Do you prefer SMiLE as a 3 movements piece or as 12-14 tracks?

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

Ok I see where you're coming from.  Because certain pieces not originally connected in 67 by Brian or noted as being connected by people involved with Smile in 66-67 sound good together in later fan mixes and were put together subsequently by Darian and Brian when making Smile into a live "suite" and you believe they sound right together, then that must have been Brian's original intention.  I shouldn't have to point out the faulty logic of that reasoning but consider it noted.

For what it's worth, Darian believed the "second movement" was what Brian always had in mind, based on his reaction to Darian playing those pieces together.

Considering Look wasn't even in the running as far as we know for Smile - it wasn't on the track list - I think that's a stretch.  Brian liked what Darian did with the sequence, and may have thought that's what I would have liked to have done in 66-67, but if that was what he always had in mind, why didn't he tell Darian that at the start rather than listen to what Darian came up with and then approve or disapprove it?

Because it was 40 years later, Brian's mind had been to hell and back, he never 100% made up his mind in the first place, he wanted to hear what fresh ears had to say, etc.

I don't take BWPS' sequence as vintage by any means. But it isn't completely unreasonable to assume he had other things going on in his mind from '68-'02 other than the SMiLE songs, hence why he couldn't sit down and lay out a blueprint on the spot. However, it's completely reasonable to assume that in the process of working on the material again, things came back to him. He chose (or allowed Darian) to put this sequence together. Now, obviously he wouldve forgot some things, purposely changed some things and so on. But there's connections between the Second Movement tracks even listening to them outside of the BWPS context. It's possible, i'd say even likely, that those songs were supposed to go on the same side at least back in 1967.

[soniclovenoize]

Does anyone remember an interview in 2004 (an audio interview) where Darian describes Brian being curled on a sofa in a depressive "we can't do it" mood and then, on hearing Look, leaping up and shouting "That goes after Wonderful!"?

I don't but I will admit I nearly pooped my pants when I first heard it on the bootlegs of the SMiLE shows.   

[Paul2010]

I know it's not totally on topic, but since there is a great and lively Smile discussion going on here I figured some of you might know more about this: has there been any news the past couple of months, or even longer, about any possible release of the complete Barnyard track including the backing vocals? There was a lot of debate when the box came out about the exclusion of this fragment, which is really quite essential in the history of Smile in my opinion. There was some talk of possible online-only releases of this and some other tracks such as the complete CIFOTM acetate...does anyone know anything about this? Is it likely that these tracks will ever be released?

[Tricycle Rider]

I have to chime in here too, since Paul2010 brought this up.

Where IS that "Barnyard" track with those backing vocals?
Surely, SOMEONE in the "community" managed to get hold of it?

I would GLADLY pay for that if it were offered as a lossless download. The CIFOTM acetate is another one I'd like to hear, though I suppose you can make your own version of it with what they gave us on the SMiLE sessions release.

And whatever happened to the Durrie Parks acetates?

 

[John Manning]

I know it's not totally on topic, but since there is a great and lively Smile discussion going on here I figured some of you might know more about this: has there been any news the past couple of months, or even longer, about any possible release of the complete Barnyard track including the backing vocals? There was a lot of debate when the box came out about the exclusion of this fragment, which is really quite essential in the history of Smile in my opinion. There was some talk of possible online-only releases of this and some other tracks such as the complete CIFOTM acetate...does anyone know anything about this? Is it likely that these tracks will ever be released?

Have wondered about these omissions myself and hope there might be some kind of anniversary release in 2017, with these as bonus tracks (and maybe the Durrie Parks acetates that were omitted, if any…). You know, the year after the Pet Sounds anniversary release in 2016…

Can't imagine any thing's been held back from Pet Soudns by now tho'≥

[Paul2010]

I know it's not totally on topic, but since there is a great and lively Smile discussion going on here I figured some of you might know more about this: has there been any news the past couple of months, or even longer, about any possible release of the complete Barnyard track including the backing vocals? There was a lot of debate when the box came out about the exclusion of this fragment, which is really quite essential in the history of Smile in my opinion. There was some talk of possible online-only releases of this and some other tracks such as the complete CIFOTM acetate...does anyone know anything about this? Is it likely that these tracks will ever be released?

