|
Post by AGD on Sept 10, 2019 5:27:33 GMT -5
Not exactly. Brother Studio was initially the catch-all name for Brian's home studio before a pukka studio was established in Santa Monica in 1973-ish. Brother Records was established in 1966, and reactivated in 1970 as part of the Reprise deal. Brother Records Inc currently handles the band's career.
It's a lot more complex than that, but that's a thumbnail sketch.
|
|
|
Post by Vale on Sept 10, 2019 5:38:43 GMT -5
Not exactly. Brother Studio was initially the catch-all name for Brian's home studio before a pukka studio was established in Santa Monica in 1973-ish. Brother Records was established in 1966, and reactivated in 1970 as part of the Reprise deal. Brother Records Inc currently handles the band's career. It's a lot more complex than that, but that's a thumbnail sketch. Thanks Andrew! I was wondering because of the two different logos...
|
|
|
Post by Emdeeh on Sept 10, 2019 8:33:45 GMT -5
I've seen online aliases used since the Usenet days back in the early '90s.
|
|
|
Post by Cam Mott on Sept 10, 2019 11:13:41 GMT -5
I've seen online aliases used since the Usenet days back in the early '90s. Some clever people even use aliases for their initials. Uh oh, now you have to kill me I suppose.
|
|
|
Post by craigslowinski on Sept 15, 2019 11:07:55 GMT -5
Could an uncredited Beach Boy (Carl?) have played guitar on Little Bird and Be Here in the Mornin'? Noticed that both the acoustic and electric guitars in those songs seem to be on the same track from all the mixes that circulate, which could just be overdubbing and a mixing coincidence but I'm not sure it adds up with the eight available tracks. Likewise there's nobody to fill the gap for the clav on Wake the World which'd usually be Jim Ackley in those sessions - Bruce maybe? Looking back at my notes: "Be Here In The Morning" - Carl is on electric guitar (w/heavy tremolo) - he's also on the outtake "Be Here In The Mornin' Darlin'". Not yet sure about "Little Bird". "Wake The World" - a flourish of clavinet can be heard following the breakdown of Take 15, but none is heard on the actual takes, indicating someone just hit it quickly, possibly to check their tuning. Unless I'm wrong.
|
|
|
Post by AGD on Sept 15, 2019 15:00:35 GMT -5
The musicians I have for "Passing By" are:
Jim Gordon - Drums Alan Estes - Percussion David Choen - Guitar Bruce - ? keyboards Brian - ? keyboards "another Beach Boy (probably Carl)" - ? Guitar
plus two other unidentified musicians.
|
|
|
Post by craigslowinski on Sept 15, 2019 19:51:29 GMT -5
So here's the deal with the PASSING BY credits - Brad Elliott had access to Capitol's files, including the Popular Session Worksheets, and wrote (in Volume 3 of Domenic Priore's "Dumb Angel Gazette" during the late '80s or early '90s) that eight musicians were involved, "including drummer Jim Gordon, percussionist Alan Estes, guitarist David Cohen, Bruce Johnston, Brian and another Beach Boy (probably Carl)". Later, during a 2005 phone conversation with Brian, I asked if he played the organ on "Passing By", to which he said, "Yes" (in contrast to "Wild Honey", which when asked, Brian replied, "No, that was Bruce").
Then, in late 2007, I acquired scans of many AFM contracts, including that for the March 22, 1968 session, which was filed under the title "INSTRUMENTAL ( # 1)". It lists contractor Diane Rovell, engineer Jim Lockert, plus eight musicians: Bruce Johnston, David Cohen, Jim Gordon, Alan Jardine, Norm Jeffries, Lyle Ritz, Al Vescovo, and Carl Wilson. Two names listed by Brad that don't appear on the AFM sheet are Brian and Alan Estes. The latter's name appears on other AFM contracts from those sessions, so I'm assuming that either his name was incorrectly entered on the Capitol worksheet, or Brad simply made a mistake when compiling his session chronology (accidentally listing "Alan Estes" but not "Alan Jardine"). The absence of Brian's name from an AFM contract is not that unusual.
