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Post by beachboystalkmatt on Jul 31, 2021 16:27:37 GMT
Good morning friends! This Tuesday at 8 EST on Facebook, Youtube, and Twitch, we welcome pianist and songwriter Ron Altbach. Ron was in the band King Harvest, a band most known for the song "Dancing in the moonlight". Ron then toured with the Beach Boys for a while, collaborating on songs including Lady Lynda, Belles of Paris, Winds of Change, and She's Got Rhythm. Ron was a session musician on 15 Big Ones and MIU, also having a producer credit on the latter. Ron also was part of the Celebration project with Brian, Mike, and Al. It should be a very good conversation with Ron about an interesting time in Beach Boys history. Hope you will join us!
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 31, 2021 16:35:47 GMT
I'm excited to hear this one. It's far from my favorite period musically from the group, but Ron had a front-row seat to some VERY interesting times with the band: basically right there around the time of the almost-breakup. Plus he co-produced MIU, which, while not a favorite by any stretch, did have some interesting aspects to it, including Brian doing some decent singing again.
(I'm REALLY curious to hear anything Ron has to say about Brian's condition and vocal condition, because it was pretty different from Love You.)
Also, anything he's got to say about the sensitivities of working within and across the band's factions (which by this time seemed downright toxic) would be extremely valuable.
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Post by beachboystalkmatt on Jul 31, 2021 17:05:19 GMT
I'm excited to hear this one. It's far from my favorite period musically from the group, but Ron had a front-row seat to some VERY interesting times with the band: basically right there around the time of the almost-breakup. Plus he co-produced MIU, which, while not a favorite by any stretch, did have some interesting aspects to it, including Brian doing some decent singing again.
(I'm REALLY curious to hear anything Ron has to say about Brian's condition and vocal condition, because it was pretty different from Love You.)
Also, anything he's got to say about the sensitivities of working within and across the band's factions (which by this time seemed downright toxic) would be extremely valuable.
Exactly! We will address all of that! Also, I really like MIU! I think the second half especially has some great songs. And Brian, for some reason, sounds great! I will definitely ask about his vocals.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jul 31, 2021 19:36:06 GMT
Yeah, just to echo what Kapitan said, I've always been fascinated by the M.I.U. sessions, including the Christmas music, and what shape Brian was really in. I'd like to think Brian contributed significantly, but some of those songs do have a feel of...someone else...in places. Maybe that's Ron Altbach, who Mike Love respectfully referred to as "The Professor". No offense to our Professor on The Beach Boys Today board.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 4, 2021 2:18:15 GMT
Great show tonight, guys! Ron Altbach is such an articulate man. He was affiliated with the band at a very interesting time/era. I'm glad he has so many nice things to say about his Beach Boys/Celebration tenure. Obviously, Ron is aware that Mike Love has been subjected to criticism over the years, so it was refreshing to hear him shed some positive light on Mike, the person.
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Post by B.E. on Aug 4, 2021 2:32:01 GMT
Who is holding the maracas in that picture?
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Post by beachboystalkmatt on Aug 4, 2021 2:57:00 GMT
Great show tonight, guys! Ron Altbach is such an articulate man. He was affiliated with the band at a very interesting time/era. I'm glad he has so many nice things to say about his Beach Boys/Celebration tenure. Obviously, Ron is aware that Mike Love has been subjected to criticism over the years, so it was refreshing to hear him shed some positive light on Mike, the person.
Thanks so much! I really did not know much about that period, so I appreciated his insight. I actually like the MIU album and I agree with you about his Mike comments. Very nice to hear another perspective. Thanks for watching! Cool pictures!
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 4, 2021 18:04:51 GMT
Not to be a broken record, but another really enjoyable interview, beachboystalkmatt.
I appreciated how Ron handled the factions/teams issue. It was great that he neither sugar-coated the reality, nor played into it from a gossipy standpoint. He said something very similar to "that's just the reality of it." And that's just it: that's just the reality of it. They weren't children, they were adults living in strange circumstances bound to have issues (as do we all).
He brought a few really cool perspectives beside that, too.
1) This might be the first non-glowing take on Carl. I actually love it because it was against stereotype but was also just very matter-of-fact. It wasn't "Carl sucks" or anything, but it didn't go toward the easy "Carl was an angel; there has never been anyone so kind!" take that so many people have. I don't say that to demean Carl in the slightest, but to reinforce that he was just a human being (albeit a tremendously gifted and apparently kind one). People have their friends, people get along with different people. It's fine! We don't need good guys and bad guys. (I deserve an award for avoiding the obvious BBs cliche in ending that sentence.)
2) He's one of the few people to point out another reality that fans might not love: playing Beach Boys music onstage isn't exactly rocket science for good musicians. That doesn't mean the music isn't good, it doesn't insult Brian Wilson or diminish his genius. But if you're able to play classical music, for example, then being the third keyboardist onstage during "Surfin' USA" isn't going to keep you up nights (unless you're afraid of crowds or something). I think the Daryl Dragon comment about Dennis's composition skills in Endless Harmony, or Tom Petty's comparing Brian to Beethoven in IJWMFTT, did a tremendous disservice to the music in some ways by conflating different things in people's minds and leaving some very misleading ideas in the aether.
