As Spock would say... "Fascinating"
On Aug 27, 12:54 pm, Eidem <[email protected]> wrote:
> THE REEL DEAL
> Lost Beach Boys tapes surface in SLO County
>
> BY GLEN STARKEY
>
> The Beach Boys have had more Top 40 singles than any other American
> band and are the best selling American band ever, yet their career is
> marred by drug abuse, the untimely deaths of Dennis and Carl Wilson,
> the very public mental breakdown of chief songwriter and singer Brian
> Wilson, and a relentless history of litigation and acrimony among the
> surviving members (Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, and Mike Love all tour
> separately, though Love now owns the Beach Boys name after a
> protracted legal battle). Theirs is the story of unparalleled triumphs
> and soul-searing tragedies. Yet the popularity of the nearly five-
> decades-old act remains undiminished, which is why SLO County resident
> Lance Robison was able to leverage some 45-year-old, reel-to-reel
> tapes into a five-figure deal that funded his dream project, a new CD
> called Codependance Beach.
>
> THE TAPES
>
> What Lance sold to Capitol Records were three reel-to-reel “work”
> tapes from the Beach Boys’ 1964 recording session for Shut Down Vol.
> 2. These tapes contained the multi-tracks from which the original mono
> recordings were mixed. The mono masters from that 1964 album have
> since been lost or misplaced, and even if they were found, they don’t
> contain the various tracks from which to create stereo recordings. In
> other words, the only reason Beach Boys fans now have stereo versions
> of “Don’t Worry Baby” and “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” is because a
> then-13-year-old kid named Lance Robison came into possession of these
> work tapes and held onto them for 43 years.
>
> One day back in 1966, when Robison’s family lived in Southern
> California, his brother John came home with three tape boxes marked
> “Sea of Tunes Beach Boys.” Needing money, John sold half-interest in
> the tapes to Lance for $15, making Lance caretaker of the tapes.
>
> The story of how John came to possess the tapes is murky at best.
> Apparently “a guy he knew” had them, and not just these three, but
> perhaps as many as nine reels. John had a friend he went to school
> with in Torrance who knew a guy who lived near the Wilsons in
> Hawthorne. Somehow the boxes of tapes traveled from one teenager to
> another, eventually landing in Lance’s hands. One thing is certain:
> They weren’t stolen from Capitol Records.
>
> “My best guess is that these reels were probably junked, or were
> intended to be junked, after the album project was finished back in
> 1964,” explained Alan Boyd, Beach Boys archivist for Brother Records,
> Inc., which in conjunction with Capitol Records recently released the
> Beach Boys’ collection Summer Love Songs, which contains newly re-
> mastered stereo recordings of two songs from Lance’s tapes. “It was
> highly unusual for the labels and artists to hold onto the work tapes
> and session reels once the tracks were finished and released. In fact,
> it wasn’t at all unusual for session tapes to be left behind at the
> recording studios themselves—to this day we’re still finding session
> tapes that have been quietly sitting unnoticed on old studio shelves
> for over 40 years.”
>
> Lance stored the reels all these years, never playing them. They’d be
> sitting in his closet still if it weren’t for a New Times article I
> wrote about local author and Beach Boys expert Jon Stebbins, who had
> written a book about Dennis Wilson. After seeing the story, Lance
> contacted me and said he had some old Beach Boys tapes and wanted to
> talk to Stebbins about them. I put the two in contact.
>
> "Lance had three tape boxes, vintage Ampex 1/2-inch reels circa the
> early 1960s, and the sight of them made my eyes nearly pop out of my
> head,” recalled Stebbins, who in addition to his book on Dennis Wilson
> also authored The Lost Beach Boy, about early member David Marks.
>
> “From the attached paperwork I knew immediately that these were
> original Beach Boys master reels from early 1964. I could see they
> were multi-tracks, and I suspected that these were session tapes the
> Beach Boys themselves had been missing for many decades, including the
> first generation master reels for ‘Don’t Worry Baby,’ one of Brian
> Wilson’s greatest songs of all time.”
