The Beach Boys' "Amusement Parks U.S.A."

This morning I listened to a compilation album of the Coasters.  A spoken line at the beginning of "Little Egypt" caught my attention:  "Just one thin dime, one tenth of a dollar."  I had to reference the recording to get the exact phrase, but word-for-word, this is almost the same exhortation that's in the Beach Boys' "Amusement Parks U.S.A." on the Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) album.  There, it's "One thin dime, just one tenth of a dollar."

Last time I did Collection Audit, I postulated that that phrase in "Amusement Parks U.S.A." came from the song "Broadway," specifically the line "One thin dime won't even shine your shoes."  This song by the Coasters seems much more likely to be the actual origin though.  While I don't know if the Beach Boys were familiar with this song, both it and "Amusement Parks U.S.A." have a carnival-esque atmosphere.

The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations: Gold Star 4/9/66" (from The SMiLE Sessions)

Lately I've been listening to The SMiLE Sessions box set.  I listened to the fifth disc this morning, and I noticed that in the second track ("Good Vibrations: Gold Star 4/9/66") at about 1:03 before the next take starts, a guitar plays part of the melody from George Gershwin's "Strike up the Band."  It's the melody to which is sung:

Let the drums roll out
Let the trumpet call
While the people shout
Strike up the band

The final note (for "band") either isn't played or isn't audible (there's some other noise that occurs at the same time that might obscure it), but I was still very excited to hear and recognize this.

Wilson's cited Gershwin as an influence, but I don't know if this quotation is anything more than just coincidence.

The Beach Boys' "Hushabye"

I just listened to the Beach Boys' All Summer Long (the 1990s re-issue packaged together with Little Deuce Coupe and some bonus tracks).  I transcribed some of the songs (because my transcriptions of Beach Boys songs are frightfully scarce), and I noticed a couple things about the lyrics in "Hushabye," written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman.

The last two lines in the first verse are: "Guardian angels up above / Take care of the one I love."  I'd always understood the "Guardian angels up above" line as a vocative because there's a vocative in the preceding line: "Oh, my darlin', don't you cry."  The line break seems to further that reading too.  Consequently, the next line - "Take care of the one I love" - is an imperative.

Listening to and transcribing the song now, I realized that it could just be a statement interrupted by a line break.  Instead of "Guardian angels up above, take care of the one I love," it's just "Guardian angels up above take care of the one I love."  Rather than the singer/speaker commanding the angels to guard his loved one, he's reassuring his love that she's being watched over.

I'm most familiar with "Hushabye" via the Beach Boys' version, and I'm fairly familiar with Jay & the Americans' version, but the liner notes for the Little Deuce Coupe/All Summer Long re-issue mention that the original was by the Mystics.  I happened to have the notation for the Mystics' version (from 1959) in Hal Leonard's Essential Songs: The 1950s.  In those lyrics, there's a comma between "Guardian angels up above" and "Take care of the one I love," indicating that those lines are a vocative and an imperative:

Both readings are grammatically viable though.

(For what it's worth, while the notation here is in F major [and I'm assuming the Mystics' version is in F major too, since the notation is based on their version], the Beach Boys' version is in E major, and Jay & the Americans' is in G major.)

The second thing I noticed is the phrase "dawn's early light" in the bridge:  "Lullaby and goodnight / Till the dawn's early light."  I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but that same phrase is in the first line of "The Star Spangled Banner" - "Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light / What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?"

The Beatles' "Penny Lane"

Last year, I realized that because of the ping-ponging of influence and rivalry between the Beatles and the Beach Boys, the clarinet that doubles the vocals in part of the Beatles' "When I'm Sixty-Four" was probably inspired by the Beach Boys' "I'm Waiting for the Day," which has a similar effect, although different sources credit different instruments, ranging from viola to oboe to English horn.  I just started listening to the Beatles' 1967-1970, and I discovered that the Beatles did the same thing at the end of "Penny Lane" too, although there I think it's a flute or a piccolo.

Because "Penny Lane" was released before "When I'm Sixty-Four," I'd assumed that it was recorded first, but according to Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, "When I'm Sixty-Four" was recorded first (on 6 December 1966) and "Penny Lane" later (on 29 December 1966).  Still, because they were recorded so close together, it would make sense that if McCartney took that idea from Brian Wilson for part of "When I'm Sixty-Four," he would have had the same thing in mind when he did it on "Penny Lane" too.

