Recording
Friends was the first Beach Boys album to feature significant songwriting contributions from Dennis Wilson, "Little Bird" and "Be Still"; the former's bridge incorporates elements of "Child Is the Father of the Man", a then-unreleased song from the aborted Smile. Although production was credited to the group as a whole, this was the band's last album until 1976's 15 Big Ones to feature Brian Wilson as a dominant creative force, writing, co-writing and/or producing every song with the exception of "Be Still." Brian Wilson received no credit on the song "Little Bird," allegedly so that Dennis Wilson and Stephen Kalinich, could collect more royalties.
In mid-March, Mike Love returned from his TM retreat and contributed to the subsequent vocal sessions, with leads on the brief "Meant for You", which opens the album, and "Anna Lee, the Healer," which was inspired by his time in India. Immediately afterward, The Beach Boys embarked on two US tours, one with the Strawberry Alarm Clock (resulting in the California Girls reprise at the end of the song "Small Package"), and another, most controversially, with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi himself, who lectured the audience before performances. Both tours were commercial failures and were swiftly canceled. The Maharishi tour ceased after The Beach Boys famously drew only 200 people in New York City).
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Famous quotes containing the word recording:
“I didn’t have to think up so much as a comma or a semicolon; it was all given, straight from the celestial recording room. Weary, I would beg for a break, an intermission, time enough, let’s say, to go to the toilet or take a breath of fresh air on the balcony. Nothing doing!”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“Too many photographers try too hard. They try to lift photography into the realm of Art, because they have an inferiority complex about their Craft. You and I would see more interesting photography if they would stop worrying, and instead, apply horse-sense to the problem of recording the look and feel of their own era.”
—Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870–1942)
“Self-expression is not enough; experiment is not enough; the recording of special moments or cases is not enough. All of the arts have broken faith or lost connection with their origin and function. They have ceased to be concerned with the legitimate and permanent material of art.”
—Jane Heap (c. 1880–1964)