Brian Wilson's Secret Bedroom Tapes - LA Weekly 1-30-14

[KittyKat]

My Get the Boot is four CD's. But that may be down to the trading source I got it from. In other words, two of the discs may be bonuses of other material. It's a CD-R set, not an original silver CD boot. My Solution is in the set.

[bossaroo]

an intriguing article to say the least!

it's quite silly to say that just because something has remained unreleased for 4 decades or more, it must not be any good. especially when it comes to Brian Wilson. I can't believe anyone would take that stance when freaking SMiLE was finally just released.

as Bruce said, Brian wrote all kinds of amazing songs that "went number one in his living room" and apparently that was good enough for Brian.


RELEASE THIS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND CARL AND DENNIS WILSON!!!

[urbanite]

I suspect some of it has been released in one form or another. 

[metal flake paint]

In my rant above I overlooked releases such as TSS that were beautifully presented without a surfboard in sight.

Even TSS couldn't escape the surfboard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT2dXXYXr2c

[The Shift]

My Get the Boot is four CD's. But that may be down to the trading source I got it from. In other words, two of the discs may be bonuses of other material. It's a CD-R set, not an original silver CD boot. My Solution is in the set.

More than likely. Far as I know GTB was two single-disc volumes, shared online Beith artwork and only ever as lossy MP3s. There's a lot of info on this forum from just a few years ago… a search should reveal all.

Would love to know the full listing of your 4CD version!

[KittyKat]

My Get the Boot is four CD's. But that may be down to the trading source I got it from. In other words, two of the discs may be bonuses of other material. It's a CD-R set, not an original silver CD boot. My Solution is in the set.

More than likely. Far as I know GTB was two single-disc volumes, shared online Beith artwork and only ever as lossy MP3s. There's a lot of info on this forum from just a few years ago… a search should reveal all.

Would love to know the full listing of your 4CD version!

I can't seem to find my boots, unfortunately. I'm sure they're somewhere. But I do remember it being four discs because I had a hard time finding enough discs for the trade. I was also sent Xeroxed artwork that I suspect the guy did himself (it had the same photos of Brian, but it was white on black instead of black on white and the font was different). I looked up the track listing for the two disc set and recall those titles being on there, but there was also "My Solution," some stuff that I think was from the SOT discs of post-Smile albums (with studio chatter), and even a couple of songs from the badly recorded Seattle show where Brian sang in place of Mike. 

[Andrew G. Doe]

My Get the Boot is four CD's. But that may be down to the trading source I got it from. In other words, two of the discs may be bonuses of other material. It's a CD-R set, not an original silver CD boot. My Solution is in the set.

The original Get The Boot tracklisting - anything else was added at a later date (annotations mine and a good few years old, hence need revisions):

Disc One
1. Beginning of the End -- Brian Wilson/Gary Usher demo, 4/16/62
2. Thank Him -- Brian Wilson/Bob Norberg demo, 1963
3. Side Two - Instrumental track, circa 1963
4. Back Home - 'Surfer Girl' outtake, June 14, 1963
5. Can't Wait Too Long - Vocals only fragment, 1967
6. Lonely Days - Rehearsal, 1967
7. Mona Kani - Dennis Wilson recording, 1968
8. Breakaway - Vocals only, 1969
9. Won't You Tell Me - Murry Wilson/Rick Henn composition, 1970
10. Back Home - Demo version, recorded 1969-70
11. Back Home - 'Sunflower' outtake, 1970
12. Walkin' - 'Sunflower' outtake, 1970
13. It's A New Day - Written by Dennis Wilson for a commercial, 1970
14. Barbara - Dennis Wilson demo version, circa 1970
15. Add Some Music To Your Day - Alternate version w/different lyrics, 1970
16. Slip On Through - Alternate backing track, 1970
17. Slip On Through - Live, Dennis Wolley Show, 1970
18. Our Sweet Love - Instrumental track/partial backing vocal, 1970
19. I'm Going Your Way - Written by Dennis Wilson, 1970
20. 'Til I Die - Vocals only, 1970-71
21. Surf's Up - Vocals only, recorded 1971
22. Rollin' Up To Heaven - Early 'dirty' version of Ding Dang
23. I've Got A Friend - live, early 1970's
24. Here She Comes - Live, fall 1972
25. Fairy Tale Music - Brian talking to and playing for a visitor, circa 1972

