Paley Sessions, your opinions...

[Amy B.]

I like Chain Reaction of Love - if it had made it onto any release then I can imagine it being picked up by Austin Powers or another 60s themed film. In fact, there's a classic 60s-in-the-90s album lurking here, I think everyone here agrees on that

If Chain Reaction of Love had been written in 1964, it would have been a hit.
The 60s are part of the idiom Brian works in. I'm not sure it's about rehashing as it is about his style, and CRoL doesn't even sound like a Beach Boys song. It sounds like the Shondells or something.

[Roger Ryan]

I like Chain Reaction of Love - if it had made it onto any release then I can imagine it being picked up by Austin Powers or another 60s themed film. In fact, there's a classic 60s-in-the-90s album lurking here, I think everyone here agrees on that

If Chain Reaction of Love had been written in 1964, it would have been a hit.
The 60s are part of the idiom Brian works in. I'm not sure it's about rehashing as it is about his style, and CRoL doesn't even sound like a Beach Boys song. It sounds like the Shondells or something.

Exactly, it sounds like "Hanky Panky" which was a hit for Tommy James and the Shondells in '66! Doesn't bother me a bit, however, as I think it would have been a great song for that never-to-be-made 1996 Beach Boys album.

[SurfRiderHawaii]

In my opinion the entire tracks are sped up.  I brought them into Goldwave and through trial and error slowed them down until they sounded correct to my ear in terms of pitch and tempo.

Here's an example, "Slightly American Music' as it appeared on Landylocked and a slowed down version.  My choice of speed was entirely subjective it just sounded "right" to my ears...

Nice job jeffcdo!  Much better!

[Wilsonista]

I first heard some of this stuff back in '98 before IMAGINATION came out.

The moment I heard gettin In Over My Head, I went "oh my God, this is absolutely gorgeous!" As much as I defended IMAGINATION and Joe THomas back in the day, I had to admit that maybe the anti-Mullet Boy crowd was right!

Until I heard I'm Broke.  Oh boy. I couldn't get past Brian's voice on the tracks at that point and it colored my intitial opinion, which was less enthusiastic as AGD's.  But the funny thing is, I revisted the Paley tracks a year later and found much to enjoy.  Certainly the song structures are more unique. The arrangements, I think are more creative (the percussion on Chain Reaction is out of this world) and Brian and Andy are cearly having fun. Even if it didn;t wind up as the 90's version of Pet Sounds or Today, it certainly would have a more fun Brian solo album than anything he's released.

[brianc]

If Chain Reaction of Love had been written in 1964, it would have been a hit.
The 60s are part of the idiom Brian works in. I'm not sure it's about rehashing as it is about his style, and CRoL doesn't even sound like a Beach Boys song. It sounds like the Shondells or something.

The melody to "Chain Reaction of Love" was first demo'd by Brian Wilson in the early '70s, on a tape labelled "Spark in the Dark." No, it had nothing to do with "Funky Pretty." The demo is 11 minutes of organ meandering, with about a minute and a half of inspiration, whereby Brian gets melodic and pounches out the melody to "Chain Reaction."

[MBE]

Any lyrics in '72?

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

So that's why the damn thing sounded familiar...

[Bean Bag]

I revisted the Paley tracks a year later and found much to enjoy.

This has been my cycle with ALL of Brian's solo stuff, including Love You.  At first, I can always find something wrong -- many things wrong,  in some cases.  Imagination - sounded too lite and slick -- void of any eccentricities of personality.  I shelved it after a listen or two, if that.  Not being the least bit familiar with it -- I had this inexplicable and insatiable craving to listen to it one day.  When I returned to it, I loved it!  It was perfect.

GIOMH has been a rocky road for me.  I went from not liking it -- to claiming that Brian had "done it again" -- then for longest time it was kind of a train wreck.  Now I kind of like it for its rawness or something like that.

So these Paley Sessions are kind of like that.  While there's some nice oddities and eccentricities, there's a little of GIOMH's chaos.  A hurried, nervousness to it.  A kind of an "ill at ease" or uneasy feeling that keeps me from getting into the whole of it.

But...you know...there's clearly some cool ideas there...and I do love it all!

[Wirestone]

jeffcdo -- Very good. The earlier release of the Paley tracks (the one with extra hiss but at the right speed) had SAM at 3:36. Yours was at 3:38, so it's a hair slow, but generally right.

[Sheriff John Stone]

I liked the Sweet Insanity material. I always thought a top notch producer could've done something with those songs, but that wasn't going to happen at that time.

Not to go off-topic and start a "Beach Boys' reunion" discussion, but I thought the Wilson/Paley was best suited to The Beach Boys' style, especially their lead vocals. It's not too late...

[brianc]

Any lyrics in '72?

