A surprise find down on the beach today! From out of nowhere, a "reworked and remastered" edition of the first Beach Boys album. It is unofficial, anonymous, "true" stereo, and fantastic. It may not be quite perfect, but it's by some way the best version I've heard (and I've heard a few). I made a new cover [above - Ed.] which you can slide like a decal onto your files, or use the one that comes with the loaddown. I don't care.
The recent big block Beach Boys reissues have been like a one-way ticket to Shrugsville. This is the kind of thing "they" should and could be doing. It gives me hope that as the technology advances and becomes more widely available, we'll be hearing more unofficial , and revelatory, remixes of familiar albums without having to wait for the record companies to come up with the usual tame and disappointing rehashes.
Pete was a fan, even when the album was a whopping four years old. And there's Paul Revere and the Raiders' Just Like Us. Extra points for identifying other albums in the shot.
Should youse bums be desirous:
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/p3PdxY58YEE
emm pea three?
DeleteOf course. But it's @320 (I think). You might find higher rez elsewhere.
DeleteFine with me, but I can't locate it in that 'workupload'.
DeleteLast year, when a group of sun-tanned youngsters recorded a song about their favorite sport, they had no idea that the tune was destined to ride a wave of popularity that would rival that of the sport itself. But just like the hair-raising seaside pastime for which it is named, * the song Surfin’ became an overnight sensation, and the surprised teenagers who had sung it suddenly found themselves on their way to fame and fortune. Then they did a sequel called Surfin’ Safari, and the immediate smash success on this one left little doubt that the Beach Boys had arrived.
ReplyDeleteThe group is mainly comprised of people from Hawthorne, California, named Wilson…there’s Brian, Dennis, Carl, and their Dad, Murry Wilson, a long-time songwriter who acts as manager for the outfit. Then there’s the boys’ talented cousin, Mike Love, the composer of Surfin’, who sings both the lead tenor and deep bass parts in their unusual vocal arrangements. The remaining member of the Beach Boys is young David Marks, a neighbor of the Wilsons who plays a driving rhythm guitar.
Brian, the oldest of the Wilson boys, is the group’s leader and vocal arranger. Carl is the very accomplished lead guitarist, while brother Dennis sings and plays the drums. None of them, incidentally, had any formal training, but they all grew up in an atmosphere where music was a regular part of their lives. Every one of the boys possesses tremendous natural ability, and each has a fine singing voice as well.
Here, then, in their debut album on Capitol, are the rockin’, rollin’ kids who have made the biggest splash along the Pacific shores since the sport of surfing was discovered…The dynamic Beach Boys!
* For those not familiar with the latest craze to invade the sun-drenched Pacific coast of Southern California, here is a definition of “Surfing,” A water sport in which the participant stands on a floating slab of wood resembling an ironing board in both size and shape, and attempts to remain perpendicular while being hurled toward the shore at a rather frightening rate of speed on the crest of a huge wave. (Especially recommended for teen-agers and all others without the slightest regard for either life or limb.)
Some more music that surfers didn't listen to
ReplyDeleteEarly Beach Boys recordings
Gary Usher sessions, from October 1961
Studio outtakes, from 1963
Brian Wilson’s garage tapes, from 1960
https://mega.nz/file/8Hl3VArI#XNW4GmD-fS9mJBnELHU9xtxFUaJzITeHgAlI-qjZsMA
*chef's kiss*
DeleteAnd some more early stuff.
DeleteBeach Boys In The Beginning (The Complete Hite & Dorinda Morgan Sessions)
https://workupload.com/file/ZhNJWxY8rLV
My first self-bought record was this ridiculous ten-track cheapie/half-bootleg Beach Boys compilation mixing a couple of Morgan session tracks with three or four completely unrelated surf instrumentals. The thing ran for a little more than 25 minutes and since this was way before Photoshop someone cut out the heads of the Beach Boys from a picture and glued them on this ridiculously rudimentary computer graphic of a beach.
DeleteOf course, back then I didn't know what bootlegs or these shady semi-legal releases were. And it was so cheap that I could get it with my pocket money. And tentative as these tracks are, the embryonic "Surfer Girl" points very clearly to what was to come.
This first album gets some unnecessary critical flak. Cut by a bunch of teenagers (and Mike Love) who weren't thinking of making anything that would be subjected to critical analysis sixty years down the line, they made hit records and had fun and what more is there?
DeleteAlso: Brian had cowriting credits on nine of the twelve tunes. And arranged the vocals. The year before the Beatles' first album, where Lennon McC. scored eight out of fourteen composing credits.
