Inside Pop Reels

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

I was just looking over the contents of the “Inside Pop” reels again, and felt such anger that this footage was not in the public’s grubby little hands yet. This is probably the most important document of all the Smile session. What is the status of the attempts to acquire this material? Is there any interest by BRI to claim this footage and, perhaps, release it (maybe as part of a Smile Boxset)? Has Alan Boyd been looking into this?

(Page 1)

75  (signifying Reel #75)

1. hands to face     CR  angle
     can't see hands  pan to hands in dark
   child Is the Father of man 

2.  Heroes & Villains plays
        Vandyke Parks has been working on lyrics
        sings open country song

        Sunshine


76     Surf's up                  cu (or cw? or au?)  CR
    ->    takes guts to catch wave
          can visualize intervals on piano


77     x piano         Surf's Up
       PB

       Surf's up candelabra shot     CL


78     Scratch  (?)

       Wilson & friends ?   (in house?)


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(Page 2)


83

    1.  engineer
    2.  pan up to Brian
    3.  board
    4.  Boys singing who Ran The Iron Horse   
              (Above "who Ran" is the scratched out word "Hooray"
               as if he wasn't sure what the words were.)
    5.  Wilson ?    (judging?!?!)
    6.  Boys singing who Ran The Iron Horse
    7.  Do Wa Wa in circle
    8.  Wilson      (shelving?!?!)
84  9.  Let's work on microphone
        boys around mike
        Do wa


85    Brian at piano working out(?)
      Yodelledo
      then group sings at mike


86    Group around mike    Yodelledo
      Playback Yodelledoo's control in b.g.  ("b.g." stands for background?)
      Inside control room Group & Engineer  Da daum(?)  (La daum?)
      Go out into studio   Brian eating cereal  record  da da da da


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(Page 3)

 

                Beach Boys


86

   1.  around mike Yodeladeeo    pan to Piano
       Brian walks out frame(?) to outside booth  playback
       walks to control board

   2.  Brian talking ??  (bad pa toheps?!?!)  to engineer
   3.  dark  4/s   listening to playback
       Brian goes to ??  (sirke?!?!) eats, put on headphones
       sing dine dine

  Scratch

87
   1.  control board thru window    track on(?)
         dine dine
         Let's go have some Zen accompaniment
   2.  Brian at piano from behind
       plays chords



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(Page 4)


87   
       engineer thru glass to group in(?) b.g. record da da
       group comes back into room & listens to da da da
       let's go lets have some zen compliment

       Brian at piano from behind    accomp. to Surf's up
       to hands  to face  CL   around to x & back to CL


88     Brian eating
       headphones listening to piano track
       sings lead on(?) thru piano
       1 more time
-->    tone(?) & start again   side view   CL
  ->   start at 2nd verse hung velvet
       misses  the glass
       pickup hung velvet   stop at dove nested
       have echo on me
       pickup again at hung velvet


89  Overdubs
         hung velvet lead on(?)  ??  (jumoles?!?!)  -- let's overdub
        it
         move to CR  side  (?).s. 11(?)   more around behind
         move around to face  CL  he gestures
         he talks while voice go(?)



---------------------------


(Page 5)

        mono mix -  Id like it softer
        let's go to top  is that cool

        LS  CL  overdub
        LS   hung velvet    out sync
        LS  thru control room
         2nd shot  n.g.(?)
          needle
          recorder pan to engineer back to recorder


90
     --> playback engineers bg   Wilson fig.
         fade in(?)
         kneels -- can have muted trumpet go bleep(?)
         move to us(?)   half of Jules
         Brian coat on walks out


Pool

        Bodies toward camera



----------------------------------------


(Page 6)


                     Beach Boys

R88

 1.  Brian eating   sits at piano
 2.  lead on Brian e(?) earphone  singing into mike
 3.  Brian at piano sings  not(?) (nor?)  sleeping(?!)    pan across piano
      Surf's up
      ??  words to back top
         & false starts
         tone(?)