Disc Two
1. Snowflakes - American Spring outtake, 1972-73
2. Hard Times - Blondie Chaplin/Ricky Fataar song, recorded 1973
3. Battle Hymn of the Republic - Recorded at Jim Guercio's Caribou Ranch, 1974
4. Good Timin' - Instrumental track and lead vocal, recorded 1974
5. Don't You Just Know It - Brian Wilson/Jan Berry single, released 6/4/73
6. Why Do Fools Fall In Love - California Music 45, co-produced by Brian, 5/'75
7. Interview/Rock 'N' Roll Music [hot mix - Radio broadcast Spring '76 featuring Carl
8. Running Bear - '15 Big Ones’ outtake, 1976
9. Shake, Rattle and Roll - '15 Big Ones' outtake, 1976
10. Short Skirts - '15 Big Ones' outtake, 1976
11. Had To Phone Ya - Instrumental track, recorded 1976
12. New England Waltz - 'Adult/Child' outtake, recorded 1977
13. faux SMILE track from the 1983 vinyl boot (actually Miles Davis)
14. California Feelin' - Featuring Rocky Pamplin on vocals, 1977
15. Da Doo Ron Ron - 'Keepin' The Summer Alive' outtake, 1979
16. Oh Darlin' - Alternate vocal take, 1979
17. (We’re The) Endless Summer Beach Band – Mike solo track circa 1980
18. Back In The USSR - Details unknown; studio recording circa 1980
19. River Deep, Mountain High - Recorded by Brian Wilson, 1980
20. Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love - Brian Wilson, 1980
21. Rescue Me - Mike Love solo track
22. Stagger Lee - Mike Love solo track
23. Angel Come Home – early track, circa 1976
24. Where We Are - Carl Wilson solo track from early 1980s
25. At The Hop - 'The Beach Boys' (1985 lp) outtake, recorded 1985
26. Let's Dance/Do You Wanna Dance - Details unknown; possibly an 80s recording
27. I Can Hear Music - Recorded for a radio broadcast, Chicago 1996
28. Little Deuce Coupe - Recorded for a radio broadcast, Chicago 1996
29. Kokomo - David Marks recording, 2003

[KittyKat]

I'm thinking the trader used his "unique" four disc set to entice people to trade four discs instead of two, thus growing his trade list faster. I was pretty new to trading, so I didn't know any better. I didn't even have internet access at the time apart from work, and didn't have time to do much research (my company monitored my internet usage, so I was limited to lunch hour browsing). The guy also traded me a Monkees boot set that I later discovered didn't correspond to any other known boot tracklisting out there, so I suspect he liked doing his own compilations.  I do remember the tracks above being on it, and wanting to hear them after having read about them elsewhere, and finding most of them not being that good.

In re-reading Chidester's article, he mentions some tracks that have been discussed, but even he hasn't heard them yet, such as the one about the gorilla in Central Park. Now, that would be interesting to hear, but does a tape even exist?

[DonnyL]

This needs to be proper vintage or vintage-correct mixes. No Pro Tools edits ... proper analog mixing, etc. It needs to be compiled with care by someone with the proper artistic care and HIP FACTOR understanding.

Say, you wanna do it?

sure ... I'll brace myself to get ripped apart on this board afterwards !!!

[DonnyL]

This needs to be proper vintage or vintage-correct mixes. No Pro Tools edits ... proper analog mixing, etc. It needs to be compiled with care by someone with the proper artistic care and HIP FACTOR understanding.

I read the article, scanned the posts, don't remember seeing it mentioned so I'll ask:

Are these still on the multitrack reels, have they been mixed down to a reel, or have they all been transferred to digital as part of an ongoing vault archiving project?

If they're still on reels of tape...early 70's...could be sticky...Donny, better fire up the oven! 

ha ... actually the sticky doesn't generaaly start til round '74 based on my experince ... but '60s non-backcoated tapes are fairly fragile

[Jim V.]

To be honest when I read this thread, I was dissappointed that they weren't recent songs.  If the songs were decent from the 60's they would have already been released, I'd much rather hear new material from him. 

I don't think that is really accurate. "Where Is She?" is from 1969 and was just released last year. And that song is pretty freakin' awesome. And especially with the Beach Boys, I can think of some songs from the '60s that are a lot more than "decent" that weren't released until 2011! Here's a few for instance: "Child Is Father Of The Man", "Holidays", "Look", etc.

At the same time, I find it unlikely that there is really much that is substantial from this 1968 to 1974 era. While keeping in mind there very well could be a lot of stuff we don't know of, there's not a lot of super interesting stuff that I know of that would make a release like this tantalizing to many outside of us. I mean as far as things that could actually be considered somewhat completed songs that are still unreleased I guess you could throw "My Little Red Book" and the demos of "Awake" and "Silly Walls" on there. I mean, maybe something like "Rooftop Harry" is "finished" enough to be considered a complete song. Who knows? Then there is the medley of "Baby I Need Your Lovin'" with "Gimme Some Lovin'". I really hope that one still exists. From what David Sandler told me it sounds very, very interesting.

