We're Together Again (alternate version)

[Mike's Beard]

Hey all,
I took Bossaroo's lead and created a version of "We're Together Again" using the released vocals and syncing them up with the alternate version of the backing track, just to give us an idea of what it may have sounded like.   Anyway, here is the link:

http://jmp.sh/934GIH3

Hope you enjoy!

Fantastic! Beach Boys meets the Flying Burritos meets Mike Nesmith.

[bossaroo]

great job silodweller!

i'm fascinated by this track. the song was Brian's baby wasn't it? so cool that he featured pedal steel and dobro so prominently, even if it never got used.

there are so few instances of Brian using pedal steel. Little Pad and Diamond Head are great but I love the country sound they got here, as opposed to the Hawaiian sound.

makes me want to hear Fred Vail's 'Cows in the Pasture' even more.

[c-man]

great job silodweller!

i'm fascinated by this track. the song was Brian's baby wasn't it? so cool that he featured pedal steel and dobro so prominently, even if it never got used.

there are so few instances of Brian using pedal steel. Little Pad and Diamond Head are great but I love the country sound they got here, as opposed to the Hawaiian sound.

makes me want to hear Fred Vail's 'Cows in the Pasture' even more.

I think "Little Pad" is lap steel. Maybe "Diamond Head" too, since lap steel is more associated with the Hawaiian sound, and pedal steel is more for the country sound. Still, steel is steel.

[bossaroo]

Diamond Head is definitely pedal steel. can't say for sure about Little Pad, but it could be either.
it's nearly impossible to get a pedal steel sound out of a lap steel, but pretty simple to get a lap sound out of a pedal steel.

there are 2 tunings most commonly associated with pedal steel, and most double-neck pedal steels are tuned this way...
E9 is the more "country" sounding tuning. C6 is the more Hawaiian sounding and also used more for jazz and western swing.


just for fun, here's a couple Beach Boys tunes I recorded utilizing the two different tunings:

Warmth of the Sun (E9)

Don't Talk (C6)

[silodweller]

Bossaroo, absolutely love your recordings!  They just take me away to a really cool place.  Well done!

[c-man]

Diamond Head is definitely pedal steel. can't say for sure about Little Pad, but it could be either.
it's nearly impossible to get a pedal steel sound out of a lap steel, but pretty simple to get a lap sound out of a pedal steel.

there are 2 tunings most commonly associated with pedal steel, and most double-neck pedal steels are tuned this way...
E9 is the more "country" sounding tuning. C6 is the more Hawaiian sounding and also used more for jazz and western swing.


just for fun, here's a couple Beach Boys tunes I recorded utilizing the two different tunings:

Warmth of the Sun (E9)

Don't Talk (C6)

So on "Diamond Head", do you think the pedal steel was played pedal-less? Or can you hear the pedal bends?

[bossaroo]

the pedals on C6 are used more for getting different chords and less for "bends" as they are on E9.

thanks silodweller 

[Bicyclerider]

Hey all,
I took Bossaroo's lead and created a version of "We're Together Again" using the released vocals and syncing them up with the alternate version of the backing track, just to give us an idea of what it may have sounded like.   Anyway, here is the link:

http://jmp.sh/934GIH3

Hope you enjoy!

Sounds good but the instrumental track at the end gets obscured by the vocals.  Maybe the vocal could fade out slowly at the end leaving the track more prominent.

[D Cunningham]

Bossaroo...I too loved your two song versions with the steel.  Thank you for sharing.

[guitarfool2002]

Bossaroo's pedal steel performances are terrific, I highly enjoy and recommend them!

To Bossaroo: We've talked pedal steel on this board before, I just wanted to pass on the word of a terrific player who I saw live this fall, and also address one of your statements about lap and pedal steel.

I agree, getting pedal steel sounds from a lap steel is tough, but if I had not seen and heard this with my own ears and eyes, I would have thought it was impossible too, but it's not. I saw Chris Scruggs play with Mike Nesmith in November, and Scruggs handled all string duties. He had an old Fender Stringmaster lap steel on stage, at least that's what it looked like from the audience, and I'll be damned if he wasn't getting pedal steel licks out of it. Naturally he was playing many of the parts Red Rhodes had played for Nesmith over a few decades (Rhodes also played pedal steel on 'Cottonfields' for the BB's), and if I didn't know he was playing that old Fender lap I'd swear he was playing a pedal steel.

Incredible player, touch-feel-tone-intonation-volume swells, the whole deal. Bossaroo, especially, check out Nesmith's upcoming live releases from that fall tour to hear Scruggs, it was truly great steel playing from a lap steel. As far as I could tell.

