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4326  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: BW/VDP Sail on Sailor \ on: September 07, 2007, 05:07:47 AM
I found this in the notes to a boot of various versions of Sail on Sailor:

I’ve heard Carl do it on stage many nights.  To my ears, the first version was more polished with more production value.  What came out was more funky-downhome.  Only the basic bass parts are heard.   The track is only the original piano and drums with a new guitar part. I remember the song being a tad slower.  I think some of the background parts were lost or not included.  I miss a vocal background that moved along with the song like a wave lapping against a boat.  There was more there than oohs and aahs in the version I remember.  There were Breakaway-type inversions in the harmonies - like the inversions in the Hey Stevie version before the guitar vamp  (Great version! Love the vamp!).  I had a delayed echo flap thing going on the snare ….  A lead vocal fugue answer part is gone.  The horn section is inaudible with the trombone moots going boo-oop.  The backgrounds that did get recorded sound thin to me.  There was more to the song before it left these shores. None of that is in the released version.  The words on the one I recorded were by, I thought, Van Dyke Parks, not the Jack Rieley and Ray Kennedy re-write.  Carl sang a hefty, full-bodied lead.  Except for the words, it was more like the version cut by Hey Stevie.  SOS on Holland sounds tired and like a “We already did this once” overworked feel. Blondie sings the lead... so it seems that Jack got them to take a perfectly good song and put his words over others to a new lead.  Undoubtedly, one thing led to another and soon the entire song was changed around.  These things happen.  I’m not a big Tandyn Almer fan either and credit him with contributing to many of Brian’s drug problems - so I don’t know how his name got attached to the song, but - I guess - Brian gave him an income for life on that one. Nevertheless, someone knew what they were doing because it made them money and was a hit for them.


Stephen Desper on The Beach Boys’ Sail On Sailor.


I take it that none of those"various versions" on the boot are the original BW/VDP demo or the original studio version Mr. Desper speaks of here...?
4327  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: BW/VDP Sail on Sailor \ on: September 06, 2007, 06:23:06 AM
I think the key to detemining who wrote which part of "SOS" (or at least getting as close to that as is possible today) is that cassette tape.  Basically, there are five musical parts to the song:  (A) the opening piano riff which continues through the verse & the melody attached to it, which Van Dyke says was Brian's initial idea...(B) the transition (the part under the lyrics "Often frightened, unelightened"), (C) the chorus hook, which is Van Dyke's creation musically & lyrically ("Sail on, Sail on, Sailor"),  (D) the first bridge section (under "Caught like a sewer rat, alone but I sail"), and (E) the second bridge section (under "Seldon stumble, never crumble").  Van Dyke composed one or both of the bridge sections, but what was Tandyn Almer's contribution? 

If Tandyn Almer actually contributed something, it would almost have to be the B, C, or D section, and we know that one or both of the C and D sections were actually written by Van Dyke.  Andrew, do you recall how many of these parts were there on the original cassette?  If any of these parts were missing at that point, logic would dictate that Tandyn provided them at a later date.  If something more than the A section was present at the start of Brian & Van's writing session, then that was probably provided by Tandyn PRIOR to the date of Van Dyke sitting down with Brian to finish the song with the cassette recorder.   

Lyrically, it seems from Ray Kennedy's recollecton that the music was provided by Brian in a complete form during their three days together.  Ray filled in the lyrics to the verses (as Van Dyke alludes to), then sometime prior to the Boys recording it, Jack Rieley rewrote the lyrics.  I've never heard KGB's version, but it reportedly features Kennedy's original lyrics completely intact.

As for WHEN Rieley made those lyrical adjustments...Roger, on the version that Steve played to you over the phone, were the lyrics identical to the released version?  If so, that would indicate that Rieley made his revisions in 1971, for that version would've been recorded by Desper in '71...
4328  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: BW/VDP Sail on Sailor \ on: September 05, 2007, 07:31:03 PM
Here's Van Dyke's first (and probably only) public statement regarding the authorhip of "SOS", which seems to confirm that the writing session preserved on cassette was some time prior to Warner's rejecting of the "Holland" album:

Van Dyke Parks on "Sail On, Sailor"
"This is my first public comment on the authorship of this song.

