"Hypnotize me" certainly is.

Great to hear. (That was coming from Berson, by the way. Odd.)

The originator of the story recently claimed that he'd made up the conversation for his own amusement. So that he'd made it up for his own amusement was made up for his own amusement and it's all really there?

Wondering if the "Sail On Sailor" tape mentioned is the original songwriting tape with Van Dyke Parks where Brian is heard asking Van Dyke to hypnotize him, or another possibly later demo run-though of the song? That "hypnotize me" tape has definitely been a holy grail for a lot of people since it was written about in the 70's.

The "hypnotize me" dialogue was supposedly an invention of the original keeper of the tape. But it is that tape.

My understanding through what Paul Mertens has said about it is that they took the Gershwin progressions, arranged and recorded tracks, and then Brian would improvise a melody line into the mic to which Bennett wrote lyrics. The Like in I Love You's intro came from something Brian noodled on piano which Mertens happened to be recording.

Nothing But Love was originally recorded as a waltz, in a different key with different lyrics. Brian decided he didn't like it, Mertens wrote a chart in 4, Brian and the band worked out a new arrangement.

I'm aware of all that - did say 'one of'.

I also can't get past the fact that Brian said "we have about 20 demo tracks" when asked about it a week after the Soul Searchin tracking sessions with Don and Andy and the session players.

Well, at that particular moment in time, the tracks by Brian and Andy were being handled as demos for Was to reproduce. Before and shortly after those sessions with the Beach Boys, they were masters. I think it's been said by insiders that one of the reasons Was walked away from further involvement that he realised he couldn't improve their work, hence Mark trying a sync of the Soul Searchin' vocals to Paley's track back in '95.

I think the aversion to calling the Wilson/Paley tracks demos is that they're not demos, basically. 'Version' - that's a word you can use.

Andy's been clear that this wasn't an album project. He and Brian were making music because they wanted to make music, no definitive destination. At times, it was The Beach Boys, and at others, there was hope that a Brian solo record deal could be struck. But any discussion was for these recordings that they'd been working on to be finished to their ideal standard and put out in some way, not the songs - Don Was doing them over was a compromise to allow the Beach Boys thing to happen.

You wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't call Sherry She Needs Me a demo for She Says That She Needs Me, etc.

Heather Paley on Instagram: "Just saw this - sounds great! That’s my husband Andy on drums, bass, Fender 6-string bass, harpsichord and guitar; Michael Andreas on saxes and Brian on organ. This was produced by Andy and Brian, recorded in Glendale, engineered by Mark Linett. Brian and Andy wrote and recorded a bunch of great material during this period. They weren’t “demos” - they were masters in progress."

Well, there it is.

I particularly enjoyed Sunshine. Clearly an album of Imagination demos would have been miles better than what was actually released.

That isn't a demo, it's an early mix of the track that's actually on the album.

There are a number of these new tracks that the website has labeled as "Demo" that surely aren't; I think they're being pretty loose with their definitions. We know Andy Paley has said he didn't consider the stuff he was doing with Brian as "demos", yet some of the Paley tracks are labeled as such.

The '76 piano stuff is clearly "demos" in the more traditional sense; he's demonstrating the songs. 

The Usher stuff is kind of "demos", though some of it (e.g. "Spirit of Rock and Roll") got built into something that was aired as "finished" product on TV (in the case of that track and the BB 25th Anniversary show).

In the truest sense of the word, I think the only things that should be called 'demos' here are the Love You songs. If Usher considered those obviously quite elaborate studio productions demos, but Brian didn't, and some were built into actual finished products, shouldn't we take Brian's definition here when it's his music?

A number of things labelled 'demo' are older mixes of tracks that were actually released, which feels kind of absurd.

I particularly enjoyed Sunshine. Clearly an album of Imagination demos would have been miles better than what was actually released.

That isn't a demo, it's an early mix of the track that's actually on the album.

The sign being posted during the "Surf's Up" sessions sounds really strange. If it's true, then Bruce is lucky he wasn't immediately fired and never invited back again. Imagine Al Jardine marching into the "Summer in Paradise" sessions and posting a "No Loves or Melchers" on the studio door so that he could record "PT Cruiser" all by himself. Wtf?

It's true, apparently - Brian, Al, and Mike all comment on it in the new ESQ.

Al: There was a lot of weird stuff. Bruce locked us out of the studio one day. We came over and a note on the door read "No Beach Boys allowed." All the doors were locked. [Laughs] ... He was working on "Disney Girls," and he didn't want us coming in and interfering with his work. It was the weirdest thing, man. He was possessive about it. It kind of upset us. We figured if he didn't want us around, we'd leave [laughs].

Mike: I think he offended the Wilson brothers [laughs] with that note.

Brian: I didn't know what to think... it was silly.

As in....  Sherley Carl Korthof ?

Yep, Audree's brother, Steve's father.

