Thread for various insignificant questions that don't deserve their own thread!

[nts and the drum]

Just one question on here today:

We know that Al plays on The Girl From NYC. However I’ve seen two things. I once heard that Al played rhythm guitar on the beachboysarchives.com website. Now I’m looking at new threads that say Al played bass. Which one is correct?

[WillJC]

Well... neither as it turns out. Ray Pohlman definitely plays rhythm guitar on The Girl from New York City, and the Fender bass actually seems to be Brian playing direct while he produces. Al isn't ruled out completely but there's no evidence of his presence on the tape.

[nts and the drum]

Well... neither as it turns out. Ray Pohlman definitely plays rhythm guitar on The Girl from New York City, and the Fender bass actually seems to be Brian playing direct while he produces. Al isn't ruled out completely but there's no evidence of his presence on the tape.

Well Al was known to be relatively quiet during recording sessions. Maybe that’s it? Regardless I believe you in that Brian was on bass.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

Well... neither as it turns out. Ray Pohlman definitely plays rhythm guitar on The Girl from New York City, and the Fender bass actually seems to be Brian playing direct while he produces. Al isn't ruled out completely but there's no evidence of his presence on the tape.

Note that while Ray is playing a sort of rhythm guitar role on the track, it's on a Dano bass played in a more guitar-like manner than the usual bass type thing.

I think the best evidence that Brian's playing bass is that when they think a bass is out of tune, he doesn't ask the Fender bassist to play...

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

Well... neither as it turns out. Ray Pohlman definitely plays rhythm guitar on The Girl from New York City, and the Fender bass actually seems to be Brian playing direct while he produces. Al isn't ruled out completely but there's no evidence of his presence on the tape.

Well Al was known to be relatively quiet during recording sessions. Maybe that’s it? Regardless I believe you in that Brian was on bass.

There's really just no room for Al to be there, in terms of everything being accounted for.

[WillJC]

Well... neither as it turns out. Ray Pohlman definitely plays rhythm guitar on The Girl from New York City, and the Fender bass actually seems to be Brian playing direct while he produces. Al isn't ruled out completely but there's no evidence of his presence on the tape.

Note that while Ray is playing a sort of rhythm guitar role on the track, it's on a Dano bass played in a more guitar-like manner than the usual bass type thing.

I think the best evidence that Brian's playing bass is that when they think a bass is out of tune, he doesn't ask the Fender bassist to play...

Aha - I didn't catch that!

In terms of Brian as the potential bassist, there's also that it always seems to stop playing just before he pushes the talkback, every time, basically without fail. And the tenor of some of his instructions to the band feel as though they include himself. It isn't really clean cut, but there's more to suggest Brian playing bass than just a lack of discernible Al.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I hear Brian on the backups...1975, right? High part sounds much clearer than it would later in the year (September IIRC) when he did his vocal on Back Home. What month was this?

Lol i forgot the link

https://youtu.be/zqkS0s3P7wM

[nts and the drum]

You are correct, it was Sept. ‘75 when the track and vocals were being recorded.

[Seagull Merlin]

Well... neither as it turns out. Ray Pohlman definitely plays rhythm guitar on The Girl from New York City, and the Fender bass actually seems to be Brian playing direct while he produces. Al isn't ruled out completely but there's no evidence of his presence on the tape.

Are there any other situations like this where Brian plays bass from the control booth with the wrecking crew?

[nts and the drum]

Now that I think about it... no. Never again I think. That was the only time. This leaves one to question where Dennis was that day during the tracking session if Carl, Bruce and Brian were there playing instruments.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

Well... neither as it turns out. Ray Pohlman definitely plays rhythm guitar on The Girl from New York City, and the Fender bass actually seems to be Brian playing direct while he produces. Al isn't ruled out completely but there's no evidence of his presence on the tape.

Are there any other situations like this where Brian plays bass from the control booth with the wrecking crew?

Thats a good question.  That might have been the only such effort with a meaningful quorum of session players around.  But Brian also played bass in the booth while producing at least two other times; Christmas Day, and Girl Don't Tell Me (although he migrated back and forth between booth and live room, there.

[WillJC]

And on all of those, Brian played using a pick!

[nts and the drum]

I have only one question today (it's gonna be a busy week)...