Once upon a time, Brian Wilson owned a house on Bellagio Drive in Bel Air, California, (built by Edgar Rice Burroughs). I visited him there one day, with a trusty Sony tape recorder in hand, hoped to resurrect an aborted attempt at commercially successful song collaboration. Let me back-track.

I was working at Warner Brothers' Records at the time, both in A&R and in my newly developed office of "Audio Visual Services". The CEO of the company was Mo Ostin, the Executive V.P., A&R was Lenny Waronker. My influence on Mr. Ostin is best shown by a corporate "org.chart" of that period, which shows that my only superior officer was Mr. Ostin himself. I'd pressured Mo to sign the beleaguered Beach Boys to the label, in spite of industry-wide reservations about the group's ability to deliver. When I went to Bellagio Drive to work on a song with Brian, the entire group was in Holland, working on a record aptly titled "Holland" for delivery to the label.

Mo and Lenny had held great expectations for that record. They suggested that my working with Brian might goad him to similar creative heights reached in "Smile". Mo and Lenny were astonished that Brian wasn't participating in the album effort, and feeling somewhat deceived, thought I should step forward, as I was in large part, the reason for their commitment to the group.

Having only gotten a partial song out of that one meeting with Brian, I put the tape away, and lay low. I wanted to avoid getting involved with the internecine group dilemmas once again.

"Holland" arrived at the Burbank offices, DOA. It was the consensus of everyone in A&R, Promotion, and distribution, that "Holland" was "unreleaseable". Knowing the company's enormous investment, and the high stakes involved, I got out the tape cassette from my session with Brian that evening on Bellagio Dr., gave it a listen, and delivered it to the company with my assurance that it would solve all their problems.

On the tape (I gave my only copy to David Berson, Mr. Ostin's assistant), it's clear from the contents that I authored the words (and the musical intervals to) "Sail On Sail On Sailor". It's also clear that I composed the chords to the bridge, played them, and taught them to Brian.

Ecstatic, Mr. Ostin immediately messengered this tape (or a copy of it) to Amsterdam, and the Beach Boys were instructed to slap words on the verses and deliver it, as a pre-condition for their album's release.

When the song was delivered back to WB, it was designated as the single for the album. My name appeared as co-author on that first issue copy, with Brian's. After Ray Kennedy's lawsuit (claiming authorship of the lyrics), my name and participation diminished, and in some ensuing cases, I've been given no royalties or credit at all.

I understand that there was a general "feeding frenzy" around the tune's lyrics, as the Beach Boys regrouped back in L.A. I have no idea how many people may have been at those final vocal sessions, now claiming additional credit. That's none of my business. All I can attest to is my seminal contribution to "Sail On Sailor", and the authorship of that famous chorus.

Repeated questions about my role in this composition compel me to respond, as "history is written by the victors". I've always believed that honesty is the best course, and I'll be doing all I can to pursue this matter soon, to a just conclusion. I hope that the attorneys' fees don't outweigh the royalties involved. What can I say--it's a town full of heroes and villains!"

-- Van Dyke Parks.

4329  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: BW/VDP Sail on Sailor \ on: September 05, 2007, 05:56:55 PM
The song originates from mid-1971 (is it germane that there's an "SOS" riff in Spring's "Tennessee Waltz" ?) and Brian recorded a partial version with Steve Desper in fall 1971. The famous cassette hails from fall 1972 when Reprise discrened no single on Holland and Van Dyke remembering the fragment he'd worked on with Brian a year previously (apparently unaware that Brian had done further work on it), showed up at Bellagio 10452 with a cassette recorder. The cassette is just under ten minutes long, all the dialog is present as reported (and some more), it stops and starts like a misfiring Chevvy and the lyrics are improvised on the spot. Brian, bless him, wasn't composing on the fly ("Brian, write a fodain' middle-eight !"), he was recalling a song from his recent past. I doubt Van Dyke is aware of that to this day.