M. Ward's "You Still Believe in Me"

I just listened to M. Ward's Transistor Radio.  I don't think I've listened to this that much, and last time I listened to it, I almost certainly wasn't as familiar with the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album as I am now.  Because otherwise, I would have noticed that M. Ward's "You Still Believe in Me" is, in some ways, an instrumental cover of the Beach Boys' "You Still Believe in Me" from Pet Sounds.  Mostly, it's a repetition of the opening piano figure, but M. Ward also includes the melody from the verse.  He changes some notes here and there, so it sounds a bit different, but it's still recognizable.

Johnny Rivers' "Memphis" and "Help Me, Rhonda"

Between yester-day and to-day, I listened to the two discs of a Johnny Rivers compilation titled Secret Agent Man: The Ultimate Johnny Rivers Anthology.  I found some interesting things about two of his covers.

The liner notes mention Rivers' "flair for interpreting and rearranging other people's material" and explain that he took the riff for his version of Chuck Berry's "Memphis" from "Tommy Tucker's recent R&B hit 'Hi Heel Sneakers.'"  Aside from Berry's original and Rivers' cover, the only other version of "Memphis" I'm really familiar with is a live version by the Searchers (slightly re-titled to "Memphis, Tennessee") that appears on the 40th Anniversary Collection.  (I have two versions by the Beatles, but I haven't listened to them that much.  They're both closer to Berry's original, so are irrelevant to my point here anyway.)  Until reading the liner notes for the Rivers anthology, I hadn't fully realized that his version and the Searchers' version have the same riff.  The liner notes for the Searchers album don't give an exact date for their version; they mention only that it's from a live appearance on Swedish radio from 1964, although based on the track listing - which is more or less chronological - it seems that it's from December 1964.  So Rivers' version, released in May 1964, is older, and the Searchers probably modeled their version after his.  (It seems unlikely that they would use the same riff - and in the same way - that Rivers did.)

It's hard for me to wrap my head around that because not only am I more familiar with the Searchers' version, but I've always thought that the Searchers were older than Johnny Rivers.  I knew that both had long careers, but I'd always placed the Searchers' pinnacle of success in the early '60s and Johnny Rivers' in the mid- to late-'60s.  The Searchers' taking inspiration from Johnny Rivers certainly illustrates that I was wrong and that they overlap more than I'd thought.

Secondly, I think Rivers' cover of the Beach Boys' "Help Me, Rhonda" is particularly interesting because it adheres more closely to the album version ("Help Me, Ronda," from Today!) rather than the single version (which was also released on the Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) album).

Rivers' cover re-instates the harmonica that appears on the Today! version (it doesn't appear on the Beach Boys' single version), and he replaces shattered with ruined in the line "but she let another guy come between us and it shattered our plan," which - again - is what the Today! version has.  The Beach Boys changed it to "shattered our plan" for the single version.

According to the liner notes, Rivers' version of "Help Me, Rhonda" was released in 1975, which is well after the Beach Boys' versions and well after their single version became a hit.  The liner notes also mention that Brian Wilson contributed backing vocals to Rivers' version.  Rivers' basing his version on the older, album version and Wilson's appearance on the track both seem to suggest that Rivers recorded the song because he genuinely liked it and not because he was just trying to get a hit song (although it apparently did well in the charts anyway).

The Beach Boys' "Car Crazy Cutie"

I'm currently listening to the Beach Boys' Little Deuce Coupe/All Summer Long (the reissue with both albums on one CD).  The backing vocals on "Car Crazy Cutie" from Little Deuce Coupe are "Run run a do run run," which isn't too far from the title (and backing vocals) of the Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron."  Additionally, "Da Doo Ron Ron" was produced by Phil Spector, whose productions Brian Wilson was interested in.

The Beach Boys' "Amusement Parks U.S.A."

I skipped ahead to listen to the Beach Boys' Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) because to-day is Brian Wilson's birthday.

I think "Amusement Parks U.S.A." references "On Broadway."  In the spoken part, the carnival barker says that the attractions cost only "one thin dime," which is also a line in "On Broadway."  "One thin dime won't even shine your shoes."

So either that line is a reference to "On Broadway" or "one thin dime" is a more common phrase than I'd thought.

Palisades Park is also mentioned in the song ("At Palisades and Salisbury Parks the roller coasters are flyin'").  It might be a reference to Freddy Cannon's "Palisades Park," which is also about an amusement park, but Palisades Park is apparently also a real place, so it might not be a viable connection.

The Rip Chords' "Shut Down"

I'm listening to a compilation album of the Rip Chords.  It's interesting that their version of the Beach Boys' "Shut Down" has the same problem of not getting the articulation exactly the same on the double-tracked vocal.

