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Author Topic: Dennis as a studio drummer  (Read 29185 times)
Joshilyn Hoisington
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« Reply #25 on: March 28, 2008, 11:57:25 PM »

Too late to get real into this, but "That's Not Me" is another one.
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Aegir
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« Reply #26 on: March 28, 2008, 11:57:45 PM »

That's IT?
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adamghost
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« Reply #27 on: March 29, 2008, 12:03:27 AM »

Was Dennis on "Good Timin'"?
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mikeyj
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« Reply #28 on: March 29, 2008, 06:04:19 AM »

Too late to get real into this, but "That's Not Me" is another one.

Of course!! Thanks aeijtzsche, totally forgot about that one!! Will add it to the list
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c-man
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« Reply #29 on: March 29, 2008, 08:26:56 AM »

Is it true that Dennis added a few drum licks to "Breakaway"?

And who played the drums to "Be With Me," was that Dennis?

"Be With Me" was... (drumroll, please)....Mike Kowalski!
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c-man
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« Reply #30 on: March 29, 2008, 08:28:40 AM »

Is it true that Dennis added a few drum licks to "Breakaway"?


That's what Desper alluded to, but Allen Breneman is the drummer listed on both the basic track contract, and the one for a later overdub session, so it appears Mr. Breneman did the extra licks.
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c-man
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« Reply #31 on: March 29, 2008, 08:31:38 AM »

Was Dennis on "Good Timin'"?

My understanding is the original 1974 track is Brian, Dennis, Carl, and Jimmy G.  There's no question that Dennis was definitely there, so I would say yes, he's playing drums on that.
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John
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« Reply #32 on: March 29, 2008, 08:34:34 AM »

That's IT?

There's all the Christmas stuff from '64, and most of Surfer Girl, LDC, and probably Shut Down Vol. 2 and ASL too, surely.
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c-man
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« Reply #33 on: March 29, 2008, 08:37:21 AM »

It might be worth pointing out that Dennis is drumming on the single version of "Cotton Fields", but the LP version is...(another drumroll, please)...Hal Blaine.

As for Denny, I believe he's playing drums on most, if not all, of the "Wild Honey" LP.  Exceptions are "How She Boogalooed It", which is apparently either Carl or Brian (since Dennis is absent from the contract), and the outtake "With A Little Help From My Friends" (Bruce has said that was Carl, playing drums while sitting atop a bar stool).  Speaking of Carl playing drums, as has long been rumoured, the AFM contract indicates Carl plays EVERY instrument on "Long Promised Road", including the drums.

Getting back to Dennis for a moment...he plays a PERCUSSION overdub (from listening, my guess would be vibes or something similar) on "Endless Harmony", but the drums appear to be a combination of Ricky Fataar and Scott Matthews (one probably played the basic track and the other added the fill toward the end, I would imagine).
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c-man
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« Reply #34 on: March 29, 2008, 08:42:07 AM »

That's IT?

There's all the Christmas stuff from '64, and most of Surfer Girl, LDC, and probably Shut Down Vol. 2 and ASL too, surely.

Yep...Denny's on "Fun Fun Fun" and "I Get Around" for sure, plus probably all the others on those albums except "Drive In" (the track for which is apparently the Wrecking Crew), "Our Car Club" (Hal), and of course the Dick Reynolds orchestral Christmas stuff.  Hal often played in conjunction with Denny on those albums (either double drums or timbales).  On "The Rocking Surfer" and "Boogie Woodie" it sounds as if Dennis was playing on the basic track, then Brian had the drums replaced by someone else (Hal or whomever), but you can still hear Dennis' original drum performance bleeding through the mics on the other tracks. 

A couple of other tracks on that list (like "Do It Again" and "It's OK") include the drumming of both Dennis and someone else (John Guerin and Ricky Fataar, respectively, on those two songs).
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c-man
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« Reply #35 on: March 29, 2008, 08:47:46 AM »

Oh, here's some more:

Shortenin' Bread
Stevie (unreleased but great)
Hey Little Tomboy
Peggy Sue
My Diane
Come Go With Me (probably)
Sea Cruise
Love Surrounds Me

Plus all of the first two albums except "Surfin'" and at least part of "Surfin' U.S.A.".
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c-man
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« Reply #36 on: March 29, 2008, 09:00:13 AM »

Also...

