When I see these announcements for archival releases as digital only, I feel let down. I am strictly old school, must have physical product, jewel case, booklet, and all. I have never downloaded anything, wouldn't even know how to go about it, my hard drive is empty with regard to music, it's CD all the way.

So I can't really get excited about a 68 set as digital only. But I am happy with anything physical, I buy all of that. I can understand going digital only for things that might incur a loss as a physical release, but really, how much extra would it cost to press a few thousand of the 68 set, print the booklet, etc.? I can't imagine anything of quality would lose money as a physical release. So what is holding them back? Some corporate decision?

I think it's a little bit greedy, if it turns out that anything they put out must make a substantial profit. If they wouldn't lose money on a physical release, there is really no excuse for not releasing a physical CD product.

I was you, up until a year or two ago.   I needed my cds, liner notes, etc.   But really, it's almost over.  For true music lovers, it's time to adapt.   I've been in your place, and it's better beyond.

It's a matter of where your digital 0's and 1's come from.  A compact disc is made from MINING petroleum and aluminum, MANUFACTURING in China, paper probably from a tree farm but coated in protective chemicals and ink, ..more plastic for the case .   
Corporate decisions, greed, profit are why CDs exist in the first place, and why they are going good-bye.   

Digital file or CD,  they are both "corporate" formats.    There's no conspiracy, meanness, or insensitivity on display here.   They WOULD lose money on a physical release.   I imagine if you opened up Capitol's books, you'd find that either they have lost money on the last several physical products, or their accounting is trending in that direction.  There's not enough of us physical product likers around anymore.    Do you want human beings working at Capitol to get fired and lose their job for pushing physical product that incurs a loss? 

If we don't budge, it means we don't get to listen to any more new unreleased Beach Boys stuff.   Is devotion to a dying corporate manufacturing process enough to keep you from hearing an unreleased vocal performance from Carl Wilson? 

My head is harder than most people's.. but CDs are just things we're used to .... I'm doing what it takes to let Carl, Brian, Dennis, Mike, Al, and Bruce sing new tunes in my ear this year and next no matter what.

<< Now there is indeed a photo of Carl, Dennis, Mike, Al, Bruce, Blondie and Ricky somewhere. All of them on a long sofa or something. It's in one of the books I have somewhere on The Beach Boys, but I haven't any idea which one it'd be in. >>

It's in the David Leaf book.

I guess from this occasion?





I know a live shot of all the Boys - without Brian - was posted on the BBBritain board but I can't find it online.

That's awesome! Thanks for responding to the thread everyone.  I've never seen lots of these and the one with Bruce is a hoot!

Are there any photos in existence of Carl, Al, Brian, Dennis, Ricky, Blondie, and Mike? 
Other than the faked one in the gatefold of the LP?

I know Bruce was in the mix for a very brief overlap ... but that would be asking too much.

Al sounds less 'breathy' on the first verse because he's doubled by a second Al in the right channel. If you A/B them, including each isolated vocal on the first verse, the timbres are absolutely identical. Not once did Mike's voice ever sound close to that, outside of the spectrum of the Beach Boys all just having similar-ish voices. I'm surprised there's even a debate about this one.

Edit:

Here are the single-tracked leads for each verse isolated back to back - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1prMf7wIaLs__ubkdX54HZrBYQJmYyxQx/view?usp=sharing

And the vocal double on the first verse in the right channel - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Eakys8XeevsbWxpaIWTBfVcz1SJERkiM/view?usp=sharing

All three are clearly Al.

Wow!  This is the reason I visit this site!  There's always a new vocal surprise waiting to be had when listening close to the Beach Boys.  The last one that wow-ed me was learning about Brian's little brief lead vocal parts on Good Vibrations, and now this one.  I hadn't even thought about it being Al, since this type of vocal is usually reserved for Mike's timbre.  I wouldn't have swore it, I just didn't even consider it! With the music it's still a tiny bit vague, but dang it if your vocal clips leave no doubt that we've got Al on the low end for all these parts.

Are any other bands doing these Copyright Extension releases?
Seems like there would be an epidemic of them for other contemporary bands, but I've only heard of the Beach Boys' releases.

