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680597 Posts in 27600 Topics by 4068 Members - Latest Member: Dae Lims March 28, 2024, 01:11:56 PM
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51  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Hal Blaine Talks About Brian Wilson on: September 09, 2020, 01:09:57 PM
If you look at the song credits, it's full of Thomas men who later would appear on Imagination, outnumbering the Wrecking Crew legends. For example, Eddie Bayers is credited with drums alongside Hal. I assume the first one did most of the dirty work.
52  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Celebrating 50 years of on: September 01, 2020, 05:13:25 PM
I had the pleasure of writing a long piece for the 50th anniversary - it's in Spanish, but Google does a pretty decent translation, judging from its first paragraph:

https://laagenda.buenosaires.gob.ar/post/627833210346274816/aniversario-la-nueva-arcadia
53  Non Smiley Smile Stuff / Smiley Smilers Who Make Music / Re: The Majik Rain Orchestra - cosmic Frequency on: August 11, 2020, 04:37:44 PM
I know this is easier to suggest than to do it (and no, I'm not postulating mysfelf for the task), but, If you need other voices than yours, you should go the extra mile to find them, to do justice to your work. I've been listening on Spotify to The Pen Pal Club, a Japanese band with a havy Sixties fixation (I learnt of them because they did "Melt Away"). The albums are very well done, with a heavy ratio of covers. But them beign of the "Stack-on/twofer" mentalilty, they like to feature both mono and stereo mixes of every album, as well as backing and vocals-only tracks. And I was very dissapointed when I heard the notorious autotuning on the vocal arrangements. Bottom line: they should have find better singers. Sorry if I'm rambling (most certainly I am) but don't sacrifice the melodies or the vocal timbres: your work is very promising for that to happen.

Anyway, keep up the great work.

PS. but going back to my original question: Do you start tracking a keyboard part along with a metronome, even if that keyboard may end up erased after the other instruments are stacked?
54  Non Smiley Smile Stuff / Smiley Smilers Who Make Music / Re: The Majik Rain Orchestra - cosmic Frequency on: August 06, 2020, 04:42:47 PM
Very nice! Glad to have found it recommended on another thread. What led you to relase them as a work-in-progress? Do you have all the vocal melodies written out or are you still composing them?

How did you build up the tracks?

Kudos for a great job
55  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Endless Harmony, The Song on: July 20, 2020, 04:11:11 PM
The Free Design did a nice version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSqoGn_YIrA
56  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Request: BW Album Reissues with Bonus Discs of Demos and Alternate Takes on: July 20, 2020, 04:08:02 PM
I don't want to be harsh, but this is the kind of stuff that will be a little part of the bread and butter for Brian's children. There's no market for such a thing today, even as digital-only. At Spotify, Brian has only 158000 monthly listiners versus almost 10500000 for The Beach Boys. And we've come a long way from the days of the BW 88 reissue. It seems that I'm in a minority here but I'm curious about outtakes and demos for GIOMH. For example, Mark Linett said that they demoed more songs co-written by Stephen Kalinich. Not that  I think there's a lost masterpiece there, but I'm curious.
57  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: First recording songs of different studios on: March 31, 2020, 11:08:20 AM
C-Man, I'm sorry for the confusion. You're right (as usual), and I'm wrong. The audio for the entire sessions were recorded, yes, but it wasn't filmed. I've just checked with the book
58  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: First recording songs of different studios on: March 31, 2020, 08:50:00 AM
Speaking of Western - I think it's really interesting, and telling, that Brian seems to have purposely avoided using Western from right after the collapse of SMiLE in '67 until just before the 15 Big Ones era, a good 7 or 8 years later. It's as if he couldn't take being at the site of his former glories, yet he was willing to work at other commercial studios - for instance, he used Wally Heider Studio 3 extensively, in spite of (or maybe because of) it being an exact replica of Western 3. I just ran the addresses of Western, Gold Star, Heider's, Valentine, and even Brother in Santa Monica, against 10452 Bellagio Rd through mapquest.com.directions, and I see that they were ALL roughly the same distance from Brian's home at the time (Valentine and Brother being no more than an extra 2 or 3 miles away, depending on if one is driving via West Sunset Blvd or the 405).

