THE BEACH BOYS 1964 KEEP AN EYE ON SUMMER (follow up to The Big Beat 1963)

[Tricycle Rider]

Holy sh*t... This makes me super excited for a 1965 comp.

It makes ME super excited for the 1966/1967 comps!  

Before those get here, may I be the first one to beg, plead etc..Mark & Alan to give us that version of Barnyard with the backing vocals on it that was included on the 2011 SMiLE Sessions review streams. PLEASE.

Also, Any other SMiLE material that you guys wanted to include on the 2011 release but ran out of disc space for.

P.S. No more Good Vibrations unless you found the vocal multitracks or succeed in reversing the polarity of the hit single's backing track and can use it to isolate the vocals from the mono single.

Pretty Please!  

[branaa09]

I love all of the session highlights and New Backing Track Mixes. I still wonder though, where are the tracking sessions for Wendy and Little Honda? I mean, I love how they are presented on the set but, I would love to hear highlights from these sessions some day! Are they missing from the vault, I would love to hear them!

[SloopJohnB52]

Does anyone know if this will be released through avenues other than itunes? Like Amazonmp3? I'm excited about this compilation, but have never been a fan of itunes. If this is that only release, I will buy it, but if it will roll out on Amazon eventually, I'd much rather wait.

If one looks in the right place, it may be possible to find it elsewhere.  I'd gladly purchase a CD of this release, but I would never pay for electrons, especially lossy ones.

[John Manning]

But isn't it in the public domain no matter what after 70 years?

Yes, unless they change the law (and I'm assuming they probably will).

I thought these releases just gave the music a 20 year extension. 

They do. That's another 20 years for companies like Capital to figure out how to make money off of this stuff.

What I meant is that every year, more music will reach that 50 year mark that will need to be released. In 2062, maybe they'll dump the TWGMTR sessions into our laps.

One also assumes that they (Capitol) could, if they so wished, put out all this stuff NOW - there's absolutely no reason to sit on the material until the copyright's about to expire, other than… well, lack of a release format that will bring in some cash from the public at large. We obsessives are paying over the odds for the stuff in lossy format but Capitol's goal would have to include even greater profit from the public at large.

Here's a thing. King Crimson have just released a 27-disc box based on their mix-70s album Starless. Previously they've released 27-disc box sets based on their albums The Road To Red and Larks’ Tongues In Aspic. Can this type of product really be expected to sell better than a mega box of Beach Boys? Different market I know, but really?

[Amazing Larry]

Holy sh*t... This makes me super excited for a 1965 comp.

It makes ME super excited for the 1966/1967 comps!  

Before those get here, may I be the first one to beg, plead etc..Mark & Alan to give us that version of Barnyard with the backing vocals on it that was included on the 2011 SMiLE Sessions review streams. PLEASE.

Also, Any other SMiLE material that you guys wanted to include on the 2011 release but ran out of disc space for.

P.S. No more Good Vibrations unless you found the vocal multitracks or succeed in reversing the polarity of the hit single's backing track and can use it to isolate the vocals from the mono single.

Pretty Please!  

The 66/67 comps are gonna be a ball. We need more Smiley era recordings of The Boys getting stoned.

[Wirestone]

Here's a thing. King Crimson have just released a 27-disc box based on their mix-70s album Starless. Previously they've released 27-disc box sets based on their albums The Road To Red and Larks’ Tongues In Aspic. Can this type of product really be expected to sell better than a mega box of Beach Boys? Different market I know, but really?

But the Beach Boys don't own or run boutique label that sells exclusively to their fans. Major difference there. For better or worse, they have stuck with a major label that sees little market for rarity releases outside of retrospective boxes or these copyright extension albums.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Holy sh*t... This makes me super excited for a 1965 comp.

Me too, if there is one.

[alf wiedersehen]

One also assumes that they (Capitol) could, if they so wished, put out all this stuff NOW - there's absolutely no reason to sit on the material until the copyright's about to expire, other than… well, lack of a release format that will bring in some cash from the public at large. We obsessives are paying over the odds for the stuff in lossy format but Capitol's goal would have to include even greater profit from the public at large.

Here's a thing. King Crimson have just released a 27-disc box based on their mix-70s album Starless. Previously they've released 27-disc box sets based on their albums The Road To Red and Larks’ Tongues In Aspic. Can this type of product really be expected to sell better than a mega box of Beach Boys? Different market I know, but really?

Yeah, and consider that when they actually release something that utilizes this material, it won't be an incredibly enticing prospect to pay for this music again. But, hey, what do I know? I'm not a giant, dying industry.

[Ebb and Flow]

I love all of the session highlights and New Backing Track Mixes. I still wonder though, where are the tracking sessions for Wendy and Little Honda? I mean, I love how they are presented on the set but, I would love to hear highlights from these sessions some day! Are they missing from the vault, I would love to hear them!

My guess is that the tracking sessions for Wendy and Little Honda aren't in the vault and they only have the tapes with the vocal overdubs.