That's a very good question, and point to make. I know that The Beatles did one release for the year 1963, and I think Bob Dylan did one release in similar fashion, but I don't know if any other band that's doing it. I dearly wish that The Who would jump on the bandwagon, so to speak.

You're right. I do remember the Bob Dylan one where Columbia put out only like a hundred copies of a copyright-extension release.  .. Only the BBs seems to get a big thoughtful releases (Thank god!)   Rhino already got ahead of the game by re-re-releasing every Monkees album 2-3 times with more tracks each time.
I just don't understand why there's not an epidemic of releases from so many famous bands of the time.

Are any other bands doing these Copyright Extension releases?
Seems like there would be an epidemic of them for other contemporary bands, but I've only heard of the Beach Boys' releases.

Wow there are hardcore BB fans than think this is Alan rather than Brian?
It sounds exactly like Brian, and like Shortenin' Bread, who other than Brian would be obsessed with an inconsequential obscure tune such as Daddy Dear in the early 70s?

So I know that Carl and Dennis make few appearances on MIU, so were all the vocals supplied by Brian, Al, and Mike or where there other vocalists?

I'm usually pretty good at picking out the core 6 Beach Boy vocalists in the mix, but this album, more than any, has me saying "Who the heck is that singing?"

Like who's doing the weird accented double-tracked "come come-a come-a come out come out tonight" in the intro to Wontcha Come Out Tonight? I'm guessing Al and/or Brian?   Or at 01:48 the gently falsetto "Little Girl won't you come"

I could listen to that pedal steel intro for hours, I love that!
I'm happy this will get a(nother) official release. Blondie and Ricky had great material and I'd love to hear more of it.

BTW this would be another one that would've been a better choice for "Stars&Stripes" than most of what was used.

Who is playing pedal steel on the studio version?

Pet Sounds  psychedelic? Nope-not a chance-wiki was off on that one-of course GV certainly was. WH  was not in any way psychedelic.

So let me get this straight: you tell us to go look at wikipedia to find out what psychedelic music is and then when we actually do go to wikipedia and find something that you disagree with, the source that you initially gave to prove us wrong suddenly lacks credibility? You have officially given up your right to be taken seriously in this dicussion.

Get this straight, proving anyone wrong wasn't the point, jack. If you r e a d it, (try it slower next time) you'll see that it  does a faily good job at explaining what kind of music it is-and I said that I don't agree that PS or WH  qualify as that brand of music. And, further, you may want to take note that I do agree that GV was part of the genre, so button up RR -if you wanna argue all night, bring it on, Clem.

Only on the internet would people with a common love and interest for Wild Honey be this ugly towards each other.

While we have a WH topic..

Personally I think the 2 fer sounds terrible, sound wise is that the best out there or is there a better sounding release to buy?

Japanese "Pastmasters" (Toshiba/EMI CP21-6013).

If you have vinyl capability, try the mono Capitol green-label reissue from 1981 (Capitol SN-16159).

Thanks a lot I'll go dig around for those

No problem, Shady.

A well-known audio engineer refers to the Pastmasters discs as "flat transfers" from the Capitol masters. I personally think he's full of merda (and ego), but the CD is the best-sounding Wild Honey I've heard. Most of the Pastmasters Beach Boys CD's sound great compared to the 2-fer's, EXCEPT for Pet Sounds, avoid that one.

I agree with both of these sentiments!  Pastmasters, good!  That audio engineer, dishonest and not trustworthy at all.

Surprised nobody posted about THIS parody:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV-a4LZLcuY

Weird Al's "Trigger Happy" always seemed WAY too close to "Skeet Surfin'" from Top Secret.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaXOHCNgYrc

Did Bruce ever audition for the Village People? Just asking...

lmao....Look at dat freaking moustacvhe.

If any thread deserved to be revived, this is it.

The awesome "Through the Looking Glass" site that discusses album art only asks a lot of questions about this cover, and it mentions "the artist, a certain David McMacken, whoever he may be".  Well, he has a website with the Friends picture on it: "http://www.mcmackengraphics.com/cgi-local/content.cgi?s=3&c=6&p=686"  
I can try to contact, but I'd like to know what questions you guys might want to have asked (besides 'who is each face supposed to represent?')  so he doesn't get bugged with multiple emails.