Brian's final work at Western for many years appears to have been the June 5-7, 1967 sessions for "With Me Tonight" (logged as part of "Vegetables"). Four days later, the studio at Bellagio was up and running. Bruce returned to Western on September 29th of that year to record the basic tracks for "Bluebirds Over The Mountain", Dennis returned there on November 28th to record "Tune L", and Al (with Carl and Bruce) returned there in March of '69 to begin production of "Loop-de-Loop". But Brian did not record there again until 1974 at the earliest. I'm sure I read a quote somewhere - I believe it was either Chuck or Marilyn - in which that person suspected as much.

Speaking of Western and former glories, Peter Amis Carlin's book states that the 1979 Western sessions with members of the Wrecking Crew were filmed (due to -uh- the believe that they could be Brian's last sessions). Is there any footage of that circulating amongst collectors?
59  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: TRAINWRECKORDS: Summer In Paradise on: March 26, 2020, 05:09:39 PM
No, Hey Jude, I wasn't the one you discussed this issue. Last year I was very lucky to do a very long interview with Van Dyke (I'm a huge admirer, I felt like talking to Mark Twain) , and I was just checking my transcription, and yes, he told me he did all the vocal arrangements for the album, dictating every part to Brian, line by line. Don't forget Van Dyke was a choirboy, even singing at Carnegie Hall, but that wasn't really necesary for him to do the arrangements: he's a master at that, so to him is the same writing for vocals or strings or horns. But I guess he didn't have to sing every part to Brian, much less make him read sheet music: Van Dyke could have played each part on the piano.  He told me that on the OCA song it took Brian three hours to record a doubled five voices. That recollection matches the memories of one of the engineers for the album on an audio forum (can't find the quote now), who said there were a lot of composites (that is, splicing different takes) and time spent on getting Brian's vocals right.

As for the bonus, I've heard a backing track for Hold Back Time, and he told me there will be different mixes, but he's not sure if there's a version of Our Love is Here To Stay, as it has been reported.

Anyway, the published interview is in Spanish, but I suppose you could get a reasonably decent translation with Chrome. It's very long, covering all his career and his great album with Gaby Moreno, but there's some interesting things about Smile, including his idea for an animated feature (!), the Cabinessence argument with Mike Love and the state of his relationship with Brian.

https://laagenda.buenosaires.gob.ar/post/190392418770/m%C3%BAsica-el-amigo-americano
60  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: TRAINWRECKORDS: Summer In Paradise on: March 26, 2020, 01:26:53 PM

So, a Brian Wilson capable of singing and arranging *all* the vocals on something like the "Orange Crate Art" album, coupled with a huge bag of songs, a solid facilitator in Andy Paley, a then pretty hot producer in the form of Don Was, and a group with nothing else to do, all suggested that a Beach Boys album with that material had little chance of being a disaster if the band members had put any weight behind it.

Not to be picky about it, but OCA's vocals arrangements were written by Van Dyke himself, at last that was the case with the title song. BTW, Van Dyke is working with Omnivore Records on a reissue of OCA with bonus tracks, but not alternate takes by Brian, AFIK.
61  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: RS Article: How Jeffrey Foskett Went From Brian Wilson Fan to Beach Boys Insider on: December 09, 2019, 03:40:19 PM
God, poor Jeff. Didn't know about his cancer. Lets hope for the best
62  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Brian & Mike's new project on: September 22, 2019, 06:45:19 AM
Well, technically speaking, yes.
.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2tpNrGBh_6/?igshid=mdldzq56ea3n
63  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Brian as multi-instrumentalist on: July 07, 2019, 04:30:36 PM

 (the track descriptions are by one Scott McCaughey):


Scott McCaughey is a terrific musician in his own right, leader of the Young Fresh Fellows and The Minus Five. He also was an extra musician for REM both on record and tour during their last years. He's been working with Peter Buck in a myriad of projects since the 90s.