>
> Over the years, Lance didn’t copy or sell the tapes. As a long-time
> Beach Boys fan, he wanted to see them preserved and returned to
> Capitol Records, the only entity who could legally reproduce the songs
> for sale. On the other hand, what Lance had was potentially very
> precious to both Capitol Records and Beach Boys fans, and as someone
> who had rescued and preserved the tapes for more than four decades, he
> felt some recompense was due.
>
> What Lance, a longtime singer-songwriter, was most interested in was
> producing an album of his own songs with top-notch musicians in a top-
> notch studio. He asked Stebbins if he thought he could leverage the
> tapes so he could record his dream album, giving Stebbins some rough
> demos of his original material to preview.
>
> “I was skeptical about Lance’s original material because I hear a lot
> of mediocre music by people who think they have talent,” confided
> Stebbins. “But his stuff was so well developed; some of the songs were
> written 20 or more years ago. The style was vintage singer-songwriter.
> It had patina and reminded me of James Taylor, a little Boz Scaggs, a
> little Jimmy Buffett with bits of Dylan and Lennon too. His voice was
> pure, and the songs were good; they grew on me. Some of them are
> absolute gems.”
>
> On July 3, 2008, Stebbins contacted his most direct connection to the
> Beach Boys’ corporate entity, Brother Records Inc.’s Alan Boyd.
>
> “When I described the long-lost Beach Boys tapes that Lance was in
> possession of to Alan Boyd, he nearly melted down,” boasted Stebbins.
> “I e-mailed jpegs of the tape boxes so he knew I wasn’t kidding. The
> subject line of my e-mail was ‘This Is Real!’”
>
> Boyd set up an appointment at Mark Linett’s recording studio, Your
> Place or Mine, in Glendale, California, so that he and Linett could
> evaluate the tapes. Linett, a Grammy-winning recording engineer and
> producer, has recorded nearly every Brian Wilson release since the
> 1980s, including his acclaimed 2004 Smile epic. Linett has also been
> responsible for remixing some of the Beach Boys’ most celebrated
> reissues, including the very first stereo mix of Pet Sounds in 1997.
> His non-Beach Boys credits are equally impressive, including Red Hot
> Chili Peppers, Jimmy Buffett, Jane’s Addiction, Ricky Lee Jones, and
> Randy Newman.
>
> Linett, Boyd, Stebbins, and Robison met at Your Place or Mine on July
> 15, and using Linett’s vintage equipment, together they listened to
> the tapes for the first time in 45 years. The reaction in the room was
> utter astonishment. As Stebbins suspected, what Robison had were three
> of eight missing reels from the Beach Boys classic 1964 Shut Down Vol.
> 2 album. The tapes included the backing tracks, vocals, and overdub
> sessions for six songs, including “Don’t Worry Baby” and “Why Do Fools
> Fall In Love” (with a previously unheard intro-section). The latter
> had never been heard in stereo until these tapes surfaced. Robison’s
> tapes were first generation, the very tapes the Beach Boys had
> recorded in January and February of 1964 at Western Recorders and Gold
> Star Studios in Hollywood.
>
> Now that all parties agreed that what Lance had was the real deal,
> negotiations started with Robison and Stebbins facing off against
> Brother Records, Inc. and Capitol/EMI. While the tapes were probably
> worth three times the five-figure deal Lance eventually struck with
> Capitol Records, all he really wanted was enough money and access to
> have Linett cut his album.
>
> Linett ball-parked a recording budget for Robison’s proposed album of
> his own material, but the negotiation process was long and sometimes
> arduous. The Capitol legal department didn’t see why they should have
> to pay Robison for tapes that the Beach Boys owned the intellectual
> property rights to. But the physical tapes had been in Robison’s
> possession for so long they were clearly his property—no one disputed
> that. Capitol eventually realized that intellectual property rights
> are absolutely worthless without possession of the only tapes
> containing that property. Lance’s tapes were the only multi-track
> versions in existence of six classic Beach Boys songs. If Brother
> Records, Inc. and Capitol wanted to present a new stereo remix of any
> of these songs, these tapes were their only chance.