Who played on I Can Hear Music? According to the link, c-man says that Carl played guitar, Dennis played piano, Bruce played a Fender Rhodes (I'm assuming) & Dennis also played the basic drums on the track. Then there was a drum overdub (probably Carl). I also hear sleigh bells & bass on the track but I have no idea who could've played those. I'm guessing the bass is Al. Sleigh bells, no idea, literally anyone could've played those. It's a fairly self contained record so I'd say it was one of the boys.

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,9788.msg170403.html#msg170403

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

I have only one question today (it's gonna be a busy week)...

Who played on I Can Hear Music? According to the link, c-man says that Carl played guitar, Dennis played piano, Bruce played a Fender Rhodes (I'm assuming) & Dennis also played the basic drums on the track. Then there was a drum overdub (probably Carl). I also hear sleigh bells & bass on the track but I have no idea who could've played those. I'm guessing the bass is Al. Sleigh bells, no idea, literally anyone could've played those. It's a fairly self contained record so I'd say it was one of the boys.

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,9788.msg170403.html#msg170403

Sounds like you answered your own question.

[WillJC]

I don't agree with the ICHM credits there, but... probably needs some more investigation to be sure.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

I don't agree with the ICHM credits there, but... probably needs some more investigation to be sure.

Always more investigation to do.

[nts and the drum]

So it's pretty close to accurate then? I usually give my best guesses for this stuff (or at least try, when I fail).

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

So it's pretty close to accurate then? I usually give my best guesses for this stuff (or at least try, when I fail).

You got a few things right -- but the basic session swaps Carl for Dennis on Drums, since Dennis was on piano.  Al is playing the guitar.  The basic session is the four of them live, and this session is still audible in various ways on the final mix despite the very low prominence.  Beyond that, if we believe the footage, Carl and Dennis added the major percussion O/D, with maybe Mike adding Sleigh Bells.  There's also the footage of Dennis adding more sleigh bells and Mike adding tambourine.  No way to know who played bass but it's Carl's track so that might push the needle toward him.  There were other guitar overdubs that didn't make it to the final mix.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

You are correct, it was Sept. ‘75 when the track and vocals were being recorded.

I forgot to post the link of the song I was talking about lol

https://youtu.be/zqkS0s3P7wM

[nts and the drum]

You are correct, it was Sept. ‘75 when the track and vocals were being recorded.

I forgot to post the link of the song I was talking about lol

https://youtu.be/zqkS0s3P7wM

Aw I thought you were talking about back home... yeah then I have no idea. My apologies. :/

[nts and the drum]

Might as well ask something to get it off my mind... two questions

1. Who played on I Went To Sleep? I already heard from one of the other threads on here that Jimmy Bond played double bass, Jay Migliori played flute and Brian played piano (the latter was obvious). I hear an acoustic guitar, bongos and tambourine. Also mentioned on one of those threads was a Chamberlin and I can very much hear one playing throughout the song.

2. Umm... is there a tambourine and Celeste on This Whole World? You can hear something (not a glockenspiel) at the beginning of the track and some other points in the song? Also hearing some percussion instrument being used during the verses that sounds like a tambourine, but I wouldn’t know for sure.

[nts and the drum]

What keyboards were used on Sunshine? Brian, Carl, Bruce & Ricci Martin were all credited by Craig on the sessionography as being “keyboards “, yet not only do I barely hear keyboards, I dunno who played which keyboards.

[nts and the drum]

Welp might as well start easy.

What keyboards were used on the single version of Cottonfields? If the keyboards are credited to Bruce and Daryl, then who played what? What keyboards can be heard in the final mix (because I don’t hear any to be honest).

[c-man]

What keyboards were used on Sunshine? Brian, Carl, Bruce & Ricci Martin were all credited by Craig on the sessionography as being “keyboards “, yet not only do I barely hear keyboards, I dunno who played which keyboards.

Haven't heard the session tape, so can't say. Just going by designations on the AFM contract, which say "Kybds." for each.

[c-man]

Welp might as well start easy.

What keyboards were used on the single version of Cottonfields? If the keyboards are credited to Bruce and Daryl, then who played what? What keyboards can be heard in the final mix (because I don’t hear any to be honest).

Haven't heard the session tape, so can't say.  My guess would be that Bruce played organ and Daryl played piano, as those were there normal onstage instruments at the time, and this track was cut with their onstage lineup plus Red Rhodes.