What is how deep is the ocean from 65?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXBljjceb4s
It's an Irving Berlin song arranged and sung by Dick Reynolds (arranged side B of the Christmas Album and also arranger for The Four Freshmen).  It's on the SOT Bootleg Unsurpassed Masters Vol. 11 along with "Stella By Starlight" and the voice calling the takes sounds like it could be Brian.  He is credited as producer but besides that it ostensibly doesn't have much to do with the BB.

Not Dick Reynolds. The singer is Brian's uncle, Carl Korthof. Reynolds is conducting the band.

Also is there any chance for a release of the tracks in the vaults from before the current copyright-like "On Top of Ol Smoky" "How Deep is The Ocean" and things like that?"

Thanks!

Ol' Smokey doesn't exist - never existed in the first place. It was jammed on at John Phillips' house. Didn't go within several miles of a recording studio.

How Deep is the Ocean - if there's ever an opportunity to circle back around to a 1965 archival release, I'd assume.

The reason I ask about Ol' Smokey is, on Wikipedia it says it was recorded after a Vega-tables session on April 11, 1967.

It wasn't.

Really great video. It was funny to hear my name come up - for what it's worth, if the case wasn't already solid enough, one of Frank Holmes' 1966 illustrations is subtitled "diamond necklace play the pawn" (present tense), and he was working first-hand from the source.

Need to point something out RE Jack Rieley - in the 1996 email you allude to, Jack emphatically said that none of the other members of the band (including Brian) were responsible for the extra couplet. He didn't make a claim that it took 7 people to write. That isn't something he ever said. The heavy implication of the message is that Jack himself wrote the words, but he couldn't outright say it for obvious reasons. That, I think, is completely believable, measured up on the Jack Rieley believability scale - more so than them having come from Brian.

There's no writer's credit officially given, so I am somewhat reticent about this question. How about this.... it was not Brian, Carl, Jardine, Love, Johnston, Van Dyke Parks, Dennis or Steve Desper.

Perhaps you will excuse this admittedly chicken-sh*t way around your question. The couplet's authorship should of course have been credited. It was not.

I'll also challenge "adieu or die" - it's a nice idea, and I'm sure a somewhat intentional pun, but Brian sings "a do or die" each time. Those are the words he's consciously singing in every attempt without any real wiggle room.

Some handwritten lyrics by Van Dyke were included in the 2004 tour programme. He makes the retroactive "the diamond necklace played" mistake, mixes up some of the order, and there's no final verse printed, but I think it's probably the most reliable reflection of his original intentions regarding most of the rest of the spelling. Punctuation and line structure reproduced:

A diamond necklace played the pawn
Hand in hand some drummed along to a handsome mannered baton
A blind class aristocracy
Back through the opera glass you see the pit and the pendulum drawn
Columnated ruins domino!
Canvas the town and brush the backdrop
Are you sleeping?

Hung velvet overtaken me
Dim chandelier awaken me to a song dissolve in the dawn
The music hall a costly bow
The music all is lost for now to a muted trumpeter swan
Columnated ruins domino!

Dove nested towers
The hour was strike the street quicksilver moon
Carriage across the fog two-step to lamp light cellar tune
The laughs come hard in Auld Lang Syne

The glass was raised – the fired roast
The fullness of the wine – the dim last toasting
While at port a do or die

A choke of grief heart hardened I
Beyond belief
A broken man too tough to cry

Also is there any chance for a release of the tracks in the vaults from before the current copyright-like "On Top of Ol Smoky" "How Deep is The Ocean" and things like that?"

Thanks!

Ol' Smokey doesn't exist - never existed in the first place. It was jammed on at John Phillips' house. Didn't go within several miles of a recording studio.

How Deep is the Ocean - if there's ever an opportunity to circle back around to a 1965 archival release, I'd assume.

[guess]

Who plays the bass on Aren’t You Glad? From my understanding it was Carl because of how the bass sounded, but for whatever reason on Wikipedia it was switched to Brian, which just doesn’t sound right. Was it Carl? As soon as I saw that happen on Wikipedia I began questioning anyone and everyone that could have possibly made that change.

My guess would be it's Brian. I think there was a feeling until a few years ago that Brian didn't do much in those sessions, but around the time of Sunshine Tomorrow that seemed to change a bit, with recognition of Brian's more extensive involvement. I don't remember any specific piece of info coming out to change that particular reference though. C-man might jump in at this point. . .

I know this is really late, but I want to jump into this conversation. C-man’s work in 2017 for ESQ credited Bass to Carl. As the obsessive nerd I am, I’ve been transferring this info to Wikipedia as well, but someone changed my edit (C-man’s work) on Wiki at some point. Unfortunately I misplaced my copy of that issue and can’t correct/add to what I have so far. Hopefully it turns up soon, along with my misplaced Holland LP.

An excerpt from the session's been out there for 4 years, with Carl audibly playing bass live to Brian's piano. Wiki editors can be odd. Keep trying!

(Having a look at the old credits... The organ and guitar are Brian and Carl respectively. There isn't a Chamberlin, and it's likely that the drums on this one aren't Dennis - he wasn't present for the basic tracking, they're overdubbed, and incredibly simple. Brian or Carl, probably. Reminiscent of Brian's drumming across most of the Lei'd in Hawaii album.)

