David Beard > Quotes

“Also, the technology caught up too. We had two-track tape recorders, where we go from machine to machine, soon thereafter we had four-track, and we started stacking vocals. When we heard The Four Seasons, we realized that we didn’t have to hire background singers to sing that stuff. We could actually multitrack and sing it ourselves. For us it was actually ending up where we really wanted to be. When”
― David Beard, All Summer Long: Conversations with The Beach Boys from Surfin' to SMiLE

“The Drag City LP was the first time we could get out of the studio—and have pictures taken on location—about a place that you’re actually singing about … tying the visuals into actual songs, so the continuity was finally there. I felt really, really good about that. That was the breakthrough! We got the whole cover, and every song on the record was about the car industry and the California lifestyle, which was totally totally unique.”
― David Beard, All Summer Long: Conversations with The Beach Boys from Surfin' to SMiLE

“They wanted us to record a Christmas LP, and we just wouldn’t do it. They would have preferred to have a whole LP full of Christmas songs because those things always sold pretty well.”
― David Beard, All Summer Long: Conversations with The Beach Boys from Surfin' to SMiLE

“Where did you go to listen to new music? Brian Wilson: I used to go to Melody Music on Hawthorne Blvd. That’s where I bought The Four Freshmen albums. The first record I bought (I think) was “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley & The Comets.”
― David Beard, All Summer Long: Conversations with The Beach Boys from Surfin' to SMiLE

“In terms of leftover pop from my parents’ time I was listening to Glenn Miller reissued 10˝ LPs. The LP was like a miracle. Not only could you put more music on a disc, but the quality of newer recordings wasn’t scratchy when you got it. [Laughs] It was scratchy after I got to it. I listened to a lot of whatever music was on the radio at the time. Very safe ‘40s and ‘50s reissued classical music; a lot of classical music, because I still play classical music.”
― David Beard, All Summer Long: Conversations with The Beach Boys from Surfin' to SMiLE