to the lead and sounded much more like classic Beach Boys (made me think of rolling waves). I hope this version sees a release one day.

Andrew - I agree completely.  It appears that three Holland tracks must have been completed prior to the release of Five Summer Stories.  I have some notes I placed in the DVD case of my copy of FSS in which I wrote that FSS was first released on 3-25-72 and I first saw it on July 9, 1972.  At this point I don't recall where I found that release date, but it would have been a source that I presumed to be accurate, or i wouldn't have bothered to write it down.  My DVD box notes also state that I first saw FSS on June 9, but the FSS poster I linked in an earlier post indicates it was more likely June 15 or 16.  I don't recall where I got the July 9 date either, but it may have been the tapes I made with a friend, and perhaps we referred to seeing the movie "Sunday" and when I checked a 1971 calendar to come up with a date I was off by a week. 

In any event, the movie was in circulation at least by June of 72, and given the time it would normally take to edit a movie, the producers would have had the audio tracks available generally for at least a couple of months prior to that.  One possibility that occurs to me, although it seems unlikely, that the producers were given rough mixes of The Trader, Calif Saga, and Sail on Sailor, which were used for the orig film, but then replaced with the official releases for the video.  (I don't think the movie came out on VHS until the mid-90s.)  I'm not sure to what an extent such a scenario would still conflict with the presumed timeline for Holland recordings, and, again, it seems rather unlikely, but certainly could be possible.  Also, when seeing the movie again in 73 and 76, I don't recall thinking I was hearing versions different than contained on the Holland album.

I checked my archives to see if I'd saved the article I remember reading in 72 saying that Brian Wilson had given the FSS producers use of the BB music at no charge, but was unable to locate anything.  But, during my search I had to laugh when I read the following almost 38 year old article from the San Diego Union reviewing a Dec 4, 1971 concert I attended (the day after the 12-3-71 Long Beach Concert):  "'No heckling from the crowd, were doing this as best we can for an aging rock group,' explained Mike Love, 30 year old lead singer of the Beachboys ... The Beachboys should realize that their era is over ...  The group is far too old be be singing such juvenile ditties as 'Surfer Girl,' 'Wouldn't It Be Nice,' and 'Sloop John B.'  In another pointed irony to the old age of the Beachboys, the crowd sang Happy Birthday to drummer Dennis Wilson.  He was 27 on Saturday."

I first read those lyrics on this board before I joined as a member. I thought somebody was playing a joke. ;D Those are by far the worst song lyrics I have ever read!

A joke was my first thought as well...those are absolutely terrible lyrics.

I have a mental image of AGD taking a few days off work, staying up all hours of the night, endlessly on the telephone trying to figure out the 5SS mysteries ;D

And btw, now everybody can see why when I tell them I love the Beatles, The Beach Boys, Dylan, Elton John etc. and they say "Oh, so you're a classic rock fan" I get very angry.

"Lord it's frightnin'
When you're coked out" HAHAHAHAHAHAHA ;D

hey, if they had left the "when you're coked out" line in the released version, it would have been big fun. Or at least very honest about some members' life style.  :)

"I have some notes I placed in the DVD case of my copy of FSS in which I wrote that FSS was first released on 3-25-72"

There's a tiny news item in Billboard dated 3/11/72 that says, simply, "Honk writing songs for "Five Summer Stories" film". I'm just throwing that into the pot with no comment.

According to MacGillivray's site, it was shot in 16mm.

... me bad ... I'm not going to argue with either Greg MacGillivray or AGD!

I'm guessing the major movie theatre release threw me off - imperfect recollection and all ... which (without cross checking ... again...) I'd guess the first 35mm surf film would have been Bruce Brown's Endless Summer II (which I'm 100% sure was 35mm because I was out at G-Land, Java when they were filming it) - ofcourse this is provided you don't think Big Wednesday, Point Break or Puberty Blues are surf movies.

Here's a link to a handbill for the World Premiere of Five Summer Stories at the Santa Monica Civic on March 24, 1972:

http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/dt/five-summer-stories-handbill/SMC720324-HB.html

Andrew - I'm curious what you make of all this.  How does this info impact the presumed recording dates (and locations) of the three Holland songs contained on the FSS soundtrack.  Badman's book indicates that The Trader and California Saga - California were recorded in Holland in June, July, and August of 1972, while Sail On Sailor was completed, with Blondie's vocal, in LA in November 72.  But then again, as you have stated, concerning SOS,  "Brian had already recorded an early version with Steve Desper engineering back in late 1971 (Desper contends that the Holland version "sounds awfully like the one I recorded")."

What do you make of all this?  Unless the original FSS soundtrack was changed, it would appear that these three songs were actually completed (or at least mostly completed) prior to the BBs leaving for Holland.  

Well... a version of "SO,S" certainly existed by fall 1971, so that's not such a poser. The problem with the other two cuts is that late 1971/early 1972 the band were beavering away at C&TP-ST and neither title has cropped up on the AFMs. "California" is accorded a date of 8/15/72 (the day they flew back from The Nertherlands) while "The Trader" has an AFM impossibly dated 8/24/72 in Baambrugge - impossible because that very day they sang backgounds on "TM" by Charles Lloyd in Boston MA before performing on the Common that evening !

