Smile - what's in private hands & uncirculated?

[Bicyclerider]

On the 8 track comp tape of Smile material prepared by Desper and Carl there are two versions of Barnyard - one with animal sounds (which is booted usually from an acetate source, as on Sea of Tunes, although I believe Secret Smile has it from a tape source) and one without, which has never been booted, at least on commonly available boots - there may be internet file sharing comps that have it, but I've never run across it.  False Barnyard is available with vocals and without (OMP fade which became the Heroes cantina fade).

Other SMile era material that has not seen the light of day and is in the vaults:

In the Midnight Hour (on a Holdays tape)
Jazz (on the I Wanna Be Around/Friday Night tape)

[SurfRiderHawaii]

Sorry Onkster,  didn't get the sarcasim first time around.  Do now. Funny!

[buddhahat]

Other SMile era material that has not seen the light of day and is in the vaults:

In the Midnight Hour (on a Holdays tape)
Jazz (on the I Wanna Be Around/Friday Night tape)

What's In The Midnight Hour - something to do with Holidays?

[Bicyclerider]

presumably midnight hour is a cover of the Wilson Pickett song - a precursor to Brian's turn to R & B with Wild Honey, perhaps?  It's on a Holidays session tape, so may have been recorded at the same date, Sept 8, 1966 at Western.  Interesting though is that it's on an 8 track tape labelled Holidays/In the Midnight Hour.  Western didn't have 8 track at that time, only Columbia did, so this is probably a  transfer to 8 track for vocal overdubbing at Columbia in 1966 OR could have been a tranfer by Stephen Desper and Carl in 1971 when they were cataloguing and preserving Smile tracks for a possible completion/release as a 2 fer with Holland.  If the latter, In the Midnight Hour may have originally been a separate tape from a different date which Stephen combined onto one.  Haven't heard from any tape vault rats as to whether this is still in the tape archive (it was in the early 90's when Brad Elliott reported this information) or what In the Midnight Hour actually is - instrumental or vocal.

[Chris Moise]

Frankly, things like a 'Barnyard' backing track without the sound effects does not excited me. What would?  A Beach Boys version of 'Barnyard' with a completed lead vocal.  Does it exist?  I wonder.

Well, the comp reel with the 2 versions of Baryard will be a big sonic upgrade over what is in circulation. All we have is a crappy sounding acetate so I'd love to hear Barnyard is ace quality. I would think that some collectors have acetates of Old Master Painte, Fire (BW's mix with fx), and CITFOTM that will sound much better than what circulates. That's why I'm so keen on an official box. Even if there is little unheard stuff there will be lots of sonic upgrades.

[The Shift]

Frankly I'd be more than happy if  a box set appreared that simply collated what we've already got officially into one collection in one place, with some decent liner notes.

Obviously the more unreleased stuff, the more sonic upgrades, the more video and session material the better, but I'd settle for less, for now!

[Aegir]

Frankly I'd be more than happy if  a box set appreared that simply collated what we've already got officially into one collection in one place, with some decent liner notes.

Why? We know more about Smile than any liner notes would tell us, and alot of us have all the tracks. Why would you hope for that? I'd rather have a boxset of Celebration outtakes than an officially released version of songs I already have.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Frankly I'd be more than happy if  a box set appreared that simply collated what we've already got officially into one collection in one place, with some decent liner notes.

Why? We know more about Smile than any liner notes would tell us...

No we don't.

...and alot of us have all the tracks.

Again, no we don't.

[The Shift]

Behold! Behold! The dream liveth!

[Aegir]

Andrew, if I may quote and bold what I was replying to:

Frankly I'd be more than happy if  a box set appreared that simply collated what we've already got officially into one collection in one place, with some decent liner notes.

Wouldn't you say that we already have all the songs "we've already got"?

[Bicyclerider]

Not together in one collection, with photos/graphics/liner notes.  If you have such a thing, please share!

The sad reality is that even if a SMile box set is released, it is likely (dare I say a certainty) that it won't collect even half of everything that's currently "out there."  Not that I wouldn't want it for sonic upgrades and new discoveries.

[Aegir]

No, not together in one collection. But what does that matter? Yeah, sonic upgrades would be great, and that's why I'd want some sort of official release, but if it's just going to be the same old tracks with the same terrible quality, what's the point?

[pixletwin]

No, not together in one collection. But what does that matter? Yeah, sonic upgrades would be great, and that's why I'd want some sort of official release, but if it's just going to be the same old tracks with the same terrible quality, what's the point?

I would only buy a SMiLE box set if it were remastered away from that awful sound alot of it has. Some of it sounds like it was recorded with a ghetto blaster.

[buddhahat]

presumably midnight hour is a cover of the Wilson Pickett song - a precursor to Brian's turn to R & B with Wild Honey, perhaps?  It's on a Holidays session tape, so may have been recorded at the same date, Sept 8, 1966 at Western.  Interesting though is that it's on an 8 track tape labelled Holidays/In the Midnight Hour.  Western didn't have 8 track at that time, only Columbia did, so this is probably a  transfer to 8 track for vocal overdubbing at Columbia in 1966 OR could have been a tranfer by Stephen Desper and Carl in 1971 when they were cataloguing and preserving Smile tracks for a possible completion/release as a 2 fer with Holland.  If the latter, In the Midnight Hour may have originally been a separate tape from a different date which Stephen combined onto one.  Haven't heard from any tape vault rats as to whether this is still in the tape archive (it was in the early 90's when Brad Elliott reported this information) or what In the Midnight Hour actually is - instrumental or vocal.