Thanks for the 'awesome' plug for my site (BTW - it's "Back Through The OPERA Glass" !!) - and it's cool you've found a link for David McMacken - I couldn't find anything on him when I wrote the 'site' all those years ago (well, it's seems like a long time ago now).
Interestingly, another fan contacted me just two days ago encouraging me to turn the site into book format. Easier said than done but I said if he can find the means I'll supply the beans ... ;-)
 

Sorry about that, I was writing too late at night.  A blind class ass I made of me.
If you are still updating the site, and want to, I'll let you do the honors and contact him with some good questions.

I'm sure this has been discussed before. I'm sitting here listening to Friends wondering who some of these faces on the cover are. Is that Paul McCartney to the left of the boys? I think i see Carl and Brian in the Clouds. I could be wrong. Who's that in the top right corner behind the guy with the hat, bob dylan? Phil spector? Random made-up man?

There was some recent mention of the weird Friends cover art on a "confusing album covers" thread, but  I thought it seemed appropriate to follow up on this thread for future's sake.   The awesome "Through the Looking Glass" site that discusses album art only asks a lot of questions about this cover, and it mentions "the artist, a certain David McMacken, whoever he may be".  Well, he has a website with the Friends picture on it: "http://www.mcmackengraphics.com/cgi-local/content.cgi?s=3&c=6&p=686"   
I can try to contact, but I'd like to know what questions you guys might want to have asked (besides 'who is each face supposed to represent?')  so he doesn't get bugged with multiple emails.

That's why I offered up a laundry list of people most known for what everyone calls falsetto, but you call head voice. (again, Brian Wilson, Del Shannon, Frankie Valli, Jackie Wilson, Barry Gibb, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Lou Christie, Jeff Lynne, and Michael Jackson).

To be clear, out of that list, I am making no judgment of vocal mechanism use except for Brian Wilson, because he is the only one I have listened to for hours and hours, often a capella.  I do not know nor do I claim to know how those other people are producing their high voices.

I don't think you have to listen to any of those artists for hours and hours to make the comparison.  Pick a song.. listen to Del singing Runaway.  Listen to Jackie singing Higher and Higher.  They're not blowing out any candles with breathy falsettos.  They are just singing well in that upper range, in what you call head voice.  So are all the others.   Per your standards, falsetto is quite a rarity.

Listen, I know you all have better things to do than read scholarly articles on the voice, but I can tell none of you have read those links and very likely not listened to my clip.  I don't expect you to.  But unless you do, how do you expect to understand the distinction?  eless, it's still not that important of a debate, rather silly in fact, but there you go.

I read every link you sent and watched/listened to both of your singing videos.  That's why I offered up a laundry list of people most known for what everyone calls falsetto, but you call head voice. (again, Brian Wilson, Del Shannon, Frankie Valli, Jackie Wilson, Barry Gibb, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Lou Christie, Jeff Lynne, and Michael Jackson). And bear in mind, I have never said that you are wrong; just because the majority believes something certainly doesn't make it true.

But, according to the criteria you suggest, you're not talking about just changing minds about Brian Wilson, you are talking about
redefining the notion about almost every popular "falsetto" singer, not only in the listeners' minds, but in the minds of the artists themselves. 

Well, I'm content to drop it for now, after one last comment.  It's really not an especially important debate, though i was hoping to have a more technical discussion which to me seems more interesting than debating a matter of taste like whose voice you like better.  I'm totally puzzled why you would criticize me without looking at the links Ron, because they, along with a huge body of literature, confirm that I'm not making this up, and that this idea is backed up by most people in the voice and voice pedagogy world.  Somebody might be making it up, but it's not me.  I mean, I don't feel like the voice-teacher industry is out there trying to brainwash people, but it it possible.  If "it's a common sense thing that doesn't need research" you mean you've intuited the terminology without recourse to any outside source?  I'm honestly confused.  Certainly you would concede that the human voice is created by vibrations of the vocal folds when air is passed through them?  When you say that Brian is "demonstrably" in falsetto, are you denying that his vocal folds/cords are adducted, or are you denying that lack of adduction is necessary for falsetto production?  Or, are you simply saying that, normatively speaking, there is no need to distinguish between these very different physiological mechanisms?

