Looks like it was premature afterall: SMiLE Sessions canceled!

[Dunderhead]

Gotcha

But seriously guys, when is this thing coming out!? Why must they torture us so, I can't even touch a Beach Boys record these days for pain of being reminded this isn't out yet.

[18thofMay]

It had to be you!!

[bgas]

It had to be you!!

We wandered around and finally found, somebody who...

[Dunderhead]

It had to be you!!

My old nemesis, we meet again.
Would you please be so kind as to go soak your head.

[18thofMay]

It had to be you!!

My old nemesis, we meet again.
Would you please be so kind as to go soak your head.

I had assumed you were banned!

[bgas]

It had to be you!!

My old nemesis, we meet again.
Would you please be so kind as to go soak your head.

The two of you remind me of the wonderful J&D song " We Go Together"

[Dunderhead]

It had to be you!!

My old nemesis, we meet again.
Would you please be so kind as to go soak your head.

I had assumed you were banned!

Just sick of all the nerds here.

[FUN³]

It had to be you!!

My old nemesis, we meet again.
Would you please be so kind as to go soak your head.

I had assumed you were banned!

i think you'll be banned before he will. you never post anything of import, just personal attacks, which need i remind you is usually grounds for bannination (assuming capable forum moderation).

[18thofMay]

It had to be you!!

My old nemesis, we meet again.
Would you please be so kind as to go soak your head.

I had assumed you were banned!

Just sick of all the nerds here.

Cool man!

[18thofMay]

It had to be you!!

My old nemesis, we meet again.
Would you please be so kind as to go soak your head.

I had assumed you were banned!

i think you'll be banned before he will. you never post anything of import, just personal attacks, which need i remind you is usually grounds for bannination (assuming capable forum moderation).

Did you read the second post Fishmonk made.?

[Dunderhead]

So lets get some good ol' SMiLE discussion going again.

I was thinking the other day that the whole thing would have probably followed Surf's Up in structure. I've heard people say that Heroes and Villains is "SMiLE in a song", perhaps that's true musically, but I think philosophically Surf's Up represents SMiLE in a song.

"It's a man at a concert," he said. "All around him there's the audience, playing their roles, dressed up in fancy clothes, looking through opera glasses, but so far away from the drama, from life—'Back through the opera glass you see the pit and the pendulum drawn.'"

The music begins to take over. 'Columnated ruins domino.' Empires, ideas, lives, institutions—everything has to fall, tumbling like dominoes.

He begins to awaken to the music; sees the pretentiousness of everything. 'The music hall a costly bow.' Then even the music is gone, turned into a trumpeter swan, into what the music really is.

'Canvas the town and brush the backdrop.' He's off in his vision, on a trip. Reality is gone; he's creating it like a dream. 'Dove-nested towers.' Europe, a long time ago. 'The laughs come hard in Auld Lang Syne.' The poor people in the cellar taverns, trying to make themselves happy by singing.

Then there's the parties, the 'drinking, trying to forget the wars, the battles at sea. "While at port a do or die.' Ships in the harbor, battling it out. A kind of Roman empire thing.

'A choke of grief.' At his own sorrow and the emptiness of his life, because he can't even cry for the suffering in the world, for his own suffering.

And then, hope. 'Surf's up! . . . Come about hard and join the once and often spring you gave.' Go back to the kids, to the beach, to childhood.

"'I heard the word'—of God; 'Wonderful thing'—the joy of enlightenment, of seeing God. And what is it? 'A children's song!' And then there's the song itself; the song of children; the song of the universe rising and falling in wave after wave, the song of God, hiding the love from us, but always letting us find it again, like a mother singing to her children."

