Thanks, Ian. When I saw the second photo of the guys playing in Houston 1969, I couldn't id the bassist until I read your book and realised that this show was part of a tour which included an eight-piece orchestra accompanying the group, including bassist Bob Boyack!

Interesting footnote: Bob Boyack is my great uncle! In fact I just spent the week at his house. He's got a lot of funny stories, and he still plays the bass everyday, and takes lessons. He told me some stories about taking lessons with our Ms. Kaye.

This was the first official Beach Boys album I ever owned. Got it for Christmas in '87, I think. I was a pretty new fan at that point and 13 or 14 years old. I think it's a great retrospective of their career to that point. There are *countless* great songs they could've included, but decisions have to be made, ya know? I never got much into side 4, but I enjoyed it alright. Getcha Back is a fine tune, competent and well-performed apart from the huge 80s reverbs. R&R to the Rescue didn't get much traction at the time which is unfortunate because I've listened to it a few times recently and it's a pretty darn good pop/rock tune. It drives with guitar, piano, sax, bass and drums. Brian's lead vocals are very solid, too.

I don't really know how to rate compilation albums, though, because they aren't really "an album" in the sense that they're just culling material from previous albums like a sample platter. I will say I played it A LOT and really enjoyed it because the music is great.

Aric

Great job, a little bit pitchy but that's not a big problem at all. It's not as if I could do it any better, so I can't criticize

Well, I'd prefer it NOT to be pitchy but I do the best I can, ya know?

Are the drums real drums or programmed? I love the sound of them, they just sound a tiny bit "digital". Or you just have impeccable rhythm.

The drums were real. I don't play the drums myself, although I do all the other instrumentation and vocals. The drums are played by a friend of mine. We've been in a few bands together over the years and he likes the recording process, too.

Aric

I'm sure you COULD wait for it just fine, after you've heard it!

This Whole World

and a vocals only mix:

This Whole World vocals only

Enjoy! I also did a version of Let Him Run Wild for that collaboration, and I have posted my version of Don't Talk here just last month.

Aric

Someone should do This Whole World so we can have a "Sunflower Suite" on our album, with the first three songs from Sunflower.

Well, that and because it's a freaking amazing song.

I actually did a cover of This Whole World years ago for a Tapeop.com project. I'll post it tonight.
Aric

I think I see where you're going with the "under use" idea now, and that makes sense. Basically his voice was changing due to damage, but he was "behind the curve" because he wasn't singing much. That makes sense, too, when you consider that by the mid/late 80's his voice was actually quite strong. Despite the weirdness of the Landy years and the first solo album, he was actually in really good shape, vocally. For example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgiVWCHeEnY

Vocally, this is a good performance.
Aric

Aric, good point about Brian's speaking voice. What really blew my mind while listening to CF74 was his speaking voice at the very end of the track. He sounds EXACTLY like he would 3 years later in the opening of 'That Special Feeling' ('cassette rolling?').  

I think there's a very good reason for why he sounded so different on 15 BO and (to a lesser extent) Love You...

I think that as Brian's voice changed due to age, illness and abuse (and he was doing all of those things very young), the willpower and dedication needed to make his voice do those unnatural things decreased. And when he simply had to sing in his "normal voice," perhaps he didn't quite have an innate sense of what that was.

Good points, Clay, but I think there's something that many are missing. He recorded very few vocals in 1972-1975. In 1972, he tried out several different singing styles with Spring, and his few vocals on So Tough sounded like MIU Brian minus the rasp (notable exception being his 1976 sound on his vocals for He Come Down)/ 1973 still sounds like Brian of 1969-1971, but is singing a bit differently (the opening of 'California' is him using his 15BO style minus the rasp). 1974 was the change. Although he seemingly sounded okay on 'Rollin' Up To Heaven', on closer inspection the falsetto sounded like his MIU voice. We've heard CF now, so we know how he sounded there. We've heard almost nothing from 1975, but his backups for the Johnny Rivers 'Help Me Rhonda' and the other song he did (can't remember the artist's name, but I remember it was a female singer) were real bad. His voice was already changed by that point. The question is, to what extent? There's a very good reason why Brian's 1978 voice is almost the same as it was in 1974. Why did he sound so rough on 15 BO? I've stated before that some of it was a put on...you can hear Brian experimenting with his vocal style starting in 1972, like he wanted to be a different singer. Hell, he even disguised his voice on MT Vernon & Fairway and Child Of Winter the following year. But, there's also something else.

Muscle memory. Or, the loss of.

