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

[MarcellaHasDirtyFeet]

YouTube comments are the cesspool of the internet. All the waste products of the online universe flow there.

Have you ever stopped by a Fox News comment thread?

[SMiLE Brian]

YouTube comments are the cesspool of the internet. All the waste products of the online universe flow there.

Have you ever stopped by a Fox News comment thread?

Those people are plain insane.

[Cam Mott]

You've never created something that you had thought out but when you were finished, it didn't pay off the way you expected. You got what you wanted but then you didn't want it? Then you think what it needs is to lose this but this ought to be like this. IMO, if you are timid/stingy about taking chances and  making changes, small or wholesale, you are probably in the wrong biz. Brian was neither timid nor stingy creatively. He knows what he wants and he makes it so leaving the proof of his organization all over the tracks, the problem is after he has pulled it together and not with pulling it together.

That story about a stranger and H&V may be true, but Brian did as he pleased, he would listen to people, even try their suggestion but it didn't happen unless Brian wanted it to happen.

I think Brian was starting to lose his Jones for SMiLE around the first of the year in '67 but I don't think he disliked it enough to stop it until March '67.

[Micha]

Sounds like Darian is not a huge fan of TSS. Of course his taste is obviously biased towards BWPS. I don't know if I could ever see BWPS as the finished SMiLE. I enjoy the original recordings too much.

I see BWPS as the finished SMiLE, not as the SMiLE. IMHO there is no the SMiLE. I enjoy both BWPS and TSS.

Writing that, I bored myself.

[MarcellaHasDirtyFeet]

Sounds like Darian is not a huge fan of TSS. Of course his taste is obviously biased towards BWPS. I don't know if I could ever see BWPS as the finished SMiLE. I enjoy the original recordings too much.

I see BWPS as the finished SMiLE, not as the SMiLE. IMHO there is no the SMiLE. I enjoy both BWPS and TSS.

Writing that, I bored myself.

In all seriousness, I don't know how some of you guys have kept it up all these years. Even my brief tenure as a SMiLEaholic has nearly driven me mad (maybe because I spend too much time on this board?).


My theory as for why it was shelved is ... All of the above. Band confusion. Label pressure. Commercial concerns. Loss of focus. Doubt. Drug use. Growing mental health issues. It doesn't have to be just one; the stars were aligned against the project. Hell, it was probably too ambitious-- GV took six months, and he only worked on an album-length project for less than a year before abandoning it.

We argue in circles and never get any closer, and Brian himself isn't consistent. "Mike didn't like it." "Drugs... And drugs." He's the only one who could explain it. He's tried to do so, and has given several good reasons, but we need-- demand!-- more and better ones. Thank God new information does trickle out from time to time, and God bless the historians and journalists for their dedication and good work.

All of the reasons, in different measure, contributed to the end of SMiLE. While we won't know which, if any, figured most heavily in Brian's decision, I'm sure the combined weight of them was crushing. Poor Brian/it was his own damn fault/f#@& Mike Love/just say no.

[Tristero]

All of the reasons, in different measure, contributed to the end of SMiLE. While we won't know which, if any, figured most heavily in Brian's decision, I'm sure the combined weight of them was crushing.

I think you've summed it up nicely in your post.  I also liked Bruce's Mt. Everest analogy.  By the early part of 1867, the whole thing became a big albatross around Brian's neck, so he threw it away and pursued a less demanding aesthetic.

[grooveblaster]

Wow! What a great color photo around the 40 second mark of episode ten. Where is that from?

[runnersdialzero]

Same shoot as the Stack-o-Crack cover, so around '68. Anyone have the original anywhere?

[grooveblaster]

Same shoot as the Stack-o-Crack cover, so around '68. Anyone have the original anywhere?

yeah would love to have a jpg of that

[John Stivaktas]

Episode 11 folks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmHm7qEnhng&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Nice to hear from c-man!

[c-man]

Episode 11 folks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmHm7qEnhng&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Nice to hear from c-man!

Yikes!  Do I really look like that? 

[Aegir]

Did they give you guys stage makeup for these videos? Definitely looks like Alan and Mark are wearing some.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Episode 11 folks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmHm7qEnhng&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Nice to hear from c-man!

Yikes!  Do I really look like that? 

Nah - CGI & motion capture are wonderful things. 

[c-man]

Did they give you guys stage makeup for these videos? Definitely looks like Alan and Mark are wearing some.

Can't speak for the rest of the guys, but my bit was pretty much "as nature intended". 

[Iron Horse-Apples]

Did they give you guys stage makeup for these videos? Definitely looks like Alan and Mark are wearing some.

Can't speak for the rest of the guys, but my bit was pretty much "as nature intended". 

So you were naked?

Was Mike?

Al???

Bruce?

[c-man]

Did they give you guys stage makeup for these videos? Definitely looks like Alan and Mark are wearing some.

Can't speak for the rest of the guys, but my bit was pretty much "as nature intended". 

So you were naked?

Was Mike?

Al???

Bruce?

Sorry, my bit was filmed seperately here in Nebraska, so I can't speak for the other guys.   

[Freddie French-Pounce]

Episode 15, some interesting stuff on teh cover, many bootleg covers shown, and more footage of Brian singing his 'Yeah' good Vibrations overdub, which is awesome!

[positivemusic]

Did they give you guys stage makeup for these videos? Definitely looks like Alan and Mark are wearing some.

Can't speak for the rest of the guys, but my bit was pretty much "as nature intended". 

So you were naked?

Was Mike?

Al???

Bruce?

Sorry, my bit was filmed seperately here in Nebraska, so I can't speak for the other guys.   

If Bruce had been naked, his part probably would've been filmed with him in the bath. 

[PS]

Final episode - Brian ends it beautifully:

"When I hear the SMiLE tapes, I almost cry.
It's GREAT music, that is really good music, you know?
I'm honored to hear it."

We know.
We are too.
Thanks, Brian, for the great presents under our trees this year.
(and showing a SMiLE bootleg cover in a Beach Boys sanctioned offering?

Strange, wonderful dream times we are in, here in Wilsonia...)

[pixletwin]

I was a bit disappointed it just reused bits from previous episodes. It was cool to see the art dept. stuff though.

[juggler]

Wow, great to finally see the legendary back cover with the red markings!   

[bgas]

Al looks almost gaunt in these videos; especially in the last one, he reminds me more and more of Gollum. 

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Wow, great to finally see the legendary back cover with the red markings!   

Yeah, and none of those markings reflect any potential changes to track lineup, so there goes that theory.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Wow, great to finally see the legendary back cover with the red markings!   

Yeah, and none of those markings reflect any potential changes to track lineup, so there goes that theory.

There are marks on it that tell me that parts were pasted on and are now missing.

[Cam Mott]

Wow, great to finally see the legendary back cover with the red markings!   

Yeah, and none of those markings reflect any potential changes to track lineup, so there goes that theory.

There are marks on it that tell me that parts were pasted on and are now missing.

There seems to be a small blurry area at the center top, is that it or any of those marks indicate paste overs or edits specifically to the tracklist?

PS. If anyone has a high resolution scan or photo of the original un-filtered paste up that they would like to share please PM me, I'd love to try to run it by any of the mid-1960s Capitol Art Directors still alive to see if we could get a forensic opinion. Or maybe that has been done already?