MiC up for order on Amazon, August release

[AndrewHickey]

Did Dennis often sing lead on Help Me Rhonda 

Most shows in the early-mid 70s, at least.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I would love to see the early draft of the playlist that Ponghit saw....

I'd be happy just to know the date he saw it... 

[Jonathan Blum]

Here's a list of the songs from the previous boxset which have been left off, but which are otherwise easily available on albums or other box sets:

   The Surfer Moon
   Spirit of America
   She Knows Me Too Well
   Then I Kissed Her
   And Your Dreams Come True
   You Still Believe In Me
   Hang On To Your Ego
   Pet Sounds
   Wonderful
   I Love To Say Da Da
   Surf's Up (1966)
   With Me Tonight
   Cool Cool Water
   Our Sweet Love
   Long Promised Road
   You Need A Mess Of Help
   Funky Pretty
   That Same Song
   Airplane

Seven out of these 19 are "Pet Sounds" and "Smile" album tracks.  Not a surprise that they've been downplayed a bit, given that since '93 each of those albums has gotten a giant frickin' boxset of their own, and the standard CDs of them are among the most widely available in their whole catalog. Hard to say they're being marginalized.

That leaves twelve songs which have, in effect, been demoted from the canon -- treated as nonessential.  And some of them…  Well, yeah, things like "Spirit Of America" and "Surfer Moon" basically fall into the "Other songs by the Beach Boys are available" category.  Others have clearly been swapped for songs which fill a roughly equivalent slot in the story…  It'd be pushing things a bit to have "Please Let Me Wonder" *and* "She Knows Me Too Well" *and* "Kiss Me Baby" all on the same set, and this time it's the second which missed the cut rather than the third.  "Long Promised Road" has clearly been swapped with "Feel Flows" in the "Carl Wilson as artist" slot, and "Solar System" is subbing for "Airplane" in the Brian's-cracked-beauty portion of the story.  "Wonderful", in fact, appears to have been substituted for "Wonderful"… though personally I'd say whoever thought that one of the most pristinely beautiful pieces of "Smile" should be pushed aside in favor of drawing attention to the grafitti scrawl of the "Smiley Smile" version needs their head examined.

But that still leaves a few other surprising omissions.  "Then I Kissed Her"?  A pretty significant hit single, at least overseas?  (Maybe it'll be reserved for something like the "Lady Lynda" bonus disc from last time around?)  "You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone" really stood out on the previous set as an example of just how far the Beach Boys could go in unusual rock directions -- I think it's a shame to consign it to just being an album track again.  And the "Wonderful" swap-over is even more baffling in the eyes of the omission of "With Me Tonight" -- such a stunning piece of hushed beauty that it convinced newbie-fan Jon to shell out $50 for a Japanese import of "Smiley Smile" just to hear more like that.  (And was then faintly appalled to realize that instead the whole album sounded like the band had recorded the whole album from the inside of a gigantic bong.)

It's a shame that these buried gems are being re-buried… though thankfully not anywhere near as deep as they were in the '90s.

But then there are the other songs which have been omitted, which aren't so readily available...

More soon,
Jon Blum

[Cabinessenceking]

From Brian's Site:

Do It Again is a true stereo mix made from the recently found 8 track master

We're Together Again- is a new stereo mix with strings also from a newly recovered 8 track master

The live All I Want To Do is complete and contains elements not heard on the mix on the Rarities album

The live Help Me Rhonda features Dennis on the lead vocal

The live Wild Honey features Blondie Chaplin on lead vocal and guitar

This is very good news!

Looking forward to buying those individual tracks!

[Mr. Wilson]

Yea Jon I was wondering myself what was gonna happen to the rarities that are on the 93 box set when it was deleted...Lotta good stuff on there. To bad both box sets cant co exist on market place.. 4th of July DW song on 93 set will be missed among others.  BUT..Im very excited about this new release and I will buy it..!

[Rocky Raccoon]

The version of Cool Cool Water on the '93 box set which I believe is from the Wild Honey sessions is unavailable elsewhere.

[MarcellaHasDirtyFeet]

Great stuff, Mr. Blum. Keep it up!

[pixletwin]

I would love to see the early draft of the playlist that Ponghit saw....

I'd be happy just to know the date he saw it... 

