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Author Topic: Dennis as a studio drummer  (Read 29199 times)
KokoMoses
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« Reply #100 on: April 03, 2008, 02:40:26 AM »

To refer to the original topic, I think Dennis was much this way as well.

I think that what we're talking about now is why Brian and the Studio Musicians had such a mutual fondness.  Brian was able to transcend his own abilities instrumentally by giving his ideas to these pros, who were even able to expand on them because of their ability to play anything.  And they liked Brian because he brought in these ideas that were good, and he let them be themselves and feel creative, and also he really wanted to learn from them, too.

I'd say the Beach Boys are all underrated musicians. All of them (other than Mike) were/are multi-insturmentalists and could sing spot on (most of the time) and pull off very difficult harmonies while playing, which can be very difficult. It's no insult to say that their amazing vocals have overshadowed their musical abilities, but it is true. Also..... well..... ugh, I really don't wanna have to go into the whole "wrecking crew" BS once again.
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KokoMoses
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« Reply #101 on: April 03, 2008, 02:47:18 AM »

As for 20/20.... I remember talking to Rodney Bingenheimer about 12 years ago and we were talking about 20/20, and he told me he was around the studio quite a bit and that Dennis played on about half the album. I know he's on at least the basic track of Do It Again, also Time To Get Alone.... Does anyone know what other songs he's on on that album?
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c-man
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« Reply #102 on: April 03, 2008, 04:30:45 AM »

I think he's drumming on the basic track of "I Can Hear Music", with another drummer overdubbed while Dennis played acoustic piano & Bruce played electric piano.  He might also be drumming on "All I Want To Do" and "Never Learn Not To Love". 

Speaking of "Time To Get Alone", did anyone ever verify Desper's claim that the Boys took the '67 Redwood track and replaced all the parts by duplicating them exactly?
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KokoMoses
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« Reply #103 on: April 03, 2008, 06:30:22 AM »

Coming from Desper, I'd doubt it needs any verification. He says that they recorded the backing tracks from scratch and that on "Time To Get Alone" Dennis played drums and had a bit of sandpaper on his snare that he dragged his stick across at certain points, or something, for effect..... Consult "Desperpedia" to see what I'm talking about.
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Joshilyn Hoisington
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« Reply #104 on: April 03, 2008, 11:18:46 AM »

First of all, I'm the greatest champion of the Beach Boys as musicians.  I've been banned from Carol Kaye's board no less than 5 times for daring to suggest a Beach Boy actually played an instrument...

But:  They couldn't play anything Brian wanted, and they didn't really contribute or enhance his ideas, as evidenced by session tape.  Now, they might have grown into that after the "leaked session tape" era and we just haven't heard it.

As for Redwood, Desper is incorrect.  If you take the redwood version, and the Beach Boys version, and do some waveform inversion/combination, the track cancels out.  Meaning: the track is sonically identical.

However, Carl did do that weird alternate TTGA track that Alan Boyd thinks was simply to generate paperwork.
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adamghost
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« Reply #105 on: April 03, 2008, 11:33:17 AM »

I love this thread.  OK, a couple of other thoughts.

As to what Jerry Cole said, on further reflection I think the track had to have been "Sidewalk Surfin'".  They were right in the sense that whatever track it was clearly wasn't the studio band, and I can attest (since I had to learn the guitar parts for the session myself), "Surfin'" was by far the most rudimentary J & D track of the ones we did.  I don't think that Don confirmed Jerry's impression, but I don't remember.  I don't 100% trust Jerry's recollection about that particular song.  But I think it's likely he saw Bruce in the studio playing guitar at some point.

As to the BBs as natural musicians, in a conversation Stan Shapiro once said of Dennis: "he was a natural musician.  He could pick up anything and play it.  Not to the extent that Brian and Carl could, but they all were like that."  Which I think sums it up pretty well.

