Rare and (Possibly) Valuable Beach Boys Information

Larry Dvoskin... Long ago I hunted him down to get an answer to a question a poster called Cat Collins had asked on the Capitol Board, about whether there was any truth in the rumour that Dvoskin had collaborated with The Beach Boys in some way. Larry promptly registered there as "todayisthefuture" and posted the following:

Hi Cat, John, BB Fans,

Hope you are all "Getting Around" with "Good Vibrations",
"Wouldn't It Be Nice" on this beautiful July Day, but "God Only Knows"
its hard sometimes!

Larry Dvoskin here, to answer the question.

The answer- Al Jardine.

I am one of his songwriting partners. In early 90's when Carl Wilson was still alive,
there was exploration into reuniting the group & Brian and recording a new
album with producer Don Was.

I went to Al's glorious ranch and we wrote and demo'd a bunch of songs=
"Waves Of Love", "Good Good Feelings", "Wish", "Jennifer Clover" ( named after Al's cow
and co-written with his wonderful wife- Mary Ann Jardine).

At that time- Al's eldest son "Matt Jardine" was touring with the band replacing Brian Wilson's voice ( no one could replace Brian himself) by singing all those really high falsetto notes.

So Al, Matt, Carl Wilson, and maybe Bruce I recall- at one point recorded a bunch of songs...which are unreleased yet, but are really high quality songs.

To this day the friendship and creative relationship continues.

A closing personal insight to share with the forum is this:

Buddha overheard musicians one day talking about a stringed instrument.
They said " if the string is too loose it wont play, if too tight it breaks"...he left the forest
to go into the world and proclaimed "The middle path is the road of enlightenment".

The Beach Boys are like a string instrument...Their singing combination, and personas.
Wound tight- to produce a beautiful, colorful sound for the world to enjoy. Painful,
uncomfortable for the musicians themselves, to be wound so tightly...which has often
gone over the line to drug abuse, members leaving, and those pesky lawsuits.

It has a higher, cosmic meaning and brought us all a world of original,
one of a kind music which lifts up our hearts and spirits with joy.

Hope in some small way this info/insight has been of service to you.

Kindest Regards, Larry Dvoskin

I've been checking out the words to "I'm So Young" and there's a puzzle in the line following after "Pretty soon now, I'll go to sea". (The internet is singularly unhelpful on this score.)

In the version by The Students it sounds to me like "Then mother's baby, Will have seen the last of me". Wazzat supposed to mean? Will the singer have grown up after being in the marines? It's an odd way of putting it. It is doo-wop of course...    

In both BB versions (the one on Today! and the flute'n'drum alternative version) Brian seems to be singing "Then mother's baby, Has seen the last of me". Just as odd. Am I hearing it right? Any other opinions on this?

[As for the instrumentation] the flute's a bit weird in the alternative version, like someone just wandered in from another studio to practise. But the big drum fills are a stroke of genius, as was the decision to leave them off the final version.  Actually, they come from The Ronettes' version (see below).

The final verse seems to have been the subject of serious dispute on at least one doo-wop site [now for members only]. The girls (Rosie and Ronnie) sing "sleep" instead of "sea". Check if you don't believe me. No navy for them. Ronnie even sings "cry myself to sleep". In the Trendells' glorious doo-wop rendition (I'm potty about doo-wop   ), the lead voice sings (if I'm not mistaken) "Then Mom and Daddy, Will have seen the last of me". The plot thickens...  

According to that doo-wop site, someone asked the composer, William "Prez" Tyus, about it. "I think he said it's been argued about for so long, he wants to keep it an open issue."

One more thing: the intro. Rosie & The Originals do a more extended instrumental version of The Students' intro. The Trendells add vocals from the beginning but their "I have a girlfriend" section has the chords we know from the BB version (I-IV-V). The Ronettes, like the BBs, leave out the preamble and begins with those three chords. Brian's downward glissando in the voices (which seems to have taken the Boys an age to get right) was clearly influenced by the "smear" in The Ronettes' version.

This is my explanation of the structure of "Wouldn't It Be Nice" as originally posted "elsewhere". I'm probably breaking all the rules in the book musicologically speaking but who cares...

