Dennis vocal presence in SUNSHINE TOMORROW...?

[Don Malcolm]

We will be at it for weeks and weeks picking all the little things out of these 65 tracks (too bad it couldn't have been 67...!) but I wondered if anyone else is hearing some places where Dennis is coming through as a vocalist...?

I"m thinking that Dennis may be sneaking into the backing vocal mix on "Aren't You Glad," as there are too many parts in the chorus as the voices overlap and take turns...could it be him singing the "tell me tell me you know what I mean" line? Listen to the live version (and what a killer version it is, even though it's slowed down just a tad from the studio version) where Al takes Brian's "I got a heart..." and the "Aren't you glad..." is handled as what sounds like a three-part harmony between Mike, Al, and Carl...but here the "tell me tell me" part (which is panned into the right channel) REALLY sounds like Dennis to me--particularly the way the word "know" is sung...sounds a lot like the way he was singing at the end of "Slip On Through."

And it's so damn cool that Mike gets into it at the end, giving the horn section some (well-deserved) kudos. ("You guys are sounding good over there...") They sure are--and anything that can make this song last longer is well worth it!

And on "Game of Love," listen at 1:14 when the little vamp on "The purpose of a man..." occurs before Mike and Brian repeat the verse. Is that Dennis or is it Carl? That quaver at the beginning of the vamp makes me think it's Dennis, but the way the notes get bent at the end (at around 1:21) sounds much more like Carl, with that breathy thing he could do so seamlessly.

Interested to hear what other ears are hearing here...

[linusoli]

I hear that "Game of Love" extract as Carl for sure. Dennis is pretty audible on most of the Smiley Smile material, although I find it harder to pick him out on Wild Honey. That's an intriguing idea that he could be on the vocal round of "Aren't You Glad" - I listened to it with that in mind, and could sort of hear him but also sort of hear Carl and Brian, slowed down a little bit. Hard to say!

Last night I was enjoying the Hawaii "Heroes and Villains" rehearsal on headphones, and Dennis is very audibly mixed with Brian in the left channel. Cool to notice!