On the Beach Boys' version, this is most apparent on the line "and now the four thirteen's lead is starting to shrink."  The Rip Chords' version is bit shaky earlier in the song, on the line "but the four thirteen's really digging in."

Also, I think the Rip Chords may have changed the lyrics slightly.  I'd always understood the Beach Boys' version as "two cool shorts standing side-by-side," but I think the Rip Chords version has it as "two cool sharks."

The Beach Boys' "Fall Breaks and Back to Winter (W. Woodpecker Symphony)"

After listening to the SMiLE Sessions LPs, I decided to listen to Smiley Smile, which I have on CD packaged together with Wild Honey.  I knew that some of the songs from SMiLE were released in simpler forms on Smiley Smile (such as "Heroes and Villains," "Vega-Tables," "Wind Chimes," and "Wonderful"), but listening to it this time, I also discovered that the vocal parts from "The Elements: Fire" (also known as "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow") are re-purposed for "Fall Breaks and Back to Winter (W. Woodpecker Symphony)."

The Beach Boys' SMiLE Sessions

I recently got the Beach Boys’ SMiLE Sessions box set, and I’ve been listening to it for the past few days. It’s been really interesting, especially comparing the 1966 version with the 2004 version. So instead of writing a bunch of individual posts about specific things, I’m writing a single post with many elements. I’ll try to go in order of the track listing.

There’s an interesting connection between the lead and backing vocals in “Heroes and Villains.” The lyrics for one part are “Heroes and Villains just see what you’ve done, done,” after which, the backing vocals are just “do, do, do, do, do.” It’s a fairly common word/syllable choice for backing vocals, but here, it’s also a different tense of the repeated “done” from the main lyric. It’s worth noting that the “do, do, do, do” is also the backing vocal for the part before “Heroes and Villains just see what you’ve done, done.”

I also found it interesting that in the 1966 version of “Heroes and Villains,” the line is “Margaritas keep the spirit high,” but the 2004 version has it as “Margarita keeps the spirit high.” One is the drink; one is a person named Margarita. However, the lyrics that follow that line could be interpreted as applying to either the drink or a person.

The backing vocals during the “my children were raised” part are also flipped in the 2004 version. The words (“Boys and girls and boys and girls” etc.) are alternated, panned left and right. In the 1966 stereo version, the left side is first and then the right, but on the 2004 version, the right side is first, followed by the left.

The rhythm in some of the keyboard parts of “Heroes and Villains” also appears in other songs on the album, particularly “Wonderful” and parts of “Look” (also known as “Song for Children”), which helps to give the album more cohesiveness.

I can’t tell if the 2004 version includes it, but hearing the backing track for the 1966 version of “Cabin Essence” revealed that the ascending and descending vocal parts (which resemble the inexorable motion of a train) are doubled with strings. The 1966 version also includes a dobro, which – via plucking – resembles the sound of hammering railroad spikes. So trains (and the railroad in general) are portrayed in the song in two ways. (See an earlier post I wrote about this.)

Through the album, there are also instances of the percussion matching the lyrics. On “Child Is Father of the Man,” there’s a trumpet with some type of mute resulting in a “wah” type sound. In the session highlights (about half-way through the second version), you can hear Brian Wilson say that it sounds like a baby, evidently to reflect the theme and the title. The session highlights for “Surf’s Up” have him commenting on the percussion sounding like jewelry, recalling “the diamond necklace” mentioned in the first line. And, obviously, he uses vegetables as percussion on “Vega-Tables.” I may be wrong, but near the end, it even sounds like he’s figured out how to play two different vegetables to alternate between the tonic and the fifth.

Listening to the 1966 version of the album also reminded me of the Poe reference in “Surf’s Up,” which I’d forgotten about. Namely, the line “the pit and the pendulum.” There are also some other literary references in the song. There’s the obvious reference to Robert Burns’ “Auld Lang Syne,” but I believe there’s also a reference to Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” The line “adieu or die” from “Surf’s Up” isn’t too far from the “do or die” from Tennyson’s poem. (Additionally, the line “the child is father of the man” is from a Wordsworth poem.)

There are also references in the lyrics of “Surf’s Up” to other songs on the album. The line “I heard the word. Wonderful thing! A children’s song” references “Wonderful” (and “Song for Children” on the 2004 version). After this line, the backing vocals are similar to those from “The Child Is Father of the Man.”

Finally, listening to “Good Vibrations” at the end of the album, I started wondering if the line “softly smile, I know she must be kind” is where they got the title for SMiLE.