Dennis took a stab at the song, but half way through the second verse announced he was goin' surfin' and did just that. Carl took a swing, then asked Blondie to go for it. What you hear on the album is apparently take #2 (btw, Steve Desper told me in 1985 that the version on Holland "sure as hell sounds like the one I cut with Brian in late 1971").

Van Dyke may have played the cassette for Warners in late '72...but I wonder if it was actually a year or two old at that point, and stemming from the original round of songwriting in '70 or '71...?   I dunno, just wondering...

Ray Kennedy said this: 
"Danny Hutton, one of the original singers of Three Dog Night, called
me in 1970 when I was singing with Jeff Beck and said, "Hey, we need a
hit song." So I went over to his house, and Brian was there in a
little room with a piano and they stuck me in that room with Brian. We
were there for three days and ended up writing "Sail on Sailor," which
was originally intended for Three Dog. We went in and cut the basic
tracks with Three Dog Night; we hadn't slept in about a week. Then
Brian got up with a razor blade and cut the tapes and said, "Only Ray
Kennedy or Van Dyke Parks can do this song." And he left. We all stood
there looking at each other going, "What?"

He called me every day after that, and I wouldn't talk to him. Three
or four years later, I heard it on the radio and went, "Who's that?"
It turns out the song came out on the Beach Boys' "Holland" album. "


As far as the finished track goes, Steve D. posted this on this board awhile back:

"For reasons unknown to me, SOS was re-vocalized in Holland using the instrumental tracks and some BG tracks from the original multi-track. (SWD)", then followed-up with this:

"Got a call from Alan Jardine last night. In the course of our conversation I told him I wanted to clear up some confusion in my mind about Sail On Sailer. I said I had this vocal only tape of many songs and the vocal only of SOS certainly sounds like Carl singing to the backing track we did at the house studio during the Surf's Up days. So I asked, was Blondie singing lead in the "Holland" release meaning that it was recorded again in Holland. So Al said that it was Blondie but that song was not recorded in Holland. It was done at Village Recorders when they returned from Holland, which accounts for the better production values heard in SOS over the stuff they recorded in the megshift (his words) setup they had in Holland. He and I both stated how Blondie had pulled off such a Carl-like sounding vocal, even to the pronunciation of the words. But he assured me it was Blondie. Some of the tracks were from before but the lead was re-sung. So, that ends that debate -- at least in my head. ~swd"

Blondie and Ricky remember laying down the bass and drums (respectively) and Carl playing the morse-code pattern on the guitar (which was Brian's idea).  They remember Carl calling Brian on the phone (Brian didn't attend, or wasn't allowed to attend, the session, supposedly because of his by-then neurotic studio habits), but Carl had to call him from the studio to get the chord sequence.   This makes it sound as if the original piano track and maybe some of the background vocals were kept from the Desper version, while other instrumental parts were added at the Village in '72. 

Too bad Carl's not around (for many reasons, obviously...the least of which is to clarify stuff like this for us).

 
4330  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: MP3 of Brian drunk? on: September 05, 2007, 05:41:13 PM
I have yet to hear it, but I believe it's from a Ringo Starr birthday party...which would be ironic, considering Ringo is a reformed lush...
4331  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: The Dennis/Mike stage fight incident on: September 04, 2007, 03:47:19 PM
Ahhh....April.  I did not recall the date.  It was a good show musically for sure.  But the factions and divisions were obvious even then.  Seems that maybe Carl left the stage too...I don't recall.  Wasn't this the first returning tour for Bruce?

Bruce returned around Labor Day of '78 and did the tail end of a tour with them (Jan & Dean were special guests on that tour).  I've got a tape of a show in Florida on that tour, and yes, Dennis was cooked there, too...he gives up playing drums at one point, until Carl "orders" him back to the kit.  People in the audience can be heard yelling "Sober up!" and "I can smell the whisky!". 

Bruce apparently sat out a tour later that year, but was back full-time starting with the Radio City Music Hall shows in March of '79.

