'Remember The Zoo' - TheLazenby's audio reconstruction!

[TheLazenby]

Thought this might provide an antedote to the still-continuous stream of "Smile" mixes.  

As far as I can tell, outside of my own mostly-uncirculated (and not very impressive) first rendition that I may have posted here years back, there has only been one fan attempt to construct the fictitious lost album "Remember The Zoo?"  This version, created a fan named 'djole', stuck too close to the original source material for my tastes; the supposedly revamped songs were the familiar versions, and I felt that other tracks such as the non-existent title track could have been handled better. With my version, I wanted familiar songs to appear in notably alternate versions - AND for the album to be entirely in mono, true to what Brian would've preferred.

So, while I finish up the second half of the album, here's my Side One in 320 kbps; much of the material I needed was sent to me in this format, and I certainly have no complaints about how it sounds.  
http://www.mediafire.com/?b11evhs98vggsns

01) "In The Back Of My Mind" - This mix was created by OOPSing a stereo outtake, in which Dennis records his first layer of vocals. OOPSing brought forward the horns, in particular the very Pet Sounds-esque saxophones. However, there were a number of moments throughout the song where the volume swelled way up for a few seconds; I hand-corrected those. Finally, I increased the bass, which was noticeably lacking compared to the following tracks.

02) "Let Him Run Wild" - The alternate take from the 'Today / Summer Days' two-fer.

03) "Summer Means New Love" - For the Pet Sounds DVD-A, this track (which, of course, wasn't actually from PS) was remixed into stereo. The remix brought forth previously-buried saxophones, similar to those heard on track 1. For this mono mix, I used the right stereo channel where the saxes and various other embellishments are most audible.

04) "The Little Girl I Once Knew" - The alternate version from 'Hawthorne CA,' folded to mono, with increased bass. This version exclusively contains a nice acapella portion towards the end.

05) "Trombone Dixie" - From the 'Pet Sounds Sessions' box, folded to mono, with a bit of extraneous noise trimmed from the intro.

06) "In My Childhood" - While the vocals for this unreleased song no longer exist, the backing track does... it was reused for "You Still Believe In Me"! So, I've joined the raw intro and backing track from the 'Pet Sounds Sessions' box, folded them to mono, and tweaked the volume as they were a bit quiet. (Some re-EQ'ing and declicking also occurred in order to remove distortion.)

Side two shouldn't be too far off.... I'm just stuck on the task of trying to create a title track.  

(ALSO - if anyone has any suggestions on how to improve these six tracks, I'll make alterations and post them alongside the second half.  )

[TheLazenby]

This may not be worth mentioning, giving the absolute, complete lack of enthusiasm for the first half....

....but I'm really putting effort into the title track.  It'll be a remix of "Pet Sounds" - and I want to imagine the kind of zoo that Brian's head at the time would've dreamt up.

[JanBerryFarm]

This may not be worth mentioning, giving the absolute, complete lack of enthusiasm for the first half....

....but I'm really putting effort into the title track.  It'll be a remix of "Pet Sounds" - and I want to imagine the kind of zoo that Brian's head at the time would've dreamt up.

What do 'pets', 'goats' or 'the zoo' have to do with the music or subject matter on 'Pet Sounds' ?? I've never understood that.

It's like... "hey, let's think up an album title that nobody can relate to."
Brian really had his finger on the pulse of teen America on that one. All those 60's baby-boomers rushing to the barnyard and zoo to 'groove' with the goats.

 

[TheLazenby]

Well, what does a farm have to do with Jan Berry?

[Mr. Cohen]

Interesting, but I'd highly recommend upping the low end and the VERY high end. It sounds a bit tinny otherwise.

[Michael Edwards Love]

nice work!

[JanBerryFarm]

Well, what does a farm have to do with Jan Berry?

You never heard of a berry farm?

Still waiting for an explaination to my original question, if you have one. If not, that's fine.

[TheLazenby]

Dada - way ahead of you, actually.  I send the original files off to someone who knows his way around an equalizer a lot more than I do, because the more I listened to these copies, the more they started to bug my ears.  I'll re-release these six tracks, tweaked, with the final six - in a lower volume as well.

[Camus]

Nice.  I particularly like your version of In The Back Of My Mind.  I'm also glad you didn't use the original fade and allowed the strings to continue, that's a beautiful little bit.

I'm looking forward to the rest.

[TheLazenby]

Side 2 gets a little... strange. :-P  Following the hoax track list, it gets into "Smile" stuff (anachronistically), transports 1980's Brian back to the Sixties, Jasper Dailey shows up and does his bit......

[TheLazenby]

Here's the tracklist for side 2, which should be available within a week or so (still working out the title track)....

07) "Pet Sounds" - The boxed set version, which has yet to include a lead guitar track.  I found this version particularly appropriate, because the "Remember The Zoo" version was said to have vocals; this version seems poised to leave room for vocals... which we know in reality were never recorded.

08) "I'm Waiting For The Day" - The alternate version sung by Mike, as heard on The Pet Sounds Sessions.

09) "I'm In Great Shape" - According to the false article that bore the RTZ legend, in 1966, this title was actually a very early version of Brian's 1988 b-side "He Couldn't Get His Poor Old Body To Move."  Well, of course, that is utter bull.  So here, I've created my own version, starting with the SMiLE rendition (taken from the Purple Chick boot), with the reverb exploding right into that very b-side, folded to mono, sped up to de-age Brian's voice a bit, and loaded with Spectoresque reverb.

10) "Teeter Totter Love" - Funnily enough, when I first made my own 'Zoo' compilation, I used an acapella version of the Marcels song here... it actually didn't fit that awkwardly onto a Beach Boys album!  But, now we have the real track, which sticks out like a sore thumb on a Beach Boys album... but nonetheless, in keeping with the fake tracklist, here's Jasper doing his thing.

11) "Tones" - The complete overdubbed version, complete with the breakdown ending removed from The Smile Sessions.

12) "Remember The Zoo?" - The original article described this non-existent title tune as a bizarre song akin to "Tomorrow Never Knows".  And bizarre it shall be - a truly strange, stripped-down rendition of "Pet Sounds" thickly layered with jungle noises, backwards animals, melodic elephant trumpeting, echoed and reversed bird calls not unlike Paul's 'seagull' noises from TNK...... I just hope everyone enjoys it. ;-)

[TheLazenby]

Hey, remember the back cover from Capitol's "Remember The Zoo" CD? :-P



(Yes... I actually had to piece that together letter by letter.  God help me.)

[Tilt Araiza]

You could always try this http://simplythebest.net/fonts/fonts/woodbadge.html though it's not an exact copy, it's very, very close.

[scallions]

I am really good with eq and remasters
Can I get a lossless copy of the final product

Shawn

[TheLazenby]

Sure.

I've got a bad case of the Brian's, because I just can't seem to finish the title track.... I need to force myself through that someday.