I forgot about Don't Worry Baby -- I guess what I meant and should have said was: what was his last session as an official member during his first stint (late 1963) before he guested on "Don't Worry Baby" (1964) and then much later TWGMTR sessions (2011-2012).  No pressure for an answer, of course; I was just curious.

Tricky question to answer! It depends if he played on the new Little Deuce Coupe album tracks or the single version of Be True to Your School. Since all of the session outtakes and even the final 3-track masters for those are missing, that's a tough call. The LDC album was recorded quickly, over only two or three days, right after Dave quit the band but before the end of his contracted live performances. The tracks all use the same core lineup of piano, one guitar, bass, drums, so it's possible (or even likely, in my opinion) that they were knocked out by the standard '64 studio band of Brian/Carl/Al/Dennis. They sound more like typical Carl guitar and Al bass playing to me. But Dave did at least remember learning some of those songs, so that's potentially unconfirmable until some tapes turn up in an attic.

LSN's basic instrumentation is doubled. David isn't on Drive-In - his last Beach Boys session was Don't Worry Baby.

It's Brian on pianos and celeste, Al on basses and glockenspiel, Dennis on drums, Carl on guitars and sleigh bells, Murry also on sleigh bells. Merry Christmas folks.

Nothing to add other than a reminder for context that Brian Wilson has said that he dislikes the lyrics to Sail On Sailor.

Those were by Jack Rieley, so Van Dyke has nothing to worry about.

What went wrong?  I think that Abe Somer's Jan. '67 lawsuit against Capitol is a seriously underrated factor.  The litigation removed the pressure on Brian to finish the album in that Jan-Feb period.  By the time that Brian resumed work in April, the momentum was lost and VDP was gone.  Also, Brian was in period of rapidly going through "phases" (exercise, meditation, health food, religion, astrology, and many more).  When Brian and Marilyn moved to the Bellagio house with its home studio, I suspect that there was a great deal of excitement about that new approach and that Brian was eager to do something there.

This is largely where I fall on it. On top of all of that (and the peril of Carl's draft), I think the biggest factor in the untangling was the fear of public failure. Carl, Jack Rieley, and Brian himself have all said as much. The pressure to live up to his speedily acquired public profile, follow the commercial success of Good Vibrations, and deliver (as Carl put it) a 'heavy art album' against the competition all became insurmountable under the weight of everything else that was happening.

Danny Hutton observed that Brian had spent so much time with the material that he lost the freshness to tell if it was any good or not - on a musical level, not just lyrical. He became self conscious about what he thought may be deemed his own indulgence. And he wasn't sure if he was still into some of it, the weirder non-melodic stuff and the vamps stuck on two chords. Without a direct collaborator (beyond Van Dyke serving his job description as cowriter) to provide that reassurance and direction, Brian needed to leave it all behind and move onto something radically new to enjoy making music again. He's always been a person who has trouble sticking with a project for a long time without losing connection to the original inspiration. Brian's natural state of being is to create fast and move on.

Vosse called drugs a big red herring in the story of Smile. While they're an easy villain for an oversimplified narrative, I don't think they can totally be discounted among the above swirl of bad things. Carl thought that they irritated Brian's existing anxiety over the situation, and everyone consuming truckloads of hash wasn't conducive to keeping focus under that pressure. Brian was clearly experiencing manic episodes and paranoia magnified by the amphetamines. By April (by which time Vosse etc. had gone), Mike was as stoned as the rest. Maybe even Al a little. Bruce found it all too weird and got out of there.

Now... I don't agree with some of the earlier discussion. I wholeheartedly believe Brian loved Van Dyke's lyrics. I think that can stay true while he was also stewing over worries about their commerciality and being associated with an 'important' artistic statement that might not connect to the public, in light of everything else. Certainly some of that doubt crept in due to Mike's vocal questioning of the words. That can't be struck from the record. Thing is, those teething problems seemed to happen pretty early in the project - Mike was singing about crows before Europe, one of the first vocal sessions in '66, right in the middle of a roll of productivity. He loved Wonderful, was down with Heroes and Villains (besides the "sonny down snuff" line that he's on tape sneering at, as Brian laughs), sang everything asked, and I think ultimately settled into what they were doing by the early months of '67. The tapes don't lie about his attitude to recording, which was basically upbeat and business as usual. I've never heard of Carl, Dennis or Al having anything but a glowing response to Van Dyke's work. Bruce wasn't sure about it, but turned up and did the job.