Check this song with a clear Love You influence
https://theminus5.bandcamp.com/track/thats-not-the-way-that-its-done

(from Down with Wilco - a Minus 5 album recorded with Wilco - he also plays on Jeff Tweedy's solo projects)


BTW, liner notes for 15 BIG Ones are by Dennis Diken of The Smithereens
64  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Brian postponing tour the day before it starts. on: June 06, 2019, 01:12:21 PM
I'm sad and frightened. I love the man and I wish him the best and more.
When it comes to back problems, I can't help but remember Prince and Tom Petty, and how dangerous these meds can be, specially if they happen to have interaction with Brian's meds for his mental illness. On the other side, I´m pretty sure that Brian is in a more controlled environment than them. But what worries me more is that dreared D-word, I remember Peter Falk slipped into it after going through some dental procedures (that's the kind of cases HeyJude was referring to)
Anyway, I'm hoping/wishing/praying for a temporary state brought by the aftermath of his last surgery.

BTW, anybody knows when Brian did have his last back surgery?
65  Smiley Smile Stuff / The Beach Boys Media / Blondie Chaplin - Mojo on: March 01, 2019, 06:45:50 AM
Blondie Chaplin appears on the Hello/Goodbye feature of the latest Mojo (Keith Richards on the cover)

Blondie Chaplin
&The Beach Boys


They called as he was taking tea
with his mum. But after a scuffle
with the manager at Madison
Square Garden, he was gone.

HELLO LATE 1971
I was playing with a group called The Flame.
In 1968, Al Jardine saw us at a club called
Blaises in Kensington. The Beach Boys were
looking for talent to sign to their label,
Brother, so he got Carl Wilson in and one
thing led to another and we signed. I didn’t
think too much of it, to be honest. It was nice
they took an interest in us, but we weren’t
from a very Beach Boy-orientated background,
we were playing a lot of R&B,Wilson
Pickett, Otis Redding kind of stuff, so itwas
really just meeting somebody well-known.
Musically it wasn’t a connection to anything
we’d been close to, back in South Africa.
A few years later, The Flame disbanded
and we all went back to South Africa. Iwas in
Durban, sitting with my mum, having a cup of
tea and listening to the radio. I got a call from
Jack Rieley, who was managing The Beach
Boys at the time, to hook up and come over to
Radio Luxembourg, to start working on a live
radio broadcast. So I travelled from Durban to
Johannesburg, to England and on to
Luxembourg. Radio Luxembourg was a big
radio station then. The first gig I playedwith
them, I played bass. We played Heroes And
Villains, and I had to learn the song with Carl
in a hotel room. After that they asked me to
[join, in February 1972. NB: some sources
date the Radio Lux show as May 10.]
It was strange coming from South Africa,
jumping into this West Coast kind of thing,
and getting adjusted to the Californian
lifestyle. You’re foreigners, you know, itwas a
bit of a shock. And we came from such
a different point of view, musically.
I wasn’t thinking in terms of that surf
stuff. But thenwhenwedid join, the
musicwas more experimental, it
moved it alongand took a different
turn,which [ex-Flames drummer and new
BeachBoy] Ricky Fataar and I liked.We
worked very well togetherwith Carl, I think,
andworkingwithDenniswas easier, andAl at
times. And a little bitwith Brian, because he
was inadifferentworldat that time, so to
speak. The other guys wereOK. To get
comfortable in thatmusical situation, and
those personalities…like any newband
or newadventure you get into, there are
always adjustments.

