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Non Smiley Smile Stuff / Smiley Smilers Who Make Music / Re: Pop Weirdos - Alcudia
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on: December 14, 2015, 11:15:31 PM
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Alcudia is an interesting recording. Nice mixture of different elements, and the strings sound excellent- looking at your list of musicians, are they all real or is there some synth in there- if you're wililng to reveal that is!
Thanks! All real strings, a violinist & cellist with overdubbing
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Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Brian's Late 60s Waltzes
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on: October 06, 2015, 01:32:19 PM
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I've recently become very interested in Brian's Friends-20/20 work, and it struck me just how often he composed waltzes in this era. I can't think of too many notable songs before when he wrote in 3/4 time*, yet from "Time to Get Alone" (probably Brian's most ambitious song from this period) to "I Went to Sleep," he seems to have landed on several interrelated feels in 3/4 time. It sounds to me like the Friends-era waltzes come from a discrete batch of songs and feels - can anyone give more info on the composition of these songs, or any place where Brian has commented on them?
*can someone think of others? Surfer Girl, In my Room, some of the b-side songs on Today!, and what else?
A lot of the early ballads were in 6/8: The Lonely Sea Surfer Girl The Surfer Moon In My Room Your Summer Dream The Warmth of the Sun Keep an Eye on Summer Ballad of Ole Betsy We’ll Run Away Girls on the Beach Thank Him (some would say 12/8 - honestly the difference between the two time signatures has always escaped me a little, I guess one has more of a triplet feel than the other. However you write it out, this 6/8 feel was very, very common in 50s and early 60s ballads/doo wop. Brian's trick was to take these old ballad feels and give them a twist in the harmonies and progressions that made them fresh and new. I think that Let the Wind blow may be Brian's first waltz, although I'm not positive. But it kind of makes sense that Brian would have become attracted to Waltz time, because he was so used to writing ballads with a triplet feel, and waltz time was sort of a mature twist on that. The fact that a song like Friends or I Went To Sleep changes chords every measure makes it really sound like a traditional waltz by emphasizing the 3/4 time. Likewise, Time to Get Alone emphasizes its time signature by using a different prepared piano for every beat of the measure and repeating that every measure. Let the Wind Blow doesn't stand out as much as a waltz because it sits on the first chord of every line for the first two bars, which de-emphasizes the waltz aspect a little. That said, compared to how often he used straight time, Brian really didn't write very many waltzes at all! Yeah, as I listened to the earlier tracks earlier, I realized that the rhythm was 6/8, though my theory knowledge is so limited/rusty that I had trouble distinguishing anything in triple time from a waltz. Also very true on how they're varying the doo-wop formula - feel like that trick changed/reached its peak on the second side of Today! Also yeah, this topic occurred to me when reading the (really excellent) analysis of the arrangement of "Time to Get Alone" on another recent thread. And the fact that Brian wrote so few waltzes is partially why this is so interesting to me - seems like he was interested in the form for a short amount of time.
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Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Brian's Late 60s Waltzes
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on: October 06, 2015, 11:12:50 AM
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I've recently become very interested in Brian's Friends-20/20 work, and it struck me just how often he composed waltzes in this era. I can't think of too many notable songs before when he wrote in 3/4 time*, yet from "Time to Get Alone" (probably Brian's most ambitious song from this period) to "I Went to Sleep," he seems to have landed on several interrelated feels in 3/4 time. It sounds to me like the Friends-era waltzes come from a discrete batch of songs and feels - can anyone give more info on the composition of these songs, or any place where Brian has commented on them?
*can someone think of others? Surfer Girl, In my Room, some of the b-side songs on Today!, and what else?
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Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / There's No Other (Like My Baby)
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on: September 07, 2015, 11:24:34 PM
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Apologies if a topic on this has circulated before (I tried unsuccessfully to search for one), but is this song not insanely gorgeous? Listening through MiC again, this song has been a real revelation. The acoustic arrangement makes me wish they'd done more spare, almost folksy tracks in the mid-60s, and the harmonies on the chorus are too good. Especially after hearing The Crystals' version, this may be one of the most interesting interpretations of Spector that Brian ever did.
Anyone else have thoughts on this track?
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Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Albums you would change the titles to..
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on: September 07, 2015, 01:04:50 PM
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Agreed that 20/20 would sound good as Do It Again. I think Surf's Up would work well as Long Promised Road - still gets the grandiosity the band seemed to be reaching for with that album without the baggage of Surf's Up. I've never liked the title of Smiley Smile; calling it Wind Chimes may work. It has similar-sounding words for a follow up to Pet Sounds, points to the low-key, home-recorded vibe of the album, and I can't resist the perversity of having the Smiley version of Wind Chimes as a title track.
This thread made me realize, perhaps the best Beach Boys album name is The Beach Boys Today! It's clearly in the vein of other record titles from the early 60's, but it's just so appropriate for a record as strikingly new as Today.
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Non Smiley Smile Stuff / General Music Discussion / Van Dyke Parks - High Coin
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on: August 16, 2015, 07:51:24 PM
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I've been fascinated by this track for a while. According to VDP, it's the first song he wrote, it was covered by everyone from Bobby Vee to the West coast Pop Art Experimental Band, and it's a brilliant composition, as good as anything on Song Cycle and more straightforward than any track on the album. My favorite version is Harpers Bizarre's dreamy, VDP-assisted version ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdQ3f5TlM8g), but just looking through version online, it's been arranged dozens of different, often fascinating ways. More info on its composition is here: http://www.sodajerker.com/episode-51-van-dyke-parks/Does anyone have opinions/more info on this song? Also, is there any available recording of VDP performing this track solo?
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Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / "I'll Bet He's Nice" could have been a hit
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on: July 26, 2015, 05:21:17 PM
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Listening to Brian's Love You demos today, I realized just how much potential the demo of "I'll Bet He's Nice" has. It's a model of the pop songwriting form, has a killer melody and progression, and captures Brian's genius for pure pop better than any of his other late 70s work. In its stripped-down form, it seems to be begging for a lush, vintage arrangement - in my head, it's arranged a la "This Whole World" or another Sunflower-era track, albeit with a bit more late 70s-Brian soul.
I'm a defender of Love You til death, but does anyone else feel like this song could have been a hit if produced differently? Especially after paying attention to the demo, the album version sounds plodding and dull, like a great pop song with barely-audible rhythm parts buried under Moog gurgles.
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Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: What was Brian listening to in 1968-73?
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on: July 04, 2015, 08:25:09 PM
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Randy Newman "Sail Away"
Y'know I'm sure it's been discussed elsewhere, but I've always thought the Newman connection is really important in figuring out Brian's creative trajectory in the mid-70s. Vocally, Newman seems to be a model for mid-70s Brian, and the sort of jazz-pop/torch song vibe Newman had informs some Love You/Adult Child stuff. I'd be interested in reading Brian's thoughts on him if there are interviews about it anywhere.
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