No. Those lyrics may have been Paley's. They may have been Brian's. They may have even been demo'd at some point during the Love You era or the '80s. I have no idea where that melody went from the early '70s demo up to when it was recorded in the mid-'90s. It's all an educated guess, as people try to decipher what Brian wrote and what Andy wrote. And because Andy got really bitter about his treatment all around within the Wilson camp, he started acting like those sessions were largely of his doing. Maybe production-wise, and maybe lyrically, but enough melodic demo nuggets have been found to prove that Brian had a large hand in writing the music. I've always suspected that it was a 50-50% collaboration. If Andy WAS doing the bulk of the work there, it doesn't sound forced on Brian's part.

[XY]

The lyrics for SMITC where already there on the 1988 version, would have been a nice track on the first solo album.
It first appeared officially on the 'On Tour' DVD, probably with Brian's lyrical contributions ("Oh yes it's Saturday Morning in the City, da da da da").

[Bean Bag]

I liked the Sweet Insanity material. I always thought a top notch producer could've done something with those songs, but that wasn't going to happen at that time.

Not to go off-topic and start a "Beach Boys' reunion" discussion, but I thought the Wilson/Paley was best suited to The Beach Boys' style, especially their lead vocals. It's not too late...

I know what exactly what you mean.

And they can call it a "new album" if they wanted...I wouldn't tell anyone!  With Brian, Mike and Al still being alive....seriously, why the F not.  Talk about "resolution."   

[Andrew G. Doe]

Any lyrics in '72?

No. Those lyrics may have been Paley's. They may have been Brian's. They may have even been demo'd at some point during the Love You era or the '80s. I have no idea where that melody went from the early '70s demo up to when it was recorded in the mid-'90s. It's all an educated guess, as people try to decipher what Brian wrote and what Andy wrote. And because Andy got really bitter about his treatment all around within the Wilson camp, he started acting like those sessions were largely of his doing. Maybe production-wise, and maybe lyrically, but enough melodic demo nuggets have been found to prove that Brian had a large hand in writing the music. I've always suspected that it was a 50-50% collaboration. If Andy WAS doing the bulk of the work there, it doesn't sound forced on Brian's part.

According to Andy, he wrote "Soul Searchin'" expressly to suit Carl's voice (which would explain the version with his voice over the original track), and also did about 95% of "Slightly American Music"... and of course, all of "In My Moondream".

[brianc]

All good songs. Andy has always been a really good songwriter. I love the Paley Brothers' music. There are those that know Andy personally that claim that, in his bitterness, he overstated his contributions to those sessions. But either way, I just like the songs, the performances and the productions. Both songwriters are of interest to me, but of course, Brian Wilson much more.

[Wirestone]

Actually, all of lyrics for SMITC are not there on the 88 version, nor is the lengthy middle section (boys and girls are out and about / listen to them run and shout, etc.).

SMITC perhaps has the longest gestation of any single BW song I know in terms of bits being added --

Melodic riff in the 60s
First draft of lyrics in the 80s
Final structured song, with bridge, in the 90s.

[brianc]

Released in 2003.

[brianc]

I also thought I remembered someone saying that SMITC was recorded during the Love You era, as well. Maybe I'm wrong about that.

[Bean Bag]

SMITC is a nice track, very effective.  Not a "stand out" or favorite of mine necessarily.  But it's very successful, I would think, in conveying a happy go lucky Saturday morning around town feeling--which was its goal.  I like this Paley version better than on GIOMH, where it sounds a little stiffled (which is not a trait of Saturday mornings around town.  )

[Swamp Pirate]

All good songs. Andy has always been a really good songwriter. I love the Paley Brothers' music. There are those that know Andy personally that claim that, in his bitterness, he overstated his contributions to those sessions. But either way, I just like the songs, the performances and the productions. Both songwriters are of interest to me, but of course, Brian Wilson much more.

Andy also produced Jerry Lee Lewis's Young Blood back in 1995. 

[Wirestone]

Well, the GIOMH version is the Paley version, you know. The credits don't state it, but it's the same backing track and backing vocals.

It just has a newly recorded lead.

Ditto for Soul Searchin, except that Brian recorded new backing vocals and Mertens played a sax solo -- god knows why.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Well, the GIOMH version is the Paley version, you know. The credits don't state it, but it's the same backing track and backing vocals.

It just has a newly recorded lead.

Ditto for Soul Searchin, except that Brian recorded new backing vocals and Mertens played a sax solo -- god knows why.

Listen to the GIOMH "SS" on headphones. Maybe two small percussion overdubs excepted, it's a mono track.

[Shane]

I've often heard it mentioned that the "Saturday Morning in the City" riff was conceived in the late 1960s.  Is there any sort of demo material from that time period that exists of this song, or do we know it was from the 1960s because Brian says so?

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

It pops up during , I think, a H&V session.

[Awesoman]

Well, the GIOMH version is the Paley version, you know. The credits don't state it, but it's the same backing track and backing vocals.

It just has a newly recorded lead.

Ditto for Soul Searchin, except that Brian recorded new backing vocals and Mertens played a sax solo -- god knows why.

Listen to the GIOMH "SS" on headphones. Maybe two small percussion overdubs excepted, it's a mono track.

Is it me or did they lower the pitch to this song on the GIOMH version?