I mentioned above that Brian rarely sang as the years went on. The coke and smokes, combined with snorting heroin (...), definitely damaged his voice. Nobody is disputing that. You take a singer and shred the sh*t out of his voice for a couple of years, well, that doesn't lead to anything good. However, if that same singer goes from, say, 12 Nov 1974 thru 29 May 1975 (and then for 3 1/2 months later) without laying down vocals while continuing to abuse their voice ...15 Big Ones is the result. Vocally, he was rustier than a hobo's botulism-laden can of pork &  beans. He basically had to relearn to sing. Not only was his voice damaged, he was out of practice. That's why he sounded a bit better on LY, and a hell of a lot better on MIU (and other things recorded in 1978). The funny part is, by the time MIU rolled around Brian had been off the wagon for quite a while. So, it's the combination of him not trying to sound like Randy Newman and having sung more often recently that made him sound like he did 4 years previously.

With that in mind, by 1979 the damage was permanent, and this time the worsening voice was no put-on. I think his divorce from Marilyn caused a further downward spiral equivalent to when Murry passed in 1973. As bad as he sounded most of the time in 1976, they were worlds away from 1980. Difference between trying to f*** up your voice on purpose while also trying to sound worse than you actually were, and having already ruined it. Best analogy I can come up with? In 1974, Brian's voice sounded like the vocal equivalent of  hurting yourself while zipping your fly. From 1978-1981*, it was the equivalent of putting your dick in a wood chipper.


*I'm sure 1982 was worse, but it's not like was singing either.

edit

MarcellaHasDirtyFeet (great user name) and i had the same idea

I have always wondered if the relative decline of Brian's singing voice, especially compared to say, Carl, had to do with the fact that he rarely performed live. I mean, Carl and the boys were out there every other night or whatever, giving their voices a thorough workout, while Brian only occasionally sang in the studio. There was no way he'd be able to keep up, right? Use it or lose it

Your voice definitely gets weaker when you don't use it enough, but it won't lead to actual tonal change. On the other hand, people who over use their voices, especially outside their actual "normal" range (Robert Plant was mentioned, he'd be a perfect example), can develop substantial vocal changes over the years. In other words, over use would be more detrimental than under use.

Aric

The late 60's/early 70's voice is very recognizable as Brian, although it has changed. You can hear this even earlier, for instance on the Lei'd in Hawaii stuff. I think around '66 he started singing that way stylistically, not because of any change his voice was going through. That's just my opinion, but I think it was part of being more hip, and creative.

One way to track this is his speaking voice- up to that time, his speaking voice hadn't changed much. It was a touch lower, but not much. By '74, though, it was much burlier and raspy, and his singing followed suit. By the mid 80's his speaking voice had gotten a higher, but more nasal quality and... also  his singing voice.

Also, based on his speaking voice, his early 60s voice seemed to fit quite well. I don't think it was a put on, although it was derivative. His speaking voice had a lilting, supple alto quality to it and so did his singing. His range was exceptional, even without falsetto. And his falsetto transitioned beautifually to and from his full voice, something that many many singers never can do.

Aric

The background vox on Sunflower are EQ'd and compressed to seem rather narrow- they aren't big and full in most places, even though the arrangements are big and full. This would be Desper's touch- the engineer and mixing engineer have the power to do that. That is how he felt they complemented the music best, in context. Now, we may or may not agree with him but it is part of the aesthetic he was after, no doubt.

Perhaps the album is overrated by some. I don't know. I do know that 25 years ago I got a copy of the sunflower/surf's up twofer on cassette, and those albums blew me away because I was hearing very post-60's music and big, stereo productions with the lush sounding, YOUNG sounding vocals. Albums that followed those tended to have the rough, abrasive harmonies that would characterize the group during the '70s. The songs on Sunflower really resonated with me, too, and they're all just very listenable tracks. Some even have a dynamic energy that demands my attention.

So the point is, not everyone has the same taste in music. It is, however, well-crafted music and showcases most of the members of the group in very good form.

Aric

The pitch correction is a little bit too noticeable IMO. But you've got a great voice.

When I have time I plan to re-sing it more carefully. In my house I just don't have enough times that are quiet enough for me to record vocals, and this is a pretty tough one to sing accurately I must say.
Aric

Sounds great.  To what extent is the backing track derived from sampled instruments?

And I like your reasoning for doing 'note for note' covers very much.

The picked electric bass is real. The tremelo electric guitar, and the accent electric guitar that plays along with the piano line at the end of each phrase is also real. The ride cymbal, cello, piano, organ, violin, and viola, are all virtual instruments. The strings and "glockenspiel" are from Miroslav Philharmonik, the piano is Akoustik Piano, the organ is a Sampletank instrument, and the cymbal comes from BFD lite.

Aric

This cover is meant to be "note for note" identical to the original so it may not appeal to some people. Basically, in addition to some original songs, I like to do covers of some of my favorites to practice arranging, hearing, and mixing. So anyway, here it is:
http://www.home.comcast.net/~tenchijin/donttalk.mp3

Aric Keith