A Ten-episodes official web series on the SMiLE Sessions is now on YouTube

[STE]

Part 01:
http://youtu.be/dw09zOhZ_Ck

Sorry if it has been posted in some other thread, but I am not reading any SMiLE threads until I get my boxset... 



PS: more GV sessions footage included

[Emdeeh]

To those in the know, is there any chance these webcasts will be made available on iTunes?

[TV Forces]

To those in the know, is there any chance these webcasts will be made available on iTunes?

Who here would know that?

[STE]

I don't know about iTunes but there are ways to download them anyway.

[Emdeeh]

YouTube video doesn't play well on my computer, that's why I was hoping for iTunes.

[runnersdialzero]

"Nothing even remotely resembling a finished album"? Maybe not tracklist wise, but plenty of these songs had taken reasonable shape during these sessions. The "fragments" thing is mildly overstated, it seems. Yeah there were a ton of fragments, but folks talk like large groups of these fragments didn't have a common theme, weren't meant for the same things, or had nothing to do with each other.

[Shady]

Oh, this is fantastic

[endofposts]

RealPlayer.com has a video player and tool for browsers that will download YouTube videos. There are other apps around that will do the same thing, I'm sure.

[runnersdialzero]

RealPlayer.com has a video player and tool for browsers that will download YouTube videos. There are other apps around that will do the same thing, I'm sure.

RealPlayer? :O I miss 1998, too.

[Chris Brown]

"Nothing even remotely resembling a finished album"? Maybe not tracklist wise, but plenty of these songs had taken reasonable shape during these sessions. The "fragments" thing is mildly overstated, it seems. Yeah there were a ton of fragments, but folks talk like large groups of these fragments didn't have a common theme, weren't meant for the same things, or had nothing to do with each other.

I agree.  The majority of the fragments were, at one point or another, intended for "Heroes and Villains" - take those away, and you have a lot of relatively "complete" tracks that are simply missing some vital recorded elements (no pun intended), namely lead vocals.  "Heroes" was really the only track left in complete disarray, with an endless number of pieces.  Take that away, and Brian seemed to have a relatively clear idea as far as the sequence of most other tracks, "The Elements" being the most notable exception.

[Micha]

"Nothing even remotely resembling a finished album"? Maybe not tracklist wise, but plenty of these songs had taken reasonable shape during these sessions. The "fragments" thing is mildly overstated, it seems. Yeah there were a ton of fragments, but folks talk like large groups of these fragments didn't have a common theme, weren't meant for the same things, or had nothing to do with each other.

I agree.  The majority of the fragments were, at one point or another, intended for "Heroes and Villains" - take those away, and you have a lot of relatively "complete" tracks that are simply missing some vital recorded elements (no pun intended), namely lead vocals.  "Heroes" was really the only track left in complete disarray, with an endless number of pieces.  Take that away, and Brian seemed to have a relatively clear idea as far as the sequence of most other tracks, "The Elements" being the most notable exception.

Recordingwise DYLW is a fragment, as it has only very few vocals on  it, same goes for CIFOTM, Look, Holidays, IIGS. V-T wasn't assembled. Surf's Up isn't at all what it could have been (this is an opinion though). Wind Chimes and Cabin Essence were left unfinished and only were finished in 1969 (CE) and 2011 (WC). I would totally call The Beach Boys' SMiLE an album that exists only in fragments.

[Chris Brown]

"Nothing even remotely resembling a finished album"? Maybe not tracklist wise, but plenty of these songs had taken reasonable shape during these sessions. The "fragments" thing is mildly overstated, it seems. Yeah there were a ton of fragments, but folks talk like large groups of these fragments didn't have a common theme, weren't meant for the same things, or had nothing to do with each other.