I saw the Boys that Summer (July 2nd) in Omaha, and Dennis was a no-show.  From what I understood, he was basically gone until the May 1980 European tour, with the exception of that show in Hawaii and apparently a few shows in November of '79, for which he was "allowed" to play.
4332  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: The Dennis/Mike stage fight incident on: September 04, 2007, 10:41:45 AM
Dennis was basically fired after the show- He does not seem to have drummed with the band again till the European tour in June 1980. He was absent from the Fall and winter tours they did in 79-80

Dennis played with the band in Hawaii, which I believe was either in August or November, according to Domenic Priore, who was in attendance.   I think Dennis was basically living there for a time with Christine McVie.  And a report from BBFUN said Dennis rejoined the band for a short tour in November.
There was also a report that he joined them briefly for an encore at one of their Lake Tahoe gigs in January '80.  Not sure how true that is.
4333  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Ricky Fataar on Keepin' the Summer Alive? on: September 04, 2007, 05:02:16 AM
I've always thought the drumming on the "KTSA" title track sounds like Ricky, and we know that Joe Walsh plays guitar on there, and Ricky was in Joe's "Barnstorm" band at one point, as was Bryan Garofalo, who's also on the album.

BTW, you might notice also that Ricky plays percussion with Carl on "Just Once In My Life" from "15 Big Ones", recorded Spring '76, a year-and-a-half after he left the Beach Boys. 

Likewise, Bruce lent his vocals to a few Beach Boys tracks after he left in '72. 
4334  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: The Dennis/Mike stage fight incident on: September 04, 2007, 04:57:21 AM
According to Lindsey Buckingham's ex Carol Ann Harris, in her new autobiography "Storms", she accompanied Dennis to the show and Mike was pissed that Dennis missed the soundcheck, so Dennis decked him.   Just hauled off and punched him in the face, without saying so much as a word.  Carol was shocked, to say the least, but Dennis gave her a sly wink, as if to say "Business as usual".  This was backstage prior to the show.  If true, it would further illuminate the onstage tension. 
4335  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Cool Head Warm Heart on: August 24, 2007, 04:53:36 AM
Yeah, it's a nice song. But I prefer "Spirit Of Rock 'n' Roll", though in the last couple of days I found out that this song is very unpopular for Beach Boys fans.  Huh

My favorite, though, is "Spirit of Rock 'n Roll."  Maybe it's because I haven't heard any other (better?) versions of it previous to hearing it here, but I really enjoy it. It's energetic and fun, no great art or anything, but an entertaining song. Brian seems to dig singing it. I also don't get it- why the negativity on this one?


The production of the song really grates for me as does brians voice. The version with bob dylan singing is kinda fun. Dont really see why brian wanted to resurrect this song though, much better stuff from the paley sessions he has still got unreleased

I'm sure he (they) wanted to use something upbeat, that might appeal to the "masses", and in keeping with the intention of the live album (a nostalgic look back at the Boys live in concert). 

I also like all three songs.  And I have no problem with the sax solo on "Cool Head"...for some reason it reminds me of Steely Dan, and then the song modulaties to a higher key.  Nice touch.
4336  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re:\ on: August 01, 2007, 06:07:28 PM
Well, the other option is to pay 18 bucks for the physical album. iTunes does force one to buy the album sometimes.

Mind you, this is only if you want to get the song legally. I'm sure there will be other options to hear it. But then, I paid real money for the Target and Hallmark CDs too. It's a sickness.

Paying real money for those CDs allowed me to have the credits for the tracks...well worth it, IMO!  Although for the songs on the Target CD, EDQ provided more detail with their interviews of Gary, Scott, Nik, and Paul.
4337  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: vaguely technical session tapes question on: July 29, 2007, 07:57:09 AM
It's bootleggers that present sessions that way for the most part.  Of course, on official releases, they edit the sessions down for time, but in most cases the complete session tape of any given session (assming a session tape exists) does exist in the vault.


So you're saying that as far as you know the tapes stored in the archives are not cut up?  That would be great news.  I think Alan said that, too. 