GOODBYE DEC 19, 1973

Ricky and I were included. We had some of
the songs on a couple of the albums [1972’s
Carl And The Passions – “So Tough” and 1973’s
Holland]. I don’t know,
you always feel that you
can do more. They were
in such an established
situation, it was a little
different for us, coming
in. I’m sure there was
some frustration, but I
can’t say it was an overall
frustrating situation.
We’d done a long hard
tour, quite gruelling, and
everybody was a little
burned out. We ended
up at Madison Square
Garden. It was a great
show, a very, very good
show. That night I got
into a scuffle with Mike
Love’s brother Steve Love,
whowas managing the
band, and I was so hurt and annoyed, I just
said, “f*** it.” AtMadison Square Garden,
that was it forme.
Whatwas the scuffle about? I don’t want
to get into that, into the details. I’ve already
said enough. Except to say it was completely
stupid, and not on my part!
I spoke to Ricky about it a little bit. We
were all disappointed. But there’s no point
hanging out with that kind of behaviour. I was
like, “I’m not going to go through suppression
in an organisation”, it felt like that. Some
people were like, “What, you’re leaving?!!”
But it was an easy decision for me.
I just didn’t show up for the next gig. That
was my way of quitting. Immediately
afterwards, I started writing some songs
and thought about recording
and getting some stuff out. It
was one of those things. You
just keep moving forward.
I don’t want to say that
everything in the whole thing
culminated in a negative, but
that’s how my involvement
ended. I still work with Brian and
Al right now. Brian likes me to
sing Sail On Sailor and I don’t
mind – it’s a classic, and I do
Wild Honey and some other
stuff. I have fun and keep going.
Holland just turned 46 years
old, so I’ve been doing it for
close to 50 years now! Ha! It’s a
long fucking time.

As told to Ian Harrison
66  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Did Randy Newman's Debut Album Influence Brian or Dennis? on: August 25, 2018, 01:30:40 PM
Well, VDP was producing with Lenny Waronker, and the Wrecking Crew is there. Of course, a few years later Sail Away was a favourite of Brian and an influence on his mid-70s vocals.
67  Smiley Smile Stuff / The Beach Boys Media / New Article on Uncut magazine on: August 20, 2018, 02:51:23 PM
As a (really forced) tie-in with the RPO album, latest Uncut (Hendrix on the cover) has a feature story on the Smiley Smile-to-Surf's Up period of LPs. All the survivors give quotes. Nothing revealing, of course (plus, some typos from the writer: Cabineseence recorded on BW's makeshift studio; The Big Ones 1976 LP)
68  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Peter Bagge’s “In Defense Of (And Praise For) Mike Love” on: March 25, 2018, 06:31:00 AM
Seems noboby's familiar with Petter Bagge's work. For the last 30 years, he's been one of the main artist working on independent comics. His HATE series is a must. And he's the author of a web series dedicated to Murry Wilson, Rock 'n' Roll Dad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVrydhy-YZ4
69  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Songs Inspired by The Beach Boys on: February 26, 2018, 10:47:20 AM

"Pieholden Suite" by Wilco
70  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Songs Inspired by The Beach Boys on: February 25, 2018, 12:22:38 PM
The Explorers Club:
The whole 1st album
Parts of the 2nd
Most of the 3rd (which includes another Darlin' groove)

Elvis Costello: the other side of summer

XTC:
Chalkhills and children
Books are burning (nothing obvious on the surface, but Andy Partridge came up with the chord progression after dissecting I get around)
71  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Songs Inspired by The Beach Boys on: February 25, 2018, 10:55:18 AM
Just a few:

Mr. Wilson - John Cale
Pale and precious - The Dukes Of Stratosphere (XTC)
At my most beautiful (R.E.M)
Brown shoes don't make it (Mothers Of Invention - a few bars parody The Beach Boys including a Little deuce coupe quote)
Mar de las Pampas - Super Ratones (Argentinean band. Released in 1998 and dedicated to Carl) https://youtu.be/36KfrecGNeA
72  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Mike Interview on: February 18, 2018, 05:27:53 PM
As an Andy Kaufman fan, I can't believe the Bob Zmuda mention.
73  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Beach Boys session at Abbey Road 2018 on: February 18, 2018, 06:25:28 AM
So they're using the original BB vocals straight from the multitrack, a la Aretha... usually, the industry waits for the singers to be dead before attemping something like that. This is really the beginning of a new phase.
74  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: What was Brian listening to in 1968-73? on: January 21, 2018, 08:20:52 AM
I guess Brian found in "Bohemian Rhapsody" some echoes of "Good vibrations" i.e. different sections tied togheter, forcing the limits of the pop single. And both Brians (Wilson & May) are deep into harmony. So I can picture BW digging the unique work BM did building harmonies with his multitracked guitar.
75  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Listen to on: January 11, 2018, 01:22:25 PM
My source is not CD or vinyl. But really, compression can't be the cause. It's also on the official BW channel for You Tube (excerpts from the track + Andy + Brian talking). Anyway, I still can't understand what happened.
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