The Beach Boys Wild Honey(Sunshine Tomorrow) 2CD Set?

[PS]

without access to liner notes, a quick response:

Can't Wait Too Long - Different false solo starts: "This piano...so terrible, I hate it." Then the guitars and drum come in. Then familiar vocal parts are added. But not all the variations we've heard in the past. Distinctly different basic backing tracks (or mix), much more "Wild Honeyish" - not a revelation, but slightly different from the versions I've heard.

Fall Breaks is a beautiful backing and eventually vocal tracks mix, which I think was on the Smiley SOT - the stereo mix helps to make this music rather than just an ambient

Lonely Days - After the familiar first minute, there's another round of just instrumental tracking for an unfinished missing second verse - not much of a revelation here

Surf's Up has about five false starts, as Brian talks to Jim and self-corrects  - then Brian quickly trying out different sections of the song on solo piano before he goes into that beautiful take from 1967 that we already know. So this just adds 3:45 more documentary context at the head of the version we already know from '67 when Brian says "Maybe I should do the whole song over again..." and starts to countdown.

So a lot of the unreleased versions seem to augment previous releases or booted versions that I'm aware of. Just getting into it, this is a fabulous gift - one that induces us to listen deeply and re-evaluate. And take great pleasure in. Amazing.

Surfer Girl is as delicate a cloud of organized sound as is humanly possible. Gorgeous. A beautiful closer.

[SMiLE Brian]

Great stuff PS!

[Shady]

Can't wait for this

[PS]

First impressions over morning coffee.

By giving us a very subtle "exploded view" of the Wild Honey tracks and vocals, we can now really see just how ingenious Brian's "orchestration" for this deceptively "back to basics" approach really was - you hear all of these little vocal snippets (highlighted with the "Made to Love Her" vocal inserts track) heretofore buried in the mono mix are now fully articulated in the stereo field, however minimal and subtle they are - little guitar riffs and vocal riffs flit in and out, all anchored by the now very deep bass (which goes right to my gut when augmented by a little sub in my stereo setup) and that particular tuning and sound of Brian's WH and SS piano. The new stereo mix and remastering lets these tracks breathe and arise out of the condensed and flattened squeezebox they were in and we can hear the details in a kind of 2 1/2- D. There is so much more palpable PLEASURE in the listening rather than imagining what I could be hearing if this album was mixed with modern ears and equipment (and by someone who could hear and delight in the details of a stereo mix)

Somehow this new collection - in toto - reshapes the Icarus myth of Smile. He took what he learned from the modular songwriting and studio orchestration of combining small parts into a whole stitched backing track that would only be understood in the context of the eventual vocal arrangement - and essentially transcribed it for his small ensemble and home studio setup (btw, the Detroit live versions of the songs are fantastic!). Everything jumps off the surface now - Darlin' practically explodes on that opening fanfare. There is now, for me, a real CONTINUITY between what he was doing in '66 and what he did in '67-'69.

And guess what? Wild Honey is now truly a record you can dance to! That thumpin' James Jamerson inspired deep bass throb and anchor throughout the record (who? Carl? Carol? Brian?) is "the Beach Boys moment that is kicking my ass right now..."

(And the alternative "Love Just Once to See" group vocals!)

Final thought here: By giving us the tracking sessions, Alan and Mark also re-teach us how to listen for the details once the vocals are added. This is a holistic idea of a record album, circa 2017. It's great to be alive. Thank you BRI and A&M.

[FatherOfTheMan Sr101]

UGH I can't wait... looks like a great set

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I don't get paid until next friday...ugh...I have the musical equivalent of blue balls right now.Blue ears?

[STE]

On Spotify now.

Does anyone else have a problem with tracks 10, 16, 27, 54 and 64 being corrupted after few seconds?

[JK]

I don't get paid until next friday...ugh...I have the musical equivalent of blue balls right now. Blue ears?

Give me blue ears any day.

[HeyJude]

People, Spotify and other services are awesome, but buy a physical CD copy of this thing as soon as you can! It'll sound better, and it'll count as a full unit sold towards the sales numbers. The price is great for a 2-CD set on Amazon right now.

[HeyJude]

Currently up to #11 in overall CD/Vinyl sales on Amazon, and #5 in the Rock subcategory.

It also looks like it's finally available as a digital download purchase on Amazon, although you're better off just buying the CD and ripping it, as the 2-CD set is cheaper right now.

[JK]

People, Spotify and other services are awesome, but buy a physical CD copy of this thing as soon as you can! It'll sound better, and it'll count as a full unit sold towards the sales numbers. The price is great for a 2-CD set on Amazon right now.

Absolutely. I want to hold this little gem when it arrives today or tomorrow. And if the CD format helps its chart performance, so much the better.

