| 680601 Posts in
27601 Topics by 4068
Members
- Latest Member: Dae Lims
| March 29, 2024, 10:41:16 AM |
| |
150
|
Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Thoughts on Dennis (previous question)
|
on: June 15, 2016, 04:48:17 AM
|
COMMENT: The songs on the album were chosen because they were finished. 4th' was only a backing track, recorded for a paper I gave at a Hollywood AES meeting on quad recording. The Carl lead was a scratch lead (not meant for release.) At this stage there is no production value to the song, cliché drums, and the only BG is Dennis' multiple overdubs as a harmonic pad. It simply was not finished -- and never was. It may have been released, but never finished. 'Live Again was pulled from the album by Dennis who thought other writers should contribute songs to the album, since he had so many on Sunflower. He wanted to keep it "in the can" until the album following SU or for a solo work. As it is now, it's all Dennis. Unless the Beach Boys at the time would have re-worked it to include their harmonies, putting it on SU would not have represented the group. I think Denny really wanted to keep it for a solo slot. Therefore, the album was not affected by these songs one way or the other. But as I said, they are representative of Dennis, not the Beach Boys.
There are many songs, great songs, that Dennis wrote and started to record, but never finished because new ideas would come along. These two songs are indicative of Denny's morning sessions where he (Dennis) sang all the parts and played many of the instruments. He would laydown all the vocal parts expecting to replace them with Beach Boy voices. The tracks were samples (not samplings) for the guys to use at a future time for what to sing. Future times never came. Support of Dennis from the group was superseded by their own self-absorption in their own creations. Dennis made the mistake of using the studio at the time when no one was around. Thus, he had all the time he wanted to record, but no personnel (except me) to work with. By the time the rest of the group came into the studio, Dennis was off at the beach with his tapes sitting on the shelf not being heard. Unfortunately Dennis never wrote things down, he used the tape recorder as his sheet music working out little segments of his songs. He taught himself much of what he was musically and the rest came by osmoses from his brothers. If he had been more involved with the group and stayed in the studio when they were all assembled there, I'm certain his talents would have become more integrated into the group, but as it was, Dennis remained the undiscovered Beach Boy talent until quite late. There's a lot of unproductive time spent in studios as other people do things or technical stuff has to be done. Dennis' restless nature did not give him the patience to wait around for things to happen. So he preferred to work alone at his own pace, but that independence is not the thing a group is made of. Dennis was not that much of a team player. Once he recorded his ideas, he turned them over to Carl or Brian to finish. He would pop in once in a while to see what had been done, but finishing something was not in his nature. Thus, you-all can project other group voices onto Dennis' sample tracks all you wish, but I know Dennis was quite capable of singing all the parts and some in the style of others. And, by the way, that vamp and flute noodling at the end of 'Live Again is not suppose to be part of the song. As does happen at times, the musicians are just grooving at the end -- venting out pent-up creative juices. Back in the days of their creation these songs never got to the point of mixdown, so this song, when it was mixed without guidance some forty hears after-the-fact, included the ending. Good Listening, ~Stephen W. Desper
Thanks for sharing that info, Stephen!
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|