Summer's Gone instrumentation

[EgoHanger1966]

I was just listening to Summer's Gone and realising that part of the reason I love it so much is the way it sounds. I don't know if it was Joe Thomas, but someone involved with the picking of the instruments (and the people who played them), and instructucted each musician to sound exactly like session players from the Pet Sounds and SMiLE era. There are so many unique touches - the one that is most prominent to me is the way the bass notes are played at the end - hard to describe but that pattern is straight outta Pet Sounds.

I also think it's the closest that Brian has gotten to mimicking the specific SOUND of those Beach Boys records. It's one thing to go after writing songs that sound like they come from your heyday, but it would be like Phil Spector creating the specific sound that he got with the Ronettes when he was working with The Ramones. Darn near impossible...

[Banana]

I agree.  The whole final "suite" wouldn't sound that out of place on Pet Sounds.  If you're looking for a reason...what's the common thread?  Brian Douglas Wilson!  I'd have to think that Brian was key in deciding how the sound "sounded". 

[Amy B.]

I was just listening to Summer's Gone and realising that part of the reason I love it so much is the way it sounds. I don't know if it was Joe Thomas, but someone involved with the picking of the instruments (and the people who played them), and instructucted each musician to sound exactly like session players from the Pet Sounds and SMiLE era. There are so many unique touches - the one that is most prominent to me is the way the bass notes are played at the end - hard to describe but that pattern is straight outta Pet Sounds.

I also think it's the closest that Brian has gotten to mimicking the specific SOUND of those Beach Boys records. It's one thing to go after writing songs that sound like they come from your heyday, but it would be like Phil Spector creating the specific sound that he got with the Ronettes when he was working with The Ramones. Darn near impossible...

I wish there was audio of the Summer's Gone session. It would be great to hear who was calling the shots.

[EgoHanger1966]

That would be cool. Unfortunately, when recording with digital technology, session chatter is something that usually doesn't get captured for posterity.

Anyone also notice that this song is panned much wider than the rest of the album? I think it's the best 'sounding' track on the album as a result.

[Wirestone]

It helps when your backing band has been working toward that same goal for the last dozen years or so ...

[Disney Boy (1985)]

The tragedy (well, not tragedy, but missed opportunity/disappointment) for me in listening to the closing suite on TWGMTR is the realisation of just how goshdarn good the album could've been. I realise it's something Mike etc. were never likely to have agreed on, but if only the entire album - or at least a solid side 2 -had been devoted to these songs of Brian's, what a fantastic album that would've been!

The Beach Boys are old men now, and the songs on the album that acknowledge and play on that fact are by far the highlights of the record, and they're very affecting. A record mostly comprised of these sort of songs by Brian would've been respectable, mournful, moving, beautiful. Would it have been commercial? Well this was the Beach Boys reunion album - it was going to sell no matter what! It'd certainly have earned better reviews, rather than the mixed bag the eventual album recieved. But i really wish Brian had been granted entirely free rein to deliver an entire album entirely from his heart.

After all, it worked with Pet Sounds, right?

Instead we got Beaches In Mind and Spring Vacation with Mike singing that he was 'cruisin' around, diggin' the scene' (and yes, i know these are Brian co-writes, but to point that out is to deliberately miss the point).

[runnersdialzero]

The tragedy (well, not tragedy, but missed opportunity/disappointment) for me in listening to the closing suite on TWGMTR is the realisation of just how goshdarn good the album could've been. I realise it's something Mike etc. were never likely to have agreed on, but if only the entire album - or at least a solid side 2 -had been devoted to these songs of Brian's, what a fantastic album that would've been!

Just because he can come up with a few songs like this so quickly doesn't mean he can come up with 12 so quickly.

The "fluff" on TWGMTR is fine and helps make it as good as it is as a whole. Not everything has to be so heavy-handed from start to finish.

I like "Spring Vacation" and appreciate it for different reasons than "Summer's Gone" etc. Brings something different to the table without fucking things up.