       move to side start again  - go to colonnaded ruins
     "cut again to end verse"
        false start, then humg velvet    c moves to side   
                                                            ("c" is probably "camera")
      "missed it pickup   2nd verse"
      'no I can't do it(?)  - You have echo on me "??  (julimp?!?!)
      2nd verse again


89
    1.  head on "hung velvet    PB
        that's it   let's overdub it
    2.  "Are you hearing yourself now?"   words(?)
         mix it so you can hear both voices "  (boy?)  (tog?  for together?)
         ?? (pans?) back move around
         "go to top"   Take 1
    3.  LS piano   are you sleeping
    4.   "  "   (ditto marks under "LS piano")



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(Page 7)


    89
   
   5.  thru booth to Brian
   6.  needle
   7.  recorder spinning to engineer to recorder

90

   1.  Brian listening
        Stretching
   2.  Brian ?   (putting on vocal leads?)

can't see hands  pan to hands in dark
   child Is the Father of man 
- Are we absolutely positive that this isn't the footage seen in "American Band"? Couldn't Dennis be shooting same time as CBS? Cause it sounds quite the same....

[XY]

There's a commentary by David Oppenheim on the original INSIDE POP-version of "Surf's Up" which is missing in AN AMERICAN BAND. So I guess Malcolm Leo had access to raw material. He also mentioned Oppenheim in the end credits.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Yes....yes...these are the sort of thinking we need to pursue. I'm not ready to give up. We need to take action. We were so close to the truth, and, much like Agent Mulder, I believe the truth is out there.

I am tired of taking the word of a bunch of stoners. I need to see the photographic proof.

Where is Malcom Leo? Is he still with us? I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that the dark room footage of Brian playing piano is from the CBS footage, or at least from the same night.  And based on the descriptions, he's either playing CIFOTM or SU.

If we work together we can pull this off. We can't give up. Not when the gold ring is within our grasp.

They used to say, if man could fly, he'd have wings. But he did fly; he discovered he had to. Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn't reached the moon, or that we hadn't gone on to Mars and then to the nearest star? That's like saying you wish that you still operated with scalpels and sewed your patients up with catgut, like your great, great, great-grandfather used to do ... Dr. McCoy is right in pointing out the enormous danger potential in any contact with lawyers and executives as fantastically advanced as this. But I must point out that the possibilities -- the potential for knowledge and advancement is equally great. Risk -- risk is our business. That's what this web page is all about. That's why we're aboard her.

[holeypeacoat]

If we work together we can pull this off. We can't give up. Not when the gold ring is within our grasp.

I guess everyone gave up!  What was the final outcome regarding this?  Or was it just a bunch of dead ends? I know Jasper was spearheading the effort once upon a time.  I just ran into a post on the web regarding his search and it made me think about it.

HP

[37!ws]

Just yesterday I was reading older posts that say 1) the films mentioned in the script no longer exist, and 2) there are separate tracks for music, voice-overs, etc., to facilitate narration, translation, etc., and that's what Malcolm Leo had access to; the AAB people simply potted the narration down all the way...

[Don't Back Down]

is the Van Dyke Parks footage what's shown in the Endless Harmony doc.? where he's writing on paper, 'Heroes and Villains', 'Surf's Up', etc. "Did I write for the Beach Boys? Yes.", whatever he says there in overdub...or is that completely different?

[AKA]

Is this the documentary that used to air on AMC? Because it's what got me into the Beach Boys to begin with. I'd really like to see it again.

[brianc]

The Van Dyke Parks footage in "Endless Harmony" is from a 1972 short film that Billy Hinsche made about the Beach Boys, while he was in film school.

[brianc]

By the way, Malcolm Leo is alive and well, and still making films, but it's been a long time since he was actively involved with anything related to the Beach Boys, as far as I know.

