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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2019 16:12:05 GMT -5
Is the Beach Boys Party! album actually the first official "unplugged" album by a plugged-in band?
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Post by ian on Jan 12, 2019 17:44:32 GMT -5
Which interview with Brian are you referring to? I have it I’m sure but what specifically are you interested in?
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Post by andrewhickey on Jan 13, 2019 7:52:02 GMT -5
Is the Beach Boys Party! album actually the first official "unplugged" album by a plugged-in band? Probably depends what you count as an "Unplugged" album (given that IIRC the bass on Party! is electric) and what you count as a "plugged-in band", but I'd suggest that both "Songs Our Daddy Taught Us" by the Everly Brothers (an album of traditional folk songs featuring only the brothers and their acoustic guitars) or "Folk Singer" by Muddy Waters (an album by Waters that featured rerecordings of many of his electric blues hits, recorded with acoustic guitars, string bass, and drums) would count ahead of Party! No doubt there are others as well, but those are the two that immediately spring to mind.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2019 8:13:50 GMT -5
Is the Beach Boys Party! album actually the first official "unplugged" album by a plugged-in band? Probably depends what you count as an "Unplugged" album (given that IIRC the bass on Party! is electric) and what you count as a "plugged-in band", but I'd suggest that both "Songs Our Daddy Taught Us" by the Everly Brothers (an album of traditional folk songs featuring only the brothers and their acoustic guitars) or "Folk Singer" by Muddy Waters (an album by Waters that featured rerecordings of many of his electric blues hits, recorded with acoustic guitars, string bass, and drums) would count ahead of Party! No doubt there are others as well, but those are the two that immediately spring to mind. Thanks for this. I've seen it a few times where Party! has been said to be the first ever unplugged album by a rock 'n' roll band, and I just wondered if that was really true.
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dumbchops
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Post by dumbchops on Jan 14, 2019 3:05:47 GMT -5
In the 1970's, whenever they had a new album they would usually play a few songs from it. But is that true for the MIU album? I can't think of any songs that they played from it except for maybe the covers. Granted, I don't have many recordings from 1978 except for a few Australia shows and Lakeland, FL so I really don't know but would like to.
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Post by monolithic on Jan 14, 2019 3:48:26 GMT -5
In the 1970's, whenever they had a new album they would usually play a few songs from it. But is that true for the MIU album? I can't think of any songs that they played from it except for maybe the covers. Granted, I don't have many recordings from 1978 except for a few Australia shows and Lakeland, FL so I really don't know but would like to. I think they only played Peggy Sue at the time (and then Come Go With Me later). MIU was clearly only intended as something to fulfil the contract as Al indicated recently.
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Post by AGD on Jan 14, 2019 4:57:08 GMT -5
When they signed with CBS in spring 1977, it was pointed out that they still owed Reprise one more album. Hence the Iowa sessions.
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dumbchops
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Post by dumbchops on Jan 14, 2019 19:37:42 GMT -5
According to your website, they began work on the album in November and December, 1977 and yet it is not released until October of the next year. They must have spent quite a bit of time working on it. I just don't understand why they wouldn't promote it as much as possible.
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Post by craigslowinski on Jan 15, 2019 2:20:37 GMT -5
According to your website, they began work on the album in November and December, 1977 and yet it is not released until October of the next year. They must have spent quite a bit of time working on it. I just don't understand why they wouldn't promote it as much as possible. Well, not so much...on the Bellagio site, you'll see that the album (under the original title California Feeling) was mastered twice in late December, meaning it was considered "finished" at that point. Some additional work was done to a couple of tracks the following year (mostly string and flute overdubs), some tracks were dropped and some were added. All in all, relatively few sessions were required in '78 to finished the platter, so it's not as though they worked on it consistently through all those months - just a little bit in February, a remaster in April, and a bit more work and final remaster in June. As for promoting it - well, apparently neither the band nor the label cared much about it. The Beach Boys were a "lame duck" act in Warners' eyes, so they sunk zero dollars into the promotion, and the group was already focusing their attention and energies on the next album, since it was their first for CBS.
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Post by Fall Breaks on Jan 15, 2019 6:50:16 GMT -5
The renaming puzzles me. Even if the song California Feeling was taken of, the album could still have been called that instead of MIU Album. Wouldn't California Feeling have been a much more commercially viable title?
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Post by monolithic on Jan 15, 2019 7:47:29 GMT -5
The renaming puzzles me. Even if the song California Feeling was taken of, the album could still have been called that instead of MIU Album. Wouldn't California Feeling have been a much more commercially viable title? I doubt they cared too much, but as they were still hoping to release the song California Feelin it probably made sense not to waste the title.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2019 8:15:38 GMT -5
The renaming puzzles me. Even if the song California Feeling was taken of, the album could still have been called that instead of MIU Album. Wouldn't California Feeling have been a much more commercially viable title? And then they trumped that great album title, M.I.U., with another doozy, L.A. (Light Album). I wonder who specifically was driving that album title? Brilliant...
