I play an original 1966 Farfisa organ just like Bruce Johnston used to. You can hear him play it on the fall '66 live "Good Vibrations". You can't duplicate the sounds of a Farfisa organ with digital keyboards!

See details below. See you there?

FARFISA ORGAN A GO GO - LIVE IN CONCERT ! ! !
The P.L.H. Organ-izayshun (featuring Paul Hippensteel at the organ)

Web page:
http://www.myspace.com/theplhorganizayshun

Videos (with sound):
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=63250336
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=63250609

Wednesday, October 14, 2009, 8:00 pm

Featured Songs (subject to change):
House Of The Rising Sun (The Animals); Out Of Limits (The Marketts); Double Shot Of My Baby's Love (The Swingin' Medallions); Pipeline (The Chantay's); Wipe Out (The Surfaris); Hot Pastrami (The Dartells); Walk, Don't Run (The Ventures); I'm A Believer (The Monkees); A Whiter Shade Of Pale (Procol Harum); Like A Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan)
* All played on an original 1966 Farfisa Combo Compact organ ! ! ! *
 
Absolutely NO digital processing or MIDI, just the vacuum tube & transistor generated, vibrato modulated tones of a great vintage Italian organ as used by The Beach Boys, The American Breed, The Castaways, Them, Country Joe & The Fish, Ian Whitcomb, The Five Americans, Every Mother's Son, The Grass Roots, The Ventures and many other great '60s recording artists !

Nora Spitznogle of The Broad Ripple Gazette raved: "The Farfisa was popular with rock groups in the 1960s. They were fairly portable and inexpensive. When synthesizers became popular, organs in rock bands fell out of favor. The Farfisa made a little come back in the late 1970s by Blondie, B-52’s and Talking Heads. They have been used recently by Yo La Tengo, Death Cab for Cutie and Green Day for the great retro sound. Anyway, they are cool as can be, but you don’t see them played often. It is a hard instrument to pull off solo. Paul pulled it off! He did a delightful rendition of 'The House of the Rising Sun'. Paul will be playing again...Don’t miss it."

Plus performances by Brad & Gary ("There's A Kind Of Hush," "Garden Party") and many excellent folk & country artists !
 
Best of all this concert will be FREE ADMISSION - NO COVER CHARGE ! Come early to get a good seat !
 
This Wild Happening will burst loose at:
Dear Johns Pub
7941 E. 30th St.
Indianapolis,IN 46219
(317) 898-9373
www.dearjohnspub.com
Wide selection of fine beers and great food (homemade $.50 tacos on Wednesday)! ! !
 
Directions from Indianapolis, Indiana:

From the northside: I-465 to E. 56th St. exit, east on 56th St., right at Franklin Rd. (at stoplight), south to E. 30th St.

From the southside: I-465 to E. Washington St. exit, east on E. Washington St., left at Franklin Rd. (at Steak & Shake), north to E. 30th St.

Sincerely,
Paul Hippensteel
The P.L.H. Organ-izayshun

Web page:

http://www.myspace.com/theplhorganizayshun

Videos (with sound):

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=63250336

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=63250609

Email:

p.l.h.organ-izayshun@inbox.com

Bruce probably only played a Farfisa organ in concert from '66 to '67. By '68 or '69 Bruce was playing a Hammond B-3.

Van Dyke Parks played a Moog synthesizer in TV commercials (one of which you can hear on a Warner Brother various artists album). Also the Modern Folk Quartet (featuring Chip Douglas and Henry Diltz) had a single out using a Moog that possibly pre-dated the Monkees' "Pisces" LP.

Andrew G. Doe:

>>Flag on the play - Mike has never, ever played a theremin. In fact, a theremin has never been used on a BB record. What was used on "IJWMFTT", "GV" & "WH" was a tannerin, a much simpler piece of kit to play than a theremin (I've tried the latter - it's a complete bitch).... and Mike didn't play that either. As an aside, Mike's ribbon controller was custom-built by Robert Moog.

Very interesting! The reason I said the BB used a "theremin" is that is the instrument that's always been mentioned in BB books over the years, I have never heard of a "tannerin" until you mentioned it just now. Brian even appeared in the "Theremin" documentary film made in the '90s.