I agree.  The majority of the fragments were, at one point or another, intended for "Heroes and Villains" - take those away, and you have a lot of relatively "complete" tracks that are simply missing some vital recorded elements (no pun intended), namely lead vocals.  "Heroes" was really the only track left in complete disarray, with an endless number of pieces.  Take that away, and Brian seemed to have a relatively clear idea as far as the sequence of most other tracks, "The Elements" being the most notable exception.

Recordingwise DYLW is a fragment, as it has only very few vocals on  it, same goes for CIFOTM, Look, Holidays, IIGS. V-T wasn't assembled. Surf's Up isn't at all what it could have been (this is an opinion though). Wind Chimes and Cabin Essence were left unfinished and only were finished in 1969 (CE) and 2011 (WC). I would totally call The Beach Boys' SMiLE an album that exists only in fragments.

In the context of '66-'67, I still wouldn't call most of those fragments.  "Worms," "Cabin-Essence," "Wind Chimes" and "Child" had been sequenced by Brian, at least in the form of test edits (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on any of that), and stuff like "Look" and "Holidays" probably wouldn't have made the cut had the album come out in early '67 (based on the written track list).  "Surf's Up" was halfway complete, tracking wise, but it wasn't as if Brian didn't know what the second half would be comprised of.

Of all the tracks, only "Heroes," "Vega-Tables" and "The Elements" were truly in pieces, as far as I've always understood it.  The problem was that "Heroes" was such a huge mess that Brian spent far too much time on, at the expense of completing work on several other tracks that weren't too far from completion.

[runnersdialzero]

Even "Vege-Tables" - he sure as Hades figured out a structure right quick for Smiley Smile while other "pieces" songs got left behind. Yeah, like "Heroes", it kind of seemed to take the easy way out structurally considering all that was done for it (although this is especially true of "Heroes"), but he did it right after stopping work on Smile.

All I was sayin' with my original post is that the "it's just a bunch of pieces" thing seems to get exaggerated sometimes. Truly, there were a good handful of things that no one has any sort of clue as to where they go or how they go there, but so many others seemed to be headed in the direction of being fully formed, if not fully formed already, at least in Brian's mind ("Surf's Up", for instance).

[Wirestone]

The problem is, just because he had test edits didn't mean he was satisfied with or settled on any of the sequences.

It's one of the grand contradictions of Smile -- it was an album of fragments, yet there are a number of fairly sturdy songs in there.

[STE]

Part 2:

http://youtu.be/GfFb8jgmLD8


".. a blossom world we find".. didn't know that!

[Pretty Funky]

So much for the 'signed' surf board.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT2dXXYXr2c&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

[Mooger Fooger]

Oh no...another clip of th GV session to sync up...

[pixletwin]

Is it me, or is Brian incredibly lucid in these webisodes?

[STE]

No, it's him!

[pixletwin]

 

[Iron Horse-Apples]

"A blossom world we find"

Cut so the bass could come through

[grillo]

A bit redundant but really great!  I always enjoyed the podcasts for the last two comps that came out, and this webcast really takes it to a new level. Bruce is a good defender and promoter of Mike and Brian sounds like he's actually sort  of interested in what's happening. And Mike is really coming across well. Al seems more like a muppet than ever! How often are these coming out? weekly or what?

[JohnMill]

A bit redundant but really great!  I always enjoyed the podcasts for the last two comps that came out, and this webcast really takes it to a new level. Bruce is a good defender and promoter of Mike and Brian sounds like he's actually sort  of interested in what's happening. And Mike is really coming across well. Al seems more like a muppet than ever! How often are these coming out? weekly or what?

Right now it seems to be once every few days.

[Pretty Funky]

Going by this, Mondays and Thursdays for the next 5 weeks.

http://popdose.com/a-fans-notes-the-smile-sessions-webisodes-and-more/

[runnersdialzero]

Mike, God love 'im, seems to think the addition of "we find" was incredibly profound by how he says it. I giggled. Surely the rejection of those two words was the real reason he broke SMiLE (or Smile if you existed past 1999).