>
> Historically they’re extremely important as well, and their excellent
> condition, not to mention the wealth of outtake material and
> fascinating studio chatter, make them a rare look into the very
> private world of early Beach Boys recording sessions.
>
> At one point, Robison basically issued an ultimatum, telling Capitol
> he’d rather just hang onto the tapes rather than give up his dream of
> recording his own album. Negotiations slogged on for another eight
> months. Independent offers were considered, but Robison truly wanted
> the tapes to return to Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys’ archive. By
> holding firm in his request for a recording budget, Capitol blinked
> and he eventually got what he wanted … and apparently so did Brother
> Records and Capitol.
>
> On March 20 of this year, Capitol/EMI executive Jane Ventom presented
> Robison with a check in the Capitol Tower in Hollywood. Robison
> arranged to use the money to record Codependance Beach at Mark
> Linett’s studio.
>
> “The thing about the negotiations with Capitol/EMI is that it’s like
> they used to say about the British Empire,” quipped Lance. “The sun
> never sets on it. Jane Ventom was getting approval from London and
> then India the last few days before the check was cut. But she was
> always really nice to me. I did threaten to put them in the vault like
> Disney does at one point.”
>
> MAGNETIC GOLD
>
> Just how excited was Brother Records and Capitol to regain possession
> of these tapes? Well, it took them just three months to release two of
> the tracks on Summer Love Songs.
>
> “Historically, these tapes are quite important,” admitted Boyd. “The
> final three-track masters for the Shut Down Vol. 2 album have been
> missing for years, and these work tapes—which were not the finished
> three-track masters—had enough of the separate elements to enable us
> to make new stereo mixes on some of these songs. Also, there are very
> few surviving session tapes from that era in the Beach Boys career
> that allow us to hear the group at work in the studio building a song
> from scratch. To be able to hear how Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys
> constructed a classic record like ‘Don’t Worry Baby,’ from the basic
> instrumental tracking to the background vocals and the first takes of
> the lead vocal offers an unprecedented glimpse into their creative
> process.”
>
> In retrospect, discarding session tapes like these seems grossly
> shortsighted.
>
> “It’s very different nowadays,” explained Boyd. “With deluxe reissues,
> bonus tracks, 5.1 stereo remixes and so on, artists and labels alike
> have discovered that there is potential value in their outtakes and
> session masters. But back in 1964, ‘teen’ music was considered to be
> completely ephemeral, about as durable—and disposable—as popcorn to
> the executives who were selling and marketing the records. It’s rather
> the same situation you find with old movies—once a film was finished
> and released, studios almost always got rid of the outtakes, unused
> negatives, and work prints.”
>
> So where are the other missing tapes from these sessions, and has
> Capitol, who paid out a substantial amount of money for something that
> technically was theirs, set a dangerous precedent?
>
> “I strongly doubt that Capitol would ever have had these tapes in the
> first place,” said Boyd. “The Beach Boys, unlike most artists in the
> early 1960s, were very much self-contained—they produced their own
> records at studios unaffiliated with the label, and when a project was
> finished they would turn in completed mono and stereo masters. The
> group didn’t really start saving their own session masters until a few
> months after the Shut Down Vol. 2 album was finished. Thankfully, from
> 1965 on, they saved most of their tapes, and the group has multi-
> tracks for just about every album from 1964’s All Summer Long onward.
> But for some of those earlier titles, all we have are the final three-
> track masters, and even some of those are missing.
>
> “As far as value on the remaining missing tapes from the Shut Down
> Vol. 2 album, I couldn’t set a monetary figure on that,” continued
> Boyd. “But there were some other gems on that album—the songs ‘Fun Fun
> Fun’ and ‘Warmth of the Sun’ come to mind—that aren’t covered on the
> reels that Lance had. They would have some significant value, that’s
> for certain. So, does this set a dangerous precedent? Far from it. If
> these reels had been stolen from Capitol’s vaults, there might be an
> argument for that, but as far as we were concerned, we were thrilled
> to find that this material even existed, especially since these are
> the kinds of work tapes that were usually tossed aside once the songs
> were finished. We’d actually love to see a precedent set in which
> folks who might happen to have old Beach Boys tapes sitting around are
> inspired to contact us!”
