Besides Ball & Mitt, there's the basketball Smile tape with the basketball being dribbled with tons of echo . . . perhaps there was a planned sports theme for Smile that never materialized?  Instead of the aborted Elements suite (after the fires in LA) Brian was going to replace Elements with a Sports suite!!

Interesting that Dennis is recorded pitching a baseball and then ten years later Brian writes a song "Baseball" for Dennis to sing for Adult Child.  Coincidence? I think not . . .

There is too much significance attached to Brian's fun experiments. He was on fire, creatively.  Couldn't it be that he just wanted to document what he could without knowing where anything would end up?

I thought this was gonna be a Clara Peller thread.

Funny!

Hopefully this isn't inspired by me and my (I thought obviously) faux-hate of Al. Anyone who digs through actual musical threads knows I like him a lot. I do think he overproduces things, and takes WAY THE foda TOO LONG to release an album, especially in that it's a solid 50% covers. But late 60s and early 70s? Love the guy. (Height notwithstanding. Fuckin midget.)

Yeah, OK, I don't do enough trawling through actual threads. Oaf.

As a little kid (early to mid 80s) I vividly remember thinking Mike Love was the only cool one. The others were fat, bearded or short.

I still hate short people, though. Fuckin' Jardine. Fat people are OK by me. Beards, too.

Only an oaf, kiddies. Only an oaf.

A low-key Beach Boys album featuring the best material of Mike's and Al's respective projects, fleshed out by four or five of Brian's contributions would be alright with me. Just don't let Bruce Johnston chose the producer, that's all I'm asking for.

I agree 1000%.  Since all of them are still active -- and still operating in the "Beach Boy" mode -- the fact that they're not releasing new material together as the Beach Boys will be a question generations in the future will angrily ask.

I don't care if it's over-produced, in fact, it probably should be all auto-tuned and slick.  I honestly think "slick" and "produced" didn't work the last time they did it because "slick" and "produced" in the 1980s -- a la 1980s technology -- was a dreadful direction that yielded dreadful results.

Today..."slick" and "produced" can be very tastefully done, no question.  Other may disagree -- but I think Brian sounds great on Imagination.  Had the Beach Boys been the name on the album -- that album would have been a million and two seller.

What he said^. The only thing I would add would be one song from Bruce, one song from David Marks, and oldie/cover.

I would like them to either cover "Seasons In The Sun" (with each member taking a verse), or "Wishing You Were Here" (with a guest vocal/appearance from Peter Cetera), or "Summertime Summertime" (using the Jan & Dean arrangement; with Brian on falsetto and Mike singing "It's summertime summertime sum-sum summertime").

The whole thing sounds nightmarish. Please don't let it happen.

After a restless night of beach boys scripted stage banter induced dreams, I have decided that the first minute and a half of Ray Charles doing sail on sailor was...........OK.

Ray looks like he thinks that the song is beneath him.

Hmmm. Also the guys had been a tight family group since before the beginning of their career.  I am sure Bruce felt like an outsider for a while. I have learned here that the guys are like a "clique". The thinking "well he's not family" I assume came into all their minds then. It must have been one heck of a challenge for him. Al was Brian's school mate, so he had a slight angle n. Bruce didn't. Alienation can do 2 things, either push you out, or make you fight harder to want to belong. I know this feeling personally. 

The Beach Boys were outsiders, not Hollywood kids in the way that Terry Melcher, Lenny Waronker, Kim Fowley, Daryl Dragon, Bruce, and Van Dyke Parks were. That's the distinction between Bruce and the Beach Boys.

Honkin Down the Highway is definitely Dennis. I'm drawing a blank on Roller Skating Child right now...can't quite remember, it actually might be Dennis too. Although I have video of the 12/77 L.A. Forum show and their live version(with Dennis on drums) of RSC is so much more rocking and powerful than the record, maybe Brian did play the drums on that one in the studio...not sure...Craig? I know Dennis plays drums on two or three Love You tracks, Honkin being the one that sticks out.

Earle Mankey has said that Brian would play snare or tom parts, so I'm thinking he plays 'drums' on ROLLER SKATING CHILD, LET US GO ON THIS WAY & SOLAR SYSTEM. Those songs have the best sounding snare, too. Earle would send the drum signal to to a speaker set up in Brother's 'echo' room and record that room sound and combine it with the original drum track.  There are probably more LOVE YOU era songs that were recorded in this fashion.

Who did the beating on Dennis on Superbowl Sunday 1981?

Wasn't it one of the Love's?

When David asks if Lady "is on the new album," I beleive someone answers 'yes.'

I think we're forgetting a certain Mr Young, who not only has tons of unreleased stuff in his own personal vault, but has been teasing about its eventual release for nearly 20 years...

Roger?

Would that be Mad Dog? I recorded there a couple of times. As I recall it was a studio in back of a house. They had cheap rates and the environtment was loose.

I played this for David yesterday and he's fairly certain its not him - but he wouldn't rule it out completely. 

Although I agree with Jon that it sounds more like the earlier stuff David was on, I also agree with this last post, that this song sucks.  To me, it sounds like they were TRYING to sound like '63 but don't quite pull it off.  Personally, I think the BB guitar sound was much better than this in late '63.

When could the song have been recorded, the summer of '64 or earlier, right? I'm wondering, how much time did they have to learn and rehearse the song? Did they use their own equipment? Where was it recorded and who was the engineer? Answers to these questions may reveal why the recording and performance sounds the way it does.

To me it sounds low budget and rushed. I like Jack Marshall, he made some nice records for Capitol, but this song is lame.