To me the song has two parts, of course it has two movements musically (I suppose three if you count the tag), but there are two clear sections here, the unenlightened first part and the enlightened second part. The first part is at an opera hall, listening to music, and not really "getting" it. This would be the Heroes and Villains section, the A-side, the "Americana movement". Here the listener is, moving through a record store isle, leafing through a stack of 45s, getting bits and pieces of the American musical tradition, all this he views through the lens of history, the lens of our institutions which color our perceptions and separate us from reality.
The second part is "off on [a] vision, [a] trip", recreating reality in a whole new way. This is where we would have songs like vegetables and wind chimes I think. Structurally I think SMiLE would have sort of been like a reverse Abbey Road, an A-side medley (with a hidden track at the start), and a B-side of longer songs. But that's just a few thoughts to digest, and I must stress, to appease those of you who are 18th of May, that I mean none of this as definite fact in any way, only as one man's humble interpretation being offered for discussion.

[Dunderhead]

It had to be you!!

My old nemesis, we meet again.
Would you please be so kind as to go soak your head.

I had assumed you were banned!

i think you'll be banned before he will. you never post anything of import, just personal attacks, which need i remind you is usually grounds for bannination (assuming capable forum moderation).

Did you read the second post Fishmonk made.?

Oh I was just trying to be playful in response to your very first post in this thread. You always try to make me out to be some villain who constantly invites your reprisals when you're always the one starting us off on this old song and dance. I was just trying to keep the mood light, relax, go get some fresh air, it seems like you're always prowling this board waiting to pounce on me whenever I make a post.

[MBE]

Trickster

[18thofMay]

It had to be you!!

My old nemesis, we meet again.
Would you please be so kind as to go soak your head.

I had assumed you were banned!

i think you'll be banned before he will. you never post anything of import, just personal attacks, which need i remind you is usually grounds for bannination (assuming capable forum moderation).

Did you read the second post Fishmonk made.?

Oh I was just trying to be playful in response to your very first post in this thread. You always try to make me out to be some villain who constantly invites your reprisals when you're always the one starting us off on this old song and dance. I was just trying to keep the mood light, relax, go get some fresh air, it seems like you're always prowling this board waiting to pounce on me whenever I make a post.

I am more than happy to shake hands and be friends!

[FUN³]

So lets get some good ol' SMiLE discussion going again.

I was thinking the other day that the whole thing would have probably followed Surf's Up in structure. I've heard people say that Heroes and Villains is "SMiLE in a song", perhaps that's true musically, but I think philosophically Surf's Up represents SMiLE in a song.

"It's a man at a concert," he said. "All around him there's the audience, playing their roles, dressed up in fancy clothes, looking through opera glasses, but so far away from the drama, from life—'Back through the opera glass you see the pit and the pendulum drawn.'"

The music begins to take over. 'Columnated ruins domino.' Empires, ideas, lives, institutions—everything has to fall, tumbling like dominoes.

He begins to awaken to the music; sees the pretentiousness of everything. 'The music hall a costly bow.' Then even the music is gone, turned into a trumpeter swan, into what the music really is.

'Canvas the town and brush the backdrop.' He's off in his vision, on a trip. Reality is gone; he's creating it like a dream. 'Dove-nested towers.' Europe, a long time ago. 'The laughs come hard in Auld Lang Syne.' The poor people in the cellar taverns, trying to make themselves happy by singing.

Then there's the parties, the 'drinking, trying to forget the wars, the battles at sea. "While at port a do or die.' Ships in the harbor, battling it out. A kind of Roman empire thing.

'A choke of grief.' At his own sorrow and the emptiness of his life, because he can't even cry for the suffering in the world, for his own suffering.

And then, hope. 'Surf's up! . . . Come about hard and join the once and often spring you gave.' Go back to the kids, to the beach, to childhood.

"'I heard the word'—of God; 'Wonderful thing'—the joy of enlightenment, of seeing God. And what is it? 'A children's song!' And then there's the song itself; the song of children; the song of the universe rising and falling in wave after wave, the song of God, hiding the love from us, but always letting us find it again, like a mother singing to her children."

