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The Beach Boys on TV - singing in tune VS singing out of tune


davd_indigo

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Posted

I saw the Beach Boys on TV's The View. They performed Good Vibrations. The harmonies sounded good and full. But when I heard Mike Love singing a lead in to a phrase, his warble and shaky pitch was exposed. I figured they were using those gizmos that can double octaves and such. But when I heard bad singing, I wondered if they were performing with some prerecorded beefed up harmonies.

 

Does anyone know how poor vocals are made to sound good in this case ? Maybe the prerecorded sweeteners are overpowering the bad singing ?

 

 

They launch into the actual song at about 4 minutes in. At about 6:15 in you can hear Mike Love's exposed vocals really clearly.

[video=youtube;fVvyIWVcchA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVvyIWVcchA

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Does anyone know how poor vocals are made to sound good in this case ?

 

Simple. Sing them better. And if it's an old recording, don't try to fix it up, leave it as is. If it was good enough for then, it's good enough, maybe even better, now. And if it's really bad, leave it in the vault.

 

 

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I saw the Beach Boys on TV's The View. They performed Good Vibrations. The harmonies sounded good and full. But when I heard Mike Love singing a lead in to a phrase, his warble and shaky pitch was exposed.

 

They launch into the actual song at about 4 minutes in. At about 6:15 in you can hear Mike Love's exposed vocals really clearly.

[video=youtube;fVvyIWVcchA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVvyIWVcchA

 

 

The View doesn't do postproduction and not much rehearsal either, so I'll guess the band had their own soundguy at the production console who knew what/who/when to boost/cut.... which is a whole lot better than say, Ed Sullivan's union sound guy at the audio controls in 1961. Just a guess on my part.

 

I saw the Beach Boys in 1963, 1971, 1974 and then maybe a few other times later as they entered the Reagan-phase. I'll accept any fragment of them I see nowadays although I wouldn't probably go to a show of theirs now. Warbly voices are fine for me for a guy at Love/McCartneys age who are still out there doing Xx+ shows a year.

 

You know what hit me in the NICEST way about the posted View video? John Cowsill on drums. Here he is 49 years ago (age 12) when he was already a super drummer-

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlSE2QYImpk

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I'm sorry' date=' but as much as Mike Love and Bruce Johnston might wish for us to believe otherwise, that's not the Beach Boys.[/quote']

 

 

I hear ya.

 

I can't believe that a band imo died in 1966 would still be going strong in name, and tour for another 50 years, on a killer 5 year run between 62-66.

 

Amazing.

 

I know folks need to pay the electric bill and feed there families, but the Beach Boys name might have actually held these folks back from doing something amazing after 1966.

 

 

There was a time when Mike Love and Al Jardine, split and Mike was the only original member. Love takes a bad rap sometimes as not being the most creative member of the band, but he was a power player and wrote some of the big hit off the first album.

 

 

 

Got to give Bruce a lot of credit, were it's due.

 

I guess he wrote and sang on the backing vocs of this killer tune.

 

[video=youtube;FI5xme5k5AQ]

 

 

In his mid 70's, Mike Love's voice is shot, or at least anything I have heard him on in recent years.

 

 

Even Brian Wilson's voice sounds like and old man. I was gonna go see him live a few years ago, but the show sold out fast. From what I have seen of Brian, he's like almost there on stage, which reminds me, kids don't do drugs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mortality is a bitch. You can do music for only so long; it's a physical process, not just a mental one. What surprised me about Love, though, was singing with his head tilted down. WTF? That's no way to open your diaphragm...maybe he's had neck issues or arthritis or whatever that prevents him from attaining a posture that would help with his vocals.

 

It's a pretty decent Beach Boys tribute band, though :)

 

I understand someone wanting to keep doing music, though...I don't know if it's just about paying the bills. How can you spurn that beautiful mistress who's been with you your whole life? I don't know how many years I have left to do music, but I'll do it as long as I can.