[Aegir]

Spring Vacation is my favorite song on the album. I have listened to it 100 times.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

The tragedy (well, not tragedy, but missed opportunity/disappointment) for me in listening to the closing suite on TWGMTR is the realisation of just how goshdarn good the album could've been. I realise it's something Mike etc. were never likely to have agreed on, but if only the entire album - or at least a solid side 2 -had been devoted to these songs of Brian's, what a fantastic album that would've been!

Just because he can come up with a few songs like this so quickly doesn't mean he can come up with 12 so quickly.

The "fluff" on TWGMTR is fine and helps make it as good as it is as a whole. Not everything has to be so heavy-handed from start to finish.

I like "Spring Vacation" and appreciate it for different reasons than "Summer's Gone" etc. Brings something different to the table without f***ing things up.

I thought it was fairly common knowledge that Brian had an entire suite of songs such as Summer's Gone, Pacific Coast Highway, etc. which he then had to break up and include only a small selection of onto the album - was that not the case? I'd really rather they'd dropped some of the catchy-enough but ultimately rather lame upbeat numbers and gone for a more Pet Sounds approach - they could've had a classic, rather than just a good, occasionally great album. It's late in the day now, the opportunity for a masterpiece was there, they should be passed awkward compromises by now and thinking only of the legacy. No, i really believe TWGMTR could've been a much better, more meaningful album than it ultimately was/is. It could've been a really sad, wistful, nostalgic (but in a tasteful way), touching record, I mean a real tear-jerker. They could've had a 'wow, that was absolutely incredible!' album, rather than a 'wow, that wasn't anywhere near as dreadful as i'd feared' album. Alas, it wasn't to be.

[runnersdialzero]

Capitol cut the suite, not Mike. We haven't heard it and don't know if it would've worked as an entire album. The suite isn't even finished, but still could've been placed at the end of the album with some of the other songs in the first half. I doubt they're all of the ridiculous quality of "From There To Back Again" or anything, but you never know.

Sans "Beaches In Mind" and "The Private Life" (which I don't mind that much), I'm pretty happy with TWGMTR. I guess I'm saying I don't get the whole "They should've made Pet Sounds II!" thing. I don't think it was ever realistic to expect such an album from the Beach Boys or even Brian alone, but more a blending of all their various sounds, which is basically what TWGMTR is.

[BergenWhitesMoustache]

I agree.  The whole final "suite" wouldn't sound that out of place on Pet Sounds.  If you're looking for a reason...what's the common thread?  Brian Douglas Wilson!  I'd have to think that Brian was key in deciding how the sound "sounded". 

I disagree with this. It's not like 'Pet Sounds' is Brian's sound, and he's only now been able to get back to that after years of not being allowed to or something. Fact it, he's surrounded by people who constantly tell him that Pet Sounds was his creative peak, so that's bound to be forefront in his mind.

If it was me up there doing falsetto and being his touring buddy instead of Foskett, those songs would sound like Love You, because I'd tell him that was his creative peak, and the best things he's ever done have been when he's just been left to his own devices.

[c-man]

An exquisite recording of a beautifully poignant song.  I'm curious - how many here think the main keyboard, credited in the album's liner notes as "tack piano", actually sounds more like a harpsichord?  Obviously there are problems with the official printed credits, and I don't hear harpsichord at all on the one track where it's actually credited ("Shelter").  Also, on "SG" there's a credit for plain ol' "piano"...the only other piano part I hear sounds just like a Fender Rhodes (best heard in the intro, accompanying the "harpsichord" sound).  Adam, you're the resident keyboard expert here...what do your ears tell you?

[AndrewHickey]

An exquisite recording of a beautifully poignant song.  I'm curious - how many here think the main keyboard, credited in the album's liner notes as "tack piano", actually sounds more like a harpsichord?  Obviously there are problems with the official printed credits, and I don't hear harpsichord at all on the one track where it's actually credited ("Shelter").  Also, on "SG" there's a credit for plain ol' "piano"...the only other piano part I hear sounds just like a Fender Rhodes (best heard in the intro, accompanying the "harpsichord" sound).  Adam, you're the resident keyboard expert here...what do your ears tell you?