The chain reaction of uncertainty that Mike's crow problem might have set in motion months before the collapse is up for debate. Personally, weighed against all the other factors, I don't think it was one of the most significant reasons for the project not happening. But I can't go back in time and read Brian's mind.

It's briefly recounted in the Wilson Project. Down By the Pier was a song written by Carl, Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg, and demoed in May 1985, outside of the Levine-produced sessions.

Who is singing the "it's happening again ..." section of You're Still a Mystery?  It doesn't sound like any of the Beach Boys to me.

Could it be Andy Paley's voice?

That's Matt Jardine and Brian.

It's indeed strange that Brian re-recorded his vocals. If it wasn't just for fun I guess he had an idea of releasing a Beach Boys abum and use some songs that featured Carl (which at this time were still quite fresh recordings). After all, Brian did hold songs like "Summer's gone" back for a last Beach Boys album - which would become TWGMTR - when he could've released them on a solo album. So something was on his mind even after Carl's death.

It's Matt and Carl, not Brian. Brian recorded a vocal track for that part but it isn't used in the mix.

So....  there are other SI tracks in the vault as yet unheard?

Yes, lots.

Other than Landy and Morgan, who else worked with Brian on Sweet Insanity?  Was there a Paley-like musical guru who helped Brian put together the ill-fated album?  Or did Brian simply work with musicians to complete the songs?  

"Weird Al" Yankovic provided accordion for at least one song.  And allegedly Paula Abdul and (I think) Belinda Carlisle provide some backing vocals on "The Spirit Of Rock & Roll" although please don't quote me on that.  Bob Dylan is definitely present on that song.  The Wikipedia entry for this album claims Tom Petty was also involved somehow but I'd take that with a grain of salt.  

Tom Petty, John Lodge, Jeff Lynne and Paula Abdul all added backing vocals to The Spirit of Rock and Roll, reported in some BB Stomp issues at the time. Belinda Carlisle and Glen Campbell have guest vocals on Make a Wish.

Do we know why Brian used a bass saxophone and baritone sax combination on Do It Again instead of (what had been) his previous standard of tenor and baritone saxes?

Those are two bass saxes playing a line in unison, not a horn section with any sort of harmony.

Yeah, the exact order of the tracks, while nice to know, isn't the important part of a list like this. It's more about what was together on each track, like you said. Also what particular instruments were used and by whom, as well as the order of the overdubs / punch-ins. Finding reliable sources for all of that is tricky because sources tend to contradict each other sometimes or are just plain incorrect. My goal is to set the record straight and attempt to figure out the truth. I hope this new BBs project does the same thing.

I promise, this sort of thing's happening for the BBs to the most exhaustive capacity it possibly can.

Very admirable work here on the Beatles, I'm really enjoying having a read through. There's a lot here I've often been curious about and seeing it laid out like this in a digestible way is great.

Is Ricky not singing on “Funky Pretty”? I always thought he was part of that round with Al, Blondie, and Mike:

where's my spark in the dark? - Al
Glow glow glow c’mon glow - Ricky
The funky pretty flame in my heart - Blondie
Me and my Pisces lady are apart - Mike

But I can see how that could just also be Blondie.

Just Blondie on those lines.

Great!! Thank you for linking this!


So it's Carl playing one of my favorite bass lines in a Beach Boys song (Here She comes). I didn't expect that.