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Post by craigslowinski on Jan 15, 2019 10:04:41 GMT -5
The renaming puzzles me. Even if the song California Feeling was taken of, the album could still have been called that instead of MIU Album. Wouldn't California Feeling have been a much more commercially viable title? And then they trumped that great album title, M.I.U., with another doozy, L.A. (Light Album). I wonder who specifically was driving that album title? Brilliant... Maybe Brian (who refused to let the song "California Dreaming" be used on the album) decided he didn't want that used for the album title, either? Pretty sure the title L.A. (Light Album) came from Carl. He was bigtime into one of the spiritual enlightenment movements of the day (not sure which one, but not TM and not est, both of which he had been into previously). He spoke about that album title and the accompanying inner sleeve explanation in one of the interviews at the time. Maybe he thought of that title to counter the TM-inspired title of the previous album?
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Post by Cam Mott on Jan 15, 2019 11:10:49 GMT -5
Emdeeh probably knows which practice it was.
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Post by AGD on Jan 15, 2019 11:40:54 GMT -5
It was est, as I recall, at least in the 70s
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2019 13:17:38 GMT -5
I look at Elvis Presley's '68 "Comeback Special" as being a candidate for the first "Unplugged" project. Maybe there's a little cheating with the electric guitar being present, but it's stripped down, made for TV, there's an audience, it's loose (and tight at the same time) and there's dialogue with little stories.
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Post by Emdeeh on Jan 15, 2019 14:08:01 GMT -5
Pretty sure the title L.A. (Light Album) came from Carl. He was bigtime into one of the spiritual enlightenment movements of the day (not sure which one, but not TM and not est, both of which he had been into previously). IIRC, it was the Movement of Inner Spiritual Awareness (or something like that).
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Post by craigslowinski on Jan 15, 2019 18:08:38 GMT -5
Pretty sure the title L.A. (Light Album) came from Carl. He was bigtime into one of the spiritual enlightenment movements of the day (not sure which one, but not TM and not est, both of which he had been into previously). IIRC, it was the Movement of Inner Spiritual Awareness (or something like that). Sounds about right...Carl stated that it involved a form of meditation (he called it "spiritual exercises"), but said it was perhaps a more "active" type of meditation...if I remember correctly.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2019 22:33:26 GMT -5
Is "Winter Symphony" on Ultimate Christmas a mono recording?
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Post by andrewhickey on Jan 17, 2019 13:43:09 GMT -5
Is "Winter Symphony" on Ultimate Christmas a mono recording? No -- I just tried listening to it through headphones, and it sounded very mixed-to-the-centre but I wasn't sure, so I inverted a channel in Audacity, and I think the only thing *absolutely* in the centre is the vocals, and the instrumental track is mixed stereo. (Edit: And actually there's a very clear bit at 1:23 where you can hear a drum fill in the left channel and not in the right)
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Post by E on Jan 17, 2019 16:38:09 GMT -5
And then they trumped that great album title, M.I.U., with another doozy, L.A. (Light Album). I wonder who specifically was driving that album title? Brilliant... Maybe Brian (who refused to let the song "California Dreaming" be used on the album) decided he didn't want that used for the album title, either? Pretty sure the title L.A. (Light Album) came from Carl. He was bigtime into one of the spiritual enlightenment movements of the day (not sure which one, but not TM and not est, both of which he had been into previously). He spoke about that album title and the accompanying inner sleeve explanation in one of the interviews at the time. Maybe he thought of that title to counter the TM-inspired title of the previous album? I'm curious. California Feelin' was recorded for MIU but not used or the Boys wanted to record it but Brian didn't? I ask because the released (booted and official) versions (pretty sure the same version aside from the latter opening with Brian's vocals) I'm familiar with have Bruce on them (don't they?) so I assumed they were recorded for LA.
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Post by g00dvibrations on Jan 17, 2019 17:09:18 GMT -5
Maybe Brian (who refused to let the song "California Dreaming" be used on the album) decided he didn't want that used for the album title, either? Pretty sure the title L.A. (Light Album) came from Carl. He was bigtime into one of the spiritual enlightenment movements of the day (not sure which one, but not TM and not est, both of which he had been into previously). He spoke about that album title and the accompanying inner sleeve explanation in one of the interviews at the time. Maybe he thought of that title to counter the TM-inspired title of the previous album? I'm curious. California Feelin' was recorded for MIU but not used or the Boys wanted to record it but Brian didn't? I ask because the released (booted and official) versions (pretty sure the same version aside from the latter opening with Brian's vocals) I'm familiar with have Bruce on them (don't they?) so I assumed they were recorded for LA. That's definitely Bruce on the "California Feeling, California Feeling" bit. Alan Boyd suggests it was an early for L.A. track in this interview www.rockcellarmagazine.com/2013/09/04/made-in-california-producers-alan-boyd-dennis-wolfe-mark-linett-beach-boys-interview/2/
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Post by craigslowinski on Jan 17, 2019 18:35:37 GMT -5
Brian did cut a version of "California Feeling" while at MIU...but not for The Beach Boys (rather, for American Spring - with that outstanding specimen of humanity Rocky Pamplin singing lead). Nonetheless, California Feeling was the original title assigned to what became the MIU Album. The only other '70s versions known to exist are Bri's original demo from '74 and the fully-produced Beach Boys version from August '78, cut at Criteria in Miami, and considered but rejected for the Light Album. Both of those made it onto the Made In California box set.
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Post by E on Jan 18, 2019 2:23:36 GMT -5
Thanks. What I thought.
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Post by AGD on Jan 20, 2019 1:14:22 GMT -5
Craig doubtless has the finer detail.
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