God Only Knows

[johnny7]

Just found this on youtube today.
Did a search and didn't see it posted here.
Various takes of this tune at Western with Brian calling orders from the helm.
It's a great listen and decent video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVUBpzlELOg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCTVcNsJGX0&NR=1

[Gregg Juke]

Thanks for posting! Very interesting.

GJ

[joelpatterson]

When I see this stuff, I am struck by this thought: or actually a series of thoughts, a whole cascade of cogitation:

Did these people imagine/expect/dreaming in their wildest dreams understand that someday, the huge and complex machinery around them would be shrunk down to the size of a lunchpail and sell for the cost of no more than a second-hand used car?

That teenagers in their living room would have FAR more clarity and processing power and not only that, they would be able to lift the entire performance of God Only Knows or any of its notes or riffs in pristine beauty and recycle them at will? Was "recycle" even a word in the lexicon?

I doubt it-- I think they probably assumed that studios would just get larger and their stranglehold on "professional" audio production would extend into the future without limit.
_________________
Mountaintop Studios
~The Peak of Perfection~
Petersburgh NY 12138

mountaintop@taconic.net

[Gregg Juke]

Hey Joel,

You may be right about one aspect-- I've heard studio musicians talking about the older cats, and basically saying that they thought "This'll never end!"

But the idea of sampling, if that's what your talking about (?), that's been around for quite some time. In the arts world, they called it "appropriation;" re-purposing already-created material in another context. And there were all of the "musique concrete" guys that experimented with recordings and electronic music concepts since the beginning. So maybe they did foresee it a little bit, too.

GJ

[joelpatterson]

Right, Gregg-- nothing new under the sun-- I just get obsessed at times with trying to put myself in the Birkenstocks of people in the past and wondering who among them, if any, saw the future with the least shred of prescience.

I guess this is so amusing to me because looking back, the future must have been obviously just an extension of the present-- when in reality (there's a word from my youth!) the real future took all kinds of twisty turns and lurches and unanticipated leaps.

Here's an example: the place I built my studio used to be a farm, and there's an old cow barn built into a hill. Well, used to be-- nothing left but the stone foundation, three sides of stone walls, open to the East where the slope leads down to a pond.

So, I cleared it out, put some benches in it and built a stage on the slope. Makes a cool little micro ampitheater-- so naturally I wonder-- it's easy for me to imagine these hardy farmers leading the cows in at the end of their sepia-toned day... but did one of them ever look up from their labors and say to their mates, "By cracky, someday a madman will build a stage right where we're standing."

And I don't suppose it was too likely that everyone nodded and agreed, "Yep, bound to happen. No way to stop it."
_________________
Mountaintop Studios
~The Peak of Perfection~
Petersburgh NY 12138

mountaintop@taconic.net

[Gregg Juke]

Now you're into shifty territory... Que Sera, Sera, si?

But theology, quantum physics, 12-step programs, and experience teach us that some things are changeable, while others aren't. You could have chosen _not_ to build the stage there ("That is _way_ too much work building into the side of that hill, hauling lumber, swinging a hammer, and all that. Think I'll go swimming!"). So it seems inevitable in hindsight, but maybe it really wasn't. You used your free will to make a bold choice that you can now reap the benefits of... The "eyes of faith," if you will. Bruce and I did the same thing with our space, and bro, I wish you could have seen it. We could have said "No way. This place is full of trash, two-inches of silt, stinks, and even gets a little moist when it rains hard. Plus, it's freezing in the winter, and boiling in the summer... BUT, the rent is cheap..." We went with "the rent is cheap," and set to cleaning and painting, carpeting, treating, and wiring. Along the way, we got a free heating system from the landlord, we got _very_ inexpensive central air-conditioning this past spring, and we have a killer three room set-up. In hindsight, the studio was always there, waiting to be discovered. But I am pretty sure that the folks in the offices there and the guys in the grinding shop doing their thing back in the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s never imagined the current state of affairs. Not only a sweet recording set-up, but we have run of the entire building as the only tenants.

In relation to the Beach Boys/Wilson/Wrecking Crew video, I'm not sure what they were thinking re: the size of future recording gear, but it seems like the objective was to make a timeless record in a category all its own. They saw that, I'm pretty sure, and we'd have to agree with them in the assesment; "Objective Achieved."

GJ

[joelpatterson]

My point exactimente! The true visionary grinding guy would have glanced up and seen the blinking lights of your dbx 160, rubbed his eyes and thought he was dreaming-- when he was the only one of the sorry lot who was RIGHT!

They say that building a studio is the best revenge, and there's alot to be said for that-- I just wish that another facet of my revenge had been to say, at the time, "You all who dismiss my dreams as nonsensical and quite unlikely-- we'll see who laughs last. You LOSERS!" See, underneath this cheery demeanor-- lurks a whole world of bitterness and seething resentment. Not that I let it bother me... too much.
_________________
Mountaintop Studios
~The Peak of Perfection~
Petersburgh NY 12138

mountaintop@taconic.net

[percussion boy]

Hope this speaks to what you all are talking about:

I think studio musicians and engineers, even at the top of the business in the 60s and 70s, usually expected music to be a part-time thing, or at best a temporary career. There was never any expectation of salary or royalties. Session players in New York and LA used to be afraid to leave town for too long, because someone better might take over their spot.

The glamour is mostly in what they left us. And maybe on a PET SOUNDS session, they had a whiff of that: "This is part of my legacy."

I sure wish there were a thriving music business now to be part of. But it was always a more marginal thing for most of the participants than it seems. The heroic part is what they accomplished in spite of the problems. I'm sure we can all leave some good music behind too.

Hope this is relevant.
_________________
"The world don't need no more songs." - Bob Dylan

"Why does the Creator send me such knuckleheads?" - Sun Ra
.
.
.
.

[joelpatterson]

I feel, deep down, like there are just as many heroes (and villains) today, as the old system is more than halfway slipt into the sea... and with the very best, most exciting people I work with, there's always an air of ad-hoc-ness and things-falling-together-in-a-chancy-way. It seems like there always has been, and should be, an "at odds" sensation between thrilling music and "order" or "the corporate run police state we live in," depending on your extremism, and this flux is necessary.

As much as musicians drive me crazy with their flakiness and indecision and self-destructiveness, I sure do admire their "creativity," which at its best utterly disregards any conventions and seeks to lift us all into a better world, if just for a moment.

Probably this is at the heart of what mesmerizes me: this escapist impulse.
_________________
Mountaintop Studios
~The Peak of Perfection~
Petersburgh NY 12138

mountaintop@taconic.net

[Seej]

Big fan of this video series. The guy took 2 years off halfway thru GOK. Makes me want to put it on dvd, if i had the capabilities.
_________________
"You can have a crappy drum set and still be a good drummer. And then you can have a $15,000 drum set with all these drums and the drummer's crap."-Mike Gibbins (1949-2005)

http://www.soundcloud.com/Seej1982

[noon]

'This video contains content from EMI, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.
Sorry about that.'