Pipeline
Fourth of July (probably)
Mony Mony (unreleased but commonly booted)
Ruby Baby ('76 version) (ditto)
and probably:
Night Blooming Jasmine (bonus track on Rhino's BW '88 reissue)
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Jon Stebbins
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« Reply #37 on: March 29, 2008, 09:44:11 AM »

Let's emphasize that it's not just the first two LP's that he's on most of...but also Surfer Girl, LDC, Shut Down vol. 2, and All Summer Long as well...plus the live LP, plus nearly half of Today! and four tracks on Summer Days...really Pet Sounds is the only LP from the beginning until Friends where he's not drumming much(unless you count Party). Smile...hmmm...I think he's on Holidays, i don't know what else...but there's probably more. I'm sure if you listed every track every drummer has played on BB's sessions up to 1979...including Blaine and Fataar and Dragon etc... that Dennis will have played on far, far more than anybody else...and probably nearly as many as all the others combined. That's why the, "he didn't play drums on many BB's songs...but hey he's a great songwriter" thing really is BS and shows how lazy so many BB's journalists were, and still are, in their research. Yeah he was a great songwriter...but he also played drums on a majority of BB's recordings...including a bunch of the hits. And don't get me started on the Dave Marks was a "temporary fill-in" for Al Jardine...man...that was the biggest BB's lie of all...and it still permeates their history practically everywhere you can find a dumb journalist writing about it. Okay...back to my meditation.
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Joshilyn Hoisington
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« Reply #38 on: March 29, 2008, 10:02:49 AM »

Very true, Jon.

It's funny, because a lot of the blame rests with the living members of the wrecking crew who are overzealous in correcting the (very real with some people) perception that some groups played all their own stuff.  But since people like Carol have been so outspoken in saying they did "ALL" the Beach Boys things...and she's interviewed a heck of a lot...well, it's distorted the picture.
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c-man
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« Reply #39 on: March 29, 2008, 11:20:25 AM »

Very true, Jon.

It's funny, because a lot of the blame rests with the living members of the wrecking crew who are overzealous in correcting the (very real with some people) perception that some groups played all their own stuff.  But since people like Carol have been so outspoken in saying they did "ALL" the Beach Boys things...and she's interviewed a heck of a lot...well, it's distorted the picture.

And, I think, a big part of the distortion started with David Leaf writing, in his 1978 book, that "from 1963 through 1966, Brian used studio musicians on the instrumental tracks".  This resulted in, to borrow a phrase from Domenic Priore, "people becoming married to certain ideas" that they refuse to let go of, even in the face of concrete evidence!
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Joshilyn Hoisington
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« Reply #40 on: March 29, 2008, 11:38:45 AM »

Yeah, Leaf's liner notes made things confusing as well.  And let's not forget poor Carl whose name gets left off many songs that he was on because he wasn't on the contract.  Because of that his considerable abilities get forgotten.  Some people think he couldn't have handled the Fun Fun Fun intro and Campbell had to be brought in as an under-the-table ringer.

But Carl played on more Pet Sounds tracks than Brian, you know.
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John
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« Reply #41 on: March 29, 2008, 12:18:10 PM »

We need the Definitive Instrumental Credits Thread...
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Aegir
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« Reply #42 on: March 29, 2008, 01:06:16 PM »

That will be much harder. If one tries hard enough, voices can be distinguished, but can anyone seriously listen to a track and say, "Oh, that's definitely [insert name here] on sax," just from sound alone?
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Joshilyn Hoisington
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« Reply #43 on: March 29, 2008, 01:36:37 PM »

That will be much harder. If one tries hard enough, voices can be distinguished, but can anyone seriously listen to a track and say, "Oh, that's definitely [insert name here] on sax," just from sound alone?

Well, to some extent, it's easier because there are contracts for instrumental sessions.

But it's true that in the absence of contracts, it's hard but not impossible to pick things out.  With session tape, voices of instrumentalists can be recognized.  If I hear some noodling on guitar, I can tell if it's Glen Campbell, usually, because he tends to play real fast country runs.  Barney Kessel can be picked out too sometimes.  And Carl's Rickenbacker, for instance, tends to stick out among the Fender XIIs and stuff.