Have wondered about these omissions myself and hope there might be some kind of anniversary release in 2017, with these as bonus tracks (and maybe the Durrie Parks acetates that were omitted, if any…). You know, the year after the Pet Sounds anniversary release in 2016…

Can't imagine any thing's been held back from Pet Soudns by now tho'≥

There lies an opportunity. Maybe that's also a good moment for some other stuff that, again in my opinion, has been missing from earlier releases, mostly some other mixes of completed tracks which only have been included in a re-edited form, and that can't be possibly reconstructed using the box set.

Things like a stereo mix of Do You Like Worms, a stereo I Wanna Be Around in great quality, I Love To Say Dada without the fly-ins (in stereo), the complete unedited mono mix of The Old Master Painter...there's lots of possibilities, I think.

[buddhahat]

** one could argue that cabin essence and DYLW were a series of fragments strung together as well, but DYLW lyric sheet seem to indicate it was just written that way, and the fact that CabinEssence was written along with the batch of the "traditional" songs that it too had a grand design, but was simply recorded in pieces to be later re-essembled. 

"And then Van and Brian played us two things they were doing on the album: one was...ah, part of the thing that turned into "Cabinessence."  This was originally part of "Who Ran the Iron Horse," which was about this Chinese cat working on the railroad; it had the the "crow" line in it.  And another song, "Bicycle Rider," was to be integrated with it: they thought they'd put together these two separate songs...A lot of that kind of thing was going on: I mean there are fragments of maybe five different songs combined in each of the songs as they stand now.  "Cabinessence," for example, started out as a wholly different trip - Dennis was going to sing it by himself and sound like a funky cat up in the mountains somewhere singing to a chick by a fireplace: very simple - and that's all there was to it."

Michael Vosse

So, it sounds to me as if Vosse heard a test edit of the Grand Coolie section of what is now Cabinessence, paired with Bicycle Rider.  And it also sounds as if Brian took that Grand Coolie section out of Who Ran the Iron Horse.  And wasn't Who Ran the Iron Horse a part of an early Heroes and Villians, or am I not remembering correctly?

From this quote I always imagined that the bicycle rider theme (from Worms) may have started out paired with Who Ran The Iron Horse (the fast section of Cabineesence), possibly as a sort of verse chorus, verse chorus thing, then ending with the Grand Coolie section. Those sections certainly would have all fit together well and created a real 'railroad' feel.

I'm not sure if Who Ran The Iron Horse was part of an early Heroes? Quite possibly. It seems like another variation on the ascending/descending thing that Brian also did in Fire and Heroes Intro, so quite possibly is related to Heroes.

[Bean Bag]

Smile's like a jigsaw, where every piece has three sides that fit and one that doesn't.

No one can ever complete a jigsaw like that, unless Brian decides to shape the fourth side of each piece.

He says 2004 saw it done and we have to accept that, no matter that even be bad to shoehorn those pieces with a crowbar to get them to fit.

Nothing to stop anyone attempting their own solution but the order, the… erm… "mix" can only ever be speculative.

The unfinished puzzle piece is a good analogy.  I believe Brian's 2004 solution was simply an attempt to "finish" the pieces into a suitable artifact.  I do not believe it was to continue the work and development of the material.  Or to pick up where they left off. 

The better analogy for me, maybe a dinosaur fossil/skeleton.  SMiLE is an incomplete skeleton.  BWPS was simply an attempt to display the remains.

[Bicyclerider]

How I interpret Vosse's quote - Cabinessence and Who Ran the Iron Horse started as separate songs, and Grand Coulee Dam was part of Iron Horse.  But by the time of the recording, all three were part of Cabinessence and recorded at the same time and edited together.  Session tapes make that abundantly clear.

Vosse says Brian was "thinking" of putting Bicycle Rider into Cabinessence, not that he did it.  No test edits or evidence exists that this thought was ever followed up on.  Instead he tried putting it into Heroes in January, and when that didn't work, he rewrote it in a minor key and it eventually became the Heroes chorus.

There definitely was the possibility of shifting sections from one song to another, as we see with Heroes getting Worm's BR and OMP's barnshine ending (at different times), Vegetables getting Do a Lot from Heroes, and Great Shape (with Barnyard I would argue) moving to its' own song.  There were also sections removed to the reject pile like cantina, Barnshine fade (two versions), Intro to Heroes (two versions), and whole songs bypassed (Look/I Ran, Holidays).