I presume it was March 2012

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,12489.0.html

[Jonathan Blum]

Glad you're liking it, lots more where that came from.  I was really slack at work today.  :-)

Now the other songs which have been dropped, which aren't so easy to find:

Surfin USA (demo)
Little Surfer Girl (demo)
Punchline
Things We Did Last Summer
Ruby Baby
Can't Wait Too Long (version)
San Miguel
Games Two Can Play
I Just Got My Pay
HELP Is On The Way
4th Of July
Fairy Tale Music
Still I Dream Of It
Our Team

Now none of these -- with the possible exception of "Still I Dream Of It" -- can really claim to be A-list material… but there's a good chunk of strong B-list material which isn't available anywhere else.  Do people know if these tracks are going to be deleted, or will they still be up there on iTunes?  Perhaps Capitol might be willing to consider an iTunes-only rarities release, creating an album just out of this bunch, to steer people in their direction?

In particular, I'm thinking it's a shame to push "San Miguel", the delightful Brian-still-at-the-height-of-his-powers "Games Two Can Play", the eccentric "HELP", and Carl and Dennis' melancholy showpiece "4th of July" back into the relic bin.  But again, looking at the spots in the story which these songs were filling, I have to admit that their replacements do a superior job… "Fallin' In Love", "Soulful Old Man Sunshine", and "To Live Again"?  We're talking good versus stunning.

(Though on the other hand, it's a shame to lose "Can't Wait Too Long" and "Fairy Tale Music" -- for the first one, I now don't know where the definitive source (if any) for the song is now, and for the second it's a small but definite loss; the Fairy Tale backing tracks do far more to show you Brian's surviving  gifts than they do with the narration!)

So that's what they've downplayed; next, on to the question of what they've added to the story...

Cheers,
Jon Blum

[Wirestone]

The whole Good Vibes set is still available for purchase on iTunes (and as individual tracks, except for the 15-minute GV sessions track and, for some reason, Kokomo). And you can get gently used physical copies of the whole set for $25 on Amazon.

[Cabinessenceking]

Why does anybody care if someone likes or dislikes what is on the box set? How can that possibly affect your life?

I was thinking the same yesterday. For some reason some people seem very threatened by negative comments. I suggested it was because they feel their tastes and opinions are being judged by those being negative. Of course, its entirely the other way round, it's the moaners who are constantly being told they are wrong.

Anyway. I'm still seriously stoked by the "Do It Again" news. I think this box is going to be great.

Exactly. We all love their hits and album tracks. Some just disagree that this was the correct release to make and are therefore disappointed by what is on the box, not the quality of the songs themselves. Da Do Run Run does not count in this assessment 

[Jonathan Blum]

The whole Good Vibes set is still available for purchase on iTunes (and as individual tracks, except for the 15-minute GV sessions track and, for some reason, Kokomo).

Ah, but will it still be available after the new set comes out?  Here's hoping they keep the stray tracks at least on iTunes...

Cheers,
Jon Blum

[Andrew G. Doe]

I would love to see the early draft of the playlist that Ponghit saw....

I'd be happy just to know the date he saw it... 

I presume it was March 2012

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,12489.0.html

Interesting. Fascinating, even...

[hypehat]

So.  If the point of the new box is to make a statement about what the Beach Boys are…  what is it saying?

Well, again, let's start by looking at the story told by the previous box.  That one had a very clear agenda, at a time when most of the Beach Boys' artier work was out of print -- each disc aimed to show a different side of the band, a specific chapter in the narrative. Disc one was the songs that made California great, the whole start of the endless summer.  Disc two told the story of them becoming the greatest art-pop band in the world -- the flowering from "California Girls" (moved up slightly in the chronology to kick off disc two), to a bunch of "Pet Sounds" tracks in the years before the box set, and the Holy Grail of "Smile".  Disc three was there to tell you that even as the hits dried up they were still putting out creative gems -- kicking off with "Heroes and Villains" and running up through "Surf's Up".  And disc four had the specific aim of convincing skeptics that they still did good stuff after Brian Wilson flaked out… hence swapping the album order so it kicked off with "Sail On Sailor", the most powerful post-1971 hook they could imagine. That was really the whole point of the box set -- to rewrite an assumed public history of the band in which the Beach Boys petered out around 1966, had a couple more hits, then didn't do much of anything after their eighth year.