Here's a tannerin web site:

http://www.tompolk.com/Tannerin/Tannerin.html

As far as I can tell, "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd." by The Monkees is the first rock album to use Moog synthesizer, released in the fall of 1967 (nearly two years before The Beatles got a Moog). Micky Dolenz bought the the third Moog ever built! Micky plays the Moog on "Daily Nightly", although he mostly just does sound effects. Paul Beaver (Moog musician & sales rep) played the Moog on "Star Collector" and his playing is more melodic (actually the first Moog solo on the song almost sounds like ragtime!). So the Beach Boys probably got their first Moog AFTER The Monkees.

In the mid-'70s I built a ribbon controller synthesizer called the Gnome from a kit made by a company called PAIA. It was played using a metal probe. But it was quirky and had linearity problems so I couldn't play actual music on it (no "keyboard" style markings), but it made great sound effects (which I used in a videotape we made at my high school). I would have preferred to have a keyboard synthesizer at that time but eveb PAIA's kits for those were expensive at the time. The Gnome was cheap enough ($50 in 1976 money) that I was able to get my dad to buy it for me for Christmas!

PAIA still exists but keyboards got too expensive so now they just make MIDI modules, fuzzboxes, preamps, etc. And they make REAL theremin kits if you want one! Their web site: http://www.paia.com

A few years ago a movie theater here in Indianapolis ran a double feature of the "Theremin" and "Moog" documentary films. They set up a real theremin in the lobby for customers to play! I was able to play the same riff repeatedly on the theremin but I couldn't play the riff from "Good Vibrations". In the the "Theremin" film a guy actually plays Mancini's "Moon River" on the theremin!

For more about electronic musical instruments, read the great book "Vintage Synthesizers" (edited by Mark Vail). It not only covers synthesizers but also theremins and '60s combo organs, like the Farfisa organ played by Bruce on the fall '66 live "Good Vibrations" (I have one!).

I always thought "Surf's Up" was the best '70s Beach Boys album. "So Tough" is very uneven, and some songs aren't very Beach Boys sounding, but still has some great individual songs, but it doesn't flow very well as an album.

Mike Love is very talented playing musical instruments, considerng that he plays the theramin (or "woo woo machine" as he calls it on the fall '66 live "Good Vibrations") which is one of the world's most DIFFICULT instruments to play,  since there are no keys (as on a piano or organ) or frets (as on a guitar) to mark the notes. What Mike Love played on late '60s/early live live performances & TV show takes of "Good Vibrations" is NOT a theramin but a RIBBON CONTROLLER connected to an early synthesizer, which is also very difficult to play because, like a thereamin, there are no markings for pitch/notes.

The difference between a theramin and a ribbon controller is that on a theramin you don't actually touch the instrument, it picks up an electromagnetic field from the human body! A ribbon controller requires that you either touch it with a finger or a metal probe. However, the SOUND produced by either a theremin or ribbon controller is essentially the same.

Because the sound of a theramin is a simple sine wave, you can actually use one of several different technologies to build a theramin. Actually I built SEVERAL different theramins when I was in high school in the '70s. There used to be a company called Southwest Technical Products in Arizona or someplace that sold theramin kits in the '70s that were transistorized and had triangular antennas. I also built a theramin according to a plan from a Radio Shack book called "Electronic Music Projects" that made sounds come out of an FM radio that was placed nearby, but not touching the theramin. I also built a "light theramin" that used a solar cell, and you changed the pitch by waving your hands over the solar cell and changing the amount of light reflected on it!

Getting back to Mike Love, saxophone is not exactly an easy instrument to play either, because you not only have to finger the keys but you also have to have good breath control when you play it. Mark Lindsay (of Paul Revere & The Raiders) first took up the saxophone because he lost the tip of a finger in an accident so he couldn't play the guitar (Mark does a solo saxophone instrumental "Melody For An Unknown Girl" on the Raiders' "Midnight Ride" album). I love Mike Love's saxophone on "Long Tall Texan" (actually one of the first Beach Boys songs I ever heard since it was on "Best Of The Beach Boys, Vol. 2").

>>Please no guest stars- I dont want to see them performing music, I want to see the Beach Boys!

I agree. In the '80s PBS had a folk-rock TV special that ended in a big, sloppy, "All-star" jam session that was the very antithesis of simple elegant folk-rock. I'd rather hear good music than see the Beach Boys equivalent of "It's A Mad Mad World" (or "We Are The World").

