Beatles listening to part of Smile at Armen Steiner's studio: what happened?
Dove Nested Towers:
Van Dyke Parks says in Priore's Smile book that some Beatles went to Armen Steiner's studio at
Yucca and Argyle in L.A., where the Smile tapes were stored, and listened to "Smile, in part, the
first eight-track. We walked into the place and heard that The Beatles had been there. We knew that the nest had been found, and Brian was very sad. He felt violated, raped."
Of course, there was lots of mutual, consensual sharing of each other's works in progress at
the time, and Brian was in a somewhat irrational frame of mind, but this "incident" supposedly added to Brian's sense of paranoia at the time and would, if true, have been a significant breach of professional ethics, both on the part of the studio personnel and members of the Beatles themselves. Imagine how they would have felt if, on a trip by Brian to London, amidst an atmosphere of naive trust, albeit with an element of friendly competitiveness, he had gone to EMI or Abbey Road or wherever and finagled a clandestine, non-consensual listening session of side 1 of Sgt. Pepper?
It has been said "authoritatively" by many on a previous, related thread that this incident never
took place, and without revealing sensitive sources, how do you know that for sure? Van Dyke
finally opened up about his memories to Priore, and he was there and doesn't strike me as someone who would fabricate something out of gratuitous pettiness, even if he was expressing
long-suppressed pain at the dissolution of the album. There was plenty of generous, mutually
shared cross-pollination at the time, and perhaps this is making a mountain out of a molehill,
but if this really happened, it was a very symbolic betrayal of the sanctity of a sensitive, close-to
the-edge artist, which, combined with other sources of paranoia, contributed to his withdrawal
from the project and subsequent decline.
The whole truth may never be known, but why are you so sure that it never actually happened?
???
MBE:
Namely because the Beatles whereabouts are known day by day.. After 8-29-66 John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison were not here until after the Smile sessions were well and truly over. Paul openly attended the one session that the only one connection they had to Smile. They just weren't here. I strongly suggest you buy Mark Lewisohn's books or Keith Badman's or any of the multiple tomes that obsessively date where they were every single day. I don't even think Armen Steiner had the tapes to begin with.
The Song Of The Grange:
I think there was a great sense of competitive emotions going on at the time. Part of the whole Smile concept, after all, was to refocus the cultural discourse back to America after 2-3 years of British Invasion saturation. Lots of guys wanted to show up the Beatles. I think this is the head space from which Van Dyke would make a comment like that. But the facts just don't line up. I think the only way the Beatles could have heard the Smile sessions would have been if Taylor would have brought an acetate back to London for them to have a sneak peak at. But there is no evidence this happened. I chalk up the similarities between Pepper and Smile to the fact that both groups of artists were operating in the same cultural atmosphere and shared a bunch of influences (including each other). And the thing is, the Beatles were monitoring everyone. That was there game--to see what their competition was up to and then absorb that into their own work. They absorbed the Beach Boys just like they absorbed Motown and Dylan and Frank Zappa and the Byrds etc. You can see it in their music. Dylan gets big and all of a sudden the Beatles have a Dylan thing going. The Byrds break out and all of a sudden "And Your Bird Can Sing" shows up. Pet Sounds hits, and "Here, There, and Everywhere" and Pepper shows up. The Beatles actually started to wander when some of their main peers (Dylan and Wilson and the Byrds for example) checked out of the musical race in 1967.
Rocker:
Quote from: The Song Of The Grange on May 07, 2009, 07:23:05 AM
I think there was a great sense of competitive emotions going on at the time. Part of the whole Smile concept, after all, was to refocus the cultural discourse back to America after 2-3 years of British Invasion saturation. Lots of guys wanted to show up the Beatles. I think this is the head space from which Van Dyke would make a comment like that. But the facts just don't line up. I think the only way the Beatles could have heard the Smile sessions would have been if Taylor would have brought an acetate back to London for them to have a sneak peak at. But there is no evidence this happened. I chalk up the similarities between Pepper and Smile to the fact that both groups of artists were operating in the same cultural atmosphere and shared a bunch of influences (including each other). And the thing is, the Beatles were monitoring everyone. That was there game--to see what their competition was up to and then absorb that into their own work. They absorbed the Beach Boys just like they absorbed Motown and Dylan and Frank Zappa and the Byrds etc. You can see it in their music. Dylan gets big and all of a sudden the Beatles have a Dylan thing going. The Byrds break out and all of a sudden "And Your Bird Can Sing" shows up. Pet Sounds hits, and "Here, There, and Everywhere" and Pepper shows up. The Beatles actually started to wander when some of their main peers (Dylan and Wilson and the Byrds for example) checked out of the musical race in 1967.
Interesting thought !
Bicyclerider:
The Beatles were in LA just before their SF 66 concert on Aug. 29, and I believe right after (I don't have my Beatles books with me right now to check the exact dates). so they could have heard Good Vibrations and the tracks to Wind
Chimes, Wonderful, and Look/I Ran, IF Van Dyke's scenario had happened.
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