Very interesting observation. Doing a quick listen to the first minute of each, it sounds like the exact same track (except for the symphonic backing at the 2016 National Memorial Day Concert), replete with the same easily noticeable autotune on Mike's lead. The hiss is there on both tracks as well, although fading more gradually on the concert performance while more prominent and ending more abruptly on the Unleash the Love version.

The guys must have been lip-syncing for the concert performance, with the same track used for the album. Are the other concert performance tracks the same as the Unleash the Love tracks, minus the symphonic backing?

Bruce, members of The Flame (and possibly Carl) attended a Gene Vincent concert at the Brass Ring, Ventura Boulevard, Sherman Oaks, in LA (20th May 1970)

Picture is here :

http://rockabillynblues.blogspot.cz/2014/04/great-vintage-shot-with-gene-vincent.html

This picture is credited to the Bruce Johnston Archives.  Someone needs to sit down with him and do his memoirs!!!

Absolutely! Years ago I recall reading an interview with Bruce where he stated that during his tenure with the band he had saved tons of Beach Boys memorabilia.

The brand will indeed almost surely be licensed in some form or another. I don't know if we'd see Totten still doing it 30 years from now. I don't know his exact age, but I'd have to imagine he's nearing 50 right now.

Based on a variety of factors and pieces of information, I think Foskett could well be angling for the license once Mike is done.

just don't let it be Mark McGrath.

Not to sound like a stick in the mud, but is anyone else slightly annoyed that these Pet Sounds dates are still happening? They've been saying it's the "final" performances for the last two years, when it's obvious that these aren't the final performances of PS.

It's fantastic Brian and his band are still touring, but saying that it's a "final" performance of Pet Sounds for the past two years creates a false sense of urgency to concertgoers — esp. since he's coming back to the same cities.

I feel the same way. The late 2016 shows were billed as "final", then the tour was extended a full year, appearing in many of the same cities. I really believed that 2017 would be the end of the tour. But then the VERY next tour is ANOTHER Pet Sounds tour??? I love Pet Sounds, and I love Brian's shows, but he really seemed bored at the 2017 show I attended. I'm grateful for any tour, but I think that both Brian and his fans would enjoy something new. Maybe even another Smile tour.

My feelings exactly.

Thanks for the technical info! Nice to learn that the groove length of my all-time favorite album is 2581 feet or about 1/2 mile. Basically that means my various styli over the past 47 years have traveled around a thousand miles listening to Sunflower, not to mention laser travel on CDs, and tape head travel on reel to reel and cassette tapes.

Concerning the resolution limit of LPs, since the ground bits of vinyl are melted together, wouldn't the limit be the size of a vinyl molecule?

... Should this place be more positive oriented? Yes. ...

Agreed.

I would absolutely love to see a BW Christmas concert. I see Brian and band, as well as the touring BBs, whenever I get the chance. As much as I love Pet Sounds, and was ecstatic when I first saw Brian play the album in it's entirety years ago, I actually got tired of hearing the entire PS album the last couple times I saw BW in concert, and I had the impression that Brian was rather tired of performing the entire album as well.

Related note, I don't know why but the Christmas radio stations seem to have shifted to the "album" version of Little Saint Nick instead of the better and more exciting "single" mix, and I don't know why or how that decision was made. The single version/mix *kills* the album version especially as the percussion and chimes/mallets parts cut through the speakers no matter where you hear it.

Absolutely! The single version of Little Saint Nick with the chimes, mallets, and sleigh bells is far better than the album version.

I've got six different Beach Boys Christmas CDs. Of those six CDs, Little St. Nick is found in its mono single version on four, the stereo album version on two, and a stereo version of the original single on two. But my favorite mix of the Little St. Nick single version is not found on any Beach Boys CD releases, appearing only on the 1992 EMI CD Legends of Christmas Past, which was the first time the single version appeared in stereo. The 1992 stereo version of the single was remastered by Kevin Reeves and features the vocals in stereo, whereas the 1998 stereo version of the single (on Ultimate Christmas and Christmas with the Beach Boys) features the vocals in mono.

(And for the sake of completeness I'll add that two of these six CDs, Ultimate Christmas and Christmas with the BBs are virtually identical, with one less track on the latter CD. Then there's The Beach Boys Christmas Album with and without bonus tracks, and a budget release of same missing two tracks. And I've got two versions of Christmas Harmonies, with the original white cover and the later light green cover. A couple of years ago I also purchased The Beach Boys' Christmas Album - Cardboard Sleeve - High-Definition Deluxe Replica, Collector's Edition, Limited Edition, Import, Remastered. It looked very cool, containing a red CD with a small Capitol rainbow label, but there was no way it was a "High Definition Deluxe Replica" -  instead it was an overmodulated distorted mess, which I returned to Amazon.)