I wish the BB had done Darlin' when I saw them on 7-11-09. I don't agree that the song should be retired since Carl passed away. At the show I saw they did a Jan & Dean song, should they retire that because Jan Berry passed away? I don't think so.

Saw the Association in '98 and it irked me that some of the songs were originally sung by former band members (like "Along Comes Mary") were sung live by recent recruits instead of Russ Gigere or Larry Ramos. But my main complaint is that they really do that many Association songs. Of their lesser known hits they did awful yuppie-pandering covers of Motown and Creedence songs, with the disclaimer that "we'd like to do a tribute to artists we heard backstage at festivals in the '60s". Last time I saw the Buckinghams they did a similar set ("Whiter Shad Of Pale" or some such foolishness!). I really glad that the BB haven't degenerated into a generic '60s yuppie cover act like many of their contemporaries!

You can only "rearrange" a song so much until the melody is completely different, which is what I think Paul Simon did to "Surfer Girl"

A friend of mine who's a big Dylan/Springsteen fan, as well as a Beach Boys fan, feels that Brian establishing himself as a producer in the early '60s was an extension of the studio production of artists like Fabian and the songwriting of the Brill Building, as well as the formulaic recordings of Motown, which (some "classic rock" fans & critics believe) were killing the rebellion and spontaneity of '50s-styled rock 'n roll. He thinks that artists like Dylan (and later Springsteen) turned rock into an art form, thereby preventing rock from dying out.

I argued to this friend that Dylan/Springsteen have done just the opposite; that artists like that who emphasize lyrics over music are just pandering to pompous critics,  like the would-be English professors of Rolling Stone magazine (last fall a Rolling Stone CD review analyzed the LYRICS of a Brtiney Spears album!), replacing the fun and spontaneity of rock 'n roll with unbearable pretense and tuneless songs with "meaningful lyrics", creating a climate where every album has to be a "serious artistic statement", resulting in the "one album every five years" syndrome. Okay, so back in the '60s when artists ground out 3 or 4 albums a year, a lot of those albums were filled with cover versions. But which would you rather hear, "Lies" covered by Nancy Sinatra or the latest "artistic statement" by Coldplay or Radiohead?

The release of Smile in 1967 would have triggered a "butterfly effect" chain of events (including Pat Paulsen being elected President of the United States) that would have resulted in the Soviet Union launching nuclear missiles on the US. We can count our blessings that didn't happen!

Fortunately BWPS was released in 2004, long after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989!

Didn't go to that South Bend concert since I saw them in Anderson, Indiana on July 11 (my birthday!). Too bad they played outdoors at South Bend this time because the South Bend Opera House (where I saw them on 11-11-07 with Eric Burdon opening) has GREAT acoustics. I also saw Traffic at the Opera House in '94 and got autographs from Steve Winwood and jim Capaldi!

Considering all the odd things Mike Love says on the '69 Live In London album I've always wondered what "exotic influence" he was under during the concert. Or maybe British food drove him to fasting! (for you Brits reading this, I've been to England and loved the cuisine so don't take it personally!)

Chad Stuart once told me "Bruce Johnston should have been a diplomat instead of wasting his time doing music". My late father (who ranked "Hawaii 5-0" as one of his favorite TV shows) used to say Bruce looked like Jack Lord!

Our family went to LA several times during the '60s & '70s. Several months after one of our visits (in either '75 or '77) The Beach Boys were on TV and my mom pointed to Mike Love and said "I saw him Farmer's Market"!

The Ventures' cover of "Light My Fire" is a note-for-note instrumental rendition, including organ (played by a session musician, possibly David Gates or Leon Russell since John Durill didn't become their first full-fledged keyboardist until several months later).

>>'Mints-hating audience
When the next meeting? I'll bring a pizza, a 2 liter Cherry Coke and a Taylor Mills dartboard! After dinner we can form a Wondermints tribute called The Tuneless Formalists!

>>It's hysterical... very funny.
As far as I can tell, Ben Vaughn has never commercially released the "Mike Love" song (supposedly it even appears on a Smile bootleg!). So I will have to get the Folk City tape my friend has. When I saw Ben in concert in '87 he didn't do the song, but at one point the PA system or guitar amps or something broke down so Ben said "know for the 3D holographic part of the show"; Ben and his Combo strolled through the audience performing "She's About A Mover" on acoustic instruments!

