Lady Lynda: A Masterpiece

[pixletwin]

The Knebworth 1980 disc, with Lady Linda is great. And the song really shines here. At this point the Beach Boys were a much better live band than they were a studio band. Even if a live recording required a few post production touch-ups in the vocal department, so be it. Live, they sound like they are in full-command of the cohesive missing ingredient absent from their over-produced studio efforts.

Yes! That is quite right.

I love it when Mike yells "ONE MORE TIME!" and the sing that outro. It just sounds soooooo good! The blend is spot on.

[adamghost]

Cool video!  Great to catch a glimpse of Earle Mankey at 8:54.

[Stephen W. Desper]

Okay-
I may get a lot of criticism for saying this, but I think Lady Lynda is one of the best Beach Boys songs of all time. It has such a beautiful melody and arrangement. Alan's vocals are great, and the fact that Dennis contributed to the arrangement is really neat! The song just creates such a cool vibe, that like Pet Sounds, combines classical and rock music.
I surely can't be the only one that loves this song. Who else does?

COMMENT:  I remember Alan playing this song for me in his barn where he had a piano. In fact, I remember seeing him working out the way in which he would blend the Bach part to his Lynda part -- how he would marry the two in his compilation while sitting at the keyboard -- just playing and working with the notes on this "stage" that was at one end of the barn -- him doing this while I was grooming the horses at the opposite end. This was before Red Bran was converted into a studio. He had been interested in Jesu' by way of a friend, and studied it in depth on his own. I myself know the song and can play it on the keyboard. I turned Alan onto a version by Paul Beaver where the melody is complimentary to both contrapuntal sections. It is not in the Bach version. Alan worked on the song for about a year before he started recording it. We recorded many experimental trials as he worked the chord changes and lyrics into what you now hear.  I have no idea what he has done with the song with respect to tracking. I do hear the string section he has added (nice). I remember recording a basic track -- drums, rhythm guitar bass -- and some vocals. But those could remain or have been replaced. I just don't know. Dennis is attracted to romantic songs. He and Al found a common bond in this song and worked together on it. Alan wanted the song to be a tribute to Lynda, a very lovely lady and one of the woman who was special in his life -- I can't remember if they were married at the time or not. But anyway, he felt strongly about the song and worked very long and hard on all aspects of the song, most of which was worked out on the guitar, that is the chord changes, melody, and vocal harmonies.

I have also had the pleasure of mixing the song with Alan singing on stage in concert at many shows. He was figuring out the tracking of the song for production while performing it live in a more simple version at many venues.  Sometimes he would start with the Bach part played on his guitar. Other times, Bruce would play the intro on the organ. Alan is a consistently good vocalist. I have seen him perform this song many times, but each time he pulls off a perfect vocal. In the past 40 years, his voice has remained unchanged. He could perform "In My Room" today and it would sound like it did when he recorded it all those years ago.  ~swd

[barsone]

Great post Mr Desper........so in depth and concise.     My daughter is 32 and its the ringtone on her phone !!!

[Tony S]

That's a really excellent post Steve.....would love to hear more stories about Red Barn recordings. Just home from visiting the Big Sur area, and was close to the studio near Pfeiffer. Beautiful place.

[Cool Cool Water]

COMMENT:  I remember Alan playing this song for me in his barn where he had a piano. In fact, I remember seeing him working out the way in which he would blend the Bach part to his Lynda part -- how he would marry the two in his compilation while sitting at the keyboard -- just playing and working with the notes on this "stage" that was at one end of the barn -- him doing this while I was grooming the horses at the opposite end. This was before Red Bran was converted into a studio. He had been interested in Jesu' by way of a friend, and studied it in depth on his own. I myself know the song and can play it on the keyboard. I turned Alan onto a version by Paul Beaver where the melody is complimentary to both contrapuntal sections. It is not in the Bach version. Alan worked on the song for about a year before he started recording it. We recorded many experimental trials as he worked the chord changes and lyrics into what you now hear.  I have no idea what he has done with the song with respect to tracking. I do hear the string section he has added (nice). I remember recording a basic track -- drums, rhythm guitar bass -- and some vocals. But those could remain or have been replaced. I just don't know. Dennis is attracted to romantic songs. He and Al found a common bond in this song and worked together on it. Alan wanted the song to be a tribute to Lynda, a very lovely lady and one of the woman who was special in his life -- I can't remember if they were married at the time or not. But anyway, he felt strongly about the song and worked very long and hard on all aspects of the song, most of which was worked out on the guitar, that is the chord changes, melody, and vocal harmonies.

I have also had the pleasure of mixing the song with Alan singing on stage in concert at many shows. He was figuring out the tracking of the song for production while performing it live in a more simple version at many venues.  Sometimes he would start with the Bach part played on his guitar. Other times, Bruce would play the intro on the organ. Alan is a consistently good vocalist. I have seen him perform this song many times, but each time he pulls off a perfect vocal. In the past 40 years, his voice has remained unchanged. He could perform "In My Room" today and it would sound like it did when he recorded it all those years ago.  ~swd

Very interesting story, Stephen, thanks for sharing!

[Rick5150]

Al & Lynda, Diane, Brian, and Marilyn

Lynda looks a little like Olivia Wilde here:

[SenorPotatoHead]

Al & Lynda, Diane, Brian, and Marilyn

Lynda looks a little like Olivia Wilde here:

She looks Elvish.....and i mean that in a good way.   

[Sangheon]

Okay-
I may get a lot of criticism for saying this, but I think Lady Lynda is one of the best Beach Boys songs of all time. It has such a beautiful melody and arrangement. Alan's vocals are great, and the fact that Dennis contributed to the arrangement is really neat! The song just creates such a cool vibe, that like Pet Sounds, combines classical and rock music.
I surely can't be the only one that loves this song. Who else does?

