Dennis in the Beach Boys vocal blend

[Jay]

Ok, everybody who's a pretty big Beach Boys fan knows how each members voice was essential in the blend of harmony. Everybody also knows that in the mid 1970's Brian and Dennis's voices deteriorated badly.  Brian could force a falsetto out if he tried. But Dennis was probably the worst out of the two in that he didn't have much in the way of "softening" his voice. My question is, was Dennis ever "banned" from singing with the group in the studio? I mean, other than his leads on 15 Big Ones and Love You. I'm mainly thinking of songs the group recorded from 1979-ish, to the point of Dennis's death.

[astroray]

I was just listening to one of my favorite Dennis Wilson vocal parts ,off the 72 Carnegie Hall show "God Only Knows" ! His backgronds and at the end he sings Bruce's part I think. WONDERFUL!!!!
They had to rehearse these changing vocal parts ,how did a BB rehearsal go?

[grillo]

And doesn't Denny also double Al's part at the beginning of Don't worry Baby from that same show?

[TdHabib]

One of the things I notices is in the later-period songs, when Dennis is in the harmony stack...particularly when Brian's behind the board...he sticks out very noticeably. It's cool on perhaps your third listen to hear a familiar gruff voice among four singing "Hey little tomBOY" or "Honk Honk Honkin down the highway".

[adamghost]

I really like the Dennis-Carl-Bruce blend on some of the L.A. LIGHT songs a lot...

[c-man]

I really like the Dennis-Carl-Bruce blend on some of the L.A. LIGHT songs a lot...

Cool - give us some examples Adam (please)...specific passages of specific songs.  This is intriguing!

A couple cool lines I notice Dennis in the background on from "Love You":  "Dear Lord, oh dear Lord" on "Let Us Go On This Way" and his harmony to Brian's lead on "Love makes a woman - give her all your love tonight" in "Love Is A Woman".  Put headphones on for these parts, and they really stand out!

[Ed Roach]

Don't forget, you are talking about a time when he was at the top of his game, in Brother Studios, recording his solo stuff whenever the group wasn't working.  Plus, he was back in the studio with Brian, so he certainly was giving it his all, and his voice was never in better shape.

[Jay]

Ok, let's talk about the time of Keepin' The Summer Alive, to his death. Was he included in the background harmonies in any of the songs the group did in that time period? I would think that by 1981-1983, his voice would have been TO gruff for the rest of the group to work with.

[Jon Stebbins]

Ok, let's talk about the time of Keepin' The Summer Alive, to his death. Was he included in the background harmonies in any of the songs the group did in that time period? I would think that by 1981-1983, his voice would have been TO gruff for the rest of the group to work with.

Jay I think you're trying to get at something that isn't there. Dennis didn't participate in Keepin the Summer Alive because he was out of the band mostly at that time. He's on a couple tracks as a percussionist but in general KTSA is a Dennis-less record. L.A. Light was the last time he was deeply involved with the group making a record...then KTSA he was absent, then he died. So...'81 - '83 doesn't really matter unless you're talking about Live shows...and on those he played drums when he showed up,  he didn't sing hardly at all because he couldn't. If he'd been alive for BB's '85 who knows, maybe he could have croaked out a Tom Waits style thing...or at least told somebody that the production sucked.

[the captain]

If he'd been alive for BB's '85 who knows, maybe he could have ... at least told somebody that the production sucked.

God knows someone should have!

[LittleSurferGirl]

If he'd been alive for BB's '85 who knows, maybe he could have ... at least told somebody that the production sucked.

God knows someone should have!

LMAO  I about spit my water out....

[Aegir]

Maybe there would have been REAL drums on that album.

[Jay]

Ok, let's talk about the time of Keepin' The Summer Alive, to his death. Was he included in the background harmonies in any of the songs the group did in that time period? I would think that by 1981-1983, his voice would have been TO gruff for the rest of the group to work with.

Jay I think you're trying to get at something that isn't there. Dennis didn't participate in Keepin the Summer Alive because he was out of the band mostly at that time. He's on a couple tracks as a percussionist but in general KTSA is a Dennis-less record. L.A. Light was the last time he was deeply involved with the group making a record...then KTSA he was absent, then he died. So...'81 - '83 doesn't really matter unless you're talking about Live shows...and on those he played drums when he showed up,  he didn't sing hardly at all because he couldn't. If he'd been alive for BB's '85 who knows, maybe he could have croaked out a Tom Waits style thing...or at least told somebody that the production sucked.

Did Dennis record with them at all after the few songs he did for KTSA? I remember AGD once saying that there is a 1981-ish recording of "Sweetie", with Brian and Al trading off vocals. Was Dennis there for that?

[Jay]

Maybe there would have been REAL drums on that album.

I have always wondered what a version of Getcha Back would have sounded like with Dennis. Or drums....

[Alex]

Maybe there would have been REAL drums on that album.

There were real drums on California Calling courtesy of Ringo!!

[adamghost]

I really like the Dennis-Carl-Bruce blend on some of the L.A. LIGHT songs a lot...