However, I still have my worries.  Because, while most of the SOT discs feature full, uncut up sessions, aren't there a few "SMiLE" sessions that are "cut up"?  I would have thought the bootleggers would not have skimped on presenting all the "SMiLE" material they could have.  Anyway, maybe once the Beach Boy Legal Bootleg store opens then we'll find out for sure.

In the same vein, do you or Alan know the specifics of the "Session with the Big Daddy" Earl Leaf segment from Today and SOT?  There does not seem to be a bit of overlap in the SOT and finished track.  Was the finished track a completely different take or was the finished track snipped out of the SOT session, thereby, no overlap?

Love and merci,   Dan Lega

If you listen closely to the "alternate" "Bull Session" from the SOT collection, you'll notice parts that fit with parts on the original...and you can clearly hear edits on the original.  Go to my essays on www.beachboysarchives.com (especially the "Today!" outtakes essay, where I describe the "alternate" version).  I expain where the various cuts were made.  It sounds like they cut certain parts out and transferred them to an alternate reel for the album version. 
4338  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: vaguely technical session tapes question on: July 29, 2007, 07:54:18 AM
Didn't the beatles use to scrub a lot of takes by rewinding the tape and reusing it?  The BB's didn't do that did they? It would explain the cuts. 

The Boys would do that, too.  That's why on "Salt Lake City", for instance, the tape starts with the final takes, then you hear the last part of the rehearsals, then the early takes.  When they got to the end of the tape, if the master take wasn't achieved yet, they would rewind and record over until they got the final take.
4339  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Question about \ on: July 27, 2007, 04:48:10 AM
The 'Cantina' version of H & V was mixed on 30th Jan 67 (if memory serves me right). That tape is missing so they had to use a safety backup master, dated Feb 10th '67 on the tape box, for the released version included on the GV Box and SS/WH 2 fer.

So Thomas interviewed Brian on 30th Jan' 67...probably.

 Cool

Didn't they master the "Cantina" Heroes from an acetate (not a tape copy)?  That would explain the less-than-glorious sonics. 
4340  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Question about \ on: July 20, 2007, 06:55:24 AM
at least we'll know this session if it ever surfaces in bootville, then.  oboe/english horn (cor anglais to us brits, inexplicably) isn't an instrument brian made very much use of.  the only notable example that springs to mind is I'm Waiting For The Day, where a cor anglais doubles the vocal line in the verses.

Another of Brian's productions that utilizes the English horn is "Kiss Me Baby"...along with a French horn...maybe Brian was trying to show some impartiality to the European nationalists?  Wink  Now if he'd just recorded that track on the African horn, he could've made it more universal... LOL
4341  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: 1968 gigs & sessions on: July 14, 2007, 07:38:09 PM
Yeah, seems like Dennis used the title for anything he was working on at the time ! There's a version of "Old Movie/4th of July" in the vaults with Jack Rieley singing (?) some totally different lyrics.

PS - just had some additional session info arrive for 1970 & 1971.

i remember reading about this song in that great 1971 rs 2 part article on the group. jack was talking to brian about subject matter for the lyrics. these, i don't think, were the ones used on the released version of that song. could it be that those "jack rieley singing (?) some totally diffrent lyrics" were those?

I don't think Tom Nolan quoted any exact lyrics for "Fourth Of July"...he was working from memory, so he paraphrased. 
4342  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Question about \ on: July 13, 2007, 09:45:07 PM
on the subject of session sheets, an AFM APB: has anyone got the listings for who's playing on the 'sixteen musicians' session from jan 23 1967?  the two sessions from this day are the missing bit of the surf's up puzzle: the first one with the drums, bass, two guitars, trumpet and three (probably) saxes - no sign of any of that in what's out there in bootland - and the 'sixteen musicians (mostly strings)' - also missing from bootland.

The AFM sheet I've got only lists 10 musicians (well, 8 really) - it's for the 3.00-6.00pm session.


thanks, AGD - i've got that one, i think: Hal Blaine, Roy Caton, Bill Green, James Horn, Jay Migliori, Bill Pitman, Lyle Ritz, Carl and the (non-muso) Chuck Britz and Diane Rovell.  it's the later session that i don't have anything for, except the vague 'sixteen musicians' and 'mostly strings' - any info appreciated.