When asked to put together Friends credits for ESQ in 2008, these were the only sources I had to draw on. Since this particular AFM contract does not tell us which instrument each musician played, I wasn't able to determine with certainty the contributions of Bruce, Al, Carl or Brian (other than Brian telling me himself that he played organ on the track). A logical assumption would be that Carl played the 12-string electric guitar heard on the track, since we know he did so on many other sessions of the era. In addition to organ, we hear the steady rhythmic vamping of an electric keyboard, which at the time I suspected to be a Rock-si-Chord, but now believe to be a clavinet (based on aural evidence from the session tapes). And, with Lyle, Bruce, and Al all present, logic would dictate that Lyle played upright bass while one of the others played electric bass. Hence, my original credits for ESQ read, "Alan Jardine (probably electric bass), Lyle Ritz (upright bass), Bruce Johnston (probably keyboard)". Additionally, since Jim Gordon is credited on the contract with two doubles, it would be logical to assume that he played congas and some other types of percussion, and that Jeffries played the drums - which is why I credited them thusly.
However, in 2018, session tapes from the Friends era became available for review, and we determined with 100% certainty that on the basic track of "Passing By", Brian is playing the clavinet, Bruce is on organ (doing some basic chord vamping in the background), the guitar that doubles Brian's clavinet in the intro and goes on to play the main theme throughout is Al Vescovo, the 12-string is David Cohen, and what I believe to be a Dano 6-string bass (or perhaps, as you say, a baritone guitar) is actually Carl (likewise, I thought for years that Carl was one of the guitar players on "Salt Lake City", while Carol Kaye played Fender bass and one of the other sessionmen played the 6-string Dano bass - until I really, REALLY studied the session tape, and came to the conclusion that Carl is playing Fender bass while Carol plays Dano). Likewise, it's obvious that Gordon is playing drums, meaning that it's Jeffries on congas. The main organ melody was then overdubbed by Brian (as was the low sound of what seems to be a bass harmonica).
As for the bass - well, Lyle is definitely playing an upright, but I'm not sure there's an electric bass after all. Al Jardine's voice can be heard over the talk-back from the booth, so he's helping produce the session, and he may be playing a bass plugged into the console, but it's hard to tell.
A similar situation led me to inaccurately credit Dennis with organ on "Be Still" back in 2008: Brad wrote in "Dumb Angel Gazette" that this was a "Dennis Wilson solo recording (vocals and instruments)", and the corresponding AFM contract (which, BTW, is clearly misdated), lists only one name, that being Dennis. However, years later, Alan Boyd told me that it's actually Brian playing organ on the released Beach Boys version of the song, just as it's Brian playing the organ on Stephen Kalinich's version (from A World Of Peace Must Come), and the session tapes obviously bear witness to this - hence, my crediting Brian on the updated version published in ESQ years later.
|
|
|
Post by Vale on Sept 17, 2019 4:10:50 GMT -5
What happened to the Fire Chief helmets used during the Fire sessions? Were they ever floated around or were they ever been sold?
|
|
|
Post by Cam Mott on Sept 17, 2019 6:47:04 GMT -5
What happened to the Fire Chief helmets used during the Fire sessions? Were they ever floated around or were they ever been sold? They were in Sears' Christmas "Wish Book" that year I believe, so available everywhere at the time. Mikie, do you have one of THE firehats?
|
|
|
Post by Vale on Sept 17, 2019 8:07:05 GMT -5
What happened to the Fire Chief helmets used during the Fire sessions? Were they ever floated around or were they ever been sold? They were in Sears' Christmas "Wish Book" that year I believe, so available everywhere at the time. Mikie, do you have one of THE firehats? Mikie if you own one of THOSE firehats I think you should post a picture here! That would be great to see!
|
|
|
Post by Mikie on Sept 17, 2019 10:21:51 GMT -5
They were in Sears' Christmas "Wish Book" that year I believe, so available everywhere at the time. Mikie, do you have one of THE firehats? Mikie if you own one of THOSE firehats I think you should post a picture here! That would be great to see! I don't have one, and I don't remember ever seeing an original that's been put up for sale. The musicians probably discarded them or took them home to their kids or Arnie Geller or Diane kept them. I don't think it would be real hard to come up with a 'replica' of one though - maybe Ebay or somewhere.