As one Mr. Holmes (S.) once observed, "when you have eliminated the impossible, what remains, however unlikely, is what occurred". Snag is, in this case, what remains is also, seemingly, impossible. But we'll get to the bottom of it. We always do.

What is "KGB"?

The band who recorded it.

I've always been curious to know to what degree Tandyn Almer contributed to this composition. If I'm not mistaken, SOS was written around the time Brian & Tandyn were reworking old BB songs with new up-to-date lyrics or something like that  :smokin

Since Desper thinks the finished track sounds similar to the one he recorded in 1971, is it possible that the Van Dyke Parks tape recording telling Brian to sit down and write a song was made as a put on to Warners?  Meaning that the Beach Boys were trying to prove to Warners that Brian still "had it" by taking this song that was several years old and marketing it to Warners as a new product? 

I thought of this today as I was mowing the lawn and listening to the Rodney Crowell outtake of Sail On Sailor from Stars and Stripes.  I remember in the Stars and Stripes DVD that Carl asks Bruce a question about the backgrounds for Sail On Sailor.  Bruce was out of the band by the time they supposedly recorded Sail On Sailor for Holland, and I don't think they played Sail On Sailor much live when Bruce was with the band, so why would Bruce know?

Just a thought.

Ironically, this article ran in the Sunday L.A. Times:

Filmmaker is the largest independent producer of giant-screen IMAX movies

MacGillivray Freeman Films makes its 70-millimeter movies in partnerships with corporations, foundations and private investors. Among its hits are 'To Fly,' 'Everest' and 'The Living Sea.'
By E. Scott Reckard

August 9, 2009

The gig: Running MacGillivray Freeman Films, which made its first 16-millimeter surfing documentary in 1967 and evolved into the largest independent producer of giant-screen IMAX movies. The company, with 27 employees, produces its 70-millimeter films in partnerships with corporations, foundations and private investors. Based in a former motel and rest home, the Laguna Beach outfit is known for arresting aerial and underwater sequences, soundtracks by prominent musicians (Dave Matthews Band, George Harrison, Sting) and celebrity narrators (Liam Neeson, Robert Redford, Meryl Streep). Starting with last year's "Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk," MacGillivray Freeman is introducing 3-D sequences to provide an even more jolting -- or drenching -- sense of immediacy.

Personal: MacGillivray, 64, enjoys mountain biking in the hills near his Laguna Beach home, surfing and other outdoor sports. "The wilderness begins at the water's edge -- all you need is a mask and snorkel." He began dating his wife, Barbara, as a high school junior; they didn't marry until 1980, when they decided to have children. Son Shaun, with a master's degree in filmmaking from USC, is a producer at the company; daughter Megan, who is still a student, works there part-time.

Background: Born in a San Diego Navy hospital in 1945, MacGillivray grew up in a Corona del Mar "beach shack" that his father built. His first film, "A Cool Wave of Color," took him four years of high school to produce, using a camera purchased with paper-route money to film surfers. When it earned back the money he had invested in it, he dropped out of college to make more films, eventually teaming with Jim Freeman, a more experienced moviemaker. Early efforts included "Five Summer Stories," a cult-classic surf documentary; "Sentinels of Silence," an Oscar-winning, Orson Welles-narrated exploration of Mayan civilization; numerous TV commercials; and attention-getting aerial sequences for such features as "Jonathan Livingston Seagull," "The Towering Inferno" and "The Shining."

Tragedy: Freeman died in a helicopter crash in 1976, two days before the premiere of their first IMAX movie, "To Fly."

Breaks and big hits: Impressed with their aerial expertise, the Smithsonian Institution hired the MacGillivray-Freeman team to produce "To Fly" for the opening of the National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in 1976. The film, still shown there every day, has grossed $120 million worldwide. The only higher-earning giant-screen movie is MacGillivray's "Everest," about mountaineers on the world's highest mountain in the accident-filled climbing season of 1996, which has sold $146 million in tickets. "The Living Sea," released in 1995, is third in gross sales at $100 million.

In the works: "Arabia," planned for release in February, a look at Arab culture and the Islamic faith; "To the Arctic" (February 2011); "Return to Everest" (March 2012); "Humpback Whales" (March 2013).

Goal: Encouraging interest in environmental and world culture issues such as global warming, ocean pollution and overfishing. "My main mission is to educate people in a positive way and get them to fall in love with nature." The nonprofit MacGillivray Freeman Films Educational Foundation, founded in 2004, produces educational programs and funds school activities as a complement to the movies.

Key quote: "When we started making a lot of money back in the '70s, we invested well in real estate. So we . . . have zero debt. . . . We can choose to make a movie even if we don't make a nickel off of it -- although we've never lost money on one yet."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-himi-macgillivray9-2009aug09,0,6418147.story

I'm not sure if this has been asked anywhere her, but has it been said if Dennis or Carl's vocal still exists anywhere for the song?

As far as I'm aware, no - Blondie's lead was recorded over the previous takes.