SMiLE Sessions box set!

[Andrew G. Doe]

Changing my mind about Columbia - here's why:

"OK, let's go," he said, and then, quickly, he was in the studio rehearsing, spotlighted in the center of the huge dark room, the cameramen moving about him invisibly outside the light. 

[guitarfool2002]

Here's a few photos to compare and contrast.

Disclaimer: Do NOT trust dates and captions from Getty Images...vintage 60's photos tend to be captioned and dated incorrectly more than they are accurate.

Here is the shot of Brian at piano, deliberately over-lightened to show the background:


Note the colored sound baffle or gobo in the background as well as the blue carpet and wood floor.

Here is the shot of Mike and Al in front of the same baffles and on the same blue carpet:


And here is Dennis at Columbia, same time:


No doubt it's Columbia, the backgrounds and baffles they used are the same in all the photos.

The wild card is this shot of Brian:



He's standing on a car across the street from a Mark C. Bloome tire store. According to Getty's caption, it's October 1966 in Gardena, CA. I don't believe that caption or date is accurate, but who am I except someone making a guess?

Notice he is wearing the exact same maroon shirt and white pants as he's wearing in the piano shot at Columbia.

Any further info on the origins of the Bloome tire outdoor photo would clear up a lot of questions! For now, I'm staying with the Surf's Up-at-Columbia theory for the piano shot.

[guitarfool2002]

The Mark C. Bloome tire business which I believe is the one Brian is in front of in the photo was located at 6210 Sunset Blvd, near the corner of Sunset and El Centro. United/Western studios was at 6050 Sunset Boulevard.

Getty listed Gardena, but the Sunset Blvd location makes a ton more sense...and if there was a studio or other location around 6200 where Brian would have been likely to be in 1966-67, it was Western and that location would make even more sense.

Where was Columbia's music recording studios located in LA in 1966? Street address?

[Andrew G. Doe]

The mike stand in the Denny pic looks much the same as the one in the BW shot.

[Andrew G. Doe]

The Mark C. Bloome tire business which I believe is the one Brian is in front of in the photo was located at 6210 Sunset Blvd, near the corner of Sunset and El Centro. United/Western studios was at 6050 Sunset Boulevard.

Getty listed Gardena, but the Sunset Blvd location makes a ton more sense...and if there was a studio or other location around 6200 where Brian would have been likely to be in 1966-67, it was Western and that location would make even more sense.

Where was Columbia's music recording studios located in LA in 1966? Street address?

Very close to Western.


Western - 6000 Sunset Blvd

Columbia - 6121 Sunset Blvd

[guitarfool2002]

The Mark C. Bloome tire business which I believe is the one Brian is in front of in the photo was located at 6210 Sunset Blvd, near the corner of Sunset and El Centro. United/Western studios was at 6050 Sunset Boulevard.

Getty listed Gardena, but the Sunset Blvd location makes a ton more sense...and if there was a studio or other location around 6200 where Brian would have been likely to be in 1966-67, it was Western and that location would make even more sense.

Where was Columbia's music recording studios located in LA in 1966? Street address?

Very close to Western.


Western - 6000 Sunset Blvd

Columbia - 6121 Sunset Blvd

Wow! Thanks for the info. Would it be safe to assume the Mark Bloome tire photo and the Brian-at-piano photo posted today came from the same photo shoot or the same date? No matter what the date may be (and until further proof), we have Brian wearing the same clothes and haircut in 2 photos, we have one photo ID'ed for now as Columbia due to the backgrounds, and we have the assumed locations within one block of each other, roughly a minute or less to walk between the two.

[Pied Piper]

Could be from same session as DYLW piano performance w/ maroon shirt from Inside Pop footage in An American Band.

[buddhahat]

Could be from same session as DYLW piano performance w/ maroon shirt from Inside Pop footage in An American Band.

maybe this was the footage I was thinking of. Does he have the same shirt on in the American band clip?

Also I don't think he's playing worms in that footage. I think we discussed this at length that it's not clear what he's playing and that the worms music was just overdubbed for creative purposes.

[Roger Ryan]

Could be from same session as DYLW piano performance w/ maroon shirt from Inside Pop footage in An American Band.

This is what I've been asking about. Was Brian wearing a maroon shirt in that footage (I haven't seen it in a while)? The most notable things about the lighting was that he was lit entirely from one side similar to the effect of the light from the control room on his face in the above photo.

[A Million Units In Jan!]

No,  Brian is wearing a brown shirt. Unless the color came out  a bit different on the film. The style of shirt looks about the same, with it open at the top. I think his hair is a bit shaggier in the film, also.