To me, it sounds like a synth set on a tack piano setting -- possibly multi-tracked. It doesn't have that plucked, slightly out-of-tune sound you get from a harpsichord (from the way the two strings for each note go slightly off from each other), it's a rounder, thicker sound. I think there's some percussion doubling the part as well (glock or vibes or something) but I've not listened to Summer's Gone as much as some of the others. Definitely not harpsichord, though.

There is definitely a harpsichord (or harpsichord-esque keyboard instrument) on Shelter. It's very, *very* buried in the mix, and is often playing in the same range as the acoustic guitars, to the point where it's practically inaudible. But if you listen with headphones it's there -- mixed slightly to the left of centre. Probably the easiest place to spot it is right after the line "waiting for the parade", where there's a little fast run of notes, but it's playing pretty much throughout the song, just playing much the same role in the track as a strummed acoustic twelve-string would.

[c-man]

An exquisite recording of a beautifully poignant song.  I'm curious - how many here think the main keyboard, credited in the album's liner notes as "tack piano", actually sounds more like a harpsichord?  Obviously there are problems with the official printed credits, and I don't hear harpsichord at all on the one track where it's actually credited ("Shelter").  Also, on "SG" there's a credit for plain ol' "piano"...the only other piano part I hear sounds just like a Fender Rhodes (best heard in the intro, accompanying the "harpsichord" sound).  Adam, you're the resident keyboard expert here...what do your ears tell you?

To me, it sounds like a synth set on a tack piano setting -- possibly multi-tracked. It doesn't have that plucked, slightly out-of-tune sound you get from a harpsichord (from the way the two strings for each note go slightly off from each other), it's a rounder, thicker sound. I think there's some percussion doubling the part as well (glock or vibes or something) but I've not listened to Summer's Gone as much as some of the others. Definitely not harpsichord, though.

There is definitely a harpsichord (or harpsichord-esque keyboard instrument) on Shelter. It's very, *very* buried in the mix, and is often playing in the same range as the acoustic guitars, to the point where it's practically inaudible. But if you listen with headphones it's there -- mixed slightly to the left of centre. Probably the easiest place to spot it is right after the line "waiting for the parade", where there's a little fast run of notes, but it's playing pretty much throughout the song, just playing much the same role in the track as a strummed acoustic twelve-string would.

Thanks Andrew!  Do you agree with the Fender Rhodes?  I know there's vibes on that song, which can often sound similar to an electric piano, but the part I'm talking about, in the opening bars of the song, definitely sounds like a keyboard rather than a vibraphone.  I'm assuming that's what the plain "piano" credit is for.

[AndrewHickey]

An exquisite recording of a beautifully poignant song.  I'm curious - how many here think the main keyboard, credited in the album's liner notes as "tack piano", actually sounds more like a harpsichord?  Obviously there are problems with the official printed credits, and I don't hear harpsichord at all on the one track where it's actually credited ("Shelter").  Also, on "SG" there's a credit for plain ol' "piano"...the only other piano part I hear sounds just like a Fender Rhodes (best heard in the intro, accompanying the "harpsichord" sound).  Adam, you're the resident keyboard expert here...what do your ears tell you?

To me, it sounds like a synth set on a tack piano setting -- possibly multi-tracked. It doesn't have that plucked, slightly out-of-tune sound you get from a harpsichord (from the way the two strings for each note go slightly off from each other), it's a rounder, thicker sound. I think there's some percussion doubling the part as well (glock or vibes or something) but I've not listened to Summer's Gone as much as some of the others. Definitely not harpsichord, though.

There is definitely a harpsichord (or harpsichord-esque keyboard instrument) on Shelter. It's very, *very* buried in the mix, and is often playing in the same range as the acoustic guitars, to the point where it's practically inaudible. But if you listen with headphones it's there -- mixed slightly to the left of centre. Probably the easiest place to spot it is right after the line "waiting for the parade", where there's a little fast run of notes, but it's playing pretty much throughout the song, just playing much the same role in the track as a strummed acoustic twelve-string would.

Thanks Andrew!  Do you agree with the Fender Rhodes?  I know there's vibes on that song, which can often sound similar to an electric piano, but the part I'm talking about, in the opening bars of the song, definitely sounds like a keyboard rather than a vibraphone.  I'm assuming that's what the plain "piano" credit is for.