Thanks for the info.

I'd really love to hear versions of CIFOTM and Barnyard that sounded good. Holidays also. There seems to be a great sounding version of OMP without vocals but the version with Dennis' lead sounds terrible. Anyone know if there's a clear sounding version of OMP + vocals in circulation?

I must admit, if a Smile box was released with major ommissions such as Child or Look I think I'd go insane. You'd have to at least get all the tracks featured on BWPS on there. Why would compilers leave Smile tracks out? Audio quality? I could live without He Gives Speeches and George Fell into his French Horn I think.

I often wonder how a boxset would handle the Heroes odds and sods such as Gee and Western Theme? I think post BWPS you couldn't get away with an edited together track such as Heroes Sections. Mark Linett did a great job on that but I don't think I'd be happy with such a frankenstein track on a Smile box as it would be misleading. I guess you'd just have to include the session tracks for those bits. It makes you realise how complicated compiling a Smile boxset would be.

[mistermono]

I'm really frustrated by the record companies dragging their heels on digital distribution of unreleased material.  When are they gonna wake up and realize that there's this Interweb thing out there that would allow them to exploit their artists' unreleased archives without any manufacturing and distribution costs?  I'd pay a buck a song to download unreleased Beatles, Beach Boys, Dylan, Stones, etc. but I won't pay that for the new White Stripes (tho' I like the White Stripes).

I'm guessing that the artist has final call in most cases but c'mon, where there's a will (and $ to be made) there's a way.

[Chris Moise]

presumably midnight hour is a cover of the Wilson Pickett song - a precursor to Brian's turn to R & B with Wild Honey, perhaps?  It's on a Holidays session tape, so may have been recorded at the same date, Sept 8, 1966 at Western.  Interesting though is that it's on an 8 track tape labelled Holidays/In the Midnight Hour.  Western didn't have 8 track at that time, only Columbia did, so this is probably a  transfer to 8 track for vocal overdubbing at Columbia in 1966 OR could have been a tranfer by Stephen Desper and Carl in 1971 when they were cataloguing and preserving Smile tracks for a possible completion/release as a 2 fer with Holland.  If the latter, In the Midnight Hour may have originally been a separate tape from a different date which Stephen combined onto one.  Haven't heard from any tape vault rats as to whether this is still in the tape archive (it was in the early 90's when Brad Elliott reported this information) or what In the Midnight Hour actually is - instrumental or vocal.

There seems to be a great sounding version of OMP without vocals but the version with Dennis' lead sounds terrible. Anyone know if there's a clear sounding version of OMP + vocals in circulation?

The version in of OMP with vox in circulation sounds like it's from a crappy tape dub of an acetate. My guess is that the actual acetate sounds much better than that..

[XY]

I don't see a point in a SMiLE boxset. A PET SOUNDS box made sense, because it's a 'making of' of a finished album. Regarding SMiLE, a release with SMiLE in the titel should include all the stuff that exists in the vaults: all the pieces, all the takes, all the mixes, all the acetates to give the listener an accurate impression of what this album could have been and most important: To work with it. And, no orientation on BWPS, not because I don't like it, but these two projects are 2 separate pairs of shoes to me. BB SMiLE didn't lose any of it's fascination over the years. The genius of it is that it's interactive and changes all the time. There must be thousands of finished SMiLE's out there. A boxset would be an attempt to imprison the thoughts of the creators. Keep the myth alive and SMiLE a underground project that IMO makes the BB interesting, fascinates people and is also good promotion in many ways.

[Goin’Bald]

I couldn’t agree more Jasper. If you listen to the SOT series on Smile you’ll notice a couple of times that there’s an insert intended in some songs for no reason at all or destroying a decent song. I think that Brian recorded a whole lot of those inserts and at some moment he thought he had to use all the recorded stuff. And thus lost his way in the pile of tapes, not knowing where to use what and where and maybe why. Add the pressure of The Beach Boys and record company problems etc.  All what’s of interest from that period is available among collectors.

[Third Coast]

A boxset would be an attempt to imprison the thoughts of the creators.

How does it imprison the thoughts of the creators if the boxed set were to consist entirely of sessions and not condense them into a particular order? Which is what a sessions box would be, wouldn't it?

[Chris Moise]

I don't see a point in a SMiLE boxset. A PET SOUNDS box made sense, because it's a 'making of' of a finished album. Regarding SMiLE, a release with SMiLE in the titel should include all the stuff that exists in the vaults: all the pieces, all the takes, all the mixes, all the acetates to give the listener an accurate impression of what this album could have been and most important: To work with it. And, no orientation on BWPS, not because I don't like it, but these two projects are 2 separate pairs of shoes to me. BB SMiLE didn't lose any of it's fascination over the years. The genius of it is that it's interactive and changes all the time. There must be thousands of finished SMiLE's out there. A boxset would be an attempt to imprison the thoughts of the creators. Keep the myth alive and SMiLE a underground project that IMO makes the BB interesting, fascinates people and is also good promotion in many ways.

I can't agree with that at all. A Smile box doesn't have to present the material as an album. All it needs to do is feature the most complete/most interesting material recorded between August '66 to May '67 in the best possible quality. The "point" of a Smile box is to get the material "out there" from the tapes so we don't have to listen to CITFOTM et al. in sh*t quality anymore..