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

I know it's not totally on topic, but since there is a great and lively Smile discussion going on here I figured some of you might know more about this: has there been any news the past couple of months, or even longer, about any possible release of the complete Barnyard track including the backing vocals? There was a lot of debate when the box came out about the exclusion of this fragment, which is really quite essential in the history of Smile in my opinion. There was some talk of possible online-only releases of this and some other tracks such as the complete CIFOTM acetate...does anyone know anything about this? Is it likely that these tracks will ever be released?

I love that boxset to death. I've repeatedely stated it's one of the most cherished things I own. But I can't help but feel disappointed at some of the exclusions. They filled 5 CDs to the brim, which is great. But was adding just one more too much to ask? I wouldve loved to have the Child acetate they found in full, any surviving vocal sessions, Brian's test edit for Child and any others he did, some of the more interesting Psychedelic Sounds bits (yes, they included a few snippets but not enough for my taste) some Smiley sessions for the reworked SMiLE tracks, more With Me Tonight, more "pseudo-SMiLE" tracks like Little Red Book and Can't Wait Too Long (if they could include Three Blind Mice, why not these?) and so much more. If nothing else, I'd say take a few GV sessions off Disc 5. Maybe that's blasphemous to some, but I thought a whole disc of the same song over and over was excessive and unnecessary.

/rant.

I didn't know there was an alternate Barnyard floating around though. Do you know anything about it? And by backing vocals, are you talking about something besides the "oooo" vocals and animal sounds?

Regarding the Durrie acetates...as far as I know, they've been backed up and cataloged. I don't think there was anything earth shattering on them, but apparently there was an alternative H&V that included Great Shape as a verse but with H&V instrumentation. Obviously I'd love to have that in my collection. Hopefully that gets released someday...

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

How I interpret Vosse's quote - Cabinessence and Who Ran the Iron Horse started as separate songs, and Grand Coulee Dam was part of Iron Horse.  But by the time of the recording, all three were part of Cabinessence and recorded at the same time and edited together.  Session tapes make that abundantly clear.

Vosse says Brian was "thinking" of putting Bicycle Rider into Cabinessence, not that he did it.  No test edits or evidence exists that this thought was ever followed up on.  Instead he tried putting it into Heroes in January, and when that didn't work, he rewrote it in a minor key and it eventually became the Heroes chorus.

There definitely was the possibility of shifting sections from one song to another, as we see with Heroes getting Worm's BR and OMP's barnshine ending (at different times), Vegetables getting Do a Lot from Heroes, and Great Shape (with Barnyard I would argue) moving to its' own song.  There were also sections removed to the reject pile like cantina, Barnshine fade (two versions), Intro to Heroes (two versions), and whole songs bypassed (Look/I Ran, Holidays).

I was under the impression that Brian knew more of SMiLE's layout than we thought. The excessive tinkering and recycling of other sections seemed to be in the service of making the perfect singles--H&V, Veggies. But now this shuffling and merging between CE, Worms and 'Iron Horse' throws that completely into question. I'd still like to see another source tho.

[Bicyclerider]

There are quotes from others - Anderle?  about Brian shuffling sections, how a part of one song might end up part of another.  Maybe Siegel's description of the acetate party mentioned this also.  When Brian recorded something, he had a definite idea where he wanted it to go.  It was after he recorded it and got ideas about other sections to record and doubted whether the first section was what he really wanted, and so recorded new sections, then doubted if those were adequate, and reconsidered old sections . . . you can see how eventually Heroes became very difficult to make it to a final version.  And how when he stole sections from other songs for the singles, that created holes that became difficult to fill.


Brian's mono mix of the backing track of Child, Barnyard with the animal sounds/backing vocals, and the Child acetate with the new vocal line all should have been included in the box set.  The Durrie Parks acetates that were auctioned came to light after the box had been completed, and had very little new on them - although the edit of a new Great Shape instrumental section, previously unknown, into the "my children were raised/three score and five" sections is new and possibly revelatory.

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

There are quotes from others - Anderle?  about Brian shuffling sections, how a part of one song might end up part of another.  Maybe Siegel's description of the acetate party mentioned this also.  When Brian recorded something, he had a definite idea where he wanted it to go.  It was after he recorded it and got ideas about other sections to record and doubted whether the first section was what he really wanted, and so recorded new sections, then doubted if those were adequate, and reconsidered old sections . . . you can see how eventually Heroes became very difficult to make it to a final version.  And how when he stole sections from other songs for the singles, that created holes that became difficult to fill.