To me the song has two parts, of course it has two movements musically (I suppose three if you count the tag), but there are two clear sections here, the unenlightened first part and the enlightened second part. The first part is at an opera hall, listening to music, and not really "getting" it. This would be the Heroes and Villains section, the A-side, the "Americana movement". Here the listener is, moving through a record store isle, leafing through a stack of 45s, getting bits and pieces of the American musical tradition, all this he views through the lens of history, the lens of our institutions which color our perceptions and separate us from reality.
The second part is "off on [a] vision, [a] trip", recreating reality in a whole new way. This is where we would have songs like vegetables and wind chimes I think. Structurally I think SMiLE would have sort of been like a reverse Abbey Road, an A-side medley (with a hidden track at the start), and a B-side of longer songs. But that's just a few thoughts to digest, and I must stress, to appease those of you who are 18th of May, that I mean none of this as definite fact in any way, only as one man's humble interpretation being offered for discussion.

i can dig it. that's the gist of my personal smile mix that i laid out on the fanmix thread. the album is structurally a macrocosm of the song, where each song is a work of three parts, demonstrating  the complete wholeness of three, the sacredness of three;  yin, yang, and eternal spirit/force/AI that creates and holds all consciousness together.

[buddhahat]

Gotcha

But seriously guys, when is this thing coming out!? Why must they torture us so, I can't even touch a Beach Boys record these days for pain of being reminded this isn't out yet.

I don't know. The wait is quite agonising, but I guess in the grand scheme of Smile history, 4 months is not so bad. We could certainly do with a track list to chew over, that's for sure.

How long usually prior to release dates to record companies start rolling out review copies of albums and so forth? If this is to be out in August I'd think this'd be happening by now. The embarrass a friend thread suggests (imo, I actually don't have the faintest idea what it's about) that work is still going on behind the scenes on this project. If that's the case, maybe September is the earliest we'll see this.

Any insiders care to throw us a bone? A revised, more informed release date perhaps so I can scrub August 9th from my calendar?!

[Andrew G. Doe]

It's moving ahead. It will be released. My gut feeling says before October. That's another 102 days to wait, if I'm right. Stack that up against 44 years and it's not long.

[buddhahat]

Thanks AGD. Let's hope September it is ....

[cutterschoice]

Yeah, AGD. Can't wait until August!

[Bruce Louden]

Perspective, people.  I have been obsessed with this stuff since 1975. 
Back then: never thought it would come out. 

1982-3: first boots began coming out. 
1987: Dennis Diken of the SMithereens tells me Brian is listening to the tapes, and there are rumors of an imminent release.
About the same time the great Japanese boot CD came out.

Nineties: Don Was enters, becomes bitten by the SMiLE bug, rumors of a release.
1996-7: in connection with the Pet Sounds Box (on which I have a credit), Capitol announces a CD of GV sessions and a SMiLE release (both nixed)

A year or two later SOT floodgates open: now we are in possession of massive amounts of material, though still missing key elements.

More dribbles of booted material since then.

2011 March: Al announces the release.  I check my sources, and the two most trusted both confirm it it is happening "this year."

Release date has been pushed back at least twice, frustrating, maddening even, but folks it has never gotten this far, this close, ever before (to my knowledge).

Everyone just needs a few cold showers,

Bruce Louden

[Jason]

It had to be you!!

My old nemesis, we meet again.
Would you please be so kind as to go soak your head.

I had assumed you were banned!

i think you'll be banned before he will. you never post anything of import, just personal attacks, which need i remind you is usually grounds for bannination (assuming capable forum moderation).

Bannination? Fail. It's called being smacked in the face with the banhammer.

[Bill Tobelman]

Fishmonk & FUN3 seem like the types that could have made it in the Vosse Posse.

[hypehat]

 

[Bill Tobelman]

They seem to believe in SMiLE an its unlimited potential more than others do (as did the Vosse crowd in the sixties).

[hypehat]

I figured that, it's just a bloody weird thing to say. I'm sure me and The Heartical Don could go eat steaks with Brian in 1974, and Harry Nilsson and Brian Wilson could be breast inspectors in space in 2099. It's irrevelant!