I don't have an AFM sheet for the 6:30-9:30 session (the mysterious "Part One"), but I do have a Capitol Records "Popular Session Work Sheet", and it gives SOME of the names: 

Jesse Ehrlich (cello, arranger)
Ralph Schaeffer (violin, arranger)
Robert Hardaway (oboe, English horn)

These three are listed because they played "doubles", although there is a notation implying that the doubles were "denied".

BTW, I looked this up from my actual copy of the actual sheet, rather than my apparently dubious typed files thereof...   Smiley
4343  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Question about \ on: July 13, 2007, 09:39:10 PM
On the 11/4 session, Jimmy Bond is almost certainly playing a string bass.

On the 11/7 session, I'm looking... and no listing for Joe Saxon.

Well, I'll be stripped naked & whipped with a wet noodle...where'd I get THAT from?
Actually, I know...I got it from a file I typed and saved off my copies of the AFM sheets,
rather than from the actual thing itself...who knows why I put Saxon's name there? 
SORRY...   Roll Eyes
4344  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Question about \ on: July 12, 2007, 06:53:54 PM
is the cello a double bass logging mistake?  sure as eggs is (are) eggs, there's no cello on surf's up...

No, Jimmy Bond (the string/upright/double bass) is listed on the Nov. 4 basic track session, and Joe Saxon (cello) is listed on the Nov. 7 overdub session (along with the trumpet and French horn players). 
4345  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Question about \ on: July 12, 2007, 06:03:16 PM
"We had lots of musicians in to redo parts of the track that had been played badly. "

this is an odd comment, not only because - as has already been pointed out - very little was added to the '66 recording, but because the '66 recording is impeccably played.  arguably the only slightly cronky bit in the recording is the basses/pianos going out of sync at the end of the first movement - which brian can be heard, on a session out-take, saying is the desired effect.

as far as my bat ears can discern, the '66 recording is made up of:

tack piano
piano
upright bass
electric bass
electric guitar
glockenspiel
4 french horns
trumpet
tambourine (8ths)
hi-hat (off-8ths)
jingles or keys or shells or similar (quarters)
brian's lead vocal (doubled)

to which was added in '71:

moog bass
hammond
carl's lead vocal
'bygone, bygone' backing vocals
'domino' harmony vocals
'are you sleeping' harmony vocals
'ooh' group vocals (beginning of second movement)
all those magnificent group vocals (child is father)

none of that requires 'lots of musicians' - in fact, it needs one keyboard player and a selection of beach boys.  still, it was 36 years ago, so i think rieley can be forgiven for getting his facts squiffy.



There's also a cello on there, according to the 1966 AFM contract. 
I've wondered if some of the French horns were redone...on the mix of the '66 instrumental track, they sound really discordant in a couple of places (if you've heard it, you know where I mean), but on the finished '71 production, they sound very smooth.  They could just be mixed really low, but to my ears those parts sound re-recorded.  Also, more cellos could have been added and mixed in very subtly. 
4346  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: I was a Bum, I told a Lie.... on: July 08, 2007, 06:56:38 AM
Carl walked off the project, but it could have been Al, Mike or Brian, the day before or after. I don't know if "the group" rejected the Wilson/Paley material, at least according to Paley himself. But it wasn't meant to be finished, at least with those individuals having to work in the same room.

S&S was a plan B that got done because there wasn't any creative tension. Just rehash the old hits, add some backing vocals, no sweat.

It also didn't help that Was kept referring to the Brian & Andy produced stuff as "demos" while Andy referred to them as "masters".  Interesting that Carl felt the Was-produced tracks were "not releaseable", yet the Was-produced vocals pasted onto the Wilson-Paley produced track sounds like a commerical hit.
4347  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: I was a Bum, I told a Lie.... on: July 07, 2007, 08:43:02 PM
Oh, sure.  One idea can lead to another, and I'm sure the group's rejection of the Wilson/Paley material drove Brian's camp toward the idea of another solo effort (even if they, too, rejected the Paley stuff in favor of starting fresh with Joe).
4348  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Stephen Kalinich - ONLY collaborator with ALL 3 Wilson brothers? on: July 07, 2007, 07:22:00 AM
Im pretty sure that Ive read claims that Stephen Kalinich was the only "outsider" to collaborate with all three Wilson brothers, but what about Jack Rieley?