Cool - give us some examples Adam (please)...specific passages of specific songs.  This is intriguing!

A couple cool lines I notice Dennis in the background on from "Love You":  "Dear Lord, oh dear Lord" on "Let Us Go On This Way" and his harmony to Brian's lead on "Love makes a woman - give her all your love tonight" in "Love Is A Woman".  Put headphones on for these parts, and they really stand out!

Well good question.  Carl and Bruce feature on most of the tracks; along with them, the tougher edge on part of the bottom moving harmony going upward at the end of "Full Sail" sounds like Dennis to me (listen to the slightly flat "woo" at 2:43, classic Dennis), although it could be all Carl and Bruce (and I believe Geoffrey Cushing-Murray on the "high seas" part).  I remember from transcribing it from the vocal tracks for the CWF show that it was all Carl and Bruce for the descending cadence, but it still sounded like Dennis on one part on the answering part.

It's not exactly a blend, but Carl, Dennis and Bruce have great counterpoint at 1:44 on "Love Surrounds Me."

1:34, moving block harmony on "Baby Blue" -- Dennis and Carl for sure.  Not sure if Bruce is in there or not.  I know he and Carl do the harmonies on the fade (too much reverb to tell, though I once heard those tracks isolated so I know they're there)...I don't know if Dennis is in there or not, but he'd be the logical third part.

"Angel Come Home" - Dennis, Carl, Brian  -- check the woo at 1:23.  Nice, thick, meaty harmony.  I'll confess I'm not sure Bruce is on here.

"Shortenin' Bread" -- I can't say the others aren't on here, but all the vocals I can identify are either Dennis, Carl, or Bruce.

"Goin' South" sounds like multiple Carl tracks with Bruce on top to me.  I don't hear Dennis on this one.

The vocal blends on LIGHT ALBUM are among my favorites the Beach Boys ever did.  The multiple Carl parts, Bruce's smoothness and Dennis' roughness...great combination.

[Jay]

Sometimes I fear for your sanity Adam.  Just kidding, great post as always. 

[adamghost]

It's everyone else who's crazy!!!

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

For my (admittedly soggy) money, LA is one of the very best Beach Boys albums. I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the hazy, mellow, Los Angeles in the late 70's, great So Cal cool vibe. I reminds me very fondly of that year. My family was very cool in those days and we would go houseboating, sailing, snorkling, all the time in the summer, and LA Album brings it all back. In fact, my Dad had one of the very first cassette walkmen and he had Light Album and some Bob Seager album together on one tape and I'd listen to them and feel like a grown up.

Full Sail (along with Trader) is my most treasured Carl vocal and when Dennis comes in on the second part of Baby Blue, I get shivers each and everytime I hear it.

I love Sumahama! I love the story it tells, and I love Mike vocal. He sounds really warm and human on it. That song, along with Big Sur and All This Is That, are my favorite Mike vocals.

Come to think of it: perhaps my love for Light Album, and latter day Beach Boys in general, informs my strong opinion of the boys being much much more than Brian's messengers.

Most of the songs I truely love are hardly imitations of Brian. But of couse, anyone attempting pop rock with any level or sophistication is surely Brian influenced.

[the captain]

For my (admittedly soggy) money, LA is one of the very best Beach Boys albums. I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the hazy, mellow, Los Angeles in the late 70's, great So Cal cool vibe.

I love that so many people who like LA say this, because I don't really like LA and it's for that same reason. The music is so perfect in a way that I don't care for at all, a way that apparently perfectly captures and time and place that I was not a part of at all and apparently cannot relate to. So while I can still say Carl sounds great on X, the overall experience leaves me flat at best. It's actually funny to me, and an example of the multifaceted greatness of music and the curiously diverse ways we hear it.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Exactly!!!!

That's the thing that makes great music both worth arguing about and completely futile to argue about.

This is why I always try to restrain myself in bashing Summer In Paradise and Beach Boys 85. Part of it, for me, comes down to those records reminding me of a time(s) that I didn't like and hated the way records were being produced!

[the captain]

But what is also great is that there are objective facts to argue about. This song has three chords, and they are the same three chords used in their last song. These lyrics are a blatant revisitation of X. And so on. Not that such objective things make or break greatness, but you can use them to defend the otherwise subjective "it sounds neat" argument.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Exactly!

So, speaking of using the same chords over and over and revisiting lyrical subject matter!

Isn't that what Chuck Berry (who is the man and who created all of which we live and breath about) has made a career of doing and kicking ass at it???

[the captain]

Not really, because the Chuck Berry is the least exciting element of my Beach Boys. I'm far more interested in the Four Freshmen and Burt Bacharach.

No offense to three-chord rock, which is, after all, rock.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Mine too.... I was just talking up Chuck more than anything!

And yes, it's the Bacharach, Four Freshmen elements that really gave the Boys that spark that made them unique and instantly shook them off the blues rock boat that was chopping up them waves!

More than that, I really think the Beach Boys indivudual voices are THE most important element!

I've prattled on endlessly on this topid elsewhere.