Dempsey might have one. He has everything and more.
|
|
|
Post by craigslowinski on Sept 17, 2019 17:30:35 GMT -5
Are we sure that keyboard isn't a Roxi? Friends, Be Here in the Mornin', Even Steven, and I'm Confessin' (btw, any idea who's on that?) sound distinctly like a Clavinet C to me, while Passing By, Diamond Head and the Busy Doin' Nothin' B section remake all have a tone that's pretty much identical to We're Together Again, early All I Wanna Do and the other prominent Rocksichord examples. Much fuller midrange with a harpsichord-ish 'sparkle' that almost makes it sound like a guitar at times, particularly on Diamond Head. The Clav D6 could get a tone kinda close to that (I'll Bet He's Nice comes to mind) but I haven't heard anything like it from the earlier models. Did the earlier model clavinets have tone buttons like the later D6? If so, they might've come close to the Roxi sound...I just know that Bruce once told me they didn't have the Roxi until some time after "Do It Again", meaning it wouldn't have been on Friends (but then again, "Do It Again" was cut at approximately the same time as "We're Together Again", and per the track sheet, that one definitely has the Roxi). Could a Clavinet L (released to market at some point in 1968) have been used for the Friends sessions? That was the really odd looking one with three legs - not sure what it sounded like, though. Donny Lang, where are you? This discussion is right up your alley...
|
|
|
Post by craigslowinski on Sept 17, 2019 19:03:34 GMT -5
...I'm Confessin' (btw, any idea who's on that?) sound distinctly like a Clavinet C to me... It's Brian playing the clav on "I'm Confessin'".
|
|
|
Post by craigslowinski on Sept 17, 2019 19:38:03 GMT -5
Did the earlier model clavinets have tone buttons like the later D6? If so, they might've come close to the Roxi sound...I just know that Bruce once told me they didn't have the Roxi until some time after "Do It Again", meaning it wouldn't have been on Friends (but then again, "Do It Again" was cut at approximately the same time as "We're Together Again", and per the track sheet, that one definitely has the Roxi). Could a Clavinet L (released to market at some point in 1968) have been used for the Friends sessions? That was the really odd looking one with three legs - not sure what it sounded like, though. Donny Lang, where are you? This discussion is right up your alley... Apparently the C just had some basic switches for the pickups (http://chicagoelectricpiano.com/clavinet/hohner-clavinet-schematic-tone-controls/) and it looks like the L was probably the same, I can't find much as much info on that one though. There's a demo where someone flicks through the different settings and it's even more on the treble-y side: Here's a rubbish quality video where someone goes through the switch combos for the C: The one at 1:09 is kinda similar but it still doesn't sound quite there to me. I solo'd the keyboard from Diamond Head and put it next to the We're Together Again Roxi for comparison: drive.google.com/file/d/1idKo4pW9sc9rMjrtXiQLsr1rQwgmcH8D/view?usp=sharingEdit: Much better example from Busy Doin' Nothin' with the splices between sections, this is what I thought was a jump from Clav to Roxi: drive.google.com/file/d/1o_R98PvJemrfTDLiO5IUHOEitR2MZrPs/view?usp=sharingI see what you mean. As for which model (L or C) - I've poised the question to Desper on the other board (seeing as how he's responded to a few posts there of late). I realize that Friends was mostly engineered by Jimmy Lockert, but Steve was there at least part-time, and a Clav was also used on some later, Desper-era recordings (like "Susie Cincinnati" and "Good Time"). I'm hoping that if he doesn't remember by sound, he'll remember by sight.