Brian's mono mix of the backing track of Child, Barnyard with the animal sounds/backing vocals, and the Child acetate with the new vocal line all should have been included in the box set.  The Durrie Parks acetates that were auctioned came to light after the box had been completed, and had very little new on them - although the edit of a new Great Shape instrumental section, previously unknown, into the "my children were raised/three score and five" sections is new and possibly revelatory.

Interesting. I was under the impression the adhoc rerecording was solely for H&V and Veggies and didn't start until 1967.

I'd argue the Great Shape bit is revelatory. It shows that even after GS was replaced by Cantina, it was still intended to be in H&V at least for a time. This further casts doubt on what a finished "Great Shape" track wouldve been, assuming the list is accurate--or even if Great Shape wouldve been one of the tracks at all.

[alf wiedersehen]

I don't think just because part of a song is quoted in another song, it means that it wouldn't have been a song on it's own. Like how the H&V riff is found in other songs (and probably other riffs), it's easy to imagine Smile being completely intertwined, with bits and pieces from one song showing up in another.

However, that's just a complete theory of mine without any actual proof that I know of other than a few pieces of music that seem to show up.

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

I don't think just because part of a song is quoted in another song, it means that it wouldn't have been a song on it's own. Like how the H&V riff is found in other songs (and probably other riffs), it's easy to imagine Smile being completely intertwined, with bits and pieces from one song showing up in another.

However, that's just a complete theory of mine without any actual proof that I know of other than a few pieces of music that seem to show up.

If we had a recording of the Great Shape vocal session we could put this to bed. But as far as I know, that single line is all that was written for GS. This is why I assumed that a finished GS track wouldve been perhaps a four part medley like The Elements. It'd explain nicely how various other bits like IWBA, Workshop and Barnyard all fit into the SMiLE puzzle as well.

While I don't rule out the idea of recurring music motifs, using the same chorus for two songs, the same exact vocals in two song and stuff like that seems out of the question. Imagine listening to an album like that, where you essentially hear the same chorus with different lyrics, then the same verse with different instruments again and again. That's not being innovative or free thinking, that's just...lazy. and Brian was not lazy about his art. It makes more sense that the album fell apart because as he kept shuffling things around, creating holes, trying to patch them up and doubting himself that he eventually lost sight of the original idea and then started fresh. If what you're suggesting is accurate, and H&V/Worms and VT/Child wouldve shared choruses...then what's the problem, from Brian's perspective? If that was really the plan, he had pretty much all the material he needed.

[alf wiedersehen]

Well, I don't mean entire musical sections coming from different songs, like a full chorus and verses. Just occasional references to the other songs, bits being incorporated. Just sort-of scattered references. Again, that's just an idea - one that I don't necessarily buy into completely. I'm completely out of my depths here, as I am nowhere near as knowledgable on the subject as others.

Anyway, that sort of thing wouldn't make Smile any easier, in fact it would probably be more difficult to put something like that together.

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

Well, I don't mean entire musical sections coming from different songs, like a full chorus and verses. Just occasional references to the other songs, bits being incorporated. Just sort-of scattered references. Again, that's just an idea - one that I don't necessarily buy into completely. I'm completely out of my depths here, as I am nowhere near as knowledgable on the subject as others.

Anyway, that sort of thing wouldn't make Smile any easier, in fact it would probably be more difficult to put something like that together.

That, I can agree with.

[Jim V.]

Smile's like a jigsaw, where every piece has three sides that fit and one that doesn't.

No one can ever complete a jigsaw like that, unless Brian decides to shape the fourth side of each piece.

He says 2004 saw it done and we have to accept that, no matter that even be bad to shoehorn those pieces with a crowbar to get them to fit.

Nothing to stop anyone attempting their own solution but the order, the… erm… "mix" can only ever be speculative.

The unfinished puzzle piece is a good analogy.  I believe Brian's 2004 solution was simply an attempt to "finish" the pieces into a suitable artifact.  I do not believe it was to continue the work and development of the material.  Or to pick up where they left off. 

The better analogy for me, maybe a dinosaur fossil/skeleton.  SMiLE is an incomplete skeleton.  BWPS was simply an attempt to display the remains.

I would say The SMiLE Sessions would be the attempt to the display the remains. BWPS on the other hand didn't just display what was there, new things were added for better or worse.

[Nile]

Sure hope that these Parks acetates provide us smoe new stuff..also would love to hear more BW 66 mixes in decent shape...