The Turtles' "Elenore" and "You Showed Me"

I also listened to Happy Together: The Very Best of the Turtles this morning.  Along with a bunch of instruments that I hadn't noticed on a lot of the tracks before, I found either a theremin or a tannerin on both "Elenore" and "You Showed Me."  This started me thinking about the time period that these songs were released in.  Just recently (last night, in fact) I read about the tannerin used on Brian Wilson's "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" from the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album, which was the first time one was used in a song.  It seems the Turtles weren't too far behind.  Pet Sounds was released in May 1966, and these two Turtles songs were released in 1968 ("Elenore" in September and "You Showed Me" in December).

The Lovin' Spoonful's "You're a Big Boy Now"

I'm still making my way through the Greatest Hits albums.  Currently, it's the Lovin' Spoonful.  In "You're a Big Boy Now," I discovered the riff from Buster Brown's "Fannie Mae."  It comes in after the first chorus, played on guitar and harmonica.

I hadn't realized that that riff was so important.  Along with the reference in "You're a Big Boy Now," it informed the melody of the Beach Boys' "Help Me, Rhonda," and on the earlier version on Today! (titled "Help Me, Ronda"), the riff is played on harmonica near the end.

EDIT: I just realized that that same phrase is also used for the melody in the Silhouettes' "Get a Job" - the first "sha na na."

Paul Revere & the Raiders' "The Great Airplane Strike" and "Action"

As I alluded to in my last post, I just listened to Paul Revere & the Raiders' Greatest Hits.  I found two different instances of what I think are their imitations of other musicians' styles.

First, "The Great Airplane Strike," which has some Dylanesque qualities in the lyrics.  More specifically, it's a lot like "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" from Bringing It All Back Home.  They're both long, involved stories told in past tense.  Additionally, both feature a series of characters that the singer/narrator has conversations with.  I realize that's kind of a broad statement, but those conversations are narrated in the same way - in a very brief fashion in which inflections of said are frequently used.

Part of the second verse of "The Great Airplane Strike":

The man said I could ride the wing and I said that was fine
He said I could fund your reservation and put the plane on hold
He comes back and said sorry but that wing space's just been sold

The sixth verse of "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" (found here):

Well, I rapped upon a house
With the U.S. flag upon display
I said, “Could you help me out
I got some friends down the way”
The man says, “Get out of here
I’ll tear you limb from limb”
I said, “You know they refused Jesus, too”
He said, “You’re not Him
Get out of here before I break your bones
I ain’t your pop”
I decided to have him arrested
And I went looking for a cop

Both songs are also very loosely connected in a narrative sense.  Almost any verse of Bob Dylan's song provides an example, but the best example in Paul Revere & the Raiders' is the fire the singer/narrator builds in the washroom, to which the panicked janitor replies, "That's all right" once the situation is explained.  I guess it's a lack of real-world reactions and situations that the songs have in common.

Even the title "The Great Airplane Strike" seems to suggest some of Dylan's more protest-influenced songs from a few years earlier.

According to the liner notes, "The Great Airplane Strike" was recorded on 18 July 1966, well after "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream," but still while Dylan was in his electric and enigmatic period.

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Second, "Action" seems to be a nod to the style of the early Beach Boys.  At the beginning and ending of the song, there are layers of vocals.  The last syllable of "Oh, baby, come on" is sustained while the line "Let me take you where the action is" comes in.  And then "Oh, baby, come on" starts again before "Let me take you where the action is" has quite finished.

This same technique is used on the Beach Boys' "Catch a Wave."  In the second verse, the line "all the surfers going strong" turns into a single held note that supports the next line - "they said it wouldn't last too long."

During the verses of "Action," the backing vocals are just "ooh"s in a style reminiscent of the Beach Boys.  Particularly in the first verse, this association is strengthened through the line "In every little town across the U.S.A.," recalling the Beach Boys' "Surfin' U.S.A." and its catalogue of places.  Two other verses include the line "Dance, dance, dance," which - obviously - is the title of "Dance, Dance, Dance," which appeared on the Beach Boys' Today!

Looking at the data in the liner notes provides more credence for this pastiche.  "Action" was recorded on 5 August 1965, well after "Surfin' U.S.A." and "Catch a Wave" and a few months after Today!  Furthermore, one of the writers is "S. Venet," the brother of Nik Venet, who produced some of the Beach Boys' early material.

The Beach Boys' "Don't Hurt My Little Sister"

I kept thinking about the Beach Boys' "Don't Hurt My Little Sister" because the melody of Brian's falsetto part sounded familiar too.  Last night, I finally figured out where I know it from.  There's a song by Jay and the Americans called "Things Are Changing," which - in my opinion - is one of the worst in their catalogue.  Some of the melodies of the background parts are grating, and the song as a whole seems more like propaganda.