1. Intro (4 bars)----in A
2. Verse 1: a (, b (3), c (2), d (1)----in F (14 bars in all, broken down into parts a, b, c, d for the sake of section 7., which see)
3. Verse 2: same pattern----in F
4. "Sax motif" (2 bars)----in F
5. Bridge (12 bars)----in D
6. "Sax motif" (2 bars) twice + 2 bars rit. to new tempo----in F (6 bars in all)
7. Elements of verse (slow): b (3), c (2), c (2), d (1 bar, accel. here to tempo primo)----in F (8 bars in all)
8. Coda----in F (12 bars, including fade during Mike's one line of lyric)

I've indicated just the tonal centre of each section ( F, D and A are all major).

I very much doubt whether Carrie Marks (David's wife) knows this board exists. Way back at the Capitol Board, she had some very interesting things to say that should be freely accessible----hence their inclusion here (quotes in bold type):

David has said that Carl was actually a very good drummer - more technical than Dennis. And while on the on the subject of Dennis going up front to sing, David was the first one to go back to play drums while Dennis sang. During 1962 and 1963 David played drums (live) on Surfer Girl and Silly Boy.

The girl on the back of the LP cover [Surfin' Safari] is Nik Venet's girlfriend - not Andrea Carlo. Through the years people have made the incorrect assumption the girl in the photo is the girl on County Fair. However, the LP photo session was totally staged...it wasn't taken during an actual recording session.

[JK]
I've been trying to sort out from David's book which BB tracks he plays on. If I've got it wrong (and it's been known to happen), no doubt Carrie M or AGD will set matters straight...
DM plays on the entire Surfin' Safari album except "Surfin'". Vocals by David probably on "Summertime Blues" and possibly on "409", "County Fair", "Heads You Win, Tails I Lose" and "Chug-A-Lug".
DM plays on the entire Surfin' USA album. No mention in the book about which tracks he sings on.
On Surfer Girl David is credited with playing on the title track, "Little Deuce Coupe", "Our Car Club", "Catch A Wave", "Your Summer Dream" and "In My Room". Alan is mentioned in connection with "Surfers Rule" but Jardine may have played bass on it. No mention of vocals.
Of the new tracks for the Little Deuce Coupe album DM plays on "Be True To Your School" (and the single version), "Spirit Of America", "No Go Showboat", "Cherry Cherry Coupe" and "Ballad Of Ole Betsy".
He also seems to have played on "Things We Did Last Summer" which the BBs mimed to on The Red Skelton Show.

[CM]
You are correct about Surfin Safari (all tracks but Surfin') and Surfin USA (all tracks). David played on every track on Surfer Girl (Al played bass and sang on 4 tracks while David played guitar) and every song (uncredited in some cases) on Little Deuce Coupe except for A Young Man is Gone.
In addition to the obvious album cuts, David also played on the filmed versions of the songs like One Man's Challenge version of Surfin' Safari, several Jan & Dean tracks, a couple of Gary Usher's and on several BB songs that ended up being held over for SD vol II (In the Parking lot - he believes) and the box set/Hawthorne/bonus tracks on the CD reissues such as Baker's Man, Punchline etc.

If you see this, Carrie, and object to its inclusion here, out it goes...

Here, for better or for worse, is my transcription of the chords of "TWGMTR". There are moments when the chords reflect the vocal harmonies. At times my primitive notational system has forced me to choose between the vocal and instrumental harmonies (one reason why Verse II deviates slightly from Verse I). Such is life. All corrections and/or suggestions welcome----except that one suggestion.  

Intro:
| C - - - | F/G - - - ||
Verse I:
| C - Am - | Bm - Esus4 - | A - F#m7 - | Dm - G - | Am - D - | Am - D - | Dm - C/E - |
| Bb - - - | Gsus4 - G - ||
Chorus I:
| C - - - | Gm - - - | Eb Ebma7 Ebm7 - | Db - Dbma7 Dbm7 | F# F#ma7 F#m7 - | B - D - | F#/C# - G#m/C# |
| F#/C# - G#m/C# -  | Dm7+9 - C/E Fma7 | Gsus4 - G - ||
Verse II:
| C - Am - | Bm - Esus4 E | A - F#m7 - | Dm - G - | Am - D - | Am - D - | Dm - C/E - |
| Bb - - - | C/G - G - ||
Chorus II
Bridge:
| Am - - - | D - - - | Dm - C/E - | Fma7 - G - | Bbm/Ab - Ab - ||
Coda + fade (general chords only):
| Db - - - | Abm - - - | Db - - - | B - - - ||
| Db - - - | Abm - - - | Db Ab/C Bbm - | Ebm - Gbm - |
| Db - - - | Abm - - - | Db Db/C Bbm - | B - - - |
| Db - - - | Abm - - - | Db Ab/C Bbm - | Ebm - Gbm - ||