But to get to the TOPIC, I prefer an album with songs , not suites... Brian never did those nad I´m certain if an album did get finished in 1966/1967 it would be in line with a handwritten list..some americana some elements songs (for instance DYDW - WC)..not restricted to side A americana side B elements..

Also I wonder where SU belongs? It could certainly be a part of an americana theme, but also elements theme..I wonder...

[John Manning]

I prefer an album with songs , not suites... Brian never did those …

Y're right… even the three "suite" songs on TWGMTR were just three songs aligned in a particular order.  Effective, but equally valid as stand-along tracks, and not musically interwoven.

[Bicyclerider]

If we had a recording of the Great Shape vocal session we could put this to bed. But as far as I know, that single line is all that was written for GS. This is why I assumed that a finished GS track wouldve been perhaps a four part medley like The Elements. It'd explain nicely how various other bits like IWBA, Workshop and Barnyard all fit into the SMiLE puzzle as well.

Yes the vocal session which preceeded the instrumental session - what the hell was that?  Was it the "eggs and grits" lyrics of the Heroes demo, with Brian playing piano?  With backing vocals presumably?  Or was it something else entirely?  If that could be found, and matched tempo wise to the instrumental takes later, we'd have Great Shape.  I used to think the vocal session was for "Do a Lot" - it seems to fit with great Shape's theme and of course was a capella on Wild Honey - but it seems he was fooling with that section for Heroes in January.  This session would answer a lot of questions about GS and Heroes!

[Micha]

Do I prefer SMiLE in movements or 12 track? The middle movement of BWPS makes all four tracks work better. I guess I like the tracks connected to movements, but you couldn't do it as well using the 60s recordings; only "Wonderful" sounds like it is going to go right into some other section.

Paradoxically, my pre-BWPS compilations all have lots of connections between the tracks, and my only post-BWPS compilation more or less follows the BWPS order but is standalone tracks!

The movements are fine, but isn't it almost certain that SMILE would have originally ended with "Surf's Up" rather than "Good Vibrations"? Making "Good Vibrations" the closer in 2004 and 2011 was a revisionist touch

IIRC, the only "proof" of that is the Vosse interview, but even he states they "felt" Surf's Up would be the album rather than "Brian said so". As my own pre-BWPS SMiLE compilations ALL ended with GV, it didn't strike me as a "revisionist touch" at all!

I think Good Vibrations would be the first song, as the Our Prayer (intro to the álbum), which was originally in C#(Heroes And Villains), was changed to Eb (Good Vibrations).

Keywise, that could very well be the case, that Prayer was to lead into GV. I've never heard that Prayer was in C# originally though. Did I miss something? "Prayer" does not lead well into H&V, and at the time it was recorded, GV still was THE hit single. H&V was the next single, so startng with GV would have made sense. Interestingly, Prayer keywise also leads well into DYLW, which is first on the handwritten tracklist...

I've said it before, others have as well, but my theory is that whomever made the list was listing them off the top of their head, starting with the most complete or at least most "blue-printed".  If you look at the list, we have the seven most finalized songs first, and then the five more fragmentary songs near the end as he/she sort of struggled to brainstorm what would actually be finished to be on the album.

Hence it's a list of songs that would be on the album rather than the actual tracklist (thus the *see label for correct playing order")

IMHO, the fact that OMP on that list was put in brackets, and then the brackets were crossed out again, proves that the list was being thought about even while it was written, and thus has no more meaning than the Pet Sounds preliminary tracklist with GV still on it. I'd guess it was done for the graphic department to be able to prepare a preliminary back cover - which never went into print.

The back cover and the booklet show how badly coordinated the whole project was. The booklet contains the earlier "Home On The Range" title for Cabin Essence, and "Vega-Tables" still being part of "The Elements" which obviously had been decided to be a track of its own by the time the tracklist was written. So much for Brian having a completed conception of what SMiLE was to consist of!

Brian didn't RECORD songs.  He recorded sections, with the intent of assembling them INTO songs.  What may have been part of one song one day was put somewhere else the next.  This is the whole reason the album was scrapped.  So much of it fit together so well, Brian couldn't reach a decision on the final order.

I absolutely disagree. Whenever Brian recorded a section, he had a certain spot in a certain song in mind. For instance, when he decided to put the Bicycle Rider theme into H&V, he rerecorded it. The several sections of "Cabin Essence" and DYLW all were recorded seperately, but the same day.

