What a tremendous resource. Thank you! I enjoyed reading the entry for the April 21, 1973, show at the Music Hall in Houston, my first time to see the group. I think the cover of the "In Concert" album was taken either here or at the Dallas concert. For some reason, I remember Dennis wore that shirt at the Houston show. Also remember Carl interrupting the show for some time to fix distortion in the sound system, as the entry noted. Thanks again.

"The Warmth of the Sun." For the melody and for Mike's lyrics, which turn a tragedy into something positive.

I've never heard that. And if it's true, Mike didn't show it. He pointed to banners in the audience that encouraged Carl and mentioned them to him on stage, for one thing. "Hey, do you see that? It says 'Sail on, Carl,'" he said at one concert. "Yes, thank you," Carl replied.

those vocals are brought out wonderfully well here:
https://youtu.be/1dje0M5b_9M

Thanks for sharing this, John!!

You're welcome. These are the lyrics (reproduced from Brad Elliott's book):

"Truck drivin' man do what you can
High-tail your load off the road
Out of night life, I'm a gas man
I don't believe I gotta grieve
I'm out of luck
With a buck and a booth
Catchin' on to the truth
In the vast past, the last gasp [is it really "past"? Could be anything to these ears]
Right in the dust, trust that you must (or maybe "Riding the dust")
Catch as catch can"

Always thought it was "last gasp." And the lyrics were actually printed in David Leaf's book.

One thing I've never understood about the argument that Warner didn't promote "Love You" is the TON of promotional material produced for the record:  all kinds of variations on posters, mobiles and other record store displays. Was that stuff already in the works before they signed with CBS?

By the way, I'm almost positive that the "hula hoop" footage fragment came from Hal Roach. I remember seeing the "RoachClips" logo/url.

I saw the April '78 show in Houston and don't remember a Hula Hoop. And "Surfer Girl" would not have sounded as well as it did in that clip. But Brian was enthusiastically playing bass, wearing shorts (I think) and dancing throughout the show in his spot on stage. This was a quickie tour to promote "Almost Summer." Rock concerts at The Summit shown on the screen were videotaped. Ed Roach showed another clip from that concert several years ago on his forum, where Dennis asks the audience if any of the ladies out there like to fool around.

What sad news. I'm stunned and crushed. I loved this guy's music, have been listening since my friend Alan Forbes turned me on to it in the late '70s. His album "Mouth Music" on Charisma sounds like what the Beach Boys should have been doing during the same period. (And it did come out on CD as an expensive import about 10 years ago, but is probably out of print.) Chris also recorded as the Surfonics later, and his skills and singing were strong as ever. Chris also was extremely kind to Alan, the aforementioned friend, after he wrote to Chris and sent him rare Beach Boys tapes; in return, Chris mailed rare and unreleased stuff of his own, all of which was as good or better than what he had released. What a loss. Thank you, Andrew, for letting us know. I hope everyone explores Chris' music and gets to hear it. You can find a little of it on YouTube, at least.

Brian has been quoted as saying he thought the shooting was an accident.

A boxset would be an attempt to imprison the thoughts of the creators.

How does it imprison the thoughts of the creators if the boxed set were to consist entirely of sessions and not condense them into a particular order? Which is what a sessions box would be, wouldn't it?

Nik was the carnival barker and did the howling on Moon Dawg.

Hope that helps...

Carrie

Thank you! Always was curious about that. Can Dave tell us who the girl on "County Fair" was? (Hope that wasn't covered here already...) Thanks again.

My list would be "Student Demonstration Time" repeated 10 or 12 times.

"Solar System" and "When Girls Get Together" are wonderful in their own universe. Especially "Solar System." It's a place where I like to be. And did someone really say "Wild Honey??"

Absolutely. I'm baffled by those who don't love this recording, remixed or not. Dennis' voice, at this point in his life especially, was perfect for this. It captured the doubt and the anguish and the hurt in the lyrics and the melancholy of the instrumental. It wouldn't have been convincing if sung by a smooth crooner. And comparing his vocal with Do You Wanna Dance is like apples to oranges.

Yeah that I know.  The space on the contracts where you're supposed to write them has been whited out in my copy.

Congratulations, sir - you are the very first person I've come across with one of the 'amended' copies ! I would suspect that yours is far, far rarer than any copy with the SS numbers included.

The copies with the whited-out SS numbers and marked "first edition" are the only ones I've seen in the stores for about the last two years.

The San Diego show on Friday night was wonderful. Brian sang with the best voice I've ever heard him in concert (going back to the late '70s). Not perfect and not at all like the '60s, of course, but so much improved from the past and sung with confidence and, at times, ease.  Al also gave him a rubdown for a second after "Marcella." He looked a bit tired and yawned three or four times during the show. He didn't smile much, but one time he tried to cover up the yawn by smiling immediately afterward. It was funny.

Kind of ironic, I guess, that he got a massage after "Marcella."

And it was truly a joy to see Al again, first time for me in almost 20 years. His voice had changed almost not at all. The comment I read from Al, I believe on the blog on this site, was something more to the effect that he thought Brian finally had found the right chemistry for himself with this band and this point in life.