Anyway, here ends my rambling. Again, really enjoyable. You guys are going to have sufficient footage for a legitimate doc about the band before this is all said and done.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 5, 2021 1:38:16 GMT
Who is holding the maracas in that picture? It looks like Al Jardine, but was he present at Celebration concerts? Maybe that one.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 5, 2021 1:50:01 GMT
Another thing I found interesting about Ron Altbach's interview was that he humbly said (two times I believe) that he "wasn't a producer". He specifically said it about the M.I.U. Album. I'm not a musician but I think I understand what he meant. He was basically a keyboardist/musician who wrote songs, and then had some say in how they would be recorded. I wish he would've expanded on that a little more as it related to M.I.U. I wonder how much of the songs/album Ron produced, how much Al produced, and, yes, how much Brian produced. Hey, Matt, can we have a Part 2 sometime with Ron?
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Emdeeh
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 519
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Post by Emdeeh on Aug 5, 2021 2:25:16 GMT
The guy with the maracas looks too tall for Al.
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Post by B.E. on Aug 5, 2021 2:27:57 GMT
Yeah, I was actually thinking he looked related to Mike.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 5, 2021 2:50:46 GMT
The Celebration concert photo was from June 1978. The photo of Al and Brian (in the red and blue sweat suit) was taken on June 20, 1978 - my first Beach Boys' concert at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The bottom group photo was also from 1978 but I don't know which month. Note the way Al wears his watch in the BB group photo; the beard matches, too. Hey, I don't know. Any other guesses?.
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Post by beachboystalkmatt on Aug 8, 2021 14:46:01 GMT
Not to be a broken record, but another really enjoyable interview, beachboystalkmatt.
I appreciated how Ron handled the factions/teams issue. It was great that he neither sugar-coated the reality, nor played into it from a gossipy standpoint. He said something very similar to "that's just the reality of it." And that's just it: that's just the reality of it. They weren't children, they were adults living in strange circumstances bound to have issues (as do we all).
He brought a few really cool perspectives beside that, too.
1) This might be the first non-glowing take on Carl. I actually love it because it was against stereotype but was also just very matter-of-fact. It wasn't "Carl sucks" or anything, but it didn't go toward the easy "Carl was an angel; there has never been anyone so kind!" take that so many people have. I don't say that to demean Carl in the slightest, but to reinforce that he was just a human being (albeit a tremendously gifted and apparently kind one). People have their friends, people get along with different people. It's fine! We don't need good guys and bad guys. (I deserve an award for avoiding the obvious BBs cliche in ending that sentence.)
2) He's one of the few people to point out another reality that fans might not love: playing Beach Boys music onstage isn't exactly rocket science for good musicians. That doesn't mean the music isn't good, it doesn't insult Brian Wilson or diminish his genius. But if you're able to play classical music, for example, then being the third keyboardist onstage during "Surfin' USA" isn't going to keep you up nights (unless you're afraid of crowds or something). I think the Daryl Dragon comment about Dennis's composition skills in Endless Harmony, or Tom Petty's comparing Brian to Beethoven in IJWMFTT, did a tremendous disservice to the music in some ways by conflating different things in people's minds and leaving some very misleading ideas in the aether.
Anyway, here ends my rambling. Again, really enjoyable. You guys are going to have sufficient footage for a legitimate doc about the band before this is all said and done.
Very interesting take! I agree with you. I thought Ron was very fair in his assessment of Carl. He did not say anything bad about him, he just told the truth of his experiences, which were in the late 70’s there were two camps and Ron was part of the camp without the Wilsons. As a result, he was ostracized a bit. Ron is a classically trained pianist so it makes total sense to me that playing BB keys is easy for him. His point of view was very refreshing to me. I enjoyed it so much. Thanks for your thoughtful response and we appreciate you watching the show!
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Post by beachboystalkmatt on Aug 8, 2021 14:48:18 GMT
Another thing I found interesting about Ron Altbach's interview was that he humbly said (two times I believe) that he "wasn't a producer". He specifically said it about the M.I.U. Album. I'm not a musician but I think I understand what he meant. He was basically a keyboardist/musician who wrote songs, and then had some say in how they would be recorded. I wish he would've expanded on that a little more as it related to M.I.U. I wonder how much of the songs/album Ron produced, how much Al produced, and, yes, how much Brian produced. Hey, Matt, can we have a Part 2 sometime with Ron? A part II is a great idea! Since my brother and I are meeting these folks for the first time we like to hear about their whole musical journey. Sometimes we don’t get to the BB questions until a bit later! The MIU/Celebration era is really fascinating to me and there are many more questions to ask! So hopefully in the future Ron will come back. He seemed to enjoy himself. Thanks for watching and thanks for the support!
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