Uncanny

MARGINAL UTILITY

TELEGRAPH UK
BLABBERMOUTH Beach Boys’ Bruce Johnston, who did some of the vocal arrangements on the Pink Floyd album The Wall, told Launch, "Syd Barrett dreamed up the 'roots' path for Pink Floyd to 'fill out' in future amazing albums. We might not have had 'The Wall' and 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' had it not been for Syd's early Pink Floyd musical contributions."

Wow, you leave the scene for a few days and the spammers go wild! I cleared out all the junk, and I'm back on track. I'm going to be posting again after a brief hiatus. Ta ta for now.

PIPELINE Although Pipeline is chock full of amazing graphics, pictures, facts etc., it's kind of hard to navigate. However, if you are persistent you will find some really rare pictures of hard to find single picture sleeves, ads, photo outtakes, etc. It's well worth the effort it takes to move around the site.

CITIZENSVOICE “One thing I like about what we’re all about is we don’t have to embarrass anyone with off-color four-letter words. I love freedom of speech, but I don’t like the four-letter words. People should have better taste. Could you imagine having to bleep stuff out of the Beach Boys’ songs?”

“It was always a big deal for our label (Capitol Records) to come to Wilkes-Barre and play a concert. I remember freezing there. We wore striped shirts and white pants. As the years rolled on, we came when the weather was better.”

“We love what we do. It’s still fun. It’s still fresh. We change the song order every night. I still have my young spirit.”

“I surf about three times a week. I love surfing almost equal to loving music. I surf and I sail and I feel great.”

“I drive a bad-news, gas-guzzling, politically incorrect Mercedes ML55. I didn’t pick it out. Son number three picked it out. I came home and this rocket ship was in my driveway. I owe so much to the fans for supporting our music and our lifestyle, which is a lot lower key than you think. I raised a family and I paid for their college tuition.” --Bruce Johnston

“Consider the case of Tiffany Anders and her cousin Mark Fosson. Tiffany was a searching, collecting music-fan of twentysomething when she made a shocking discovery: cousin Mark, who’d she’d known all her life, had once played with John Fahey. John Fahey, whose records she’d been collecting and loving for years! A bit of research led to the equally shocking discovery: Mark was in possession of the tapes that he’d made for John Fahey’s Takoma record label in the late 70s. They’d never been released; nobody had wanted them after Takoma imploded and Fahey returned the tapes to Mark. And so they were just sitting around. After a few stunned listens to what was on the tapes, Tiffany started looking for someone to put them out. And well, we’re someone.” -- DRAG CITY

I received a copy of this in the mail today. What a wonderful treat for the weekend! Fosson is a finger-style guitar player of considerable prowess. He applies many of the styles and techniques perfected by guitarists like JOHN FAHEY and deftly adapts them to the acoustic 12-string. This lost album is a joy for lovers of solo, instrumental guitar records by the likes of Fahey, Leo Kottke, Robbie Basho, Sandy Bull, et al. Recorded at Appalachia Sound Recording Studios, Chillicothe, Ohio (11/76) and Kitchen Synch Sound Recorders, Los Angeles, California (2/77).

BEACH BOYS BRITAIN MESSAGE BOARD
"RE: Good Vibrations as it relates to stereo vocals....
We recorded all the vocals on eight track at Columbia Records Studio A in Hollywood.

These vocals were recorded one track at a time (that makes each track mono!) and then doubled on another track to 'thicken ' the sound. Brian mixed the eight tracks of backing track & vocals down to quarter inch mono and that was the mix.

Back to the vocals: Only a remix from the eight track as the source of the vocals would allow you to end up with tracks for a 'second guessing Brian Wilson' stereo vocal mix. At the end of the day those vocals would really be stereo placement of several mono vocal recordings. AGD: As you know Brian had damage in one of his ears and that's one of the reasons for all his mono mixes.

If the master eight track tape was never sent back from Columbia Studio A to Capitol Records....then it is lost. In order to have more room in the Columbia Records Studio A tape storage (above the studio in a balcony where an audience was seated for live CBS Radio shows before the recording studio conversion) the 'studio' destroyed the multi track tapes as they were of 'no use' any more having been mixed to quarter inch masters!!! Even back then we had 'corporate rock mentality'......."

Bruce Johnston
Montecito
July 1, 2006

As I draw to a close of my second reading, I thought I’d share some more of my thoughts on PETER AMES CARLIN’S wonderful new book Catch A Wave: The Rise, Fall & Redemption of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson. Every fan of Brian Wilson and/or the Beach Boys should BUY THIS BOOK. It’s entertainingly well written and provides a vivid picture of the good and the bad moments in the long saga of Brian Wilson & Co. Here are a few interesting tid-bits to whet your appetite:

American Story
“The literal act of surfing was far less important to the (non-surfing) Beach Boys than the feelings evoked in the journey to the waves: the friendships, the sense of liberation, the [mere] pursuit of inspiration….This same kind of hardy American story had been written a thousand times before, set on whaling ships, on rafts floating down the Mississippi, or on the backs of horses galloping into the untamed frontier.” (pp. 36-37)

Egalitarianism
“[W]hat matters about a person in a Beach Boys song has nothing to do with who he or she is, and everything to do with the strength of their ambition and the things he or she chooses to do with it. The essential activities are freely available to all comers.” (p. 49)

Genius
“To his friends and followers, Brian seemed capable of anything. ‘He was absolutely on top of the world,' says DANNY HUTTON.” (p. 74)

Lameness
“In fact, M.I.U. ALBUM…may be one of the worst records ever made by a great rock band.” (p. 224)

Anecdotes
“Brian was kind of afraid of [Thomas] Pynchon, because he’d heard he was an Eastern intellectual establishment genius. And Pynchon wasn’t very articulate. He was gonna sit there and let you talk while he listened. So neither of them said a word all night long. It was one of the strangest scenes I’d ever seen in my life.” – JULES SIEGEL on introducing novelist THOMAS PYNCHON to Brian Wilson, ca. ’67 SMiLE sessions. (p. 103)

Author Peter Ames Carlin, who is from the Northwest, discusses listening to collectors’ tapes of a rare string of shows (Seattle, Spokane, Vancouver, Portland) where Brian joined the band live while Mike Love suffered a breakdown, Feburary 1970, particularly the show at Seattle’s Opera House on February 28, 1970. “The tape of the Seattle show is muddy, but even through the murk it’s possible to hear Brian’s strong voice coming through the mix.” (p. 168)

For additional information, please check our PREVIOUS POSTS.

MICHELE - Saturn Rings (Fallout)

Michele O'Malley, founding member of the Ballroom, only recorded one solo album. Saturn Rings featues the involvement of cult legends such as CURT BOETTCHER (Sagittarius, Millennium, Ballroom), LOWELL GEORGE (Little Feat) and ELLIOTT INGBER (Mothers of Invention, Captain Beefheart); originally released in 1969. The album's original cover artwork was designed by DEAN TORRANCE (Jan & Dean) of KITTYHAWK GRAPHICS.

REVIEW 1
REVIEW 2
MORE

MOTHERLOAD

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN HERE BEFORE