I guess I'm trying to relate Brian's deal to my own experience, and now that I think about it, even though I can play bass or drums, I rarely do, because there are other people in the room who do it better.  When I do play instruments I don't usually play, it's because no one else is around and I want to do a track, and in that case it's a useful skill to have.  There's also a political thing.  There are times when we're working out a song that I ask our drummer if I can play it for him.  Our drummer is a cool guy so he doesn't get annoyed, but it's a pretty obnoxious thing to do, and so politically it may have been the stringed instruments were Carl's domain and Brian didn't want or need to go there.  Keyboard and percussion instruments seem to be his comfort zone, and it's probably just easier for him to get it done that way.  It does sort of explain why the moog bass was used so prominently in the '70s, when Carl or Brian for that matter could have just strapped it on and played the part.  Brian probably just didn't want to bother transposing the bass line to the bass and plugging it in.

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Jon Stebbins
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« Reply #106 on: April 03, 2008, 01:41:47 PM »

With the Wilson brothers its no mystery that they were not virtuoso instrumentalists. Carl was the best...that's  because he worked hard on developing his guitar playing until about 1964 or 65, and that was about it...his ability stayed at that level, which was really good. But if you think about it, the Wilson's primary instrument were their ears...they were virtuoso at knowing what sounded right. And to take that further perhaps it was the connection between those ears and their hearts that really made it beyond virtuoso. I read through this thread and it made me think of Dennis, laboring on so many of those POB tracks by himself. he didn't really play any instrument at a high level, but he crafted those tracks painstakingly, on many of them he plays all, or nearly all of the instruments himself...they sound beautiful...he wasn't a great musician...but his ears were great, and he found a way to get to a great level with the tracks. Like Brian, he knew what sounded right...and more importantly what FELT right. Because Dennis was comparatively a novice at the playing part of it, or at least primitive compared to a trained player...things are put together in a very organic or non-traditional, non trained way. rules didn't matter...and the same held true for Brian, even when he was using the best musicians in the business... he was using them in a completely untrained way...he was incredibly inventive because the usual barriers were not there for him...he was just finding his vision by following his ears and his heart. That's why it sounds like nothing else. To me this very point proves that those guys were geniuses, or maybe a better way to say it is they were spiritual carpenters...they built from the soul...not from the head.
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c-man
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« Reply #107 on: April 03, 2008, 03:57:05 PM »

Well said, Jon.  Right on.
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Joshilyn Hoisington
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« Reply #108 on: April 03, 2008, 04:05:31 PM »

"Spiritual Carpenters", I like that.  Mind if I use it for the title of a book?  I think that raises my "book idea" count to 2314.  I respect you Jon, for taking it from idea to finished product.

I wish that Dennis had filmed himself putting together a POB track mostly by himself.  That would have been fun to see his process, as a fellow do it mostly myselfer.  It would be inspiring when I get tired of doing it all.
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MBE
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« Reply #109 on: April 03, 2008, 04:36:18 PM »

With the Wilson brothers its no mystery that they were not virtuoso instrumentalists. Carl was the best...that's  because he worked hard on developing his guitar playing until about 1964 or 65, and that was about it...his ability stayed at that level, which was really good. But if you think about it, the Wilson's primary instrument were their ears...they were virtuoso at knowing what sounded right. And to take that further perhaps it was the connection between those ears and their hearts that really made it beyond virtuoso. I read through this thread and it made me think of Dennis, laboring on so many of those POB tracks by himself. he didn't really play any instrument at a high level, but he crafted those tracks painstakingly, on many of them he plays all, or nearly all of the instruments himself...they sound beautiful...he wasn't a great musician...but his ears were great, and he found a way to get to a great level with the tracks. Like Brian, he knew what sounded right...and more importantly what FELT right. Because Dennis was comparatively a novice at the playing part of it, or at least primitive compared to a trained player...things are put together in a very organic or non-traditional, non trained way. rules didn't matter...and the same held true for Brian, even when he was using the best musicians in the business... he was using them in a completely untrained way...he was incredibly inventive because the usual barriers were not there for him...he was just finding his vision by following his ears and his heart. That's why it sounds like nothing else. To me this very point proves that those guys were geniuses, or maybe a better way to say it is they were spiritual carpenters...they built from the soul...not from the head.
One of your best posts.
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KokoMoses
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« Reply #110 on: April 03, 2008, 11:00:42 PM »

well, that's the great thing about "Rock n Roll"... It's all about what you DO, not what you CAN do.
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