Brian's musical quotes

[GhostyTMRS]

I've been thinking about how Brian has a tendency to incorporate a musical phrase or passage from another song. It always gives us a sense of what records he was listening to at the time. These little call-backs are almost like a secret language to other music fans. There are obvious ones, like duplicating Frankie Valli's falsetto part from "Walk Like A Man" on to the tag of "Surfer's Rule" (which was a light hearted challenge to the Four Seasons themselves) but there are others that are less famous....

...like the way he uses part of the vocal arrangement of Nino Tempo and April Steven's 1963 version of "Deep Purple" for the Beach Boys' own "The Man With All The Toys" released a year later (listen at about 2:14 and you'll see what I mean): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OpGIG8UlSE

Can we think of any more? (and no jokes about "Surfin' USA" and "Shortnin' Bread")

[branaa09]

Fannie Mae by Buster Brown and the LP version of Help Me, Ronda? www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVNcqb2a3KA
Get A Job by The Silhouettes and She's Goin' Bald. Mostly the "What a Blow section." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysKhbaLyIFw
There is also a Phil Spector produced song that has chords similar to Heroes and Villians.

[Zander]

"Do It Again" contains themes from The Frogmen's "Underwater"...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xN8RgVFoBY

[Jukka]

You know that horn fanfare between verses in Brian-produced Cotton Fields? Is that a quote from somewhere? I could swear it sounded familiar the first time I heard it...

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Little Children and Mountain of Love.

[Please delete my account]

Only obvious ones from me:

Twelfth Street Rag in Look
Here Comes Santa Claus in Child of Winter

[JK]

Brian's opening falsetto line in "Getcha Back", whether consciously or unconsciously, is an ultra-slowed-down version of the opening line of The Shepherd Sisters' 1957 single "Alone (Why Must I Be Alone)": 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kna-t50vGic

Brian must have heard this song, "glued to the radio" as he was in those days.

[JK]

You know that horn fanfare between verses in Brian-produced Cotton Fields? Is that a quote from somewhere? I could swear it sounded familiar the first time I heard it...

It has something of "Penny Lane" about it, or even "For No One"-----sort of a baroque feel. I'm sure there are others among the more jaunty pop records of the mid sixties that resorted to this effect. It also reminds me (rightly or wrongly) of Herb Alpert...     

[Mr. Cohen]

I can think of a few where he references himself. He references "This Whole World" in "Imagination". He has random "Shortenin' Bread" jams in "Belles Of Madness", which kinda cracked me up. They get Brian Wilson to collaborate on a tender ballad, and he decides that what the song really needed was his favorite riff - and actually, I'd rather hear that then the rest of the song ("clang ding dang it, now the bells are ringin'!"). He quotes "God Only Knows" at the end of "Oh Darlin'".

Outside of himself, y'all gonna hate me for this: "Heroes and Villains" bass quotes "River Deep Mountain High". I've always thought that Brian copying that for his own "hit single" was a sign that he was cracking a bit, or getting "eccentric" with his instrumentation, as Al Jardine once said. "South Bay Surfer" riffs off of Stephen Foster's "Old Folks at Home". The intro to "Fun, Fun, Fun" quoted Chuck Berry ("Johnny B. Goode").

[JK]

Outside of himself, y'all gonna hate me for this: "Heroes and Villains" bass quotes "River Deep Mountain High".

Very good point. But it's not only the bass. "I've been in this town so long that back in the city" and "When I was a little girl I had a rag doll" have the same descending sequence of four notes, beginning with the subdominant. Indeed, those opening bars are almost a direct quote. So don't count me among your haters.  

[Joel Goldenberg]

I hear elements of Lou Christie's I'm Gonna Make You Mine in the opening of Brian's imagination.

[Wirestone]

TWGMTR and You Only Live Twice. Also, Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl and something by the Four Seasons that I can't recall right now ...

[Ang Jones]

The bass line of A Thing or Two is used in Do It Again.

[Menace Wilson]

Not to go off topic, but Kiss borrowed the Bicycle Rider motif on "I Was Made For Loving You."

[guitarfool2002]

I like this one, as short as it is    :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmdQ0jc6rQg

Heroes and Spector's "River Deep" definitely share the same groove, pulse, and bass line, and if you hear the instrumental takes of "River Deep" it comes through even more clear. Rodney Bingenheimer says he met up with Brian the day Spector was holding that session at Gold Star and they went there to watch, was this confirmed?