Funny little tidbit: last year I interviewed a Dutch guy who made friends with Ricky Fataar in the Summer of 1972. Because of that he frequently visited the BBC2 studio and also got to meet an talk with other Beach Boys. And Carl actuallly told him that he played bass on Here She Comes, which was a surprise for me as well. Nice to see that after a lot of research Will, Craig, Joshilyn and John drew the same conclusion.

And I agree with you, that's one cool bass line he's playing.

I wanna acknowledge that it was Klaas who brought it to our attention in the first place out of speaking to that guy. Some of these credits aren't completely set in stone or directly evidenced by what's on tape - in hindsight I wish there was more clear distinction between what's absolutely confirmed and what's just very likely through context/playing style/process of elimination, but instruments wouldn't be put next to names unless there were substantial and well-considered reasons to think that's who played them. Here She Comes is a tricky one, because they essentially recorded two different versions of the track on the same day, and the first one is definitely Carl on guitar and Blondie on bass. By the revised takes though, it's a completely different arrangement. The descending bass riff is there, different timbre, played with a pick instead of fingerstyle. The main guitar's also a totally different sound. And whenever the song was played live in '72 with Blondie on bass, he never replicated the opening riff - it's always like the earlier takes. So several things seem to stack up in favour of putting our trust in the Dutch guy and in Carl for this one. Carl also ably handled the bass when playing in a trio with Blondie and Ricky for a jam session in an adjacent studio to the BBC2 barn that summer.

BTW I believe Brian specifically pointed out that he played "bass guitar" on "Funky pretty" and that he can't really remember anything else about the recording. I never could hear something I would consider to be a bass (you know, like a p-bass or something similar) and the sessionography shows that the bass parts were played on a Moog Synth. Does anyone hear a bass on that song? I wonder because Brian is so specific in that regard.

Brian says a lotta things, the bass on that is just a Moog. Always the possibility with these things that he played something that was taped over however.

This is awesome!!

But isn't that Brian doing the falsetto part in Cuddle Up??

The thing with Cuddle Up is they did the backing vocals twice. In the new alternate mix, both tracks are featured at the same time, and on one you've got the five original Beach Boys singing with Brian on the highest part. The humming in the first verse is them alone and can just about be heard in the single mix. Those vocals were essentially replaced in the final mix by Dennis, Carl, Blondie and Toni Tennille, who's covering the same high part Brian was in the second verse. The backing vocals in the rising "your love" chorus are just the latter group, though.

.

I can fill in some of the specifics about how it came together, outside of the 'commission' aspect. Brian said at the time that he wrote slightly more music than Andy and Andy wrote slightly more lyrically, and that seems to be broadly accurate. They also conceived and demoed the whole suite before recording, then the pieces were shuffled around and reworked as the project evolved - it wasn't just edited together from disparate fragments, as much as they have little musical relation to one another and were written separately. Every track was built up on top of Brian on the tack piano. He played just about every keyboard and Andy played just about everything else.

No idea who's primarily responsible for the "Ride 'Em Cowboy" intro section. The main "Rio Grande" mini song was a new collaboration between Brian and Andy, with Andy lifting the bassline from "Along the Navajo Trail". The banjo riff in the opening verse is straight out of "That Same Song". I would think the "oh the great big river" vamp came from Brian, because he later reworked it into the bridge of "Morning Beat". The bluegrass band arrangement of the theme that follows was produced by Andy with the Bay State Bluegrass Band in Boston, no direct involvement from Brian, seemingly thrown in as a bit of an afterthought.

The "Rain Dance" section was built up on top of "Cool Cool Guy" with overdubs until it became an entirely different piece of music. Seeing as Brian said he didn't like that part, I assume he didn't have much to do with deciding to take it in that direction. "Cool Cool Guy" was originally half a Brian vamp and half a progression that sounds like Andy's work.

The "Take Me Home" section comes accross as Brian's music, possibly from something older, and he's also called that part his favourite. That's one example of Waronker asserting some creative influence as a producer - he asked Brian to turn it from a solo lead vocal to a multi-part harmony, but then Brian took that and arranged and recorded it how he wanted. That's probably more or less how things tended to happen when others gave him suggestions.