[Andrew G. Doe]

No,  Brian is wearing a brown shirt. Unless the color came out  a bit different on the film. The style of shirt looks about the same, with it open at the top. I think his hair is a bit shaggier in the film, also.

The shirt color in the 1985 video is almost certainly well off, as the footage looks to be at least 2nd generation.

[guitarfool2002]

I just watched the American Band film clip of Brian at the piano, enhanced, brightened, and freeze-framed. I'm 99% certain it is the *same* session as the still photo we've been discussing. Whoever made that call on this page wins the prize.

What did it for me even more than the shirt (which looks to be the same in both photo and film...) was the way the lighting was hitting only one side of Brian's face in the film. I never noticed that before - it is the same half-shadow effect as seen in the Dezo Hoffman "With The Beatles" cover photo. I've watched that clip dozens of times and never noticed it was a deliberate effect.

Look at the photo at the top of page 71 here, brightened up. The side of Brian's face being hit by the light in that photo matches exactly the shadowing effect seen in the film, and you can see that girl holding the light on Brian is creating that half-shadow effect on his face.

EDIT: That silent piano clip is apparently the only Inside Pop outtake to see the light of day. And does anyone else think the photo of Brian standing on the car on Sunset Blvd was taken the same day? Curious...

[Roger Ryan]

Thanks "guitarfool2002" for checking the AMERICAN BAND footage. Yes, it was that one strong light to Brian's right that gave me a flashback to that film of Brian at the piano. But do we know that this footage came from INSIDE POP? I know the time period and location strongly suggests it, but I had assumed the AMERICAN BAND footage was something Dennis had shot.

Most of the INSIDE POP footage I've seen was very blandly lit, but in a professional manner (something you'd expect from a television crew doing a documentary). One young woman holding a "sun-gun" and dressed in a skirt doesn't strike me as being a logical "lighting crew" for a CBS team. Remember, this would have been a union job.

On the other hand, do you remember that photo (or photos) that show Dennis holding a 16mm camera in the studio? Wasn't that from this same time period? I seem to recall Brian being in one of those photos as well. Could all of these stills be from the same night when Dennis was filming Brian at the piano with his 16mm camera?

[guitarfool2002]

Thanks "guitarfool2002" for checking the AMERICAN BAND footage. Yes, it was that one strong light to Brian's right that gave me a flashback to that film of Brian at the piano. But do we know that this footage came from INSIDE POP? I know the time period and location strongly suggests it, but I had assumed the AMERICAN BAND footage was something Dennis had shot.

Most of the INSIDE POP footage I've seen was very blandly lit, but in a professional manner (something you'd expect from a television crew doing a documentary). One young woman holding a "sun-gun" and dressed in a skirt doesn't strike me as being a logical "lighting crew" for a CBS team. Remember, this would have been a union job.

On the other hand, do you remember that photo (or photos) that show Dennis holding a 16mm camera in the studio? Wasn't that from this same time period? I seem to recall Brian being in one of those photos as well. Could all of these stills be from the same night when Dennis was filming Brian at the piano with his 16mm camera?

The information about that piece of film comes from Malcolm Leo, through Domenic Priore, through Brian Chidester who posted a reply to a question about that same piece of film: That was all they found of unused Inside Pop film for the AB project, according to Leo. I found that archived info last night after looking through archived posts and comments, after trying to remember what it was myself after connecting the dots! If Malcolm Leo says it's an Inside Pop outtake, he was given open access and resources to compile the video clips for American Band. The fact that Leo found the film without audio (where they had to dub in a piano for effect) backs up something Cam Mott posted about those outtake reels in general, and how the audio track would be separate from the film itself, and that the reels in question would indeed be silent if found.

Having said all that...

Looking at the photo of Dennis filming Brian, I have to say it looks damned close to the final results seen in the AB film, especially with - again - that half shadow effect on Brian's face. I'd bet it's the same film, and now we have Malcolm Leo saying it was Inside Pop, and a photograph of Dennis filming Brian in that same profile, and which one is it?

Judge with your own eyes:

[Mooger Fooger]

There is something else with the AB footage. It is undercranked. When they transferred it to 29.97 frames-per-second for AB, it had to be sped up from its original film speed. I say it was Dennis' film and not the CBS outtake as Mr Leo suggests. IMHO of course.

[Runaways]

i think brian is also wearing that shirt in the photo used to label the second dvd in the "brian wilson: songwriting" docu.  they also use a picture in black and white of him in the shirt standing next to a console i think

[Roger Ryan]

Wow, I had forgotten that both Brian and Dennis were lit from just one side in the above photo!