COMMENT:  I remember Alan playing this song for me in his barn where he had a piano. In fact, I remember seeing him working out the way in which he would blend the Bach part to his Lynda part -- how he would marry the two in his compilation while sitting at the keyboard -- just playing and working with the notes on this "stage" that was at one end of the barn -- him doing this while I was grooming the horses at the opposite end. This was before Red Bran was converted into a studio. He had been interested in Jesu' by way of a friend, and studied it in depth on his own. I myself know the song and can play it on the keyboard. I turned Alan onto a version by Paul Beaver where the melody is complimentary to both contrapuntal sections. It is not in the Bach version. Alan worked on the song for about a year before he started recording it. We recorded many experimental trials as he worked the chord changes and lyrics into what you now hear.  I have no idea what he has done with the song with respect to tracking. I do hear the string section he has added (nice). I remember recording a basic track -- drums, rhythm guitar bass -- and some vocals. But those could remain or have been replaced. I just don't know. Dennis is attracted to romantic songs. He and Al found a common bond in this song and worked together on it. Alan wanted the song to be a tribute to Lynda, a very lovely lady and one of the woman who was special in his life -- I can't remember if they were married at the time or not. But anyway, he felt strongly about the song and worked very long and hard on all aspects of the song, most of which was worked out on the guitar, that is the chord changes, melody, and vocal harmonies.

I have also had the pleasure of mixing the song with Alan singing on stage in concert at many shows. He was figuring out the tracking of the song for production while performing it live in a more simple version at many venues.  Sometimes he would start with the Bach part played on his guitar. Other times, Bruce would play the intro on the organ. Alan is a consistently good vocalist. I have seen him perform this song many times, but each time he pulls off a perfect vocal. In the past 40 years, his voice has remained unchanged. He could perform "In My Room" today and it would sound like it did when he recorded it all those years ago.  ~swd

Mr. Desper
Thank you for your great post!
I heard your relation to the basic track session for the first time.
and I have supposed that Jeff Peters engineered the session, because he was involved with MIU sessions as a final mixdown engineer.
(also with Al's solo album too)

The final version on L.A was rerecorded replaced your engineered the basic track.
But how about this version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm0rdP8cf6c
you were involved in this? though I have supposed this is Jeff's at MIU.

[c-man]

Ron Altbach has stated that the original version was recorded at Brother in a session engineered by Earle Mankey. He says that version formed the foundation of the released version - and certain elements, such as the electric piano and some of the chorus vocals, sound identical (except maybe for the relative speed of the two versions, but that could have been changed in mixdown). Bobby Figueroa recalls doing the final drums at Western, while the orchestral parts were added at Britannia, and the final vocals and mix were done at Super Sound in Monterey.

[Stephen W. Desper]

Ron Altbach has stated that the original version was recorded at Brother in a session engineered by Earle Mankey. He says that version formed the foundation of the released version - and certain elements, such as the electric piano and some of the chorus vocals, sound identical (except maybe for the relative speed of the two versions, but that could have been changed in mixdown). Bobby Figueroa recalls doing the final drums at Western, while the orchestral parts were added at Britannia, and the final vocals and mix were done at Super Sound in Monterey.

COMMENT:  Thanks for the background and history of this song's evolution. I recorded what I recorded at Alan's place in Big Sur back before the barn was remodeled into a studio. There was still recording equipment there and what I tracked was (evidentially) the rudimental beginnings of the song. Alan records and re-records many of this productions, so this is typical. At least I had some influence in the final version in that I was one of the designers of Britannia Studios where you said the strings were added.

Most of the memories I have for this song are from concert performances. The stage version started out with Al singing and playing an acoustic guitar. Later rehearsals brought more and more harmonies and other parts into the act, until it became a Beach Boy presentation complete with all the parts and instrumentation. I would say Lady was performed about every fourth or fifth show, I guess depending on how Alan felt and how tight the acoustics were of the venue that night. It's not a song that works in a large auditorium with much reverb. It does come off as a lovely piece to watch and hear in a smaller theater setting. Maybe Alan and group will be performing Lady during this current tour. That would be a treat to hear. ~swd 

[bonnevillemariner]

Ok, I just listened to the live version, and y'all are right-- it is excellent.  Still absolutely detest the studio cut, though.  I can't think (off the top of my head) of any other song whose live/studio versions are so polarizing for me.

[HeyJude]

Apparently, the only times after early 1982 that Al has done “Lady Lynda” would be the “Lady Liberty” variant performed (maybe only once?) in 1986, and then apparently circa 1991 (or sometime in the early 90s) he did it on a UK tour and changed it to “Little Lady” for presumably obvious reasons.

One bit of trivia: I believe “Lady Lynda” was mentioned among the songs Al was *going* to perform when he was slated to do one of those “Pop Overthrow” festivals in the early 2000s (circa maybe 2000 or 2001?); he eventually had to cancel the gig due to needing to attend something related to some legal/court-related wrangling if I’m recalling correctly.

Even more arcane trivia: I remember reading a fan account of overhearing a Brian soundcheck during the 2000 “Pet Sounds” tour, and the fan mentioned that in between songs, Brian randomly started loudly singing “Lady Lynda” for a few moments.

[barsone]

I did a search but couldn't find it.........Wasn't there some sort of "stipulation" as part of the Al/Lynda divorce that this song couldn't be song by the BB's.
Obviously one wouldn't sing this song about an ex, however I recall reading here years ago about it not being sung formally by decree.   Anyone else remember this ?