I'm not actually sure, there -- I was going from memory, and I've got a migraine at the moment so can't listen to stuff with headphones. I certainly can't rule it out.

[guitarfool2002]

An exquisite recording of a beautifully poignant song.  I'm curious - how many here think the main keyboard, credited in the album's liner notes as "tack piano", actually sounds more like a harpsichord?  Obviously there are problems with the official printed credits, and I don't hear harpsichord at all on the one track where it's actually credited ("Shelter").  Also, on "SG" there's a credit for plain ol' "piano"...the only other piano part I hear sounds just like a Fender Rhodes (best heard in the intro, accompanying the "harpsichord" sound).  Adam, you're the resident keyboard expert here...what do your ears tell you?

To me, it sounds like a synth set on a tack piano setting -- possibly multi-tracked. It doesn't have that plucked, slightly out-of-tune sound you get from a harpsichord (from the way the two strings for each note go slightly off from each other), it's a rounder, thicker sound. I think there's some percussion doubling the part as well (glock or vibes or something) but I've not listened to Summer's Gone as much as some of the others. Definitely not harpsichord, though.

There is definitely a harpsichord (or harpsichord-esque keyboard instrument) on Shelter. It's very, *very* buried in the mix, and is often playing in the same range as the acoustic guitars, to the point where it's practically inaudible. But if you listen with headphones it's there -- mixed slightly to the left of centre. Probably the easiest place to spot it is right after the line "waiting for the parade", where there's a little fast run of notes, but it's playing pretty much throughout the song, just playing much the same role in the track as a strummed acoustic twelve-string would.

Thanks Andrew!  Do you agree with the Fender Rhodes?  I know there's vibes on that song, which can often sound similar to an electric piano, but the part I'm talking about, in the opening bars of the song, definitely sounds like a keyboard rather than a vibraphone.  I'm assuming that's what the plain "piano" credit is for.

I agree with Andrew, in fact I'll take it a step further, going out on a limb to guess/suggest that is the same Kurzweil "tack piano" sound that was developed for Darian et al before the Smile tour in the BWPS days. It sounds damn close to the sound they used on the "second movement", for those slower, piano-only breaks in Child Is Father...

As far as the other sound, I also hear a Rhodes, with the vibrato setting "on", or as common in 2012 a Kurzweil or similar sampled version of the Rhodes-with-vibrato. BUT - specifically for those first few notes, panned in the center as the Tack Piano is hard left and it's echo/reverb channel is panned to the right.

The "vibes" part...remember too that on stage, for Brian's Smile tours, they also had a mallets setup that was set up by Kurzweil for that tour, so they'd have sampled and controllable vibes/marimba/xylophone sounds available on stage and digitally. It's *very* hard to tell, but that could also be a sampled-sound driven vibes part in Summer's Gone.

I'm assuming a lot - and basically just throwing out a few possibilities to consider or listen for short of actually asking the musicians directly what was used.

But I would assume Summer's Gone as a Brian-heavy track might call on some of the same sounds and keyboard setups he and his band have been touring with for 8 years.

Awesome track, BTW, quite the stunner and a highlight of the album.  

[Gertie J.]

The last minute with rain, wind chimes and whatever it's going on on Summer's gone is similar to Caroline No finale with barking dogs and train hooting. 

[EgoHanger1966]

As the 'tack piano' plays in the intro, the other channel was a weird, rumbling sound - not too noticeable unless you have headphones. Anyone else hear it?

Also, with headphones, in the intro, you can hear a couple chair squeak sounds - just like the famous one in IJWMFTT - could that have been intentional? Summer's Gone is certainly the track for analytic fans!

[Freddie French-Pounce]

As the 'tack piano' plays in the intro, the other channel was a weird, rumbling sound - not too noticeable unless you have headphones. Anyone else hear it?

Also, with headphones, in the intro, you can hear a couple chair squeak sounds - just like the famous one in IJWMFTT - could that have been intentional? Summer's Gone is certainly the track for analytic fans!

I hear exactly what you mean, like paper being turned or something! I don't actually know the one in IJWMFTT...