Unfortunately, almost everything is at least somewhat toxic these days. I hope and pray it will all pass.

Dove Nested Towers, thanks for the best post in this thread thus far.

Had a couple of beers earlier this evening, (including the outstanding Four Peaks Kilt Lifter), at  the SD Gulls vs the Sacramento ice hockey game, and decided to check this thread, for the first time, when I got home. After reading for awhile I realized I needed some libations to get me through the rest of the thread, with the result that I'm now on my third Manhattan. (For those into the finer aspects of those libations, all included a mix of either Jack Daniels Old No. 7, Jack Daniels Rye, or a combo of the two, along with Carpano Antiqua Formula Vermouth and Martini & Rossi Rosso Vermouth, with both Angustora Bitters and Angustora Orange Bitters, and with with either Amarena Toschi Black Cherries or Luxardo Maraschino Cherries.)

But back to this thread - I've been a fan of the BBs (although to a somewhat minor extent initially) since I first head Surin' on the radio in late 1961. So Dove Nested Towers post of, "Unfortunately, almost everything is at least somewhat toxic these days. I hope and pray it will all pass." most accurately expresses my sentiments.

As BW said, we could all use some Love and Mercy today. (And/or tonight, as the case may be.)

Hey Ghostly - Thanks for posting the link to your Wild Honey interview with David Beard. And even more importantly, thanks for recording and broadcasting the interview with David Beard in the first place, as there is not a lot of radio attention paid to such great music 50 years after the fact.

And thank you c-man for adding your expertise and first hand knowledge to the discussion.

GF - IMO your points would be more well taken by many readers if you weren't so darn confrontational. You've made some very good points, but they way your comments are stated come across like you're ragging on Ghostly for going to the trouble of promoting the music of the Beach Boys. Perhaps you might ask Ghostly if he'd consider you as an interview subject, although despite your strong background knowledge of the Beach Boys music, I wouldn't be surprised if he felt a degree of trepidation in accepting such an offer.

One more thing, Ghostly, as GF said, you've got a very cool radio voice. Looking forward to hearing more BB related programs from you.

Bumping this thread as a result of a communication today with a friend who purchased a couple of "remainder" copies of I Am Brian Wilson at a book store for $8.99 each, with a sticker on the cover which states "Signed Copy".

He sent photos of each signature and I advised him that one of the signatures was the most common example of the autopen or stamped signature that had been sold by Premiere Collectibles.

I also mentioned that I had noticed that this autopen or stamped signature, which was frequently found in the batch sold by Premiere Collectibles, (and is still among the autographed copies being sold on eBay), is totally identical to the BW signature on the home page of BrianWilson.com.

As has been done in this thread, we discussed the three possible sources of the autopen or stamped signatures:

• Premiere Collectibles - Unlikely, as providing fake signatures would be an incredibly dumb business move for them.

• The publisher, who acted as a middleman in the transaction - Quite possible, as they asked BW's camp for the sigs, and may have decided they needed more.

• Someone in BW's camp - Another possibility, if the publisher and/or Premiere said they wanted more signed inserts. (We know that Ray Lawler said that Brian signed over 500 inserts over two days, adding, "Brian bitched about it, but did it.")

My friend later called and told me the source of the autopen or stamped signatures most likely came from BW's camp. Why? Because the fake signature in the books sold by Premiere Collectibles is identical to the signature on the BW.com home page. If someone at BW's camp was not involved, then we must assume that whomever else was responsible just happened to pick a BW autograph to reproduce that was identical to the "official" one on BW.com, and we all know that for many years now Brian's signatures tend to be uniquely identifiable from sample to sample.

I then contacted my friend and advised him that it's also possible that whomever was responsible simply lifted Brian's autograph from his homepage and reproduced it for the autopen or stamped versions.

We'll probably never know the full story, and my friend tells me there is yet another "version 2" autopen or stamped signature found in copies of I Am Brian Wilson.

Along those lines, the paperback version of I Am BW was released a couple of days ago. Brian will be doing a book signing at Book Soup on Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood on Tues. Oct. 18, and Barnes & Nobles at The Grove in Los Angeles  on Wed. Oct 19th.

Of course, with their picture sleeves Capitol Records was prepared in case the B side became a hit.



I also prefer listening to Girl Don't Tell Me over Barbara Ann, but the Barbara Ann does make for a great up tempo in concert encore number.