And then there's "Just an Imitation", which is supposed to be really great. However, I'm pretty sure it's been noted that there is no recording of this song at all, nor sheet music. So I would be very surprised if we ever see a release of that song. Although who knows, maybe they found a demo of it! Also, titles like "Pattycake", that's a decently well known one around our circle. However, once again, do we have any proof that this one was ever recorded? I know it's possible. But who knows?

Honestly, I think it would be interesting if maybe Alan Boyd came back to the board in some fashion and maybe updated us on stuff like this. It's not like he would be leaking unreleased material. He'd simply just be giving us info on whether certain things even exist in the archive, and maybe even could let us know what they sound like.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Some of these could've been recently (re)discovered. Some of the cuts on the boxed set were thought to have been previously lost but were found close to the originally planned release date. The fact that there was a different 1974 California Feelin that was unknown to pretty much everybody is a great example.

[Jay]

Here's a question: why would Beach Boys Inc. be inclined to release a set of Brian's "Bedroom Tapes" from this era, yet refrain from releasing re-mastered versions of the actual albums from this same period (namely "Friends," "Wild Honey," and "20/20")? 

My 2 cents: Such a release would better be geared to the "Brian Wilson" niche of the BB's fan universe. They may be better served for all kinds of reasons to somehow get the rights to them apart from a Beach Boys product, compile them in such a way that the Beach Boys' eventual use of any of these songs is a lesser point than the fact they are Brian Wilson home recordings, and put it out as a specialty kind of item under the name Brian Wilson.

It would sell more targeted to that fan niche, in my opinion, rather than making it a Beach Boys product.

Recall Pete Townshend and his "Lifehouse" tapes, not to mention his other demo releases. A lot of those solo Pete demos became Who classics, yet the home recordings Pete did to demo them and work them out were marketed as Pete Townshend solo works.

Did any hardcore Who fans mind that collections of Who demos from Townshend's home studio were released under Pete's name rather than The Who? The Brian home tapes are basically the same thing, sell them as such.

It would be really cool if there were a series of cd's of Brian's demos, like Pete's "Scoop" series. However, I think one of the main obstacles preventing that is the difference in the "approach" of the demos. Pete Townshend tended to make his demos full fledged productions, whereas with Brian, it's just a bare bones piano demo. Many people may find listening to only a piano and voice quite boring after so many songs in one sitting. That being said, I would love a "Brian Loves You" style cd.

[buddhahat]

In my rant above I overlooked releases such as TSS that were beautifully presented without a surfboard in sight.

Even TSS couldn't escape the surfboard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT2dXXYXr2c

Haha! Forgot about that one 

[The Shift]

Here's a question: why would Beach Boys Inc. be inclined to release a set of Brian's "Bedroom Tapes" from this era, yet refrain from releasing re-mastered versions of the actual albums from this same period (namely "Friends," "Wild Honey," and "20/20")? 

My 2 cents: Such a release would better be geared to the "Brian Wilson" niche of the BB's fan universe. They may be better served for all kinds of reasons to somehow get the rights to them apart from a Beach Boys product, compile them in such a way that the Beach Boys' eventual use of any of these songs is a lesser point than the fact they are Brian Wilson home recordings, and put it out as a specialty kind of item under the name Brian Wilson.

It would sell more targeted to that fan niche, in my opinion, rather than making it a Beach Boys product.

Recall Pete Townshend and his "Lifehouse" tapes, not to mention his other demo releases. A lot of those solo Pete demos became Who classics, yet the home recordings Pete did to demo them and work them out were marketed as Pete Townshend solo works.

Did any hardcore Who fans mind that collections of Who demos from Townshend's home studio were released under Pete's name rather than The Who? The Brian home tapes are basically the same thing, sell them as such.

It would be really cool if there were a series of cd's of Brian's demos, like Pete's "Scoop" series. However, I think one of the main obstacles preventing that is the difference in the "approach" of the demos. Pete Townshend tended to make his demos full fledged productions, whereas with Brian, it's just a bare bones piano demo. Many people may find listening to only a piano and voice quite boring after so many songs in one sitting. That being said, I would love a "Brian Loves You" style cd.

THe appearance of Lifehouse in this thread is a tad spooky as I've been indoctrinating the kids with it this week… it is the dog's bollox, it really is.

[Jay]

Don't get me started on The Who and Pete Townshend. 