[John Manning]

Here's a thing. King Crimson have just released a 27-disc box based on their mix-70s album Starless. Previously they've released 27-disc box sets based on their albums The Road To Red and Larks’ Tongues In Aspic. Can this type of product really be expected to sell better than a mega box of Beach Boys? Different market I know, but really?

But the Beach Boys don't own or run boutique label that sells exclusively to their fans. Major difference there. For better or worse, they have stuck with a major label that sees little market for rarity releases outside of retrospective boxes or these copyright extension albums.

Very true. Another reason, perhaps, why Beachboyscentral coulda been a contender.

Wonder what the potential for a small Beach Boys-specific label set up by fans for fans, and licensing material from the label for small scale prestigious releases might be? Or would Capitol price itself out of reach?

[CenturyDeprived]

My mind is being blown by the Pom Pom Play Girl instrumental version and instrumental + backing vocals only version. So good. I didn't realize that Mike was on this track on sax until reading the liners. Was this the last time Mike played a sax on a BB song?

[Matt Bielewicz]

Does anyone know if this will be released through avenues other than itunes? Like Amazonmp3? I'm excited about this compilation, but have never been a fan of itunes. If this is that only release, I will buy it, but if it will roll out on Amazon eventually, I'd much rather wait.

If one looks in the right place, it may be possible to find it elsewhere.  I'd gladly purchase a CD of this release, but I would never pay for electrons, especially lossy ones.

Well, unless there's another release format announced by Capitol for this material, it won't be possible to avoid the lossiness of this collection. Sure, you can burn The Big Beat 1963, or KAEOS64 to disc, but as you probably know, burning MP3s, AACs or any other compressed, lossy material to CD doesn't restore it to full PCM resolution. Then all you have is a decent PCM copy of the lossy files.

Which is why all of those CD boots of The Big Beat 1963 mentioned upthread aren't worth a candle, unless you have no other way to get the material as released last year (for example: you have no Internet-enabled computer). You're not getting higher-resolution, 'CD-quality' versions of The Big Beat 1963 - you're just getting copies of the same old original lossy files that just happen to be stored on CD.

It's one reason I WAS prepared to buy KAEOS64 from iTunes. Because there's no other way at present, and because any other way to get it, at the moment at least, is just offering you the same quality files as you find on iTunes (ie. lossy compressed ones). So I thought I might as well. If you can't improve on lossy, then, for all that using iTunes was an annoying experience (and it was, as I described upthread), at least it was a fast track to the best (indeed the only) quality versions of this material that's currently available.

I'd still prefer, and buy, a CD of it in a heartbeat. Provided it was created from uncompressed files from Capitol's archive, that is, and not just a bootleg of the AACs from Apple's site.

Having said all that, didn't someone say somewhere on this board at some point since last Christmas that one on-line retailer WAS now selling uncompressed versions of The Big Beat 1963 files? Was that ever a confirmed Capitol release; a lossless version? If that's true, maybe lossless versions of KAEOS64 will turn up eventually too.

On the other hand, perhaps it was a misunderstanding, and it was just another on-line release of the compressed files through another on-line retailer. A true loss-less release would be a big deal (to me, anyway), but it would have necessitated Capitol's involvement to release uncompressed versions and I would have expected them to make more of a big deal out of it, and for it to have been widely noted here (did I miss something? I may have done). Whereas more on-line retailers releasing the same old compressed files needs no effort from anyone and is easy, but doesn't leave any end users any better off than they would have been buying from iTunes in the first place...

[Matt Bielewicz]

Oh, and of course, as well as other on-line retailers selling the lossy files, there's always torrents and illegal downloads, but unless the files you find in such places have somehow been booted direct from Your Place Or Mine's production masters (unlikely, to say the least...!) they will be illegal copies of... you guessed it, the same old same old lossy files that everyone (myself included) is grumbling here about, and then paying iTunes too much money for nonetheless... </grumpyoldman>

[c-man]

I love all of the session highlights and New Backing Track Mixes. I still wonder though, where are the tracking sessions for Wendy and Little Honda? I mean, I love how they are presented on the set but, I would love to hear highlights from these sessions some day! Are they missing from the vault, I would love to hear them!

My guess is that the tracking sessions for Wendy and Little Honda aren't in the vault and they only have the tapes with the vocal overdubs.

Good guess.

[c-man]

My mind is being blown by the Pom Pom Play Girl instrumental version and instrumental + backing vocals only version. So good. I didn't realize that Mike was on this track on sax until reading the liners. Was this the last time Mike played a sax on a BB song?

No...that's probably "Carl's Big Chance" (aka "Memphis Beach"), as pointed out in Issue 105 of ESQ. But he also plays it on "Louie Louie" and "Shut Down Part 2" from the same album.

[phirnis]

My mind is being blown by the Pom Pom Play Girl instrumental version and instrumental + backing vocals only version. So good. I didn't realize that Mike was on this track on sax until reading the liners. Was this the last time Mike played a sax on a BB song?

You mean he didn't actually play the Kokomo sax solo?

[John Manning]

My mind is being blown by the Pom Pom Play Girl instrumental version and instrumental + backing vocals only version. So good. I didn't realize that Mike was on this track on sax until reading the liners. Was this the last time Mike played a sax on a BB song?

