Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys are legendary for their use of session musicians as producers.
Pet Sounds, Good Vibrations and what was completed of SMiLE are probably, with side 2 of The Beach Boys Today and side 1's When I Gorw Up to Be A Man, side 1's masterpiece, probably the greatest studio productions in all of history.
Studio production in recorded music doesn't get better than this.
All Brian as producer, the Boys' vocals, and session musicians.
So you might be surprised to learn that in one of their golden periods, what I call the collaborative era- the period following the abandonment of SMiLE through 1973's Holland and 1973's live shows- that The Beach Boys made far less use of session musicians and yet produced a lot of their best work.
But The Beach Boys did bring in session musicians on occasion in this period, especially on any part they could not play well themselves.
And The Beach Boys did have strengths as instrumentalists.
The Beach Boys could play basic parts well with good spirit on their original basic rock lineup instruments- Brian on bass, Dennis on drums, etc.
But they also had a field instrumentally where they were probably the best musicians on the planet.
And that was keyboards.
Not lead keyboards.
As part players.
As players of a part in a wider composition and arrangement, which is what their music relies so extensively on.
As part players, like musicians in a legendary string quartet only on keyboards, Brian, Dennis, and Bruce Johnson were legendary- or should be.
Bruce Johnson was a classically trained pianist.
Go and listen to his The Nearest Faraway Place from 20/20.
That's Bruce Johnson on piano and electric piano.
Brian and Dennis were even better.
On keyboards as part players, Brian and Dennis were the best musicians on the planet.
Brian still is, I'm sure.
Anything difficult or which they could not play themselves for any other reason on other instruments, well, that was when they brought in the session musicians.
Daryl Dragon, the future Captain of Captain and Tennile, was not there as a session musician.
He was there as a creative collaborator, especially with Dennis.
For your consideration!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson