UPDATED: I met with Alan Boyd last week

[donald]

If they have the wisdom and good taste and, yes, mercy, and any sense of propriety and dignity, Barbara Ann will not be on this set.   

Please bury her, perhaps  in Kokomo. 

[Cabinessenceking]

deleted

[Micha]

If they have the wisdom and good taste and, yes, mercy, and any sense of propriety and dignity, Barbara Ann will not be on this set.   

Please bury her, perhaps  in Kokomo. 

Barabara Ann is a fun song. I love it!!! If they know what's good, they'll put the LONG version on the box!

Please bury donald's sense of propriety and dignity at sea, near the spot where Bill and Sue disappeared!

(Obviously we have different opinions on Barbara Ann, and I claim MY taste is good! So there!)

[EgoHanger1966]

If they have the wisdom and good taste and, yes, mercy, and any sense of propriety and dignity, Barbara Ann will not be on this set.   

Please bury her, perhaps  in Kokomo. 

Sorry, the notion to not put one of The Beach Boys' biggest hits on a career-spanning box set, at least in some form, is downright stupid.
If you don't like a song, there's a skip button! But, just because you're tired of an overplayed oldie doesn't mean it doesn't have it's deserved place.

[The Shift]

If they have the wisdom and good taste and, yes, mercy, and any sense of propriety and dignity, Barbara Ann will not be on this set.   

Please bury her, perhaps  in Kokomo. 

Sorry, the notion to not put one of The Beach Boys' biggest hits on a career-spanning box set, at least in some form, is downright stupid.
If you don't like a song, there's a skip button! But, just because you're tired of an overplayed oldie doesn't mean it doesn't have it's deserved place.

Wooooa…

Easiest solution is to use a version with which we're not familiar. A rarity. A live version. Perhaps there's a studio version without a Dean Torrance lead vocal (we can hope).

I see little point using a version that had at least three fresh outings last year.

[EgoHanger1966]

If they have the wisdom and good taste and, yes, mercy, and any sense of propriety and dignity, Barbara Ann will not be on this set.    

Please bury her, perhaps  in Kokomo.  

Sorry, the notion to not put one of The Beach Boys' biggest hits on a career-spanning box set, at least in some form, is downright stupid.
If you don't like a song, there's a skip button! But, just because you're tired of an overplayed oldie doesn't mean it doesn't have it's deserved place.

Wooooa…

Easiest solution is to use a version with which we're not familiar. A rarity. A live version. Perhaps there's a studio version without a Dean Torrance lead vocal (we can hope).

I see little point using a version that had at least three fresh outings last year.

Well, I did say, "in at least some form", which could be an alternate, live, or differently mixed version. But it should obviously be there.

[AndrewHickey]

If they have the wisdom and good taste and, yes, mercy, and any sense of propriety and dignity, Barbara Ann will not be on this set.   

Please bury her, perhaps  in Kokomo. 

Sorry, the notion to not put one of The Beach Boys' biggest hits on a career-spanning box set, at least in some form, is downright stupid.
If you don't like a song, there's a skip button! But, just because you're tired of an overplayed oldie doesn't mean it doesn't have it's deserved place.

Wooooa…

Easiest solution is to use a version with which we're not familiar. A rarity. A live version. Perhaps there's a studio version without a Dean Torrance lead vocal (we can hope).

I see little point using a version that had at least three fresh outings last year.

Yeah, a live version would probably be the best possible solution. But then the same would go for *all* the hits, which pretty much everyone buying this box must have.
Every indication is that this will be closer to the Good Vibrations box than to, say, the Beatles Anthology series or the Monkees Missing Links. Given that, I can't imagine that any of the hits will be left off, or that they'll be anything other than the versions the general public knows. We might (probably will) get some new stereo mixes, but I can't imagine for a second that this will have anything other than the familiar version of Barbara Ann we all know and 'love', Dean Torrence, forgotten lyrics, famous ashtray and all.

[Cabinessenceking]

This box will only be bought by fans, hardly anyone else will touch it or know of its existance. Hence no reason to include Barbara Ann.

[Micha]

This box will only be bought by fans, hardly anyone else will touch it or know of its existance. Hence no reason to include Barbara Ann.

Or any other previously released recording.

[AndrewHickey]

This box will only be bought by fans, hardly anyone else will touch it or know of its existance. Hence no reason to include Barbara Ann.

Or any other previously released recording.

Except that if it is, as everything indicates, meant to be a replacement for the Good Vibrations box, then it'll be aimed at the same kind of market as, say, the Guilty: Thirty Years Of Randy Newman, Kinks Picture Book or Monkees Music Box sets -- people who want more than just the hits but don't want to own every single album.
Whether that is a market that exists in any real sense any more, that's the market that the little we know about this suggests it's aimed at.
And in fact that is a perfectly reasonable thing for it to be doing -- the Beach Boys are one of the patchiest bands in history, and you probably could fit every essential recording they ever did onto six CDs, and then tell people "just buy this, you don't need anything else."