>>I wouldn't call that a documentary. Feature-length commercial is probably a better term.
That's also a good way to describe last week's Neil Diamond TV special on CBS. I was looking forward to it even though Neil's voice isn't as "Sweet Caroline" as it was in the '60s. But the excerpts of "Cherry Cherry" and "I'm A Believer" sounded good in the commercials. But the special was just an infomercial for a Walmart-only DVD, which you have to buy to get "I'm A Believer", which wasn't even in the broadcast (false advertising?!).

I'm not saying Taylor Mills doesn't have "talent". But she seems out of place on BWPS.

My reference to Ben Vaughn's "Mike Love" song was a joke. I've actually never heard the song, but I met Ben in '87 and he described the lyrics to me. A friend of mine supposedly has a tape of the Folk City BW tribute where Ben performed that song, but I've never heard it.

>>Taylor (who has the unfortunate quality in this line of reasoning of being female, and thus really going uphill)
I'm about as far from "sexist" as you can get. I admire many female artists, like Petula Clark who wrote many of her own songs, or Patty Loveless to make a more current reference. But I think Taylor doesn't fit on BWPS; I felt that when the CD first came out and I listened to it again yesterday and still feel that way. If Jimmy Page had guested on BWPS and played Led Zeppelin-style guitar he would have seemed out of place as well.

Is it true that thousands of Smile slicks sat in a Capitol warehouse until the late '80s, then discarded? Anyone have an estimate as to how many slicks were saved from the landfill?

Why weren't the slicks sold as collector's items? Idiocy at Capitol isn't exactly late breaking news. It's not too hard to believe that some accountant or executive at Capitol said in the late '80s, "why are we wasting money storing those slicks? Pitch 'em"! (I have a slick for a Jerry Cole LP on Capitol, but that LP was commercially released.)

A friend of mine, Steve Kolanjian*, used to work for Capitol/EMI compiling "oldies" CD's, for the "Legendary Masters" and "Capitol Collectors" series, etc. (I helped him compile a Ventures CD). Steve tells me horror stories about the lack of respect for older artists/recordings at Capitol. He says that Capitol's tape vaults used to be well organized but recently numerous Capitol master tapes were shipped unlabeled to unorganized warehouses. Steve says other labels, like CBS, are doing the same thing. Recently someone was looking for the master of a girl group single Dolly Parton recorded for Monument (a CBS label) in the early '60s (before she was signed to RCA) but they had to "needle drop" the song from vinyl because the master couldn't be located.

At least if something has already come out on a CD, it can be copied from that CD for re-release with no loss in sound quality (Glenn Baker's Australian label Raven Records practically specializes in legit CD's mastered from other CD's!). But now if they want to release on CD something that's never been on CD it might have to come from vinyl (like the aforementioned Dolly Parton single). On a related note, a recent fire at MCA destroyed numerous master tapes in their vaults. Fortunately, the complete works of some artists, like Rick Nelson, were previously released on CD (Bear Family in Germany put out a boxed set of his entire Decca output).

*Steve told me one day he was in the elevator at the Capitol building in LA and was talking to a colleague about Eugene Landy. When the elevator stopped a woman got out screaming in disbelief "no, not my Dr. Landy"!

>>It isn't worth getting too riled up that sexagenarian Wilson, who hasn't really stepped up to show all that much enthusiasm for more than little bursts in his entire solo career

There are points in the Smile documentary where you can tell Brian really isn't into the whole thing (like when the backing singers are doing "Barnyard" noises).

As for Taylor Mills, Ben Vaughn should rewite his "Mike Love" song to be about her.

I have seen the Beach Boys in concert several times, starting in 1977. But I have never met any of them and/or personally gotten autographs (I do have some BB autographs I got elsewhere). July 11 is my birthday, so I thought I'd get lucky (I took a "Wild Honey" LP cover to the concert), but it didn't happen.

My next door neighbor was also at the concert, which was at Hoosier Park Casino in Anderson, Indiana. Because his sister belongs to some kind of gambling club he got a backstage pass, so I had him take my "Summer Love Songs" CD to get autographed. The next day my neighbor returned the CD, unsigned, telling me that Mike & Bruce absolutely refused to sign anything for anyone backstage, although they did pose for pictures (he got a picture with Mike & Bruce).

My previous Beach Boys concert was in South Bend, Indiana, on November 11, 2007. About 20 fans waited outside the Opera House after the show. Mike & Bruce went straight from the Opera House to the tour bus without stopping (Mike told the crowd he was sick with a sore throat or something!). The opening act was Eric Burdon; he doesn't like to do autographs either. It took a little effort but I did get Eric's autograph, but that's another story (maybe I'll post it in the Sandbox).