*Brian - A Day In The Life of A Tree, Funky Pretty, Marcella, Radio King Dom, Sail On Sailor, You Need A Mess of Help To Stand Alone
*Carl - Feel Flows, Long Promised Road, The Trader
* Dennis - Steamboat

You should add "Fourth Of July" to the songs he wrote with Dennis, even though he's not given a credit on the box set release. 
4349  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: I was a Bum, I told a Lie.... on: July 06, 2007, 06:29:06 PM
@HeyJude:

I believe Paley, Brian and Danny Hutton are singing on "This song wants to sleep with you tonight".
And was the plan really to play this song in a colour-segment of IJWMFTT? I thought it was during "Love&Mercy". Actually L&M has a moment in the recording which would be perfect for a change between b&w and colour.

On "This Song Wants to Sleep...", I can hear the parts where it is a layered Brian (and perhaps Paley and Hutton as well if he was on it), but there are also other parts where it sounds like the distinctive (and not always in a good way) Was backing singers that he used on the other "IJWMFTT" tracks and just about every other track Was produced around this time. This is why I'm curious about the resulting recording; it sounds like one of the few or perhaps only examples of Was overdubbing on top of a Paley-produced track, but I'm only guessing.

As for the color segment for the "IJWMFTT" film, I'm pretty sure in the interview I read that Paley said the idea was for "This Song..." As I remember it, it never got beyond an idea, other than of course recording the song. I don't think a performance of the song was ever filmed. Strange that they didn't stick the song on the "IJWMFTT" album, since the album was already so short. The Paley interview I'm recalling was from the old "petsounds.com" website; all of the stuff such as the Paley interview were taken down when the brianwilson.com website launched, if I'm recalling correctly. The Paley interview was pretty interesting; the most in-depth comments I've ever read from Paley. He still seemed pretty sensitive about the whole thing, but did go into some detail in the interview. He seemed taken aback at the suggestion by some fans that the recordings sounded like demos. As I recall, he insisted the songs were finished products (apart from presumably potentially having the BB's add vocals.)

Your memory is correct.  "This Song..." was planned as the "color" finale for the documentary, according to Andy.  Two great Paley interviews from that period:  one in ESQ, the other in Mix (the latter being an interview with Mr. Bonzai).  Andy was very adament about these recordings being masters, not demos.  Another great interview is with Brian in the U.K. mag Vox, and then Was himself interviewed Brian for "Interview" magazine. 

They were SO close to having one last, great, Brian Wilson-produced (or co-produced with Paley) Beach Boys album, but two things essentially derailed it:  the group's decision to do an album of their old songs with country singers first (a move inspired by The Eagles, who launched their "comeback" in that fashion), and Brian's management's subsequent decision that he needed to do another solo album FIRST.  By that time, Carl had passed on, and it was too late.  (sniff)
4350  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: I was a Bum, I told a Lie.... on: July 05, 2007, 07:12:28 PM
So let's talk about Sweet Insanity which shortly followed the Paley sessions(I believe?).  Anything here we haven't heard on GIOMH or things unreleased, different or worthwhile?

"Sweet Insanity" actually PRECEDED the Paley sessions by roughly 5 years.  Plenty of otherwise unreleased stuff.  General consensus (OK, not really...just my opinion) is there are some strong melodies, great Brian vocals (lead & harmony), saccarine Landy-manipulated production (in places), and anti-Wilson family Landy-manipulated (or penned) lyrics.  Still (again in my opinion) it has a few great Brian songs, including one of my all-time faves, "Water Builds Up".  As an added plus, you get a cameo Bob Dylan vocal on one song (which is so bad, one clueless reviewer actually mistook it for Landy himself!).  And, in my opinion, the three songs that were re-recorded for "GIOMH" sound MUCH better on "Sweet Insanity".
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