[The Shift]

Be lovely if they had this kind of scope to play with…

http://theseconddisc.com/2013/04/30/every-good-box-deserves-favour-moody-blues-planning-exhaustive-cddvd-set/

I know, never satisfied…

[Ram4]

Be lovely if they had this kind of scope to play with…

http://theseconddisc.com/2013/04/30/every-good-box-deserves-favour-moody-blues-planning-exhaustive-cddvd-set/

I know, never satisfied…

At first it seems impressive, but then you realize that they could fit a lot more on each disc.  On other labels something like The SMiLE Sessions would have been 7 or 8 discs where they didn't cram the discs with material.  So I think we are lucky in that respect.  But including a couple of DVDs of concert footage and promo videos and TV appearances would really make Made In California something incredible.  5.1 surround sound I don't care for, although I'd LOVE to have a Stephen Desper 2 track stereo mix of Sunflower with the technology he proposed in 1970 that was rejected.  Anyway, nice to see these boxsets getting more elaboate, although as I said, I think they are taking advantage of the fans (what a shock) by adding extra discs that are not necessary.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

If they have the wisdom and good taste and, yes, mercy, and any sense of propriety and dignity, Barbara Ann will not be on this set.   

Please bury her, perhaps  in Kokomo. 

I think you have a misconception of what this box set will be.

[Myk Luhv]

Desper's mixes of Sunflower and Surf's Up should've been the bonus tracks on those releases, at least that way they'd be widely available and, if for whatever reason someone didn't end up preferring them (though based on what I've read by others who have said mixes and heard myself in the "Cool, Cool Water" study video this seems highly unlikely!), the standard stereo mixes would still be there.

[SloopJohnnyB]

Let's face it. This will probably be the last big box set in the Beach Boys lifetime as well as ours. It better be special. 

Ten years from now everything will probably be digital download or what ever new technology exists. In ten years we'll all be living in Bio-Domes (see 'Keepin' the Summer Alive' lp cover) and box sets won't even exist! 

[SloopJohnnyB]

I may be wrong about this being the last Beach Boys box set.

Pet Sounds 50, anyone? 

[The Shift]

I may be wrong about this being the last Beach Boys box set.

Pet Sounds 50, anyone? 

That's perhaps ONE set I WOULD pass on.  Having already bought a few dozen official PS releases, and almost as many unofficial, I can't think of anything there can possibly left to unearth…  Except perhaps for the Remember the Zoo acetate that AGD has locked away in his bank vault…

[SMiLE Brian]

[monicker]

Every indication is that this will be closer to the Good Vibrations box than to, say, the Beatles Anthology series or the Monkees Missing Links. Given that, I can't imagine that any of the hits will be left off, or that they'll be anything other than the versions the general public knows.

This is what really bothers me about the whole situation, is that The Beach Boys, more than anyone i can think of, deserve a rarities-only box set, yet it'll never happen because, from a financial standpoint, "The Beach Boys" are trapped inside this America's band/hit machine box that is unrelenting. The lone exception, of course, is The Smile Sessions with its unconventional music for the hardcore fans, but i really wonder if it would have been able to exist in its released form without the built-in mythology ($) that had been working in its favor for more than four decades. There was a lot of easy money and accolades to be made with that release in the high brow end of the rock world. Everyone knew the Smile myth, even those who have/had no interest in The Beach Boys.

What is one good reason why MiC (or any other potential BB box) cannot be a rarities-only set, while other lesser bands have gotten those kinds of releases? Why is it so inconceivable that the Beach Boys would ever get this kind of release? Why is it that it's completely reasonable to keep stating, thread after thread, that that sort of release would never happen? Why do the BB always get sold short in this respect? Maybe this is why we're so cranky.

[Nicko1234]

Except that if it is, as everything indicates, meant to be a replacement for the Good Vibrations box, then it'll be aimed at the same kind of market as, say, the Guilty: Thirty Years Of Randy Newman, Kinks Picture Book or Monkees Music Box sets -- people who want more than just the hits but don't want to own every single album.
Whether that is a market that exists in any real sense any more, that's the market that the little we know about this suggests it's aimed at.
And in fact that is a perfectly reasonable thing for it to be doing -- the Beach Boys are one of the patchiest bands in history, and you probably could fit every essential recording they ever did onto six CDs, and then tell people "just buy this, you don't need anything else."

All true but I think that is an indication of how kind of mixed up the idea of this release might be.

The Good Vibrations box could make a decent claim that it did represent the best of the group as even most of the rarities were there on merit (Punchline and one or two others apart perhaps).

But if this box is truly going to be an attempt to include all of the group's essential recordings then how many unreleased songs would be included? Very few spread across the five discs (the 6th disc supposedly being the 'bonus' disc). And how much repetition would there be from the Good Vibrations box set?

[Mooger Fooger]

I really do hope that the couple of Smile new discoveries since October, 2011 appear on MiC. Plus the Brian mix of Child is Father as well.