I may try to record an example of myself singing in a few different ways sometime, so you can hear what I'm getting at, not that it will be pretty.  By all means, continue to call it falsetto, or George, if you like.  Falsetto more or less gets the point across to most people.  On the other hand, that Hal Blaine played on drums on every Beach Boys hit worked for most people too.

Who in the world of music DO you consider falsetto?  I mean, under your criteria, Brian Wilson, Del Shannon, Frankie Valli, Jackie Wilson, Barry Gibb, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Lou Christie, Jeff Lynne, and Michael Jackson didn't sing falsetto!!

Well, I ask this honestly, did you read any of the links I set up up there?  I mean, I think vocal pedagogues and physiologists can have differing opinions without being full of merda.  The voice is a tricky thing to pin down, the thing that produces it buried within our throats.  That said, the distinction is interesting to me, as I've said before, because if we make it, then Brian is that much more impressive a singer.

I suspect the reason Brian calls it falsetto is the same reason most people mistake what he sings as falsetto: because most people aren't voice teachers.  It's not an important distinction to the guy on the street.  It's technical language.  Unless you're going around discussing the ins and outs of technique, there's no reason to be accurate as long as you are understood.  It's like any specialized field.  Being Beachboysologists here, I'd just sort of like to get it right, much like we want to have dates of recording sessions right.  I find it interesting, anyway--I'm always reading books about vocal technique, so it's bound to spill over here.

So, are you saying that Brian himself doesn't consider what he did falsetto?  He's just dumbing it down for the layperson?
What I'm getting at is, I don't think it's an important distinction to Brian Wilson or Frankie Valli either.

I know this is a silly thing to debate, but I just can't disagree more.  Perhaps the debate would be better suited on a vocal technique forum, but there nobody would care about the Beach Boys.  I just don't hear loose "cords" on almost anything Brian sang certainly through the 60s.  I think people are still taking anything that is higher than the break to be falsetto, which deprives Brian of a lot of credit for the work he was doing.  I dunno, call it what you want, but I will always be here to protest.  

What makes you so adamant about this particular distinction?  I mean even Brian calls that voice falsetto.  The singers most know for this style of singing, like Frankie Valli, Brian Wilson, Del Shannon all call what they do falsetto.  

6% sounds correct to me.

Thanks, Ebb
I will try this.

Ok here's my playlist it's not in this order but...
1) Breakaway
2) This Whole World
3) Help Me Rhonda
4) Honkin' Down The Highway
5) Long Promised Road
6) Darlin'
7) All Summer Long
We'll Run Away 
9) Thats Not Me
10) Take A Load Of Your Feet 
11) Marcella
12) Solar System
13) Let Him Run Wild 
14) It's Ok
15) I Get Around
16) Surfin' USA
17) I Can Hear Music
18) Susie Cincinnati
19) You Still Believe In Me
What do you think???

Well, "Mama Says" has some good exercise lines in it, but "Slip on Through" has always been in my running playlist.  Really gets the feet moving.  especially when the chorus hits!

With the talk on the Adult Child thread about It's Over Now, does anyone know the correct settings to make this song sound right?  Most editing software has settings to "raise pitch" or "increase speed" by a certain %.  Anyone know what is necessary for this song?

I keep everything in my head, which I carry with me at all times.

Then could you please repost the Q&A with Jack Reiley?

[3. I'm not convinced it is Brian at about 2:00. I think he is in the mix just before that, but the the vocal fill that sounds like Brian is actually Carl to my ears.]

Great thread!  A few thoughts:

1.  Al's version is one of my top 20 BB tracks ever.  Phenomenal track.

2.  I love that Dennis played drums on the Al version.  He did a great job.

3.  I'm not convinced it is Brian at about 2:00.  I think he is in the mix just before that, but the the vocal fill that sounds like Brian is actually Carl to my ears.

4.  I really think the dit-dit-doo at about 2:18 is Brian, though.

5.  I think Brian definitely is on the track and his voice adds a lot.

I think 2:00 and 2:18 are the same guy. Same place in mix, and although 2:18 sounds more idiosyncratic Brian I'd say 2:00 is him as well.

I say at 2:00, that's Al doing the falsetto(think how he sounds on Be Here in the Morning).  At 2:18, (dit-dit-doo) definitely brian.