A thread is much too constraining for a definitive credits list.  That's why there are other avenues for that kind of thing.  At the moment, C-man's website, for instance.
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John
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« Reply #44 on: March 29, 2008, 02:43:03 PM »

I think having a handy reference a la the vocal thread would at least, if incomplete, would help counter the "Dennis / Carl / whoever never played on anything" canard, and in one handy place too.
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Jon Stebbins
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« Reply #45 on: March 29, 2008, 03:00:55 PM »

At times its easier to distinguish musicians, as opposed to vocalists, when say Murry, Chuck Britz or Brian are commenting to the musicians from the control room. You can hear Chuck talking to Dennis or Hal during the Today sessions on the Sea of Tunes discs making it fairly easy to tell which guy is on a given track. Some of the sessions we don't have that luxury, but in general SOT's have proven that Carl, Dennis and Al were around and playing on the recordings quite a bit more than we had been told for all those years.
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Joshilyn Hoisington
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« Reply #46 on: March 29, 2008, 03:13:52 PM »

I just wish Al wasn't so quiet out on the studio floor.  There are times he's so quiet you wonder if he's playing from the booth...but usually the bass sound doesn't sound very direct-y.  Like the whole long When I Grow Up session...does Al say a word?  At least on stuff like California Girls, Brian will hit the talkback and you can hear Carl apologizing to him for messing up.

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mikeyj
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« Reply #47 on: March 29, 2008, 08:01:47 PM »

I think having a handy reference a la the vocal thread would at least, if incomplete, would help counter the "Dennis / Carl / whoever never played on anything" canard, and in one handy place too.

I agree. I mean alls we can do is list who we know or atleast assume as highly probable who is playing what on each track. And I think if a person is unsure, then that can be noted with a question mark (similar to what c-man does). It would take a lot of work, but thanks to c-man, we have the "Today!" album, "Summer Days...", plus the outtakes from the Today! album and then we also of course have Pet Sounds and 15 Big Ones, most of The BB '85, Stars & Stripes and Brian's Imagination (I don't know if anyone cares to do all the solo albums, but we have all of the credits for that one anyway) and obviously other tracks here and there. So that aint all that bad. Obviously c-man is THE man when it comes to this, but I'm sure other people can chip in here and there. And I'm sure c-man will let us use his work he did for the Today & Summer Days albums (with credit and a link to his site of course Wink).

Also for example if there is some debate we can always just list it as:

drums: Dennis or Brian?
« Last Edit: March 29, 2008, 08:08:42 PM by mikeyj » Logged
Alex
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« Reply #48 on: March 30, 2008, 02:09:54 AM »

I thought it would be interesting to compile a list of all the songs that Dennis played drums on. Of course this is going to be incomplete and in some cases I'm sure there will be errors. I'm probably wrong, but I'm assuming Dennis played drums on all of the songs on the first two albums besides a couple like "Surfin'", "Surfin' USA" etc...? And wasn't it Carl on "Moon Dawg"? Anyway after those two albums here's what I have written down as Dennis drums:

A Casual Look
All Dressed Up For School
Back Home
Beach Boy Stomp
Chapel Of Love
Child Of Winter
Cotton Fields
Dance, Dance, Dance (both versions)
Do It Again
Endless Harmony
Everyone's In Love With You
Girl Don't Tell Me
Had To Phone Ya
Honkin' Down The Highway
I Can Hear Music
I Wanna Pick You Up
I'm So Young
In The Still Of The Night
It's OK
Just Once In My Life
Mona
Rock And Roll Music
Sail Plane Song
She Knows Me Too Well
Student Demonstration Time
Talk To Me
That Same Song
That's Not Me
Then I Kissed Her
TM Song
When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)
Wild Honey
You're So Good To Me

Anyone have any corrections/additions?
I think Dennis also played drums on "Holidays" from SMiLE.
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c-man
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« Reply #49 on: March 30, 2008, 06:03:28 AM »

Yes, it's Dennis drumming on "Holidays". 
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