"Night Bloomin' Jasmine" is obviously Brian's chorus from way, way back. It sounds like Andy wrote the connective music around that hook. "Jasmine" came in later to replace an entirely different uptempo section that's included in the early rough mix assembly on the reissue CD. Also, at the demo stage, Brian and Andy had the "Spark in the Dark" riff as an instrumental intro to "Heavenly Lover" as the finale, which they cut out and expanded into a full song before recording began. I think whole thing developed in a more organic way than it's sometimes given credit for. Not every idea came from Brian, but he certainly wasn't creatively out of the loop or doing anything against his will.

One of my favorites of the SOS box is the track/backing vocals for The Trader. Is it just me, or is Bruce on this track? Knowing he left before the Holland sessions, I wasn't expecting to hear him (or what I think might be him) on this song. Do we have a definitive list of the song(s) he was involved in for '72?  I thought I heard him one other track on the SOS box set but am drawing a blank on which it was. Good excuse to listen again  

It's been known for years that Bruce sings on "California Saga (on my way to sunny ...)" but I never could point his voice out until the track + bg vocals on the new set. He's very prominent on that.

I'd guess he may be on "Marcella" as they played (or lipsynched to) that song on a dutch TV show which included Bruce.

The recording of Marcella was finished in Feb 72 before they came over to The Netherlands to attend the Grand Gala Du Disque (Feb25th) and perform on Dutch pop show TopPop (on Feb 24th). When the lipsynch performance was done the song still was logged under its original title One Arm Over My Shoulder. But when it was broadcasted on Dutch TV on May 2nd the song obviously was announced as Marcella (C&tP-ST) was released by then.

But in short, Bruce was definitely involved on Marcella.

He and Carl sing all the vocal parts in the verses. Other than that and California, Bruce isn't singing on anything else they recorded that year.

Oh, really? That's one that books regularly get wrong then!

It's Jonah Wilson, Carl's son.

It's Justyn rather than Jonah.

While we're at it, who on earth does the "dom dom kindom" part? It sounds like Billy to me.

I always assumed it was Blondie (?)

Gotta be Billy. No?

Pay close attention to the way he sings/pronounces the "dom" in the word kingdom. It doesn't sound like any group members to me, except possibly Dennis.

It very much is Dennis, not Billy.

Can we also acknowledge, thanks to the a capella Marcella, that it WAS Brian in the tag singing the high-ish “Marcella heyyyy” and NOT Jack (who did a small “Hey Marcella” in a lower voice while Brian was singing)?

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=b399XCqDbcY&feature=share

2:39 is Brian, Jack comes in at 2:42

*drops mic*

Brian's part was completely absent from the original mix though, sadly. It is Carl singing "Marcella hey" on an Eb while Jack harmonizes "hey Marcella" beneath - the console strip even marks "Carl and Jack" for that track. Brian's over on the right soon after singing a squeaky little "ooh, I need ya, deh-deh" on G and improvising other lines, and doubling his elfish "deh-deh" on another track later. Exactly the kind of thing he described to Howie where he just plugged in an extra part on his own after the others had been in. We're blessed with a lot of new Brian elf voice moments on this release.

This is one song where I think the new mixes really bring out the 'Beach Boysness' that it was missing - the pinball machine vibes in the chorus, horns, growly edge to the Moog bass, Wurli proto-Bread riff, more audible pounding piano, and having Brian's voice on the end add a ton of life to the track. Hearing all this, it sounds as if Carl consciously wanted to veer away from the eccentric ideas to more conventional rock territory in the mixdown, but the arrangement just wasn't built to support that kind of thing with enough oomf. It's better off being spooky and weird.

The biggest revelatory moment was realizing how much of Holland had Brian on backups. I think Sail On Sailor, Steamboat and Leaving This Town are the only ones he’s not present on.

He's singing on Funky Pretty, Mt Vernon, first half of The Trader (his vocal arrangement) and the beginning of California (in the "spend" as well as his lead), but none of the other songs.

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.

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.