The price at Bol.com (the Dutch version of Amazon) is now down to €17.99 ($20.54, £15.83).

[HeyJude]

"Sunshine Tomorrow" is also available at multiple sites in High-Rez format. It's pricey, but for those who are into having a 24-bit/88.2 kHz version, you can have it:

http://www.hdtracks.com/1967-sunshine-tomorrow

https://us.7digital.com/artist/the-beach-boys/release/1967-sunshine-tomorrow-6559781?f=20%2C19%2C12%2C16%2C17%2C9%2C2

It looks like HD Tracks, even though the initial price is a bit higher, will get you the high rez version slightly cheaper with the 15% off coupon that the site offers.

I can't vouch for how much better this high rez version sounds, CD is fine for me for now.

[Vega-Table Man]

"Sunshine Tomorrow" is also available at multiple sites in High-Rez format.

I have a high-resolution portable player, so I wanted the 24/88.2 download. I grabbed it this morning from ProStudioMasters.com. Their price is almost $10 cheaper than HDtracks'.

I'm very excited to have this at last! I can't wait to delve into it.

[marcella27]

Anyone else pre-order this from amazon.ca?  I haven't received a shipping notice and now the site lists it as "temporarily out of stock".  My local record store said that their shipment has been delayed.  What's going on?! 

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Urgh. After the price doubled on Amazon Canada, I held off on buying it. Today I went to go see what the situation was and saw that the price was back down to around $18 but, as the poster above notes, it was temporarily out of stock. I purchased it but now don't know when I'll be getting it.

[Doobidoo]

Does anyone here hear the absolute similarities between Got to Know The Woman and Hide Go Seek? Oh man, and I thought Cool, Cool Water was the only song from Sunflower that they dug up from the archives.

[Matt Bielewicz]

OK, so I already wrote this elsewhere, but what the heysaboda...

I was at my local record shop at 9.31am this morning, and out 2 minutes later with Sunshine Tomorrow in my hands. It's playing now. LOUD. Sounds absolutely A1!

I've only been through it a couple of times, but standouts in the WH stereo mix so far are Darlin', which for me is the one that sounds most like a cloth has been taken off the speakers. And a couple of tracks that I was a bit 'meh' about the past are really coming alive for me: How She Boogalooed It, which I always thought was OK, but now *rocks*, and A Thing Or Two, which I never really liked before but am starting to appreciate...

On the whole, though, I admit I don't feel the stereo album mixes are the *colossal* leap forward in quality that some seem to be hearing. They just seem like really good solid stereo mixes of the mono to me, and pretty darn faithful to it in terms of ambience and relative instrumental balance (that's *not* a criticism... achieving that close a similarity with the mono all these years later is a pretty tough call). The mixes that do really leap from the speakers for me are, perhaps strangely the session excerpts of some of the WH tracks where the lead vocals have been mixed out. The bass on the title track and Aren't You Glad sessions absolutely COOKS, and the horns on the Darlin' session positively blast from my monitors. I guess mixing out the vocals gave Mark and Alan a chance to spotlight the cooking instrumental backings to these tracks.

As a SMiLE/Smiley nut, the Smiley sessions are a revelation, as it always has been when we've managed to hear more of this stuff at intervals over the years. Good to hear the chimes outro back in the long version of Vegetables, the Wind Chimes alt tag is great to hear in a proper mix at last, and the alt Fall Breaks mix really highlights the complexities of that track. When the wordless vocals came in was a real chill up the spine moment for me. I'm also really digging the more garage-y 'Wild Honey-ized' version of Can't Wait Too Long. Such a shame they never got a finished version of it pulled together.

It's also terrific to hear contemporary mixes of the Wally Heider Hawaii concert rerecords, and to hear, at last, a full set in one place of Brian's 'Smiley-ized' arrangements of what were already BB standards like Sloop John B and You're So Good To Me. There have been lots of bootlegs and partial mixes of this stuff over the years, a couple of proper released mixes dotted about here and there, and I've often wondered what the plan was and what the full set was like. Now it turns out versions of them were actually 'finished' back in the day all along, and it's great to hear them! Good Vibrations was particularly interesting - if you ever wanted to swap out the track on Smiley Smile on the grounds that its production is 'too SMiLE to be on Smiley Smile' (if you follow me), now you know what to put in its place. I remember lots of on-line discussion about doing that kind of thing with some of the 1967 live GV rehearsal tracks (the one that was on Hawthorne years ago, I think)... but those performances were always just TOO ragged for me. But the Heider GV is like a proper 'Smiley-ized' GV for me at last (er... even though GV, er, WAS on Smiley Smile... oh, you know what I mean).

