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Myth - Hal Blaine played drums on all the Beach Boys hits
Fact - Dennis Wilson played the drums on...
Surfin Safari
409
Shut Down
Surfer Girl
Catch A Wave
Hawaii
Little Deuce Coupe
In My Room
Fun Fun Fun(partial)
Don't Worry Baby
I Get Around
Wendy
Little Honda
When I Grow Up To Be A Man
Dance Dance Dance
Then I Kissed Her
You're So Good To Me
Wild Honey
Do It Again(basic)
I Can Hear Music
Student Demonstration Time
Rock and Roll Music
Its OK(partial)
Honkin' Down The Highway
Good Timin'
And many many many many more....
Fact - Dennis Wilson played the drums on...
Surfin Safari
409
Shut Down
Surfer Girl
Catch A Wave
Hawaii
Little Deuce Coupe
In My Room
Fun Fun Fun(partial)
Don't Worry Baby
I Get Around
Wendy
Little Honda
When I Grow Up To Be A Man
Dance Dance Dance
Then I Kissed Her
You're So Good To Me
Wild Honey
Do It Again(basic)
I Can Hear Music
Student Demonstration Time
Rock and Roll Music
Its OK(partial)
Honkin' Down The Highway
Good Timin'
And many many many many more....
I’ve just recently discovered this forum (after doing a web search for info on Brian’s new album). This info from Jon is very interesting! I’m a drummer myself, and so I’m always particularly interested in learning “who played drums on what.” I’ve been a Beach Boys fan for many years, and while I was aware that Dennis played drums on most of the first two or three albums, and on a good portion of some of the “post-Smile” albums, I wasn’t aware the extent to which he played on a lot of the mid-sixties stuff (I was aware, via CD liner notes—by Brad Elliott or David Leaf, I can’t remember which—that Dennis did play on “Girl Don’t Tell Me”, and “That’s Not Me”). This helps solidify my opinion that Dennis was a very fine drummer, especially for someone who (unless I’m mistaken) had only been playing the drums for a few years when he recorded a lot of these. I was already of this opinion, though, after seeing live clips of his playing (on the American Band video), and also hearing his drumming on the 1964 and 1969 live albums (especially the latter). Dennis was probably a better live drummer than studio drummer—in his live recordings, I’ve always been impressed with the amount of drive and energy he was able to create, while still “laying it down.” At least prior to the 1980’s that is—some of his live playing shortly before his death (at least on the American Band video) seemed very erratic, no doubt at least partly due to his struggles with substance abuse.
Conversely, this information also actually improves my opinion of Hal Blaine a bit. Some of the tunes above sometimes show some discrepancies in timing and consistency from the drums, and I’ve often been puzzled by it, because I thought Hal was playing drums (one example: the signature drum lick on Wendy--five 16th notes on the snare drum--is a bit shaky when it enters again at the end of the song). I mean no disrespect to Dennis, because he was a good drummer, and the discrepancies are relatively slight, but Hal Blaine was one of the top studio drummers in the world at the time, and so I’d expect his playing to be more solid than some of what we hear on these tracks.
Thanks for the info!
Ed Pierce