And in the twenty years' since then?  It's largely succeeded at that.  Brian Wilson isn't just the guy in the striped shirt who flipped out any more, he's a certified musical genius. "Pet Sounds" and "Smile" are *central* to the Beach Boys story now, as well as "Endless Summer" -- down my way, they're the only two actual Beach Boys albums I can find on the shelves at my local JB Hi-Fi, amidst all the Greatest Hits (and "Radio", but that's a special case).

Anyway. That's the story they boxed up for delivery in 1993.  But what did the story leave out?  Well, several key things.  For a start, David Marks was The Other Guy, a musical footnote.  Dennis too, in large part -- the '93 boxset gave us three *stunning* songs he both wrote and sang, which certainly whetted my appetite, but that was barely scratching the surface of his output.  Even the concentration of seven straight tracks from the Blondie-and-Ricky era gives them more of a sense of a defined presence in the band. Bruce…  well, he's the guy who did "Disney Girls". The band's live performances were barely represented.  And most tellingly, the 30th anniversary set only moved the date when the band petered out from their eighth to their sixteenth year… their entire output after 1977, six albums and a bunch of non-album tracks -- as much material as from "Sunflower" to "Love You" -- was reduced to six released tracks and one outtake.

So.  Now they've got a chance to tell the story again -- with an extra disc's worth of space.  So what are they telling differently?

Well… next post I'll start by looking at what they've taken away...

Cheers,
Jon Blum

Booming post.

What live stuff they use on this set is rather interesting - whereas on the 1993 set, every live track featured Brian Wilson, now only one does, apart from the 1964 BBC session  (I didn't hear that when it surfaced last year, but maybe he was still in the touring group then), and the 1975 I Can Hear Music if 'Brian Was Back'.

What the reshuffling of rarities and deep cuts on the third disc seems to suggest is that yes, Brian did take a back seat in a way. You have much more Dennis material showing his ascendance as a songwriter in the main flow of the box - Little Bird, sure, and you also have Be With Me & Celebrate The News but he's much more highly represented in the Reprise era than before, like his two big Sunflower hits, Lady/Sound Of Free, It's About Time, and of course WIBNTLA (I'm going to get sick of that acronym). Whereas the focus in 1993 was 'Brian's still there guys, they just didn't put these songs on the albums because Chairman Mo thought they were crazy', now they seem confident in saying 'but look at what Dennis was up to'.

This is also sorta borne out in the rarities too - the first track is a Dennis tune. Mona Kana is on it (really excited about that, I want to hear it at a million decibels), you have demos from him where you don't have Mike or Al demos - it's mostly dominated by him & Brian, give or take the tunes we know hardly any about - Ponghit for one mentioned that Barnyard Blues was a Dennis/Carl co-write. I imagine if the booklet isn't just witless anecdotes from Mike about Be True To Your School there should be a lot of talk about Dennis in the late 60's & 70's.

IMO, the greatest bungle is that last disc - the live portion is really hodgepodge (although f*** yeah, Friends tracks live!) and I wouldn't be surprised if the studio set was the battleground for any squabbles over the tracklist. I can see them not wanting solely Brian demos on there from that period, which excludes every other Paley Session track, I can see people not wanting SIP tracks on there because it's bloody awful, and there's a lot of stuff you just wouldn't want to remind people of - The Fat Boys?! Status Quo?! - even though they were singles.

TWGMTR seems a more fickle point for contention, possibly along the lines of some people wanting the suite tracks on there and others wanting SV/Beaches In Mind/other drivel from the middle of the record. They still might want people to buy it. I can figure that the dominance of the live tracks on the disc is a way to solve such disputes. Keep it to the singles and some 80's rarities (although by god is Da Doo Ron Ron useless in the form we've got, I hope they've remixed it)

[Jonathan Blum]

One more chunk, then I gotta go get some sleep!

And now to the question of what they've added to the story…

Part I: The Endless Summer
6.    Lonely Sea (Original Mono Mix)
12.   Our Car Club
13.   Surfers Rule (with Session Intro)
15.   Back Home
17.   Ballad Of Ole' Betsy
27.   Girls On The Beach
30.   All Dressed Up For School (Mono)
32.   Kiss Me, Baby (2000 Stereo Mix)
33.   In The Back of My Mind (2012 Stereo Mix)

What we have here, it seems to me, is an attempt to get the art and emotion in earlier. "Lonely Sea" is the standout early-Brian-melancholy piece -- tucked in between "409" and "Surfin' USA", about as early as you can get!