BTW it was the late Al Vescovo on Diamond Head, and it may also have been Al on "Little Pad". He was one of the first call LA steel players, who also played a number of other instruments on studio sessions, and I've heard he was one of the few pedal steel players in that era in Hollywood who could read charts, so he got reading gigs that a lot of Nashville players who read chord charts or number-system head arrangements wouldn't play because of the standard notation. That's what I heard, at least.

Now, I always assumed Diamond Head was done on a non-pedal lap steel, in the Hawaiian traditional technique and sound. Al Vescovo was a jazz steel player, so he was also well-versed on C6, obviously. His last steel before his death was one of those hybrid universal tuning 14-string single neck models, but in the 60's it would have most likely been a regular doubleneck E9/C6 steel.

I don't hear pedal bends on Diamond Head. Definitely not on Little Pad which is a simple gliss/slide part anyway.

But reading this, I'm rethinking it as Bossaroo has said, and thinking it may have been Vescovo playing on a C6 pedal steel neck without using the pedals for bends. I just don't hear 'em, not saying they're not there.

And again, I always thought that was Vescovo playing a lap steel, non-pedal...doesn't the tone sort of sound like a 50's Fender type, with that upper-end twang or "bite" to the tone versus a warmer C6 pedal steel tone? Open for suggestions...

Aside...on my "bucket list" is setting up and learning C6 style jazz on the pedal steel. I've only learned, played, and worked with E9. I'm the one with the Sho-Bud Lloyd Green ps, which has the pad where the C6 neck would be. I also have an early MSA 12-string universal single-neck, but the previous owner had it reset as a 12-string E9 extended tuning copedent, so there are some pedals and rods missing from the case. If I could get that instrument set up as a C6 or equivalent with help and suggestions from other steelers, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I love pedal steel jazz, and among my favorites is the amazing Curly Chalker and of course Al Vescovo. Curly was a genius, absolute genius, and could be more flashy than Vescovo who played more understated. But both of them, for jazz, are tops in my book.

Sorry for rambling. I do that when talking pedal steel.

PS...there is a story about someone who had seen the Beach Boys in the 70's where Steely Dan was on the same bill. The Dan at that time had Jeff "Skunk" Baxter on pedal steel, this had to be '74 as the Dan never toured for decades after that one. So Skunk comes on stage to sit in on pedal steel with the Beach Boys' set, and proceeds to blow away Mike Love with his playing, to the point where Mike says to the crowd how great it was. This coming from the person who saw the show, third-hand information, but still cool.

And as far as the Blondie/Ricky BB's era with pedal steel in their music, according to Ricky as told by someone who worked with him in the 80's (steel forum member), the band bought a pedal steel for Carl to learn and play, but he didn't, so Ricky picked it up instead.

[bossaroo]

thanks for the compliments, guys. much appreciated.

some great info there gf2002...
I've seen Chris Scruggs in action and he is an absolute mind-blower! as i said, it's "nearly" impossible to get pedal licks on a lap steel but i have no doubt that Scruggs can make it happen.

it was indeed Al Vescovo on Little Pad, and i assume he was using the same steel he used on Diamond Head but there's really no way of knowing now that he's gone. i don't hear any pedal bends on Diamond Head either, but it would be really tough to play all those chords on a non-pedal. i have the song tabbed out for C6 pedal steel somewhere.

i would love to be a better jazz player in general, especially on C6. it's amazing how many of the country steelers in Nashville and elsewhere are also jazz monsters on the C6. Curly Chalker was in a league of his own, but so are guys like Buddy Emmons, Doug Jernigan, Paul Franklin and the list goes on and on. if you haven't seen it yet, they did a tribute to Emmons recently at the Country Music Hall of Fame. check it out HERE

great story about Skunk sitting in with the Boys. lord, how i'd love to hear that set! here's a cool memento from those days:


i'm a huge Danfan too, love Skunk's playing. here's another recording i did recently: Aja/Third World Man

[bossaroo]

i took silodweller's mix and added the extra background vocals:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT9uNkMOdNk

[Peter Reum]

Just listened....great job!

[2 and a half]

Who is the Ron Wilson who shares the songwriting credit on this track - is it really the drummer of the Surfaris as suggested by Wikipedia?

[bringahorseinhere?]

wow! these sound great guys!! 

darn..... I also wish they did more work in that kinda country/rock genre.... beautiful sounds

RickB

[Myk Luhv]

Who is the Ron Wilson who shares the songwriting credit on this track - is it really the drummer of the Surfaris as suggested by Wikipedia?

According to AGD, no, and no one has ever been able to track down the correct Ron Wilson who wrote this song.