But in any case, it has the same melody as part of "Don't Hurt My Little Sister."  I looked it up and was surprised to discover that it was actually co-written by Brian Wilson (with Phil Spector).  While looking up the recording dates, I discovered that "Things Are Changing" is pretty much just Phil Spector's revision of "Don't Hurt My Little Sister."  From Keith Badman's The Beach Boys:  "Brian originally wrote this song for The Ronettes and submitted it to their producer Phil Spector, who then altered the lyrics and called it "Things Are Changing (For the Better)".  Brian will recall that Spector kicks him off the session because he 'couldn't play the song right'.  Spector later cuts the revamped song with The Blossoms as a public-service announcement for equal opportunities."

The melody of the first part Brian's falsetto section ("why don't you kiss her") remains unchanged in Spector's rewrite ("it doesn't matter"), which is what first caught my ear.  But listening to the beginnings of the two songs back-to-back, the resemblance does come across.

The recording dates:  The Beach Boys' "Don't Hurt My Little Sister" was recorded on 22 June 1964 and 18 January 1965 and was released on Today! on 8 March 1965.  Jay and the Americans' "Things Are Changing" was recorded in August 1965 and released in January 1966.

The Beach Boys' "Don't Hurt My Little Sister"

I went a bit out of alphabetical order this morning and listened to the Beach Boys’ Today!  The recurring riff in “Don’t Hurt My Little Sister” caught my attention.  I figured out how to play it and then compared it to the first few seconds of “She’s So Fine” by Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids from the American Graffiti soundtrack.  The riffs are identical, save that the Beach Boys’ is in Bb and Flash Cadillac’s is in B.

I’m not sure what to make of this though because the chronology is confusing.  The Beach Boys’ Today! is from 1965.  American Graffiti is from 1973 but is set in 1962 and features some of the earlier Beach Boys songs, like “Surfin’ Sufari” and - anachronistically, as it’s from 1964 - “All Summer Long.”

I guess “She’s So Fine” was a good choice for the film’s soundtrack if it’s trying to be reminiscent of the Beach Boys (both “She’s So Fine” and “Don’t Hurt My Little Sister” heavily feature piano as a rhythm instrument and harmony and falsetto singing), but its resemblance is to a song that came a few years after the film’s setting.

Django Reinhardt's "Mystery Pacific"

One of the Django Reinhardt songs I have is “Mystery Pacific.”  The sounds at the very beginning emulate a train.  This isn’t an isolated occurrence in swing music either.  Erhard Bauschke’s “Nachtexpress nach Warschau” and the Ramblers’ “Hilversum Express” do the same thing.  Even the “The Train Kept A-Rollin’,” which I have by Johnny Burnette and by the Yardbirds.  There are probably others that I can’t think of.  In any case, trying to emulate the sounds of a train is pretty common.

Thinking about this, I realized that Brian Wilson does the same sort of thing in “Cabinessence” from the SMiLE album.  But he does it differently.  While most of the swing songs imitate the train whistle, provide a sense of the train’s momentum in getting started (by increasing the tempo), or try to impart some sense of the intensity once the train has started moving (by maintaining a fast tempo), the way Brian Wilson does it is to musically illustrate the train.  The moving melody describes either the pistons or maybe rolling hills that the train is going over.  Regardless of how you perceive it, Brian Wilson uses the moving melody, not the intense tempo, to give you the effect of a train (although there is a rather intense tempo, too).

One of the videos that the Beach Boys released around the time that the SMiLE sessions were released shows this better than I can describe it.

The Beatles' "The Fool on the Hill"

I’m in the midst of listening to the Beatles’ 1967-1970.

I’d read that at the very end of “A Day in the Life,” along with the four or five pianos, there’s a harmonium.  I was finally able to find it in the mix.

Also, I don’t think I had ever really paid that much attention to the bass harmonica in “The Fool on the Hill.”  I’d heard the notes, but I never thought, “Oh, that’s a bass harmonica.”

I think the bass harmonica is indicative of Brian Wilson’s influence on the Beatles - the artistic rivalry in which the Beach Boys released Pet Sounds as a response to Rubber Soul and then the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper as a response to Pet Sounds.  Brian Wilson used bass harmonica on “I Know There’s an Answer” from Pet Sounds, and the Beatles used it on “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” (and possibly some other songs from Sgt. Pepper - I haven’t listened to it for awhile and don’t know off-hand).  The bass harmonica in “The Fool on the Hill” further demonstrates Brian Wilson’s influence.