I did spend some time with Malcolm Leo during the making of the Showtime/"Beautiful Dreamer" film. Dom Priore and I were hired to be archivists, and that mostly amounted to us going into the Bomp Records archives and pulling color versions of all the material in "Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile!" to shoot in a motion control studio. Some of the print material was used as footage, and others were used as backgrounds behind the talking head interviews. We found a ton of stuff that was not in LLVS too. Greg Shaw, who started Bomp, had a collection of about 20,000 teen magazines, hippy/underground newspapers (1964-71) and general music rags (like complete runs of "Billboard," "NME," "Melody Maker," etc.). It was a massive effort.

Anyway, during the making of "Beautiful Dreamer," we also handed in lists of photos sources and footage sources of Brian and/or the Beach Boys, circa 1966-67. I'm not sure how much of that was followed up on. What I do know is, David Leaf and myself took a meeting with Malcolm Leo at the Cat & Fiddle on Sunset Boulevard. As Malcolm explained it to me, he did an extensive amount of research in 1984 on the "Inside Pop" outtakes, which didn't amount to much. A 30 second silent reel that he found of Brian at the piano was all that he came up with, besides getting the complete "Surf's Up," without narration. For the 30-second silent stuff, he had a piano virtuoso follow Brian's hands exactly, and that's what it came out as... a re-recording of the chords and notes that Brian's hands were playing. I believe Malcolm said he even tracked down David Oppenheim in 1984, who had nothing additional to contribute to the search.

I hope that helps clarify some things, though I know it isn't much in the realm of adding hope here. I myself just about cream everytime I read that list.

[Shane]

"For the 30-second silent stuff, he had a piano virtuoso follow Brian's hands exactly, and that's what it came out as... a re-recording of the chords and notes that Brian's hands were playing."


Is that footage featured in "Beautiful Dreamer"?

[The Shift]

2.  Heroes & Villains plays
        Vandyke Parks has been working on lyrics
        sings open country song

That'd be "In the great shape of the open country" then? And not "in the great shape of the agriculture"?

[Andrew G. Doe]

2.  Heroes & Villains plays
        Vandyke Parks has been working on lyrics
        sings open country song

That'd be "In the great shape of the open country" then? And not "in the great shape of the agriculture"?

Means the person taking the notes (Oppenheim himself, as I recall) heard it as "open country". That's all. 

[The Shift]

Thanks for the clarification Andrew...

... it's just that listening to the piece on the Endless Harmony soundtrack CD, that's exactly what I'd heard too!  I think it was debated quite a lot in these forums at the time, as was the "Fresh Zen air..." line.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I heard it as "I'm in the great shape of the upper country".

[XY]

I'm really sorry how this Inside Pop outtakes research turned out, because I expected to see those films myself, so I was as disappointed as many of you may have been. Sorry again for promising things a bit too early, but at least we have Oppenheim's handwritten transcripts, which is better than nothing.
First, it looked like the reels are at the same place like the transcripts, in Oppenheim's 16mm film collection at New York University's Tisch School of Arts.
I contacted Malcolm Leo and he wrote that he actually has the outtakes. A lot of confusion there.
I was in contact with Oppenheim's wife, who edited the Inside Pop film and mentioned that someone already contacted her husband 20 years ago (probably Leo). She also stated that they used to archive unused film reels in a archive in New York. The usual blabla I guess. But, I took the time to contact all film archives I could find in New York and even other ones that could possibly hold old CBS material all over America.
There was a positive answer from CBS News Archive, etc. I don't want to go into details.

[37!ws]

Regarding "country" vs. "agriculture"....I don't have my copy of Smile or my iPod with me right now, but...is Brian clearly singing "agriculture" on the finished product? I know the printed lyrics are loaded with mistakes...(RobMac -- weren't you telling me before how Probyn freaked when he saw the lyrics on the released CD?)

But...what does "I'm in the great shape of the upper country" mean??? Or is it some kind of VDP punnery?

[brianc]

Is that footage featured in "Beautiful Dreamer"?

No, it's in "The Beach Boys: An American Band" from 1985.

[John]

Just to make sure: it's "COLLONADED ruins domino", right? It sounds like it. I prefer it too.

[Roger Ryan]

Just to make sure: it's "COLLONADED ruins domino", right? It sounds like it. I prefer it too.