Yes, that's about my take on 1960s acts - they just made music and didn't think of it as potentially carrying forward some sort of legacy.
DeleteIs the stereo from original multitracks, or is this like the stereo Beatles demo tape, where the power of computers was harnessed to separate each instrument out from the mix so that a stereo mix could be created ex nihilo?
ReplyDeleteI have no way of telling. But I've A-B'd (as they say on the Hoffman board) this with my other *cough* "iterations" and it just flat out sounds better. The way the hi-hat (I think) sometimes gets shunted over to the edge of the mix - a little annoyingly - leads me to believe there's some witchcraft involved and not just balancing the multitracks. I think the opening of County Fair is brilliant, and the kind of risk an official remix wouldn't take. Also, the changed track order - something else an approved remix wouldn't attempt - is entirely successful.
DeleteMark Linett and Alan Boyd used DES (Digitally Extracted Stereo), to isolate or extract the vocals, and instruments into separate tracks on ‘Surfin’ Safari’ which were then remixed into stereo. Each song probably took around a month or two to complete, from extraction to new stereo mix. DES is much different from the fake or mock stereo Capitol Records issued during the 1960s and 1970s, using the dreaded “Duophonic Sound”. A well-done DES stereo mix, such as Mark Linett has achieved here, is the equivalent of an original multi-track stereo mix.
Delete" ... such as Mark Linett has achieved here". It's not a Mark Linett mix, is it? He would never have altered the beginning of County Fair like this, and he wouldn't have shuffled the order, and there would be official artwork etc. There's an oldish thread here:
Deletehttps://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-beach-boys-surfin-safari-lp-question-why-no-stereo-version.170944/
There was an official Duophonic release, but this doesn't (to my ears) sound Duophonic, and there's that key altered County Fair.
I have a pretty good stereo version, which I think (it's not tagged, unfortunately) might be the Unsurpassed Masters set, including backing tracks, different takes. This is not that. This is genuinely "reworked" in a way Capitol would never do.
But yes, I think it's DES, or De-Mix Technology, like Giles Martin used for the Beatles recordings.
I love mono...in particular, I use mono versions over stereo when I listen in my car. But I'm no purist, and love it when they use tech to create stereo mixes.
DeleteIt does beg the question... could we get stereo mixes of 1920's recordings?
We're quite a way off, but I don't think it's out of the question. Provided there's a sound to analyse, I imagine that it could be processed to be separated. I'd have thought the chief problem would be clarity of the source sound.
DeleteTechnology like this tends to advance exponentially - I don't think we're that far off. I remember when a bunch of Django/Hot Club recordings got a sonic clean-up (of sorts) for the first time, and how miraculous that sounded. That tech now sounds almost quaint. But it's not just the technology, it's who can use it. With the unlimited storage and communication of the internet, it's going to be available to anyone/everyone with the interest and ability. I don't think there's any question that any recorded sound is going to be open to complete dismantling and renovation. There'll be a time when the respect given (bafflingly, for me) to remixers such as Steven Wilson is forgotten - fans will be doing it as well/better, and exchanging files for free.
DeleteYou can criticise this Beach Boys mix as you can any other - what I find extraordinary is the combination of skill and imagination the tech allows. For me, the music has come alive.
(Agree with drafter about mono for in-car listening - stereo sounds terrible in a car cabin!)
As a desirous bum, I thank you. I actually haven't heard the BBoys since yesterday.
ReplyDeleteMore from Hoffman:
ReplyDelete"There were EU releases of Surfin’ Safari in 2013 that included stereo versions: not sanctioned by Brother Records but released due to the EU copyright law."
So this looks like it's a new EU release not covered by copyright law.
"[A true stereo version is] not possible, unless they go down the digital extraction route.
The album was not really recorded to make a stereo album, the parts aren't there to do it properly.
For the most part, it's one channel of instrument backing, the other, vocals.
There's no room to 'space' things out.
The other thing is, the vocals on this album, unlike the one's that followed, are not double tracked.
If they were, that could make an interesting vocal stereo mix over the mono backing track, but it's not the case.
I'm afraid it's just not going to happen with the original session tapes."
The technology not mentioned here, either in the piece or the comments, is AI. I have no idea if AI, or its prototype form, was available in 2022, but I'm not so convinced now this is the version mention in my comment (above) December 4 2022. The changes made here go much further than the usual stereoification exercises - and this sounds fantastic.
ReplyDelete