Amen to using a different word.. I misunderstood what was being discussed and was addressing the Autotune questions and not the smush

A few of us seem to have misunderstood just what was being discussed. Ditch the word. 

If so, then replace it with what? IMO, "smushing" sounds good enough to become a recording industry standard term.

... Brian is not overly "barky" ...

What are people's thoughts regarding the dramatic difference in the sound of the lead vocal in most of the refrain (starting with "you you better run, James, run") versus the final line ("be the man")?

It seems to me that the former is a blending of BW and someone else's voice, while the last line is all BW, sounding a lot more like the verses. But it could also just be a different vocal approach, different processing, etc. And mostly I'm hoping somebody just says smushing again.

(What I am hearing is plenty of that fluttering sound that to me seems to indicate some serious processing, not unlike Mike's voice in "Isn't It Time" after the Foskett falsetto part.)

Yeah, in many parts it does sound like it is someone else's voice blended with BW's, along with some heavy processing. Or maybe it's just some very well done heavy duty processing, but to me it does sound like an additional voice. Whatever it is, Brian's voice sounds far better than it usually does. And the reduction in "barking" makes the listening experience easier on the ears as well, although IMO the song would sound better with even less "barking".

Here'a a comparison of the setlists for the 5:30 PM and 8:30 PM Beach Boys shows at Humphreys, San Diego, on Sept. 23. After the second show I was intrigued by the answer I got when I asked one of the roadies if they had any setlists available. As he grabbed a couple out of the trash and handed them to me he smiled and said, "What's a treasure to some of you guys is just everyday trash to us."

Custom Machine

Ouch!! One of a number of songs listed so far that I actually like a lot.

When I read the thread title Smart Girls immediately came to mind as the all time worst Beach Boys associated song, but then in the orig post I noticed, "Rules: Only band, no solo. Must be officially released."

So my vote as all time worst track released by the Beach Boys goes to Summer of Love. A totally smarmy song made even worse by the fact that the guy singing "Well it's a love thing" has the last name of Love.

Why the members of the band thought this song was a good idea is a mystery to me. Fortunately, for the sake of the Beach Boys' legacy, Summer of Love is not available for download or streaming, but unfortunately the video, featuring all the members of the band, can be seen on YouTube.

Given the classic Beach Boys sound of this track, regardless of any past history, IMO Run James Run would be even better with Mike's (mainly) and Bruce's voices added to the mix.

Seems to me that Brian's recent autobiography would have been a much more interesting read if the writer of this article, Jason Fine, had been the cowriter of I Am Brian Wilson, as originally planned.

Dennis seems rather blitzed to me, especially the way he's moving around and behaving when they are taking to the Reagans on stage.

I didn't even know Jeff was even there....

Look carefully and you'll see Foskett there.

[Breaking down "In Concert"]

Alan Boyd posted a lot of information about which shows were recorded iirc. But I couldn't find the thread unfortunately.
Maybe this is a start:

Breaking down "In Concert"

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,18195.0.html

The Beach Boys Live IN Concert 1973

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,23547.0.html

The second link above takes you to a list I posted of all the dates & venues (except "FFF", for which we aren't certain).

Craig, would it be correct to assume that the recordings of the entire concerts from which the BBs in Concert tracks were taken (and perhaps more concert dates from that era as well) still exist in the vaults?

Since this is now in the liner notes and public, I think it's worth pointing to a little piece of information that I think is of key importance for the BBs and BRI doing right by the fans and the band as well starting with this set and into the future. On the last page:

Brother Records, Inc.: Jerry Schilling, President

Biggest news of the day, if you ask me.

Definitely really great news.

In the Parking Lot

You Still Believe in Me

Wow - I'm in the middle of listening over and over. An amazingly great remix. Thanks for posting the link.

Darn, was out of town and missed this. Just checked the WDEL site and didn't see it archived. Is this program archived somewhere for listening after the fact?

Thank you so much, Stephen, for this interesting historical info. (Since I was around back then as well, but unfortunately not at the festival, I too have a hard time believing it's been fifty years.)

I would like to echo GF's comment that it would be great if your lecture with Professor Mike Conner at Full Sail University could be recorded or streamed for those of us who cannot be there. Plus recording the lecture would make it an important addition to the historical record.

I have a question about which Beach Boys were slated to appear at Monterey. Since the concert was to be recorded, was Brian planing to perform, as he did a couple of months later in Honolulu? If so, would Bruce have been there as well? Or would it have been the regular touring Beach Boys sans Brian and with Bruce?