I'd love to go through all of these, but I don't have the time. Two notes though:
2. Amusement Parks USA – New mix - stereo vocals, mono track, like the SOT, but something horrible happened to the sound of the 2012 mix - The vocals are distorted and sound “phasey” in places, the song sounds bad – either there was tape damage since the SOT was done or the transfer was messed up by bad tape heads or something. The SOT is crystal clear and sounds beautiful, although the familiar problem with the tracking volume being too low relative to the vocals is present. The SOT is also missing some vocal overdubs in the “special effects” section, specifically the “Is it Real” and “looks like a fake” comments. I’d have to take the SOT mix over the new release just for the sound quality issues.
The SOT one isn't just missing bridge overdubs (not to mention Brian's high pitched screams), it's a whole different vocal multitrack altogether. Completely different takes for the vocals, with some noticeably different lyrics.
6. Help Me Rhonda single version – New extraction mix. Odd that we need an extraction mix – Capitol Punishment has a mono vocal only track and a nice stereo mix of the backing track (the latter is also on SOT), but lacking the piano in the break. Combine those, and you can get a very nice stereo mix. Tapes must be missing from the BRI vaults. Or they couldn’t just “extract” the piano from the single version and add it back into the track for some reason. Extraction mix has guitars split R and L, saxes on the R. The guitar on the R sounds like it’s being played in a well – perhaps an artifact of the extraction process? The SOT stereo mix has backing vocals slightly L, rest of the track is slightly R, again with no piano in the break.
People underestimate just how much of "Help Me, Rhonda" is missing from the multitracks. Here's a rundown of how I believe the song was been constructed (feel free to correct the details):
The backing track was recorded on a 3- or 4-track. Probably a 4-track. Upon dubbing it to mono for the vocal multitrack, the lead guitar we know and love was overdubbed. I think this was overdubbed straight onto that mono track, seeing as both Stack-O-Tracks and SOT have it solely mixed with the rest of the backing in mono. Not exactly a strong case to build upon, but yet this is what I conclude. Yes, Derry FitzGerald's stereo mix has that guitar separated, but he also has the bass guitar from the mono separated so that says nothing about the multitracks. Then the vocals were overdubbed onto two tracks for each vocal overdub, filling up the rest of what I guess is a 3-track.
Then Brian went on to create the mono. Directly overdubbed onto the mono are the following, done in one mixing session:
1) The additional bass guitar in the intro and outtro playing what sounds like hammer-ons. It also accompanies the piano in the bridge.
2) Additional "Pow pow pow pow"s by Mike in the choruses and occasionally in the verses.
3) A piano that plays during the bridge and under the final chorus vocals.
4) The guitar solo during the bridge and under the final chorus vocals. I think this guitar one also doubles the bass guitar in the intro and outtro.
This is why they chose for an extraction mix, because there's so much things missing from the multitracks to create a stereo mix that matches the mono. Yes, there are stereo vocals. Yes, there's a stereo backing and a mono backing with an additional guitar from the mono. But that still leaves out a whole lot from the hit record.
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