And Dennis gets to strut his stuff from early on too, with "Surfers Rule".

They're also expanding the car material, which sounds like a conventional Beach Boys thing to do -- but they've gone for "Ballad Of Ole' Betsy", which is clearly a band-favorite rarity these days with Mike's group (thanks to Scott Totten).  It's basically the broader-and-deeper statement of the box sets in a nutshell -- sure, it's about a car, but WHAM!  Emotion!  Those harmonies at the end!

Besides those, you've got a couple of prized rarities which they don't want to see fall into obscurity… and then two more tracks from "Today".  I already talked about "Kiss Me Baby" versus "She Knows Me", but then there's "In The Back Of My Mind".  Killer emotive ballad, plus Dennis…  sensing a theme here?

Cheers,
Jon Blum

[Paulos]

Ponghits post from his meeting with Alan Boyd in March last year:

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

I'll try to summarize my BB-related experiences from my trip to LA last week:

Mr. Boyd had messaged me about the Al Jardine record release show at The Roxy on Tuesday night, so I first met Alan there, and was immediately struck by what a sweet, modest, and down-to-earth guy he is. I was with a friend of Alan's who also introduced me to Adam Marsland, Nelson Bragg, Domenic Priore, Mark London, and others.

Alan arranged for us to visit his house on Thursday evening, around 7pm. On the way, we stopped for Indian takeout for dinner. Alan has a cool pad, a cool cat — and there's a gecko living in his house! (Its surface looks like it's encrusted in coarse salt with pepper added.) We chatted while we ate, talked about our mutual interests and mutual friends. I gave him a stack of CDs I had brought for him, and he returned the favor (commercial releases, not CD-Rs).

My memory for details is inconsistent, partly due to flu medications, jet-lag, and lack o' sleep for 2 weeks (not sure I was a great conversationalist), but here are some tidbits I remember:

• Regarding the recently-uncovered GV footage — Alan arranged for it to be acquired when it was discovered — there are 2 silent reels — includes Dennis singing lead.

• Despite the seemingly complete/exhaustive nature of TSS, Alan believes a lot of master tapes have disappeared from the vaults over the years.

• Good news — the band currently seems to be getting along well, especially and notably Brian & Mike.

• Alan's impersonations are indeed hilarious, and eerily accurate! Not just the voices, but mannerisms too; the man is multi-talented.

Then he said had prepared an iTunes playlist for me, consisting of 86 tracks. After the paramedics arrived to resuscitate my ticker, I geeked-out with his headphones and iPad for... a couple hours, I guess. Here are some specifics from my memories:

I believe the dates ranged from circa 1963, the 'Audree tapes,' to 1996, the S&S sessions. Many tracks were familiar titles — things like "Little Bird" with BGV & track (no lead), vocal-only of "Time To Get Alone," and "We're Together Again" with strings — but also many completely unreleased titles. I think all eras were represented, including solo Mike.

"Live Again" is as great as rumored, but not a departure from Dennis's style of the period. "Cuddle Up"/"Old Movie" (2 different tracks/takes) is possibly even moodier and more dramatic/emotional than "Live Again." "Little Red Book" is very cool. "My Solution" is a funny oddity, experimental and interesting — but rough, and ultimately not a terribly important part of the canon; understandably unreleased. Dennis's "Ecology," however, while also experimental and rough, I thought it was of more consequence. Another very cool thing that I hadn't known about is Dennis & Carl's "Barnyard" (no connection to the SMILE tune?). I thought Brian's lead on the 1974 "California Feeling" sounded so odd that I wasn't even sure it was him — Carl's later retake sounds 'right' to my ears. There was an aborted "2,000 Years" string intro/overture for Dennis's "Friday Nights" that contained dated, sitar-sounding elements. Dennis's piano demo of "Be With Me" is a great fly-on-the wall moment. "All Day, All Night" was a highly-repetitive mediation that became "Whistle In." Alternate version of "Add Some Music" is very good, different lyrics. "Walkin'" and "Where Is She?" are SUNFLOWER outtakes. The "Caroline, No" BGV from S&S sessions were shockingly gorgeous, and have a "My Prayer" vibe. And I remember a few live tracks: "Please Let Me Wonder" (1965?), "All I Want To Do," and "Wild Honey" (1972-'73?).