And the Honolulu rehearsal version of H&V shows that the band of Lei'd In Hawaii *could* play a pretty mean version of that challenging track. For years, the live versions from Hawaii have made me think the Boys just weren't up to playing it in Summer 1967. But the rehearsal we hear on Sunshine Tomorrow was recorded just before the concerts, and they really cook on it, inexplicably...! Maybe they had too much pre-show, er, tea...?

Finally, can I get a witness on how frickin' great Honey Get Home is? Short, sweet, BW genius at work... shame it was never finished as such, although I think the 'feel' may have ended up in the bridge of one of the many 1968 recordings of Old Man River (the upbeat one on the old 1990 Friends/2020 twofer)?

Kudos and serious thanks to all the dudes out there that made this set happen. They know who they are. As I've said elsewhere, this record did not NEED to come out... and if they hadn't been pushing for it to happen... well, it wouldn't have!

[Jim V.]

And the Honolulu rehearsal version of H&V shows that the band of Lei'd In Hawaii *could* play a pretty mean version of that challenging track. For years, the live versions from Hawaii have made me think the Boys just weren't up to playing it in Summer 1967. But the rehearsal we hear on Sunshine Tomorrow was recorded just before the concerts, and they really cook on it, inexplicably...! Maybe they had too much pre-show, er, tea...?

Wait though...there's a live "Heroes and Villains" from the Concert/Live in London twofer and I personally thought it was pretty great.

[HeyJude]

"Sunshine Tomorrow" is also available at multiple sites in High-Rez format.

I have a high-resolution portable player, so I wanted the 24/88.2 download. I grabbed it this morning from ProStudioMasters.com. Their price is almost $10 cheaper than HDtracks'.

I'm very excited to have this at last! I can't wait to delve into it.

Yeah, a high rez portable player with a good output is probably the route I should take if I delve into that. I think high-rez is a case of diminishing returns. Good ol' redbook CD does it for me usually, but it would nice to archive all of the stuff at high-rez and have the option.

For those buying it, I think HD Tracks is still just slightly cheaper than ProStudioMasters if you use the 15% off coupon (we're talking like 66 cents or something). It also looks like ProStudioMasters offers FLAC and AIFF format while HDTracks offers FLAC, AIFF, and WAV, if for some reason someone just *really* needs it in WAV format.

[Rocker]

And the Honolulu rehearsal version of H&V shows that the band of Lei'd In Hawaii *could* play a pretty mean version of that challenging track. For years, the live versions from Hawaii have made me think the Boys just weren't up to playing it in Summer 1967. But the rehearsal we hear on Sunshine Tomorrow was recorded just before the concerts, and they really cook on it, inexplicably...! Maybe they had too much pre-show, er, tea...?

Wait though...there's a live "Heroes and Villains" from the Concert/Live in London twofer and I personally thought it was pretty great.

Same here. Except for the sound quality of course. But all in all I'm very impressed with their two '67 live versions. Though only five guys and four instruments it sounds great. It probably would've sounded even better if they were clean and Bruce was there.




Sunshine tomorrow - ordered, now waiting for monday

[Matt Bielewicz]

For years, the live versions from Hawaii have made me think the Boys just weren't up to playing it in Summer 1967. But the rehearsal we hear on Sunshine Tomorrow was recorded just before the concerts, and they really cook on it, inexplicably...! Maybe they had too much pre-show, er, tea...?

Wait though...there's a live "Heroes and Villains" from the Concert/Live in London twofer and I personally thought it was pretty great.

Well, it would be dull if we all thought the same... I seriously wondered why they'd bothered putting that version of H&V on the end of the live twofer. I still think it's the worst version of the song (and of course there are lots of those) I've ever heard. It sounds like they're barely holding it together... and that can be a good thing live with some groups and songs... but to me H&V is not one of those songs. Myself, I find it very unforgiving of bad performances. Your mileage may (and probably does) vary...!

[Emdeeh]

It's 2 p.m. local time and the mail has still not arrived.

   


EDIT: It has arrived! Going offline for a while to listen.

 

[HeyJude]

Since this is now in the liner notes and public, I think it's worth pointing to a little piece of information that I think is of key importance for the BBs and BRI doing right by the fans and the band as well starting with this set and into the future. On the last page:

Brother Records, Inc.: Jerry Schilling, President

[Emdeeh]

Pausing between discs for a moment. How is it that I've listened to the WH album for all these years, a LOT of listens, and never noticed those marvelous doowop background vocals in "A Thing or Two" before!?! This is definitely a revelatory package. Kudos to all involved!

[SMiLE Brian]

Wild Honey in stereo was a revelation! BW was still at the top of his game unlike a "lengendary" board historian would say....