Posted
Mortality is a bitch. You can do music for only so long; it's a physical process' date=' not just a mental one.[/quote']

 

I've seen that with a bunch of people over the years. Eventually something gets to you and you can no longer play. I honestly hope I die first of something catastrophic (preferably in my sleep ;) ) before something like Alzheimer's or arthritis keeps me from being able to play.

 

What surprised me about Love, though, was singing with his head tilted down. WTF? That's no way to open your diaphragm...maybe he's had neck issues or arthritis or whatever that prevents him from attaining a posture that would help with his vocals.

 

Yeah, it's awful for the vocal cords too; you'd think that after all these years he'd know better. :idk:

 

It's a pretty decent Beach Boys tribute band, though :)

 

I was actually impressed with the lead singer's ability to do a decent job in terms of sounding like Brian... but it's NOT Brian, and I have a hard time getting past that, because it was his band, his idea... and definitely his songs, arrangements and production. His absence from most post 1965 tours aside, if there's any single person who is indispensable to that band, IMHO, it's him.

 

I understand someone wanting to keep doing music, though...I don't know if it's just about paying the bills. How can you spurn that beautiful mistress who's been with you your whole life? I don't know how many years I have left to do music, but I'll do it as long as I can.

 

I can't blame them for wanting to continue to perform and play music. I get that part of it, and hey, if people are still willing to pay money to hear them, that's great. But to me, calling it the Beach Boys without Brian and Al (not to mention Carl and Dennis, RIP) just seems... I dunno... almost deceptive or something. It's certainly not the band I'd want to go see live - the 50th anniversary tour was the last time the real Beach Boys played IMO, and then Mike fired Brian and Al and went back to doing his thing, but he continues to call it by the band's name.

 

Just seems wrong IMO.

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As far as I'm concerned Mike Love's Beach Boys is just a nostalgia act. Like those '50's vocal groups I sometimes see on PBS at pledge time.

I'm gathering that only Mike Love can licenses the "Beach Boy" name for touring. A bit of googling suggested that Al Jardine and Brian Wilson have to tour under their own names. Wonder how that happened.

 

I don't know much Beach Boy history. Their overall work isn't interesting enough (to me) to make me that curious. It seems to me they were crippled creatively from the beginning by the Ass-hole dad - Murray. He didn't want them to grow creatively. And my impression is that Mike Love didn't really want to grow creatively. Imagine the Beatles with only one forward thinking musician and the others resisting growth. Imagine the Beatles without the opportunity for professional growth that playing in the night clubs fostered.

 

From early on the BB's didn't play the instruments on their on record from what I've gathered. I heard Hal Blaine say on NPR once that Dennis Wilson was happy to be on his yacht getting drunk while the instrumentals were being recorded. My impression, and I may be wrong, is that most of the Beach Boys would've been happy being an updated version of the Four Freshmen.

 

I'm including the recording of Ahmad Jamal because as I understand, it was recorded when he was 81. He's 86 now. Just a bit of encouragement that not every old musician's skills dissipate Of course our voices seem to be a bit more fragile.

 

[video=youtube;gOAepSLbohs]

 

  • 2 weeks later...
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Posted

Does anyone know how poor vocals are made to sound good in this case ? Maybe the prerecorded sweeteners are overpowering the bad singing ?

 

This is obvious, so maybe I'm not getting your question right... Nothing as sneaky as pre-recording; everyone in that band can sing great and they're arranged the vocals to a "t" to hide Mike.

 

Same deal with Brian's band, which has more players and is even better. In that band, they even double lots of the parts to replicate the original double-tracked group vocals.

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Posted

Sorry to go off topic, but I ran across this while looking for something illustrative from Brian's band. What a great handling of this gorgeous Brian Wilson song!

 

[video=youtube;EVOEDIboAMg]

 

Hope someone enjoys it.

  • 2 weeks later...
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Posted

 

Simple. Sing them better. And if it's an old recording, don't try to fix it up, leave it as is. If it was good enough for then, it's good enough, maybe even better, now. And if it's really bad, leave it in the vault.

 

 

 

Perfect advice.

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