I would imagjne he would have heard such masterpieces as "Calendar Girl", the original "Santa Ana Winds" and the incomplete "Brian's Back".  If so, I'd say his comment was remarkably restrained.

I love the line about "if children had wings, we wouldn't need birds."  That's sooo Brian.

Seeing as Brian didn't write the song, your arguement kinda falls apart right there, wouldn't you agree ? 

Andrew, listen to Brian doing the Fairy Tale music on "Get The Boot" through your spatializer.  If you come back and tell us that sounds like Al Jardine, too, then we'll have our answer. 

Hot damn... why didn't I think of that ?

[GIOMH]

I'd love to see someone refer to Smile perhaps as "a worthy follow-up to Getting In Over My Head."

In. Your. Dreams. 

I already have my review of GIOMH ready for the update. Here it is, in full.

"And you thought Summer In Paradise sucked ? Compared to this Thanksgiving fifteen-pounder, it was high art."

When I can think up a reasonable rebuttal, I'll get back to you on that. 

Two points:

One, unless the singer has mastered the arcane art of whistling while he sings(and, now I come to think of it, is talking to himself), there's more than one person present.

Two, this is what the original blog said (and still says): "When Brian Wilson and the other Beach Boys ,recorded Holland in Holland, I lent Brian a small UHER reel to reel tape recorder, so he could have something for ideas at home... when i got it back, when he left for the usa again, it still had some music and parts of a song on a tape." I'm not denying for a moment that Brian was handed the recorded and handed it back, but this is no proof that he alone used it.

I think it was more like 1972 or so when Dennis did the first part of River Song, but I could be wrong.

My source for the 1970 date is Andrew G. Doe, who says "The opening piano riff, representing the flow of the river, dates back to the 1970 sessions."  http://www.angelfire.com/la/Beachboysbritain/AGDPOB.html

Correct - it was part of a longer piece called "Ecology". The piano riff definitely pre-dated "Tiny Dancer". That said, I think the similarity is purely coincidental.

If we're feeling frisky, we could always ask Alan Boyd to draw Alan Jardine's attention to the recording, or play it for him to verify the singer(s).

Excellent idea.  I'll do that later today.

Ah, I love the smell of burning issues in the evening. 

3. How many of you have listened with the spatializer plug in ? It makes everything approx 1000% clearer.

What would a spatializer do to what is essentially a mono recording?

Please forgive the lack of technical terminology... but besically it makes it louder and clearer. Without the spatializer, it's a murky mess bordering the threshold of audibility. With, it's granted a tad echoic, but about three times louder as much clearer.

To my ears, anyway. 

Could be... except that the 2004 voice of Brian is the product of some 30 years of smoking, snorting coke and self-medicating himself nearly out of existence (not to mention Landy pumpiing him full of thorazine and uppers). Saying it's Brian in 1972 by comparing it with his 2004 voice is a spurious comparison, to say the least.

Remember how a whole mess of us used to think it was Brian singing the intro to the original "Loop De Loop" ? Better researchers that I, those with far better acces to tapes, have observed how Alan can sound very much like Brian.

[is]

Screw that! We need a box set! I'd freaking buy it.

Sorry, Andrew...it's Brian. It sounds too much like his singing on Awake, and pretty much everything else he sang around that time frame. The phrasing, the whiny falsetto, the timbre of his voice when he sings the lower parts...it's Brian. Amen to those who pointed out that he sounds very "inbetween" the young Brian and the gruff Brian. Sounds reminiscent of the Love You demos too.

As for the Susie Cincinatti part, might be Al.

In a friendly spirit of discussion...

1. It sounds nothing like Brian on "Awake" - there he's close to adenoidal (allowing for the triple-tracking), here it's just high.

2. If you even partially concede that "SC" might be Al, then according to everyone else's ears, so is the first song. The speaking voice is Alan - it's got his resonance and edge. Brian back then was softly spoken.