Well, "colonnaded" actually, but yes, that's the way it's sung on BWPS (and I think on the '71 version and, maybe, the '66 demo too). The lyric sheet to the SURF'S UP album spelled it as the nonsense word "columnated" and I think that has stuck in fans' minds and was replicated in the BWPS booklet. "Colonnaded" has the advantage of being a real word referring to a structure built with columns plus it's a softer, rounder sound that flows off the tongue easier.

As to the "upper country" lyric: that makes no sense either in reference to the U.S. where the term is not used. "Open country" is a little better, but doesn't "I'm in the great shape of the agri-culture" have the ring of a great Parksian line? It's definitely the line that Brian sings on BWPS and when I first heard it, I slapped my forehead and exclaimed "Of course!" because it finally sounded like a Parks lyric.

[John]

Just to make sure: it's "COLLONADED ruins domino", right? It sounds like it. I prefer it too.

Well, "colonnaded" actually, but yes, that's the way it's sung on BWPS (and I think on the '71 version and, maybe, the '66 demo too). The lyric sheet to the SURF'S UP album spelled it as the nonsense word "columnated" and I think that has stuck in fans' minds and was replicated in the BWPS booklet. "Colonnaded" has the advantage of being a real word referring to a structure built with columns plus it's a softer, rounder sound that flows off the tongue easier.

Thanks, I knew it looked wrong when I posted, but every other way looked wrong too.

[Chris Brown]

Okay on the whole "colonnaded" vs "columnated" thing, it does seem like Brian is singing the former on BWPS, and maybe even on the '66 demo.  But why then in contemporary and subsequent interviews have Brian and Van Dyke referred to the line specifically as "columnated"?  It's used in the Siegel article specifically, and I know Van Dyke has used it in one of his interviews for a doc (might have even been Beautiful Dreamer).  When I first heard Brian sing it on BWPS, I just figured he couldn't enunciate "columnated" too well anymore, so he sang "colonnaded" instead.  Granted "colonnaded" makes more sense (being a real word and all), but I just can't buy that it was meant to be that all along.

As for the IIGS line, I think Brian is clearly singing "upper country" on the old demo...you can clearly hear the "p" sound when he sings it.  It's definitely not "agriculture" when he sang it then but it is on BWPS.  Maybe I'm wrong...I don't know why they would change the word 40 years later, but who knows?  No reason why they can't edit their own work.

[Aegir]

How would someone writing an article know if they're saying colonnaded and not columnated? It's like if the line in Fun Fun Fun was actually "hamburger spam" (I'm sorry, bad example). Upon hearing Mike Love mention this in an interview, the person transcribing it would write "hamburger stand", because that's what the line is most commonly acknowledged to be.

[Chris Brown]

How would someone writing an article know if they're saying colonnaded and not columnated? It's like if the line in Fun Fun Fun was actually "hamburger spam" (I'm sorry, bad example). Upon hearing Mike Love mention this in an interview, the person transcribing it would write "hamburger stand", because that's what the line is most commonly acknowledged to be.

Point taken, but I would think that a journalist would choose colonnaded over columnated since the former is really a word and the later isn't.  I don't think he would choose to hear a word that technically doesn't exist.  But the Siegel article isn't really the best place to look...I place more stock in actually seeing/hearing Van Dyke say "columnated" in an interview. 

[cutterschoice]

Sorry to dig up such an OLD topic, but regarding Columnated and Colonnaded, Columnated is a real word. I'm not sure why you're all saying it isn't? http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Columnated+ . The use of the word predates 1914, so maybe that's why he used it

Also, I've read, but I'm afraid I don't have the source right now, but originally the lyrics were "open country" and it was changed to "agriculture" in 2004.

Park's also didn't use his original Child is father lyrics in the 2004 reconstruction.

In this video from 1976, I think it sounds like Van Dyke is saying "Columnated". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB6JwCmTIEw
The 'm' sound is definitely in it.

[Mahalo]

Park's also didn't use his original Child is father lyrics in the 2004 reconstruction.

......would LOVE to know/hear those original lyrics...