>
> A DREAM REALIZED
>
> Codependance Beach, Lance Robison’s dream album, has arrived. What did
> Boyd think of it?
>
> “Not only have I listened to it, I sang on it—Lance had heard some of
> my own work and asked me to add some layered Beach Boys-style vocals
> to his song ‘Warm Winds.’ It was great fun, and I was more than happy
> to be a part of it. I think that Lance has some really nice tunes, and
> Mark Linett did a great job producing the album [Lance was co-
> producer]. It all worked out quite well.”
>
> The recording also contains a dazzling group of veteran musicians
> including original Cars lead guitarist Elliot Easton and keyboard
> wizard Tom Canning, whose credits include Elvis Costello, Bonnie
> Raitt, Robbie Robertson, Glenn Frey, T-Bone Burnett, Joe Walsh, and Al
> Jarreau. The rhythm section featured Brian Setzer band bassist John
> Hatton and veteran drummer Bill Severance, best known for his work
> with Captain and Tennille. The record also features major session
> contributions from Brian Wilson band member and Wondermint Probyn
> Gregory; Brian Wilson collaborator Andy Paley, who in his career has
> produced Madonna, Debbie Harry, Jonathan Richman, The Ramones, and has
> performed and written songs featured on Sponge Bob Square Pants; steel
> guitarist Rick Shea, whose credits include Dave Alvin and R.E.M.; and
> woodwind artist Steve Carr, who’s toured with Dizzy Gillespie and
> Benny Carter among others. Central Coast guitarist Dorian Michael and
> Lance’s son Brian Robison (accordion) also joined in.
>
> “I’ve been in recording studios dozens of times, and worked on many
> varied recording projects through the years, but this one had a
> magical feel to it that was unique,” said Stebbins, who played some
> percussion on the album. “The musicians—all veterans with solid
> careers in the business—truly connected with Lance’s songs and things
> just came together beautifully. The chemistry was one of a kind.”
>
> Said Lance, “Regarding the sessions, all I can say is it was one of
> the easiest projects I’ve ever done, and the hardest part was deciding
> who would pay for lunch … me. My years of experience with [local sound
> engineer] Rick Sutton and Dorian Michael led me to the rhythm section
> of Bill Severance and John Hatton. These two along with Dorian gave me
> a certain comfort zone, which was augmented by Jon Stebbins’ presence
> during the sessions. Mark Linett, my co-producer, had a similar
> relationship with Elliot Easton and Tom Canning, so it was like a
> family get-together of male cousins.”
>
> EPILOGUE
>
> “Lance won,” said Stebbins matter-of-factly. “The odds on what
> happened actually happening were beyond impossible. First off, the
> tapes survive for 45 years. What are the odds of that? You [Glen]
> write the article. That only happened because I got a chance to work
> on a dream Dennis Wilson project that many predicted would never
> happen. Lance happens to see the article and reaches out. I saw the
> tapes and knew what they were. I’m one of the only guys on Earth who
> had the right combination of connections and independence to present
> this material to Brother Records in a way that gave Lance some
> leverage in the negotiations (because going in I knew what he had was
> long sought after, before anyone else could tell him something
> different). And then for Lance, just a guy from Atascadero with no
> real Hollywood experience, to go up against Capitol/EMI and their
> whole international structure and hold firm in his negotiation for
> eight or 10 months, it was like threading a needle with his eyes
> closed. And then to have his sessions come off so beautifully. This is
> also a giant rarity. The recording process is more often than not a
> series of train wrecks and repairs, but his sessions were almost
> spiritual in their synergetic alignments.”
>
> “I’m trying to promote my CD right now and not live off the Beach Boy
> vapors that a lot of people do,” said Lance, “but we altered rock
> history, dude. As far as the remaining tapes, I can only hope they
> still exist.”
>
> Glen Starkey still loves his Beach Boys vinyl. Tell him your Beach
> Boys stories at [email protected].
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Diamond Headz" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected]
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/michaellenz?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