You mean he didn't actually play the Kokomo sax solo?

That was Bob Holness, surely…

[Jon Stebbins]

My mind is being blown by the Pom Pom Play Girl instrumental version and instrumental + backing vocals only version. So good. I didn't realize that Mike was on this track on sax until reading the liners. Was this the last time Mike played a sax on a BB song?

No...that's probably "Carl's Big Chance" (aka "Memphis Beach"), as pointed out in Issue 105 of ESQ. But he also plays it on "Louie Louie" and "Shut Down Part 2" from the same album.

I love to repeat the story about why Mike stopped playing the sax. When asked at some point Mike's reason was that the group's road manager Ron Swallow had lost the sax, and Mike never got another one. When I mentioned this to Ron Swallow during an interview back in 2008 he laughed really hard, said that's probably not true, and that Mike hated to practice playing it. Swallow then gave the great quote..."But if he want's to give me credit for ending his career as a sax player I'll gladly take it."

[guitarfool2002]

Since we have a direct line to some involved with this project, I'll repeat as someone who wants to buy this project and as someone who is the primary demographic as a buyer for this type of project, will it be possible to make it available on a non-iTunes platform or outlet? I'm doubting a hard-copy CD release will ever happen, so I'll ask again directly, can this be offered online for sale on something other than iTunes?

And adding to that, if not-why not?

I think the experiences and frustrations described by fans in this thread alone should trigger at least something within official channels in order to get the product into the hands of those willing to pay for it but who cannot access it in its current state on iTunes.

[Casper Van Diem]

I haven't had a chance to fully digest this new release yet but what I have heard is excellent, In The Parkin' Lot a capella especially.

I'm quite glad that my ears cannot distinguish between lossy and lossless thus saying me the anguish that several members here seem to be experiencing.

[Wirestone]

Since we have a direct line to some involved with this project, I'll repeat as someone who wants to buy this project and as someone who is the primary demographic as a buyer for this type of project, will it be possible to make it available on a non-iTunes platform or outlet? I'm doubting a hard-copy CD release will ever happen, so I'll ask again directly, can this be offered online for sale on something other than iTunes?

And adding to that, if not-why not?

I think the experiences and frustrations described by fans in this thread alone should trigger at least something within official channels in order to get the product into the hands of those willing to pay for it but who cannot access it in its current state on iTunes.

As I've said repeatedly in this thread, that assumes that Capitol cares a whit about any demographic, or any person who might buy this project. I doubt they care much if a single person buys a single copy. It's out there for legal reasons, full stop.

[Mikie]

My mind is being blown by the Pom Pom Play Girl instrumental version and instrumental + backing vocals only version. So good. I didn't realize that Mike was on this track on sax until reading the liners. Was this the last time Mike played a sax on a BB song?

No...that's probably "Carl's Big Chance" (aka "Memphis Beach"), as pointed out in Issue 105 of ESQ. But he also plays it on "Louie Louie" and "Shut Down Part 2" from the same album.

And Mike played on the Shut Down single/album version too, right?

[Mikie]

I haven't had a chance to fully digest this new release yet but what I have heard is excellent, In The Parkin' Lot a capella especially.

I'm quite glad that my ears cannot distinguish between lossy and lossless thus saying me the anguish that several members here seem to be experiencing.

Casper, please intro yourself so we know who we're talking to, K? Or did you just change your alias? Thanks.

The files I downloaded for the "Keep An Eye On Summer" comp are Mp4 files. And to be honest, while I have plenty of other FLAC files, I'm sure I can't tell the difference if these are Mp3, Mp4, Flac, or Wav (PCM) files. The quality is that good - comparable or better than my SOT 60's sessions on CD. No high-freq hiss or bass loss/distortion that I can distinguish. Are these suppose to be 320mps or 256mps Mp3's?  I wonder how I got Mp4's, which are video quality files.

[SloopJohnB]

Since I vowed a few years ago never to use iTunes again, I had to acquire this through other means. Which I just did. This is a brilliant release for us hardcore fans, some of the tracks (new stereo Little Honda - great one!, most session highlights, the acapella versions) are especially interesting and deserve a physical, lossless release.

Definitely looking forward to other compilations like this one. NOT on iTunes, though.  

[Rocker]

Since we have a direct line to some involved with this project, I'll repeat as someone who wants to buy this project and as someone who is the primary demographic as a buyer for this type of project, will it be possible to make it available on a non-iTunes platform or outlet? I'm doubting a hard-copy CD release will ever happen, so I'll ask again directly, can this be offered online for sale on something other than iTunes?

And adding to that, if not-why not?

I think the experiences and frustrations described by fans in this thread alone should trigger at least something within official channels in order to get the product into the hands of those willing to pay for it but who cannot access it in its current state on iTunes.

The Big Beat is available for download on german amazon. So, I guess and hope that the same will happen with KAEOS

http://www.amazon.de/Big-Beat-1963-Various-artists/dp/B00HO2VT0W/ref=sr_1_1?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1418064284&sr=1-1&keywords=the+big+beat+1963