3. How many of you have listened with the spatializer plug in ? It makes everything approx 1000% clearer.

4. Dan asked " It also has Brian doing "Susie Cincinnati".  Now why he would be doing this a few years after it was recorded and put on the "B" side of a single?  In fact, why would he be doing it all since it was supposedly an Al Jardine song?"

How about, because it's Alan singing his own song ? Sometimes, the obvious answer is the correct answer.

I feel this one is going to run and run...   

Listened again... and now I'm convinced it's Alan. Why is he stopping & starting the first tune ? Like he says " "forgot the darn song". And if it IS sped up (which i don't believe), then the talking voice would be way too low for Brian. Plus, makes sense for Alan to be playing his own song.

Listened again - I'm 85% sure that's Alan.

BTW, before I cranked up the spatializer, i couldn't hear very much of anything.

Ummmmm... I've listened with a spatializer plugged into the WinAmp, and I don't think it's Brian.

Sounds more like Alan to me.

Didn't Carl say to Brian that the fuzz tone he wanted during the "Little Honda" session sounded "like sh*t", only to be told to "play it" ?

Here would be a good place to start. 

http://www.western-justice.com/

C'mon Andrew! I just *know* you have to have *some* comment about Buck ripping you off...

Anyway, I'm glad you came up with original material. Honestly, your liner notes were the best thing about that particular release 

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery ?

Things is, those original 2fer liners were written in 1990, and we've learned a lot since then. That said, some of the errors in the 2000 2fers notes were unforgiveable, and to simply reprint the original booklets was a huge cop-out.

And if I'd know Tim wWhite was going to recycle chunks of his book... hell, I'd have done exactly the same. 

There is of course the whole Be Here in the Morning debate. David Leaf says Brian, AGD Al, and I don't know for sure.


Here is a question I have always wondered.  In the Today notes, Leaf refers to Tedesco and Brian hooking up over a guitar line.  Tedesco said it wouldn't work, Brian said play it anyway, the strings were overdubbed and it was amazing.  WHAT SONG AND PART IS THAT??  I can't for the life of me figure it out.

Can't recall offhand, but I do recall Tedesco's comment - "Brian, I take back everything I ever said about you !"

[!!! THAT LIST WASN'T WRITTEN BY BRIAN !!!]

"Remember, Brian didn't want "Good Vibrations" on Smile originally, but he included it on the handwritten tracklist because he knew he had to."


Once again:

!!! THAT LIST WASN'T WRITTEN BY BRIAN !!!

Unless you are going to argue that someone went behind Brian's back and turned in an official track list to Capitol without Brian's knowledge, so what?  He most likely dictated it or something like that.  I thought about that and about Peter's revelation on that, but I think that Brian HAD to know something about that track list.  The only way he didn't gets into conspiracy theory.

Following research last year online, some of us conculded that's exactly what happened. And the person who did it was, apparently, Carl.

[Smile]

Remember, Brian didn't want "Good Vibrations" on Smile originally, but he included it on the handwritten tracklist because he knew he had to.  I think the same logically might be applicable to "Sloop John B."

The analogy doesn't hold up, I'm afraid - Capitol was insisting on the inclusion of a #1 hit single on Smile[/i]. "SJB" hadn't even been released in February 1966.

[edit] bugger - forestalled again...

[slinks away, head down, snuffling quietly...]

Andrew, I had a feeling you might take offense, but believe me, none was intended.  Your scholarship is much appreciated, it just feels different than Brad's.  It just seemed like he was always investigating some unknown.  Maybe you're investigating unknowns behind the scenes, that's very possible.  Brad always seemed to have a call in somewhere or whatnot.  But maybe that was just self-promotion.

Either way, I'm grateful to both Brad and Andrew equally for their contributions.

T'was a joke, my friend. Never let it be said i ever passed up an opportunity like that. 

I miss Brad's relentless scholarship.  Nobody has really filled in that void, I guess.

[slinks away, head down, snuffling quietly...]

the powers that be could put aside the dozens of  choice rare and unreleased live recordings for periodic release as a sort of "Dicks Picks" series of BeachBoys live performances

They'd never be able to promote it - you can't say 'Dick' on the Blue Board.