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Tuesday, August 13, 2013

"Help Me Rhonda" Vocal Session

Here's an outtake from the vocal session for The Beach Boy's "Help Me Rhonda," that's interesting for a number of reasons:

1. You can hear the sophistication of their harmonies. There sure was a lot for them to remember.

2. You can hear how flat they are in the beginning of the session and how they get better as it goes along.

3. Murry Wilson (Brian, Carl and Dennis' father and early producer) giving them several "pep talks." You can already hear the resistance to his suggestions, leading to frustration all around.

My favorite quote (right at the end): "You guys are coasting. Chuck and I used to make one hit after another in 30 minutes. You guys take 5 hours to do it." To which Brian replies, "Times have changed."

It's long, but a good listen.


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4 comments:

Niels said...

Absolutely amazing how nice the boys treat their father and how much bullshit they put up with. No wonder they gave him a fake mixing console to think he actually did somethin...

Don D said...

It's a real treat to listen to these guys create such iconic music...And AGONY to hear all the bullshit the old man was laying on them near the end. It's a miracle they were able to produce anything. I wonder if there are behind-the-scenes recordings of early Jackson 5 sessions. Listening to that would probably be unbearable.

I'm going to play a bunch of Beach Boys tracks now, just to clean my soul.

Gary Ewer said...

Thanks very much for posting this, Bobby. Murry Wilson was the king of passive aggressive!

senormedia said...

I'm a genius, too.

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