I will pass on a tip that has gotten me autographs from (even interviews with) OTHER ARTISTS. Show up at the venue two or three hours BEFORE the concert and you might catch the artist arriving at, or leaving, the sound check, without security or a crowd of fans.  Presenting a rare item for autograph or asking an obscure (but non-threatening) question is a good icebreaker, and establishes you as a serious fan instead of a "fairweather" fan who just got interested in the artist a week before. I went to a Little River Band concert in the early '90s and before the show I asked Glen Shorrock to sign a Twilights picture sleeve (that was his '60s group long before LRB was formed). Shorrock was so amazed I had the picture sleeve, let alone even knew who the Twilights were, that he put me on the guest list!

I will also comment on the actual 7-11-09 concert elsewhere. Anyone else want to comment on Mike & Bruce's "no autograph policy"?

>>Among those, the speaking part you mention, done by Nick Walusko of Wondermints, another guy who (like Taylor) has been with Brian since he began touring again.

So maybe the album would have been more accurately titled "Darian and The Wondermints Present a Tribute to Smile with Guest Vocalist Brian Wilson"?

Punkinhead:

I currently live in Indianapolis but in the '80s I lived in Bloomington, Indiana. Back then there was a great record shop called Ozarka. When I needed quick cash I sold them a lot of rare vinyl from my collection. Unfoirtunately I didn't get a chance to buy the stuff back because instead of putting my records in the store they probably sold them by mail!

Last year I had a job repairing "Moviecube"/"New Release" DVD rental machines at Kroger stores and I made several repair trips down to Bloomington. But our company lost the Kroger contract to our competitor, "Redbox". We offer more movies (400+ titles) but people prefer Redbox's "return anywhere" policy, which we don't have.

In the late '70s I found a UK pressing of "Mt. Vernon & Fairway" without the Holland LP!

Nancy Sinatra - many great recordings beyond just the few hits she's known for. And she still makes good records! Also she has a lot of respect for her fans, which shows in the way she runs her own websites: sinatrafamily.com and nancysinatra.com

As for Bluebird's claim that Comcast was going to shut off her service, that's perfectly believable. A year and a half ago Comcast shut off my cable TV service AFTER I paid my bill. For me that was the last straw in several years of lousy service (crummy picture, being put on hold for literally hours on the phone, loose wiring in my building, etc.). Fortunately I didn't have internet or phone service with Comcast.

So in February of 2008 I got a sattelite dish. I only wish I'd gotten it years ago. I should have dropped Comcast when their cable TV service for the entire city went out during network TV's finale week in May 2006! A neighbor who has their internet service had problems for a year because Comcast didn't properly bury the cable in the yard, which they FINALLY buried after numerous calls from both my neighbor and me.

AFTER I got my dish I found out I also get satellite radio at no extra charge!

Sonny Curtis (one of the Crickets) put out an LP around 1980 or so with a song disputing "The Buddy Holly Story". I believe the song was called "The Real Buddy Holly Story" or something like that. The LP had a full length version of "Love Is All Around" (the Mary Tyler Moore Show theme song), as well as a hilarious song about cloning.

One of the biggest inaccurracies of the film (probably for legal reasons) is that Norman Petty isn't even mentioned once. Instead the movie has Buddy Holly producing his own records, like a proto-Brian Wilson. The film also mentions Buddy producing other artists, which he actually did in real life (some early Waylon Jennings sessions).

TD:
Thanks for the info!

I listened again to BWPS. I still think Taylor Mills sticks out like a sore thumb on the album. Did she have enough clout with Brian and/or Darian to say "hey, I'm gonna sing on this album whether you like it or not"? Or maybe Brian likes her singing enough that he wanted her on the album, even though having her there would be a departure from the original conception of SMILE. Her prescence adds weight to the theory that BWPS is an updated remake/revision of the original SMILE rather than an exact recreation of the '67 original.

So who sings the pirate rap? I still don't like it.

Paul Hippensteel
Publisher
Action Plus! Magazine

I've never liked Paul Simon's version of Surfer Girl. He changed the melody so much it's not even the same song. Instead it sounds more like a Simon & Garfunkel song. Brian sort of alludes to that in the interview segment.