[EgoHanger1966]

Every indication is that this will be closer to the Good Vibrations box than to, say, the Beatles Anthology series or the Monkees Missing Links. Given that, I can't imagine that any of the hits will be left off, or that they'll be anything other than the versions the general public knows.

This is what really bothers me about the whole situation, is that The Beach Boys, more than anyone i can think of, deserve a rarities-only box set, yet it'll never happen because, from a financial standpoint, "The Beach Boys" are trapped inside this America's band/hit machine box that is unrelenting. The lone exception, of course, is The Smile Sessions with its unconventional music for the hardcore fans, but i really wonder if it would have been able to exist in its released form without the built-in mythology ($) that had been working in its favor for more than four decades. There was a lot of easy money and accolades to be made with that release in the high brow end of the rock world. Everyone knew the Smile myth, even those who have/had no interest in The Beach Boys.

What is one good reason why MiC (or any other potential BB box) cannot be a rarities-only set, while other lesser bands have gotten those kinds of releases? Why is it so inconceivable that the Beach Boys would ever get this kind of release? Why is it that it's completely reasonable to keep stating, thread after thread, that that sort of release would never happen? Why do the BB always get sold short in this respect? Maybe this is why we're so cranky.

They've had rarities only releases - Endless Harmony and Hawthorne, CA. They might not have had the tracks you wanted, but that doesn't stop them from being rarities-only. Plus, you mentioned the expansive SMiLE box, so throw in the Pet Sounds Sessions as well - I can't imagine the casual fan going through the sessions and vocal/track only portions, plus all the alternate mixes...

We haven't seen the track listing yet, let's not complain until we do! Ha. Honestly, an update of the GV box is a good way to go. We do have all of the hits and album tracks already, but it's important for the band to have a career-spanning set that isn't 20+ years old.

[Myk Luhv]

Rarities-only releases where a third of the tracklisting is stupid sh*t like stereo remixes or unnecessary dialogue rather than more previously unreleased material -- which this group has a lot of, as we know -- is a cruel joke. There's a reason bootlegs exist, after all.

[Shady]

So can we all agree anymore than three discs devoted to hits is a total waste, or am I being generous

[monicker]

Every indication is that this will be closer to the Good Vibrations box than to, say, the Beatles Anthology series or the Monkees Missing Links. Given that, I can't imagine that any of the hits will be left off, or that they'll be anything other than the versions the general public knows.

This is what really bothers me about the whole situation, is that The Beach Boys, more than anyone i can think of, deserve a rarities-only box set, yet it'll never happen because, from a financial standpoint, "The Beach Boys" are trapped inside this America's band/hit machine box that is unrelenting. The lone exception, of course, is The Smile Sessions with its unconventional music for the hardcore fans, but i really wonder if it would have been able to exist in its released form without the built-in mythology ($) that had been working in its favor for more than four decades. There was a lot of easy money and accolades to be made with that release in the high brow end of the rock world. Everyone knew the Smile myth, even those who have/had no interest in The Beach Boys.

What is one good reason why MiC (or any other potential BB box) cannot be a rarities-only set, while other lesser bands have gotten those kinds of releases? Why is it so inconceivable that the Beach Boys would ever get this kind of release? Why is it that it's completely reasonable to keep stating, thread after thread, that that sort of release would never happen? Why do the BB always get sold short in this respect? Maybe this is why we're so cranky.

They've had rarities only releases - Endless Harmony and Hawthorne, CA. They might not have had the tracks you wanted, but that doesn't stop them from being rarities-only. Plus, you mentioned the expansive SMiLE box, so throw in the Pet Sounds Sessions as well - I can't imagine the casual fan going through the sessions and vocal/track only portions, plus all the alternate mixes...

We haven't seen the track listing yet, let's not complain until we do! Ha. Honestly, an update of the GV box is a good way to go. We do have all of the hits and album tracks already, but it's important for the band to have a career-spanning set that isn't 20+ years old.

I think you’ve missed my point. First of all, i’m talking specifically about box sets, not single LP releases. My argument is that if other bands get box set rarities, the BB should too. Like i said, i can’t think of anyone more deserving. I do acknowledge that the Pet Sounds box set is pretty unprecedented, and i think that’s the most fortunate treatment the band has received in regards to archival releases. Second of all, i’m not complaining about the contents of MiC (which none of us know yet), nor am i leveling any criticisms at the MiC compilers or the function of a career spanning box set, nor does this have anything to do with my song preferences. It’s a much broader issue than that. I’m simply bemoaning this reality in which we live where the mere thought of a BB rarities box set is a laughable pipe dream. The hardcore BB fan base is one of the most obsessive, dedicated, knowledgeable, and loyal, and the band themselves are one of the most influential, innovative, diverse, and prolific, with one of the largest troves of unreleased music. It’s a no brainer. There is a market for this. Again, i know it won’t happen but what gets me is the why not.