Sweet Mountain question

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

During the last minute of the song there's a male part signing something that sounds like "It rained on the mountain...the mountain of love"...is that Brian? I've been trying to figure it out for a while now.

[MBE]

Yeah it's his bass voice less raspy then it would be later.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I KNEW it...his lower voice had dramatically changed by that point...just compare it to "Games Two Can Play", for example. I knew some of his vocals from that era were sped up, and I think what threw me off initially is that it wasn't sped up like, say, the intro to "California".

So that confirms my theory that that WAS him doing the low part on "He Came Down", as he sounded exactly the same.

[MBE]

Ah but he also sings the "Standing Tall" falsetto. I know he's quoted otherwise in the Carlin book, but Stephen Desper told me Brian could sing great when he left in late 1971. He didn't notice a problem until he worked with him again in 1979. You will get to read the full transcripts hopefully sooner then later as I am on the last chapter of my book (I still have to do supplementry material that may take about three to four months).  In any case,  Brian's lower voice (as heard on the fade of Spring's  Forever) was fine. He's putting on the voice almost and there is little to no rasp.  It's just a do wop thing. Though he goes a bit deeper he's doing a "Baker's Man" put on almost.

The Down Down Down is Al from what I can tell. Also I am sure you heard Brian's demo of Awake from the sessions and he does a perfect low intro and high falsetto throughout the rest of it. The speed thing was done  for sure on the fade of Funky Pretty but even when slowed down he doesn't sound raspy there either. As far as not sounding like he did in 1963, his voice already sounded lower on Pet Sounds. I don't think that's from smoking I think it's because he was a teenager during the Beach Boys first session.

[b00ts]

I KNEW it...his lower voice had dramatically changed by that point...just compare it to "Games Two Can Play", for example. I knew some of his vocals from that era were sped up, and I think what threw me off initially is that it wasn't sped up like, say, the intro to "California".

So that confirms my theory that that WAS him doing the low part on "He Came Down", as he sounded exactly the same.

I always wondered exactly what it was that changed BW's voice so much.. obviously it was some mixture of cocaine and cigarettes and diet, etc. In George Carlin's memoir, he talks about his cocaine abuse and he quotes his doctor as telling him that cocaine anesthetizes the vocal chords, which can be made worse by certain cutting agents. I always knew it had something to do with BW's vocal change, but now that I know that, I wouldn't be surprised if cocaine was the main cause of his changed voice.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

It was.

The part on He Came Down I was referring to was the "eeee-eee" part that Brian did right after the final "Yes I believe it" part.

[grillo]

The part on He Came Down I was referring to was the "eeee-eee" part that Brian did right after the final "Yes I believe it" part.

Yeah, especially the last two note-slide things he sounds like '76 BW.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

In Mount Vernon and Fairway he still sounds normal. My understanding is that his voice didn't really change until 1975.

[XY]

Yes, a fascinating factor certainly is that the usual listener gets the impression that his voice changed almost from one day to another. After that, he sang like another person. But how much did Brian want to sound different? I wouldn't be surprised if he supported that intentionally, an artistic move. That raspy Murry-voice in '76, was is really just there and inevitable or a good actor behind that mask?

[MBE]

It was.

The part on He Came Down I was referring to was the "eeee-eee" part that Brian did right after the final "Yes I believe it" part.

Oh OK I misunderstood, but again I think he was trying to sound like that. There's enough of him from 72-74 around now to where I think he still sounded like himself on the whole.

He developed a slightly less abrasive version of  the 1976 voice around 1971-72 in my eyes consciously.  I was gentle about the change when interviewing him but he told me he was trying something different. Now what I think happened in 1975 was that he could no longer could sound like his other voices. Cocaine didn't help the guy and by 1975 I am sure it was daily, yet the cigarettes were a huge factor. There was a period where he smoked as much as he could. When he wasn't eating or sleeping,  he was smoking. He told some friends he was trying to change or destroy his voice.  More then one persontold me that suddenly he didn't like how he sang and tried hard to do something about it by manically chain smoking. I think if you look at the big picture Brian was trying to damage his looks and voice because he hated himself at the time. It was a way of killing his identity without actually killing himself.