Aside from "Spirit," there's plenty to salvage from SI and use toward a strong record. For instance, take "Brian" and completely rewrite the lyrics, making it about something else. Take the melody in the chorus (only) of "Smart Girls," etc. etc.

But do it carefully.

No wonder -- it's the great Ken Barnes. He's always been a brother. Great to see the recognition of Dennis here.

Yes - the Beach Boys' version of TIME TO GET ALONE uses the same backing track that was originally recorded for Redwood.  Portions of Danny Hutton's lead vocal are still on one of the BB multitrack tapes for the song.

Alan

By "uses the same backing track" as the one for Redwood, are you referring to what Stephen Desper has said...that the Beach Boys' version was produced by Carl, who produced replacement tracks (using the original as a guide) exactly the same way of the original production by Brian? In other words, Carl added the same parts to the opened tracks using the previously recorded tracks as guides, then erased the original tracks to make room for Beach Boy vocals.  Thanks.

Did the Honeys perform (by themselves, that is) at that Hollywood Bowl Beach Boys show? The one in, I think, '64? There are photos with them on stage with the guys at that show. And something was recorded because the Beach Boys' KFWB Channel 98 promo, which they performed there, survived and showed up on that surf box about 10 years ago. Does anyone know? And are there more tapes -- of anyone from this concert?

Nice work! Hey, I have a question about the Still Cruisin album. Never been sure about this, but is the reason that side 2 is full of oldies because their contract with Capitol for this album said it had to have a certain number of BW songs? I remember reading in Rolling Stone, some time before this album came out, that they had a deal with Capitol for, like, one album, and part of the deal was it had to meet that requirement. So did they meet the requirement through the technicality of putting best-selling old songs on there to fill it out?

Your mention on the site of those songs being included, when there were other movie-related songs like "Chasin' the Sky" that could have been included, made me think of that question again.

Man, me, too. What part of Texas are you in?

And don't worry too much about demographic effects on the Beach Boys' legacy, folks. We geezers -- you know, people in their 40s and 50s  -- aren't ready to drop quite yet.

The Radio Shack Christmas album? It came out on Hitbound Records in 1983. My copy is on vinyl, still sealed. I've never heard it. There are three Mike cuts: him singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,"  Mike and Dean doing "Jingle Bell Rock," and Mike and Mary MacGregor singing "Do You Hear What I Hear." The rest of it is by Three Dog Night (all three of 'em), Paul Revere & the Raiders, Merrilee Rush, the Association and Bobby Goldsboro (all new recordings for this album). There was a TV special with all of these folks called "Scrooge's Rock'n'Roll Christmas," with Jack Elam as Scrooge, judging from the back cover.

The producers were Jeff Foskett, Jim Studer, Dick Hieronymous, Paul Revere and Adrian Baker.

On the other hand, the photo of Glen Campbell with the band, supposedly taken that night, does look like the inside of the old Sam Houston Coliseum, but ... I just don't know.

The concert in question was December, 1964. Didn't Glen Campbell only join the group on the road in 1965?

According to the Badman book, Brian played the 12/23/64 show in Houston, then flew home, and Glen filled in for the first time the following night. The book also says they played two separate places next door to each other in the same city (Music Hall and the Sam Houston Coliseum, the former a smaller hall, the latter a huge one) on consecutive nights, which makes no sense.

He does the lead on the second verse of "I'm Waiting For the Day".

No, that's totally Brian.

But I wonder if it's Al on WIBN doing the "ba baba ba" at the end while Mike is singing "Good night baby, sleep tight baby" or if it's just Mike overdubbed...

Really? It's always sounded like Al to me.  Those two are always tough to distinguish but the second verse is sung differently than the first (which is obviously Brian).  Who knows, you're probably right.

I think you're right about the end of WIBN though. 

Isn't it the "I'm Waiting for the Day" sessions track on the Pet Sounds SOT where Brian is trying to coach Al through a segment of the lead, trying to get him to sing with more feeling, and he eventually gives up?

I've never been totally convinced that the December '64 concert occurred in Houston. I know what the books say, and I know the guys have always mentioned Houston (or sometimes just "Texas") as where they were heading on that famous flight. But I grew up in Houston and lived there for many years (and was 11 years old and listening to KILT and KNUZ radio like crazy at the time), and I don't remember hearing about a Beach Boys concert around Christmas that year. The main reason I've doubted it is that a few years ago I looked in the Houston Public Library at the microfilm of both the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post, and there is no mention (in news or advertising) of a Beach Boys concert during that time. It's not like they didn't advertise rock concerts then, because there's plenty about a Dave Clark 5 show.  And I could easily see the guys not remembering exactly which town it was, and getting it mixed up with Dallas or somewhere and never thinking twice about it afterward.

On the other hand, the photo of Glen Campbell with the band, supposedly taken that night, does look like the inside of the old Sam Houston Coliseum, but ... I just don't know.

Mike has never changed his tune about Smile or anything for that matter.

Was it the MOJO interview where Mike said he now wished SMiLE had come out...and that whatever SMiLE was supposed to be, it was a lot better than Smiley Smile?