Overall impression: this batch of material demonstrates, once again, the dynamic and diverse body of work our favorite band created. But it requires the painstaking efforts of people like Alan and Mark Linett to mine the archives for nuggets of gold — and I'm convinced they have the BB's integrity in mind; that's their motivation. (The ENDLESS HARMONY film and HAWTHORNE comp. being just 2 examples.)

More specifically, based on this collection, I'm guessing most of the best of the unreleased early/'golden era' material has already been tapped — of course, I'd love to be wrong about this presumption. Aficionados of the later periods (post-SMILE), however, have a lot to look forward to if/when these things see the light of day.

Apparently the music I heard is being potentially considered for a proposed archive compilation, because he asked me which of the tracks stand-out as things that should definitely be released. And Alan is aware of this forum, of course, and reads it occasionally, so our input might have an influence, to an extent.

By this point, Alan's friend was exhausted, and so was I, it was a long night, so we split at about 1am. Alan walked with us out to the car — invited me back next time I'm in LA — and, while in the street, 'performed' a snippet of Jan interviewing Brian; a sidesplitting and perfect ending to an unforgettable night.

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

Sounds like a lot of things on that track list Alan played for Ponghit have ended up on the box.

[monicker]

This is very great news about the Do It Again master. Crazy. It’s amazing that this stuff is still turning up. It really does give hope for anything showing up. The GV vocal tapes may very well be somewhere accessible and not destroyed or lost forever...

Man, can you imagine being Alan Boyd and having all that stuff sitting on your computer? What a dream. 

[hypehat]

Yeah, the Do It Again master is incredible. Did they find it on the side of the road? 

[Andrew G. Doe]

Times change - when I asked in 1993 why there were no SIP tracks on the box, I was told "it's their latest release, it's still out there". Thankfully 20 years on, someone's grown some smarts (although not entirely - the single version of "IIT" sucks, and sucks epically).

[Mahalo]

This makes sense... but they are too blind to see the artistic value of say, uh, Thank Him as opposed to California Dreamin'. It's just what it is. I accept that.

If you're comparing those two tracks, frankly I'm on the band's side. Thank Him is rubbish.

IMO, California Dreamin' sucks donkey testicles- a band trying to come up with a hit, or something, or maybe someone put a gun to their heads and made them record that Drek. I am ashamed that my favorite band put out that crap- but they did worse-

At least Thank Him has some soul and feeling. I guess we can agree to disagree! Sorry about the harsh language, but I really hate that song. 

[hypehat]

Times change - when I asked in 1993 why there were no SIP tracks on the box, I was told "it's their latest release, it's still out there". Thankfully 20 years on, someone's grown some smarts (although not entirely - the single version of "IIT" sucks, and sucks epically).

Funny, seeing as SIP was OOP since its release! I would have actually heard it at the start of my obsession if it'd been on the box rather than some rare phenomenon that people constantly dismissed. Of course, they were right, but I'd like to have heard it.

Not putting the reunion DIA on there is a stroke of madness, too. It'd be perfect, and I'd be able to actually have a copy - screw importing a 'zinepack' from America.

[Mikie]

Yeah, the Do It Again master is incredible. Did they find it on the side of the road? 

Yeah, didn't the master with the multi-track fall off the back of Desper's Vette in Coldwater Canyon?  Maybe somebody found it in a ditch on the side of the road.....

[Matt Bielewicz]

Like I said upthread, let's all give up and just let Jon Blum post here. The guy nails it every time. Jon, that is the most coherent analysis of MiC I've read anywhere; thanks. Reasoned, restrained, sensible, and thought-provoking. I await more in that vein.

...'course, I don't agree with you entirely about Smiley Smile, but that's just opinions, and that's why we're here! (yes, *sure* it sounds like it was recorded inside a giant hookah - but oh, those harmonies...). Despite that, like you, I would rather they had put Wonderful on this new set, rather than, um... Wonderful. 1966 to 1967 doesn't sound like much, but what a difference.

...Hook-AH, damnit, I said hook-AH...!!!!

[Micha]

then their genius leader went mad before he could finish their second masterpiece (probably because of Mike Love)

Let's not get into that again! You shouldn't post it like that, newbies might believe it.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I say we ban newbies from here... they're so credulous.