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Post by lonelysummer on Apr 16, 2024 3:47:27 GMT
I saw The Beach Boys and Chicago in January 1989 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The Beach Boys played about 6-7 songs and suddenly left the stage. Carl Wilson remained to introduce Brian Wilson, accompanied by I think three other musicians (one was Michael Bernard). Brian performed three songs - "Love And Mercy", "Walking The Line", and "Melt Away". It was a total shock; I was going nuts. The applause actually wasn't as loud as you might've expected. I honestly think several fans didn't even now who Brian Wilson was and what exactly was going on - and where did the Beach Boys go? I remember a few things about the performance. Brian looked great; he was trim and wearing a suit. He sounded pretty good, too. He played a brown Fender bass. And, I remember thinking how odd it was to be promoting his solo album so many months after it was released. It already seemed like ancient history.
The weirdness continued. After those three Brian solo songs, the Beach Boys reappeared but Brian did not remain on the stage to perform the rest of the set with them. I was bummed and confused. I kept thinking he just has to come back out. During the Beach Boys' encores, Chicago joined them onstage for some of the songs, but still no Brian. Then, he finally resurfaced at the back of the stage, way behind the drum riser. He just paced back and forth and never came to the front of the stage and never approached a microphone. Very strange.
That's the way it appeared to be on the Endless Summer tv series. Brian was featured singing "In My Car" during one segment that appeared to be during one of the Beach Boys stadium shows. None of the other concert footage featured Brian - although he did appear in a couple clips apparently shot in a tv studio. I think there might be footage of him singing "Love and Mercy" from the same stadium show.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 24, 2024 17:01:05 GMT
KDS's post in another thread about a new Deep Purple album featuring what would be its ninth lineup got me thinking about the Beach Boys, not so much about their official lineups, but spinning off from there.
Rock bands and solo artists are different in that the latter can change instrumental personnel all the time and nobody bats an eye: they're supporting musicians, after all. When a rock band changes its drummer, guitarist, etc., though, it's a new lineup for the rock band.
The Beach Boys, despite having begun and for years been basically a self-contained rock band (admittedly frequently supplemented by horns, strings, or any assortment of other instrumentalists), by sometime in the latter '70s almost became more like a collection of five or so solo artists in that respect. In doing so, they became in their latter days the definitively disproved myth about their early days: they largely stopped playing on their own albums.
(Before anyone feels the need to chime in that they did continue playing on their albums, of course they did--sometimes. But let's start with MIU, on which Dennis is credited with drumming on three songs and providing "additional drums" on a fourth; on which Carl and Al are each credited with guitar on four; etc. Or LA (Light Album), where Al is credited with guitar on one; Bruce provides keyboards on two or three; and Carl plays guitars on two or three and keyboards on three. KTSA, where other than Carl (six credits on four tunes) things are even worse. 85, less still. The shift is obviously real.)
Can you think of other similar examples? Self-contained bands allegedly including a drummer, a bassist, a guitarist or two, a keyboardist or two, who rarely played the instrumental tracks on their own albums? I'm not saying there aren't any, I just can't think of any in similar situations. What strikes me are groups with members struggling with drugs or other issues being silently replaced, a la Peter Criss and Ace Frehley in the late 70s and early 80s in Kiss; or maybe bands that lost a member and never formally added a replacement, but obviously needed someone to play that instrument, such as Steve Jordan drumming for the Rolling Stones without being a Rolling Stone.
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Emdeeh
Pacific Coast Highway
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Post by Emdeeh on Apr 24, 2024 17:19:13 GMT
The Beach Boys stopped being a truly self-contained band onstage when they started using supplementing musicians in the late '60, creating the entity of supporting musicians called the Beach Boys Band. From that point on, they have the principals (actual BBs), plus the supporting band.
And Blondie Chaplin was, for a good while, a member of the Rolling Stones' supporting musicians.
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Post by kds on Apr 24, 2024 17:21:39 GMT
Pink Floyd had a period like that for about a decade.
On The Wall, Roger Waters and David Gilmour each play on it. The musical contributions of Richard Wright and Nick Mason were minimal, with session musicians filling in the gaps.
The Final Cut features Roger, with some solos by Gilmour. Mason is barely on it, Wright had been let go by then.