[Bicyclerider]

Brian (Chidester) is basically recycling old news, isn't he?  We all know virtually every title mentioned (except Symphony of Frogs and Song to God were new to me), and all together he mentions 9 song titles (not including Ding Dang which has been released).  What are the other 51 songs? He's ilmplying these were written during the bedroom years between 1968 and 1974.  I'm not sure I buy the idea of a treasure trove of unreleased songs from this period.  I'd love to proven wrong though.

[Jay]

Yeah, what does the 1970 studio recording My Solution have to do with any of this?

[Jim V.]

But regardless, I hope there is a lot more than we know of. And hopefully AGD, who was apparently interviewed for this article, could at least be kind enough to say whether he agrees with Alan Boyd and Brian Chidester that there is enough material for a good collection of this stuff.

The question is, is there a market for this stuff beyond the copyright extension exercise that was The Big Beat 1963 ? That is... us. My thinkign is, downloads are the way. Is there enough for a good collection ? I think so, but the notion of a box set is wishful thinking: 60 titles doesn't necessarily translate into 60 reels of tape. I'd lean towards one solid collation of the best stuff, not every last plink, plonk, cough and fart.

Mind, "Symphony of Frogs" demands inclusion due to the title alone ! 

Andrew, maybe you know more, maybe you don't, maybe you're sworn to secrecy. But have you heard any of these "bedroom tapes", besides the one's that obviously circulate? Like for instance, any idea on whether "Rooftop Harry" has a lead vocal? Or what "Brian's Jam" is? Whether "Just an Imitation" is in fact on tape somewhere?

And also, in the article you are quoted as saying "this period is important", however I noticed you didn't say "this material is important." Do you think there is anything left in the vault that truly is revelatory? I mean, me personally I would love to hear things as random as "Spark in the Dark" and "Brian's Jam", however if a set did get released, there would have to be actual songs there along with these. I mean, I think that 1975 version of "In the Back of My Mind" sure seems like something that is interesting enough to merit release (although I guess it falls outside of that '68 to '74 period), and stuff like "Awake" definitely deserves it place on "bedroom tapes" type release.

Anyways, basically what I'm saying is, is there really a bit more than we know of?

[donald]

Can' t imagine ther is all that material unreleased, legit or boot, that we haven' heard somewhere.    After all, ther was a fair amount of old boot material on MIC, SMiLE box, and twofers.


Still, I dream of it........

[rogerlancelot]

But regardless, I hope there is a lot more than we know of. And hopefully AGD, who was apparently interviewed for this article, could at least be kind enough to say whether he agrees with Alan Boyd and Brian Chidester that there is enough material for a good collection of this stuff.

The question is, is there a market for this stuff beyond the copyright extension exercise that was The Big Beat 1963 ? That is... us. My thinkign is, downloads are the way. Is there enough for a good collection ? I think so, but the notion of a box set is wishful thinking: 60 titles doesn't necessarily translate into 60 reels of tape. I'd lean towards one solid collation of the best stuff, not every last plink, plonk, cough and fart.

Mind, "Symphony of Frogs" demands inclusion due to the title alone ! 

I agree that a more consolidated compilation would make for better listening and obviously would require editing out every last plink, plonk and cough. However, I for one beg for the inclusion of every fart. I think Brian's farts are fantastic. As a matter of fact I would buy a copy just for Brian's farts alone, never mind the music. I imagine the farts may be more interesting to listen to than most of the songs themselves. Obviously "Rooftop Harry" has a very interesting description in the article and I would love to hear a clear copy of "My Solution" (who wouldn't?) but I swear I will boycott this release if they do not include the farts. Brian's early 70's farts had a certain resonance to them that was lacking in the 60's and before they got down right sloppy by the late 70's. These days you would be a very lucky individual to actually witness one of his farts and it is a crime not more attention and care is given to capturing them to digital media. McCartney's farts are not as exciting as Brian's but maybe that is because of the difference of one man being a vegetarian and the other addicted to steaks. "Symphony Of Frogs" is an odd title, isn't it? Here's to hoping we get to hear these tracks someday!

[Andrew G. Doe]

My understanding is that a track-by-track follow-up article for the next LA Weekly is being prepared even as I type.

That's "type" as in this post, not the article: I know what some of you are like for jumping to unwarranted conclusions, you little tinkers... 

[alf wiedersehen]

Great news.

Now I play the waiting game.

[bgas]

Great news.

Now I play the waiting game.

Which, of course, will likely lead to The Crying Game

[Andrew G. Doe]

Great news.

Now I play the waiting game.

Which, of course, will likely lead to The Crying Game

I know all there is to know about that.