[c-man]

As the 'tack piano' plays in the intro, the other channel was a weird, rumbling sound - not too noticeable unless you have headphones. Anyone else hear it?

Also, with headphones, in the intro, you can hear a couple chair squeak sounds - just like the famous one in IJWMFTT - could that have been intentional? Summer's Gone is certainly the track for analytic fans!

I've been hearing whispering, over in the right channel...thought maybe the mic was open prior to the actual take beginning and somebody was mumbling something, or talking to someone else, and it didn't get muted or edited out like it normally would've.  Kinda like the camera conversation in the middle of "Here Today".

[adavidw]

Re: Tack piano

Here's a couple of quotes from that Joe Thomas interview at http://andrewromano.tumblr.com/joethomasbeachboys

"So this was done the only way Brian could do a record. We had a studio with an organ and vibes and a percussion tree and a tack piano flown in."

and

"I know that Mike has been supportive in the studio where he knows that Brian is going to pick whether it’s a flute or a oboe or a double bass or a tack piano that he could only hear at Ben Folds studio in Nashville. Brian is very specific about things like that. We found this tack piano at one studio in Nashville and that’s what Brian wanted to hear."

So, assuming that's all literal truth, it's Ben Folds' tack piano flown out from Nashville.

[Bicyclerider]

The last minute with rain, wind chimes and whatever it's going on on Summer's gone is similar to Caroline No finale with barking dogs and train hooting. 

The arrangement of Summer's gone if very Caroline No - esque as well. 

[Generation42]

Great stuff here.

And God, what an outstanding track "Summer's Gone" turned out to be.  Just the idea itself of a final Beach Boys album with a closing number, both titled "Summer's Gone," was inspired and poetic enough on Brian's part.  But for the song to have ended up so strong, with a great hook, a terrific vocal, beautiful arrangement and a lyric that says exactly what a Beach Boys swan song from an artist pondering the end calls for... well, it's quite simply wondrous.

I honestly didn't expect a track of this quality to come our way.  And we were given a small handful of them in the suite numbers, weren't we?!?  Honestly, I'm in love and I reaaallllly hope the group finishes recording the suite and offers it to us.  I'm quietly hopeful for one (or even a few) more to show up on Made in California.

Edit: Oh, and I'm completely jealous of each and every one of you who were there to hear this song performed live!

[Paul J B]

The thing about SG and the suite as a whole is that it puts you "there". When Brian and the boys nailed it throughout their career the songs had a very real feeling about them that put you there. That's why Pet Sounds is so great from beginning to end. The imagery that arises is mind boggling. A song that seems simple such as Catch a Wave, is an amazing piece because when I hear it, a huge wave seems to literally be knocking me upside the head. When I hear the suite, in particular FTTBA, It "sounds" exactly like the trip through northern California my wife and I took several years back. I can see the ocean, smell the air, remember stopping to find a great place to have lunch. When I hear Summers Gone, I'm right there with Brian and the Boys driving down the coast as the sun sets reflecting about what a journey life has been not only for Brian and the Beach Boys but myself as well.

When AGD was teasing everyone last Spring about the last great Beach Boys song or two arriving soon I did not doubt him, but I still could not have expected what we got.

[c-man]

Re: Tack piano

Here's a couple of quotes from that Joe Thomas interview at http://andrewromano.tumblr.com/joethomasbeachboys

"So this was done the only way Brian could do a record. We had a studio with an organ and vibes and a percussion tree and a tack piano flown in."

and

"I know that Mike has been supportive in the studio where he knows that Brian is going to pick whether it’s a flute or a oboe or a double bass or a tack piano that he could only hear at Ben Folds studio in Nashville. Brian is very specific about things like that. We found this tack piano at one studio in Nashville and that’s what Brian wanted to hear."

So, assuming that's all literal truth, it's Ben Folds' tack piano flown out from Nashville.

We should probably start a new thread on "Keyboard sounds from TWGMTR", but what do you guys think about the piano on "Think About The Days"?  Real or sampled?  I hear that same kind of processed sound on lots of recent recordings, but that's not to say they didn't create it from scratch with a real grand piano and added effects processing to their liking...