I was listening to the PARTY sessions, & noticed during 1 of the attempts at DEUCE COUPE someone (Brian?) yells "good modulations!"  But this was a year before the first Good Vibes session...!  Was the phrase "good vibrations" or variations on it (like "modulations") part of Brian's vocabulary long before the song existed?

"Modulations" - hmm, going from here to there, a good key change. Not that profound.

Herman Dune "Giant." Still the best album of the past few years that nobody gives a damn about (or never heard to begin with).

I don't know if I'll care about it, but I'll check 'em out.

1. Duck, You Sucker
2. Giu La Testa
3. A Fist Full Of Dynamite

4-9 would be a  revolving set of  Ennio Morricone titles.

10. Emmanuelle

Come and check it out!

http://caravangems.podbean.com/

Will listen this weekend. thx.jbw

True, all these programs open, edit and save mp3's -- but to get rid of the "bliips" you have to resample the mp3 file as a full-bandwidth WAV file and save it that way.  Otherwise when you resave the file as an mp3 the blips come right back again - since ALL mp3s begin with a 1/20 sec. blip!

But like I said, if the tracks are separated by a short space, you meedn't go to all this trouble as you won't hear anything in between the tracks.

Got it.

Tech tip for downloaders: it's a 256 kbps mp3, sort of mid-quality. All mp3 files build in a 1/20 sec. pause at the start of each file, hence the "mp3 blip" you hear at each track marker when you play the tracks in sequence and they segue, a la "Smile" or "TLOS".  To remove it, you have to have a program like Sound Forge to (1) load in the tracks;

(2) convert them to WAV files;

(3) cut them together to edit out the "blips", (3) re-insert track divisions if you glommed it all togther as one track; and (4) burn to CD.  Bit of a pain but it works.

 RE: Step 2 - Why convert them to WAV files? Sound Forge can open, edit and save MP3's.

JBW

I've been by Brian's site frequently this week, & there's been no mention of the live EP, which makes no sense.  Seems his management is giving the impression that they don't care about it.  With current record sales, you'd figure they'd milk/promote his EP relentlessly.  Oh well.


Jeremy

If Brian & Co. licensed it to Capitol, it seems that the label wants to keep their promo and marketing focus on the new album, and  not have a live 'bonus' EP, relating to a catalog item, be a distraction and dilute their efforts.

Exactly, that's how it would be written for studio musicians, but we're a bunch of nerds just messin' around on guitars, 

To JB, no hard feelings, i wasn't trying to create an argument, but thanks for giving my post a second chance.

To original poster, i hope from all of our crazy bickering, you got something 

One last thing, 'bitchering' about enharmonic notes is a bit silly. It's hard for a pop musician to always be musically PC and call an "A" a "B double flat." For instance if I had my hand on a piano keyboard on a full C diminished chord and was telling a guitar player what notes to play, I'd probably say, "C ,Eb, F#, and A." I know that chords are built in thirds, but...

[/quote]

Will you quit it with the diminished chords, already?

Again, if you listen to the keyboards, they are playing simple major and minor triads.

JBW
[/quote]

Man, what did diminished chords do to you in the past?


[/quote]

OK, I went back and listened to the Stack-O-Tracks version*. You are right. 

I was traumatized by sheet music transcribers' inappropriate use of diminished chords by  in the late 60's, early 70's.  I had recurring  nightmares of me singing in my band and  turning into Arthur Godfrey in the middle of a song.

*There is a dropout on the intro, in one of the channels on that track. Visually and aurally, seems like they used the 'original' Duophonic master for that release.

JBW

Intro:
(on harpsichord and accordions)
A, E, A, E (2x)

(thump thump thump (bass intro)
A, E/Ab, F#m7
(A/E, A/E, B/F#, C/G)

Verse:
D/A, Bm6, F#m, F#m7, B/A
E/B, C6dim, E/B, Bb7dim
A, E/Ab, F#m7

(bass: E E F# G)

Repeat Verse

Instrumental Break:

A/E, A/E, F#m7, A/E, G
(Am/C, G/D, F, Em/G, Dm/A)

Repeat

Bridge

G/D, Em6, Bm, Bm7, E/D
A/E, F6dim, A/E, Eb7dim
D, A/C#, Bm7

Repeat Verse chords till this part:

A, E/Ab, F#m7, E/Ab

repeat till fade...

Top that!............Just kiddin' 

P.S. Just use a chord dictionary and try to get those bass notes in their (i know it's tough )

close, but still not right.. in the verse, change your "C6dim" to a Cdim7, and your "Bbdim" to Bbm7b5, and you've got it.  same goes for the bridge chords in a different key.. should be Fdim7, A/E, Ebm7b5.. and so on.

Actually, you may just be misunderstanding my chord names buddy, C6dim = C (bass) C-Eb-F#-A, Bb7dim= Bb (bass) Bb-Db-E-Ab, and so on and so forth.

Will you quit it with the diminished chords, already?

The "E/B, C6dim, E/B, Bb7dim" is E/B Ami/C E/B F#/A#. If you listen to the first verse, the keyboards are playing simple triads for the most part.

And, "G/D, Em6, Bm, Bm7, E/D
A/E, F6dim, A/E, Eb7dim
D, A/C#, Bm7" is incorrect.

It is: G/D A/E Bmi/F# Bmi E/D
         A/E Dmi/F A/E B/D#

Again, if you listen to the keyboards, they are playing simple major and minor triads.

JBW

"criminally wiped years ago"

whatcha mean?

I think he means they erased or recorded over the show; not an uncommon practice in those days. What a shame. Criminal!

I had to do something the night this was broadcast. I had my mom cassette tape it for me. I used to listen to it over and over. I still dream of seeing it one day.

Not fond of the grafted on intro (assumption, here); it's pretentious.

Took a listen to your stuff. Sounding good in Clinton Hill. JBW