The notion comes from some of the progressions Brian tried out while recording All Day. Which is a reach, because none of that's the same music, but there you go.

There's evidence that SMITC's first incarnation (Grateful Are We) was written in 1968, a few years before Brian's other songwriting collaborations with Stephen Kalinich.

The copyright is broken down into Brian Wilson 20%, Al Vescovo 40%, Lyle Ritz 20% and Jim Ackley 20%. A poster on here had a correspondence with Al once, who said that he essentially made up the tune on the spot, and Brian was more into creating the sound effects (kicking the spring reverb tank, screwing around with the steel guitar through said reverb, swirling water in a washtub, banging a couple of rocks together).

Besides Vescovo and Ritz, Jim Ackley's on Rock-Si-Chord, and Brian's got the percussionist gig alternating between some congas, a bongo, and a pair of claves. Fun image to picture.

It's a cool track. Makes you wish he could've produced a whole album of these guys jamming, on the provision that they're accompanied by more of Brian's left field sound effects.

The credits for Diamond Head are on the record. It was a jam by the three studio musicians at Brian's encouragement, with Al Vescovo taking the lion's share of the copyright.

As excited as I am for the FF set, THIS is the period I'm more interested in, in a way. Can you imagine if "Fading Love Song" existed with a Brian lead? Or the full band version of "In The Country" with Al singing? Or the original "Beatrice From Baltimore". Then there's the "Sail On Sailor" demo.

Unfortunately, you'll have to keep imagining to manifest any of those into the world. Apart from the Sail On Sailor demo, maybe... if the alleged collector holding it ever surfaces.

That's what it is. I think Doctor Tom would fit more comfortably into a later package, if Al does okay it. There's a strong possibility that the March 1973 date ascribed to that and a few other tracks is off by a year (the Santa Monica building was still advertising as 'The Venture' adult theatre circa April, and in August the group claimed the studio hadn't yet been set up), but either way, it's firmly into the Brother era rather than Holland-adjacent.

Also, anybody find it kinda weird that there will be "2019 mixes" of both "Good Time" and "When Girls Get Together"? Personally I figured that their inclusion on the set would have them as they left when the era that encompasses the set ends, as of course both were later put on official, canon Beach Boys studio albums. My assumption is that both will be presented as closely as possible to what they were in '70 and/or '71. Anyway though, is it possible that neither were given even rough mixes in '70/'71?

Lastly, anybody sure about the writers on "It's Natural" and "Won't You Tell Me"? I know it's been said that "It's Natural" is collaboration between Brian and David Sandler but I hadn't seen it confirmed. If it is indeed a Wilson/Sandler tune I am very interested to hear it as "Sweet Mountain" is pretty close to a masterpiece in my book. As far as "Won't You Tell Me" goes, I assumed that it was a collaboration between Murry Wilson and Rick Henn. But then comes the Rolling Stone article and you have Brian saying what he said. Anybody know what's up on either of these or will we just have to wait for the set and scour the credits?

Good Time and When Girls Get Together were both mixed in 1970 and included on the original submission of Sunflower. I'm looking forward to any new mixes, a lot, but I agree that it's a bit of a strange discrepancy when remasters of the original albums are what the set is otherwise prioritising. Those are reflective of the group's artistic intent at the time too, and would have been on the album had it not been for the label. This Whole World and 1970's Good Time had the same stamp of approval, and I don't think the treatment should differ, whether that's remixing both or remastering both. Since we're not going down the remix route, I hope a cop ex release will put the remaining '69-'70 mixes in one place (including those that are already scattered on different comps like Susie and Got My Pay).

It's Natural, I believe, was just written by David Sandler. The I'm Going Your Way released in 2019 featured the later lead vocal attempt - the bootlegged take is a scratch.

The fairy tale 'Casual Look' is less than a minute of Brian and Carl loosely playing piano together while Brian sings it off-mic, caught on tape during the tracking session for the main theme following an explanation of where it would belong in the story. Wouldn't call it phenomenal by any stretch, and it isn't a full fledged recording. Still, interesting and fun, and I imagine it's the sort of material that would make an archival release.

To be clear I just meant I was open to the possibility that another member 'punched in' or joined in faint unison just for that head voice bit. Definitely not outside the realm of possibility considering they had done it before (Brian embellishing Carl's head voice notes on Good Vibes verses).

But I'll concede that on repeat listen it does seem to be entirely Mike without any help on that section. The head voice there is very pinched and there's no sustain to it - if it was Bruce it'd probably be more legato.

I do hear a faint chorus effect on the lead from 'a gentle thought...' until the end of that line - based on cursory listens I thought that could've been someone faintly doubling Mike, but more likely it's a faint double tracking by Mike or artificial double tracking via tape speed manipulation.

It's only single-tracked, and very evident that it's Mike unassisted when the delay effects are taken away. July, I promise.