|
|
|
Post by craigslowinski on Sept 19, 2019 12:03:05 GMT -5
"I’m Confessin’ / You’re As Cool As Can Be 1" - Brian (clavinet), Carl (bass), Dennis (drums - overdubbed) Al is also present, but not audibly playing anything
"Be Here In The Mornin' Darlin'" - Carl (guitar), Brian (percussion), Lyle Ritz (bass), Jim Gordon (drums), Frank Messina (accordion), Roy Caton (trumpet), Paul Tanner (trombone), Jay Migliori & Jim Horn (saxophones) According to the AFM contract, Paul Tanner stayed an extra half-hour - likely adding Theremin to the second version of "You're As Cool As Can Be", which was tracked earlier by the Wilson Bros. and Al
|
|
|
Post by craigslowinski on Sept 19, 2019 12:33:40 GMT -5
Oh, and on "You’re As Cool As Can Be 2", it's Carl (guitar) and Brian (bass), with the other instruments overdubbed - drums, acoustic guitar, clavinet, Theremin: likely Dennis (he's definitely present during the tracking), Carl (or Al, as he's also present), Brian, Paul Tanner.
|
|
|
Post by craigslowinski on Sept 20, 2019 10:30:35 GMT -5
Oh, and on "You’re As Cool As Can Be 2", it's Carl (guitar) and Brian (bass), with the other instruments overdubbed - drums, acoustic guitar, clavinet, Theremin: likely Dennis (he's definitely present during the tracking), Carl (or Al, as he's also present), Brian, Paul Tanner. The titles of those songs have always confused me a little (“I’m Confessin’ demo”, “I’m Confessin’ / You’re As Cool As Can Be 1” and “You’re As Cool As Can Be 2”). Do you have any insight into what was written on the actual tape boxes? I believe that's more-or-less how they're written: “I’m Confessin’”, “I’m Confessin’ / You’re As Cool As Can Be” and “You’re As Cool As Can Be".
|
|
|
Post by craigslowinski on Sept 20, 2019 10:30:56 GMT -5
Brian playing bass in 1968!! This is the kinda thing I'm here for. Thanks for all that! I really didn't guess I'm Confessin' would be the Beach Boys, it's such a tightly played track. Any idea if it's Bruce or Brian on organ on that one? You're as Cool as Can Be 2 intrigues me, sonically it's pretty similar to the things done on 4-track at Valentine in May with that odd drum sound. Do we have any idea when each of the 3 variations were recorded or is it just a Feb-March guesstimate like the liners say? The guesstimate is all we have.
|
|
|
Post by WillJC on Sept 22, 2019 8:17:51 GMT -5
Think I might have another explanation for Paul Tanner staying behind on the Be Here in the Mornin' Darlin' session - the horn section is all contained on what sounds like one track panned to the left but there's an additional bass trombone on the right. That must've been overdubbed.
Honestly the instrument on You're as Cool as Can Be doesn't sound like an electro-theremin to me. There are several notes where you can hear an attack that I don't think would be possible. It's more like either a weird electric guitar or a sample of something on the Chamberlin. Quite similar to the high flute sound (not the real flute) on I Went to Sleep, actually.
|
|
|
Post by craigslowinski on Sept 23, 2019 11:39:03 GMT -5
Received a reply from Desper on the clavinet question:
"Model C -- recorded directly using a Jensen Transformer direct box. ~swd"
|
|
|
Post by Vale on Sept 26, 2019 3:36:57 GMT -5
I'm planning to visit Amsterdam in January, could someone tell me the best record stores where I can find BB stuff?
|
|
|
Post by E on Sept 30, 2019 12:19:07 GMT -5
I'm planning to visit Amsterdam in January, could someone tell me the best record stores where I can find BB stuff? You're going to Amsterdam and you're looking for record shops...?
|
|
|
Post by Mikie on Sept 30, 2019 14:15:44 GMT -5
Yeah, I'm sure you'll be looking for records, Vale. Don't forget to stop at every red light!
You might want to contact Smile-Holland - I'm sure he knows where the good record stores in Amsterdam are.
|
|
|
Post by Vale on Oct 3, 2019 1:29:44 GMT -5
I'm planning to visit Amsterdam in January, could someone tell me the best record stores where I can find BB stuff? You're going to Amsterdam and you're looking for record shops...? Yeah looking for some rarities...
|
|
|
Post by Vale on Oct 3, 2019 1:31:10 GMT -5
Yeah, I'm sure you'll be looking for records, Vale. Don't forget to stop at every red light!
You might want to contact Smile-Holland - I'm sure he knows where the good record stores in Amsterdam are. Don't worry Mikie, family travel Soon I'll ask him
|
|