Question: I know there were stories that God Only Knows was inspired by Brian hearing a Lovin Spoonful song, but i can't remember the details. Can anyone remember what Spoonful song was the inspiration, if it was ever named?

[37!ws]

There is also a Phil Spector produced song that has chords similar to Heroes and Villians.

Ike & Tina's "Save The Last Dance For Me." I nearly passed out when I heard that on the radio!

[Aomdiddlywalla]

Surprised when my son noticed Kiss Me Baby and TWGMTR !
Didn't spot it myself, but it's all there.

[guitarfool2002]

There is also a Phil Spector produced song that has chords similar to Heroes and Villians.

Ike & Tina's "Save The Last Dance For Me." I nearly passed out when I heard that on the radio!

Good call: From the same "River Deep Mountain High" album and sessions, which again if Rodney B. is correct, Brian attended at least one at Gold Star.

Here's "Save The Last Dance...":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=406bQoEhWgs

Here's "River Deep...", a portion of the studio tracking session at Gold Star. Listen starting at around :45 and you'll hear the bass line and groove being rehearsed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zfNx8qNKL0

Put those two recordings together and you basically have the "Heroes" verse groove in a nutshell. No doubt.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Question: I know there were stories that God Only Knows was inspired by Brian hearing a Lovin Spoonful song, but i can't remember the details. Can anyone remember what Spoonful song was the inspiration, if it was ever named?

This article says that it's You Didn't Have To Be So Nice and says that Brian was inspired by the vocal layering. It doesn't say where it got that information though.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/music/beach-boys-our-top-50-hits-1.3794840

[guitarfool2002]

Question: I know there were stories that God Only Knows was inspired by Brian hearing a Lovin Spoonful song, but i can't remember the details. Can anyone remember what Spoonful song was the inspiration, if it was ever named?

This article says that it's You Didn't Have To Be So Nice and says that Brian was inspired by the vocal layering. It doesn't say where it got that information though.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/music/beach-boys-our-top-50-hits-1.3794840

That would make sense! You Didn't Have To Be So Nice is a terrific record all around, and those vocal layers and harmonies just sent it into the stratosphere: They're not as stacked or as full as Brian's productions from that era, but that one phrase where the backing vocals overlap and "answer" the melody and at one point end on the major 7th harmony is brilliant. I can see where Brian (along with 99% of their peers in the music biz) was tuned into the singles the Spoonful was releasing in 65-66-67 up to the infamous "bust".

That's probably best described as taking a more broad cue from the feel, texture, and techniques of a record instead of a specific melody, bassline, etc. that can be pinpointed. I'd actually suggest the strong danceable shuffle feel in the drums of that record was pretty much in tune with what Brian was going for on the bigger singles of 65-66 too, only with more of a full drum kit feel than what Brian was doing in the studio for obvious reasons with the Spoonful being a self-contained 4-piece band.

Great story from John Sebastian that he told in the documentary "John Lennon's Jukebox" (highly recommended, BTW). Sebastian said someone gave him a Beatles bootleg (the Get Back sessions) where Lennon was noodling and playing various cover tunes, and he was trying to play I think it was "Daydream". He was playing along, but couldn't figure out what one of the jazzy chord changes was, to the point where Lennon finally said in frustration "Damn songwriters!". 

[LostArt]

The University of Wisconsin's fight song, "On, Wisconsin" (which must have been Hawthorne High's fight song as well...Onward Cougars) in Be True To Your School.

[puni puni]

Not to go off topic, but Kiss borrowed the Bicycle Rider motif on "I Was Made For Loving You."

Most of the posters in this thread really need to learn how music scales and intervals work.

[Summer_Days]

Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl and something by the Four Seasons that I can't recall right now ...

The Four Seasons song is 'Who Loves You'. They do sound quite a lot alike.

[KarlheinzKloppweiser]

Brian Wilson

[felipe]

- "At My Window" is Kingston Trio's "Raspberries, Strawberries" rewritten
- "Passing By" is a whole study around Temptaions "Get Ready" chorus backing vocals
- Fairy Tale's "through the misty night" verse is identical to Beatles And I Love Her "you'd love her too"
- Brian's "Saturday Morning In The Ciry" verse sounds like "Head and shoulders knees and toes"
- Brian reused the climax of Thank Him, "the loveliest thing" melody, in a diferent context in Ballad Of Ole' Betsy "was born in '32" line and killed its power