Silver Salmon Thread

Let's summarise it yet again:

- The only evidence suggesting the song is Tim's is a comment from Brian, who's not precisely Dr Memory (remember when he said he'd never played a V on stage, they never played It's Late on stage, My Fairy King was on Queen II, Master-Stroke was done at Wessex, Maurice Gibb was the only Bee Gee who played instruments, Fred didn't use Steinway pianos, Love of My Life was on Races and Bo Rhap had been done on 16-track?)

- The timbales prove absolutelty nothing, as Roger used them LIVE on the NOTW era but in the studio could've used them as early as Smile sessions in 1970 and as late as ... well, now.

I currently have Mr. Gary Taylor sitting right next to me in Atlanta Georgia (Breakthru 2011), and he says that Silver Salmon was recorded during 1971. I guess that ends the mystery? But he could be lying (GT)!! :)

1971? No way!

Everything points to the NOTW sessions. Drum sound, guitar sound, Fred's voice. Everything. They probably revised some older tracks, like Feelings Feelings during that period. There might be a 1971 version in the vaults, but this particular version stems from 1977. I'm absolutely sure about that.

Rick wrote: 1971? No way!

Everything points to the NOTW sessions. Drum sound, guitar sound, Fred's voice. Everything. They probably revised some older tracks, like Feelings Feelings during that period. There might be a 1971 version in the vaults, but this particular version stems from 1977. I'm absolutely sure about that.
I think that this is a logical answer to this - just the production alone is light years away from that of the very early '70's...

I have just tuned my guitar and tried playing along with the song.
It makes me believe the song is set in E.
Which on the original version is half a tone too low.
Since the band will never play without tuning first (to a phisically determined tone in which an A is 440Hz I believe)
it is highly likely the 'corrected pitch' version is the correct one, playing a bit slower.

I do admit it sounds a bit odd, but unless they pulled a '39 on this song it should be played at a slower speed.

PS: a '39 means slowing the backingtrack a semitone and overdubbing the vocals later.

Sebastian wrote: - The only evidence suggesting the song is Tim's is a comment from Brian, who's not precisely Dr Memory (remember when he said he'd never played a V on stage, they never played It's Late on stage, My Fairy King was on Queen II, Master-Stroke was done at Wessex, Maurice Gibb was the only Bee Gee who played instruments, Fred didn't use Steinway pianos, Love of My Life was on Races and Bo Rhap had been done on 16-track?)

Actually, the song is registered at Timothy John Staffell's name in the BMI books. And I think there's some story about Tim  hearing the version we know and recognizing the track as his own composition.

Have you got a link or a scan from a printed source to support it?

Rick wrote:

1971? No way!

Everything points to the NOTW sessions. Drum sound, guitar sound, Fred's voice. Everything. They probably revised some older tracks, like Feelings Feelings during that period. There might be a 1971 version in the vaults, but this particular version stems from 1977. I'm absolutely sure about that.

================

Yep, agreed.  We've debated this for years, but overwhelming musical and aural evidence points this track to 1977.  Roger uses the same drum kit, and it clearly came from the same tape as Feelings take 9 - the sound quality is identical.

Seb, there's this: http://repertoire.bmi.com/title.asp?blnWriter=True&blnPublisher=True&blnArtist=True&page=1&keyid=1342478&ShowNbr=0&ShowSeqNbr=0&querytype=WorkID

Cheers!

Now, *that* is serious evidence, as opposed to internet rumours.

I think you'll clearly agree that its from the Cosmos Rocks sessions!

It would be nice to know when it came from, but only those in the know can say for sure :)

Sebastian wrote: Cheers! Now, *that* is serious evidence, as opposed to internet rumours.
:-)

Do you guys think that there's more than one recording of Silver Salmon? The reason why I say that is because the version that's all over Youtube (like on DaveRFuller's channel, my channel, etc), sounds like it could be from the NOTW-era, but Gary Taylor insists that Silver Salmon was recorded in 1971. We all know that the song was written in 1971, but do you think that there's a possibly of a 1971 recording, plus the version that's all over Youtube (the NOTW-sounding one)?

I told Gary that the copy that's on my channel was speed-corrected (because all the other versions I'm aware of play too fast or slow), had excellent quality, had a speech in the beginning, and had the opening piano riff for the Queen I version of the "Seven Seas Of Rhye" on it (I have no idea what that's about). He appeared to take great interest, and said that he'd take a look at it, and send me his notes.

There are several recordings of Silver Salmon in the archives, found in 1990, but just one has surfaced on the internet.

Until someone plays the master recording with a date written on it, all evidence points to 1977 for the version of this track we've heard.  But I'm interested to see what GT comes up with.