The Afterword

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Nectar of the Gods.

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Bassist and original member of The Wrecking Crew, Carol Kaye has shared her studio diary memories of the Beach Boys sessions she played on. For nerdy fans like me, (and many Afterworders, I’ll bet,) it’s like nectar to a particularly ravenous honeybee:

People have been asking about this and that “are you on xxxxxxx?” So, here’s the List of the BB’ hits I am on: BB’s Hit Credits: BEACH BOYS CREDITS – PER UNION RECORDING CONTRACTS AND MY LOG ALSO: There’s been so many emails about which of the BB’s hits I played on, etc., that I’ve decided to post them here for general information. This is not just from my Log, or memory, but also verified by Musicians Union Contracts. Be aware that there were 13 total recording dates for “Good Vibrations”, the first date (dates are 3-hour sessions in the studio) at Gold Star with Ray Pohlman on elec. bass was totally scrapped, and I did the other 12 dates on “Good Vibrations” for Brian at Western Studio 3. A copy of the re-use check I get for “Good Vibrations” is on the website. Studio musicians receive royalty checks on these tunes when re-used in movies according to » Continue Reading.

Greater than the sum of their parts?

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TLDR: bands – better knowing who the members are or not?

Browsing through the RSS feeds tonight I came across this article on the Beach Boys and the song in the clip. It’s beautiful – a ghostly shimmering sound that makes it as fresh as the first time I heard it. That’s a long time ago – Beach Boys songs were some of the earliest music I can remember listening to – my parents had a Greatest Hits cassette and Loop John B and others are ingrained in my memories like inner rings of a tree – weirdly sweet interweaving harmonies over happy, jolly music. I never wondered then who was singing what, and to this day, though I know a little more about prodigy Brian with his cracked psyche, tragic womanizing surfer Dennis, cynical and self-centred Mike, and even third bro Carl and Richie Cunningham lookalike Al, I couldn’t tell you who sang what in any of their songs. I wouldn’t know where to go to google it (a big thank to anyone who can break down the track for me).

Then I got to thinking about something that has entertained me every now and then – bands where » Continue Reading.

Goin’ Disco

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Many acts “went disco” in the late seventies and early eighties and not all of them were wretched. Some of them were genuinely good.

I have a real soft spot for Here Comes The Night, the Beach Boys 11 minute disco monster from their album LA mainly because I’d never have thought that the Beach Boys could successfully go disco at all…

Any other successful disco ventures from non disco acts?

50 Years On – Pet Sounds and Blonde On Blonde

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On the old blog I wrote a long piece about seeing Bob Dylan live in Sheffield in 1966. After the Afterword site went down the Dylan piece was subsequently picked up by a couple of blog sites and attracted interest from far and wide.

Then I was approached by the BBC to take part in a Radio 4 documentary about the day in question May 16, 1966. It seems that both Blonde and Blonde and Pet Sounds were released on that date.

The documentary goes to air next week.

So Pet Sounds and Blonde On Blonde are half a century old next week. Which one has aged better?

http://i.imgur.com/Za0pxEN.jpg http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b079pqct

Ray Charles and The Beach Boys

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Just stumbled across this which I’ve certainly never heard of, or seen before – The Beach Boys, with Brian Wilson on good (albeit Dr Landy assisted) form and Ray Charles taking an already magnificent song, Sail on Sailor, to another level – great vocal and love the cheeky little jazzy twist he puts on the piano part. How good is this?

The Great Pet Sounds Deception

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I see from the Uncut 200 Greatest Albums of All Time thread that the ubiquitous Pet Sounds continues to bestride the Best Album polls like a pop/psych Colossus.

Not everyone is in full agreement however, There follows a essay I wrote for the old blog which was sadly lost following the 48 Crash.

I hope it doesn’t cause too much offence to Beach Boys fans.

Now read on…

http://i.imgur.com/OYkduHx.jpg