Waters left the band before A Momentary Lapse of Reason. Richard Wright was brought back, but really didn't play on the album. Mason again barely plays. Mason even admitted that when Floyd went on tour in 1987, he had to relearn how to play drums. So, that album is largely Gilmour and session musicians.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 24, 2024 17:24:00 GMT
The Beach Boys stopped being a truly self-contained band onstage when they started using supplementing musicians in the late '60, creating the entity of supporting musicians called the Beach Boys Band. From that point on, they have the principals (actual BBs), plus the supporting band. And Blondie Chaplin was, for a good while, a member of the Rolling Stones' supporting musicians. Yes, I definitely recognize that. And to me, the whole live experience is another thing entirely, where I think you could think about the lessening importance of the instruments they were holding--er, playing--on stage through the years. And they're far from the only band to do that live, where fleshing out an album's sound is harder to do with just four or five instruments, especially when you're tasked with singing harmonies all night. But on studio albums, to barely play or not play at all? That seems to me more rare, if not unique.
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Post by kds on Apr 24, 2024 18:39:39 GMT
The Beach Boys stopped being a truly self-contained band onstage when they started using supplementing musicians in the late '60, creating the entity of supporting musicians called the Beach Boys Band. From that point on, they have the principals (actual BBs), plus the supporting band. And Blondie Chaplin was, for a good while, a member of the Rolling Stones' supporting musicians. Yes, I definitely recognize that. And to me, the whole live experience is another thing entirely, where I think you could think about the lessening importance of the instruments they were holding--er, playing--on stage through the years. And they're far from the only band to do that live, where fleshing out an album's sound is harder to do with just four or five instruments, especially when you're tasked with singing harmonies all night. But on studio albums, to barely play or not play at all? That seems to me more rare, if not unique. Actually, I've only somewhat recently that this was happening on some later Queensryche releases, when most of the band was still intact. Most notably (and disappointingly because I actually thing it's a decent album) on Operation Mindcrime II (2006). Apparently, Geoff Tate and guitarist Mike Stone (who was the replacement for original guitarist Chris DeGarno) played on the album while original Ryche members Eddie Jackson, Michael Wilton, and Scott Rockenfeld sat on the sidelines.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 24, 2024 23:33:53 GMT
I really can't think of any (bands who didn't play on their albums), but I did want to mention The Partridge Family - seriously - only because I'm fascinated by the session musicians who recorded all of their albums. The Partridge Family were never a band; they were actors/actresses though David Cassidy and Shirley Jones were talented singers. I thought that maybe David Cassidy contributed some guitar and Shirley Jones some keyboards, but they did not play any instruments on the albums, just vocals. Check out some who did:
Guitar: Tommy Tedesco, Louie Shelton, Dennis Budimir, Larry Carlton, Dean Parks
Bass: Joe Osborn, Max Bennett Keyboards: Larry Knechtel, Mike Melvoin, Michael Omartian
Drums: Hal Blaine Percussion: Joe Porcaro Brass: Chuck Findley
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 24, 2024 23:37:37 GMT
I really can't think of any (bands who didn't play on their albums), but I did want to mention The Partridge Family - seriously - only because I'm fascinated by the session musicians who recorded all of their albums. The Partridge Family were never a band; they were actors/actresses though David Cassidy and Shirley Jones were talented singers. I thought that maybe David Cassidy contributed some guitar and Shirley Jones some keyboards, but they did not play any instruments on the album, just vocals. Check out some who did:
Guitar: Tommy Tedesco, Louie Shelton, Dennis Budimir, Larry Carlton, Dean Parks
Bass: Joe Osborn, Max Bennett Keyboards: Larry Knechtel, Mike Melvoin, Michael Omartian
Drums: Hal Blaine Percussion: Joe Porcaro Brass: Chuck Findley That kind of act definitely did occur to me. The Monkees were another, point being they were TV shows that recorded music under those TV show names. And of course, the Wrecking Crew and other studio musicians did contribute to a LOT of bands' recordings. To me, what made the question interesting, was that the Beach Boys did begin as a real band. But over time, they went from playing on the vast majority of their recordings to barely playing on their recordings.
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