It's possible that in stumbling upon Dennis' footage, Malcolm Leo had just assumed it was footage from INSIDE POP given that the idea of "film shot of Brian playing piano during SMiLE session" would immediately seem to link it to the CBS documentary. It's definitely from the same time period and could have even been the same night, perhaps just before the CBS team arrived or after they left. I think it's important to note that pretty much all professional film production records the audio separately and that audio track is synchronized later during editing (this is the purpose of a clapboard slate - the frame where the clapper strikes the slate is aligned with the loud "snap" heard on the recording tape to make sure everything that follows will be in synch). Ultimately, both the professional 16mm film cameras used by CBS News and Dennis' camera would be shooting silent. The difference would be that the pro cameras would shoot 24 frames a second whereas Dennis' consumer "silent" camera was probably shooting at 18 frames a second. Technically, if Dennis' footage was transferred to video at 18 frames a second, there would be no need to alter the speed. I'm assuming the telecine used was set to 24 frames a second; in that case, this footage would need to be slowed down (not sped up) to replicate the illusion of normal movement (speeding the film up would only be necessary if Dennis was "overcranking" to get a slow motion effect originally).

I don't wish to dismiss Mr. Leo's claim outright, but as artsy as the cameo lighting is, I have a hard time believing the INSIDE POP team would light the footage in this manner (not to mention the light in question being hand-held by a young woman in a skirt).

[Andrew G. Doe]

Assuming Jules Siegel is accurate - and he wrote it on the fly, so why not ? - then this single sentence is pretty illuminating (emphasis mine):

"OK, let's go," he said, and then, quickly, he was in the studio rehearsing, spotlighted in the center of the huge dark room, the cameramen moving about him invisibly outside the light.  

Camramen. Plural.

[Roger Ryan]

Assuming Jules Siegel is accurate - and he wrote it on the fly, so why not ? - then this single sentence is pretty illuminating (emphasis mine):

"OK, let's go," he said, and then, quickly, he was in the studio rehearsing, spotlighted in the center of the huge dark room, the cameramen moving about him invisibly outside the light.  

Camramen. Plural.

Are you implying that Dennis was one of the cameraman?

[Andrew G. Doe]

The wild card is this shot of Brian:



He's standing on a car across the street from a Mark C. Bloome tire store. According to Getty's caption, it's October 1966 in Gardena, CA. I don't believe that caption or date is accurate, but who am I except someone making a guess?

Notice he is wearing the exact same maroon shirt and white pants as he's wearing in the piano shot at Columbia.

Given that the tire store was directly across the street from the Columbia lot, I'd bet dollars to donuts that the accurate date for this photo is 12/15/66, taken at about midnight.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Assuming Jules Siegel is accurate - and he wrote it on the fly, so why not ? - then this single sentence is pretty illuminating (emphasis mine):

"OK, let's go," he said, and then, quickly, he was in the studio rehearsing, spotlighted in the center of the huge dark room, the cameramen moving about him invisibly outside the light.  

Camramen. Plural.

Are you implying that Dennis was one of the cameraman?

No, rather that the footage we see was shot by Dennis and not the CBS crew.

[Roger Ryan]

Assuming Jules Siegel is accurate - and he wrote it on the fly, so why not ? - then this single sentence is pretty illuminating (emphasis mine):

"OK, let's go," he said, and then, quickly, he was in the studio rehearsing, spotlighted in the center of the huge dark room, the cameramen moving about him invisibly outside the light.  

Camramen. Plural.

Are you implying that Dennis was one of the cameraman?

No, rather that the footage we see was shot by Dennis and not the CBS crew.

Ah, gotcha!

If this is the case, it is probable that Dennis was shooting footage the same night as the CBS crew. If Siegel is accurate in his description, perhaps Dennis got the idea of shooting some of his own footage of Brian after watching the CBS team do their shooting. By using the single light aimed from the control room, perhaps he was trying to replicate the "cameo" lighting CBS had set up.

[Mooger Fooger]

The thing is to me the footage looks like it was shot at 18fps but telecined at 24 with no speed correction.

[vintagemusic]

I remember seeing those multi colored baffles somewhere. But I cant remember exactly
when or where. Were those types of baffles produced for sale or made in house.

I remember the tire store vaguely. How close would this have been to that Jolly Roger
building a couple of blocks? Was it RCA in the Building with The Jolly Roger,

I wish I could remember where I saw those Baffles, the place that was later called
Paramount recording, what was the original name of that studio in the sixties?

[Andrew G. Doe]

RCA was some distance away at 6363 Sunset.