Love it or hate it (I like it), BWPS is the finished Smile. We here often have the tendency to compare Brian to great classical composers. Well, it applies here better than anywhere. Many greats took years or decades to finish their masterworks. Jean Sibelius composed his 5th symphony, and then he decided to scrap it, reshuffle the parts, restructured it from four part symphony into three, and so on. Lost lots of great stuff, but then again on the whole made it better. And there were many years between the versions. So, Brian did kinda the same. Tried, failed, took a break (a long one, I admit) and finished it later according to his then-current vision. It's not like you have classical enthusiasts whining about "what-the-1916-version-of-5th-symphony-would-have-been"... And that's why I like it in here, not on their boards!

Absolutely!

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

Sure hope that these Parks acetates provide us smoe new stuff..also would love to hear more BW 66 mixes in decent shape...

But to get to the TOPIC, I prefer an album with songs , not suites... Brian never did those nad I´m certain if an album did get finished in 1966/1967 it would be in line with a handwritten list..some americana some elements songs (for instance DYDW - WC)..not restricted to side A americana side B elements..

Also I wonder where SU belongs? It could certainly be a part of an americana theme, but also elements theme..I wonder...

What makes you so sure of an "elements side/theme" in the first place?

[Bean Bag]

Smile's like a jigsaw, where every piece has three sides that fit and one that doesn't.

No one can ever complete a jigsaw like that, unless Brian decides to shape the fourth side of each piece.

He says 2004 saw it done and we have to accept that, no matter that even be bad to shoehorn those pieces with a crowbar to get them to fit.

Nothing to stop anyone attempting their own solution but the order, the… erm… "mix" can only ever be speculative.

The unfinished puzzle piece is a good analogy.  I believe Brian's 2004 solution was simply an attempt to "finish" the pieces into a suitable artifact.  I do not believe it was to continue the work and development of the material.  Or to pick up where they left off.  

The better analogy for me, maybe a dinosaur fossil/skeleton.  SMiLE is an incomplete skeleton.  BWPS was simply an attempt to display the remains.

I would say The SMiLE Sessions would be the attempt to the display the remains. BWPS on the other hand didn't just display what was there, new things were added for better or worse.  [/color]

You're right.

To belabor the dinosaur fossil analogy... BWPS is more like the standing skeleton, with a menacing pose.  Plaster bones added to approximate the complete skeleton.

But the full fleshed beast -- SMiLE -- is anybody's guess.  Most importantly -- I don't think its creator saw the finished product.  There's no blueprint.  It was a painting in progress and that's it.  No way is it finished.


Addendum:  For all intents and purposes The SMiLE Sessions is what I call the "completed product."  As best as it can be, of course.  It must be heard and thought of as the SMiLE Project.  Great box.

[Mujan, 8@$+@Rc| of a Blue Wizard]

Smile's like a jigsaw, where every piece has three sides that fit and one that doesn't.

No one can ever complete a jigsaw like that, unless Brian decides to shape the fourth side of each piece.

He says 2004 saw it done and we have to accept that, no matter that even be bad to shoehorn those pieces with a crowbar to get them to fit.

Nothing to stop anyone attempting their own solution but the order, the… erm… "mix" can only ever be speculative.

The unfinished puzzle piece is a good analogy.  I believe Brian's 2004 solution was simply an attempt to "finish" the pieces into a suitable artifact.  I do not believe it was to continue the work and development of the material.  Or to pick up where they left off.  

The better analogy for me, maybe a dinosaur fossil/skeleton.  SMiLE is an incomplete skeleton.  BWPS was simply an attempt to display the remains.

I would say The SMiLE Sessions would be the attempt to the display the remains. BWPS on the other hand didn't just display what was there, new things were added for better or worse.  [/color]

You're right.

To belabor the dinosaur fossil analogy... BWPS is more like the standing skeleton, with a menacing pose.  Plaster bones added to approximate the complete skeleton.

But the full fleshed beast -- SMiLE -- is anybody's guess.  Most importantly -- I don't think its creator saw the finished product.  There's no blueprint.  It was a painting in progress and that's it.  No way is it finished.


Addendum:  For all intents and purposes The SMiLE Sessions is what I call the "completed product."  As best as it can be, of course.  It must be heard and thought of as the SMiLE Project.  Great box.

I hope this thread and the speculation aspect of SMiLE discussion especially, continue on. But as before, I feel we could end the thread with your last post as a final word and in a sense, it'd be perfect.