1966 TEENSET article: Smile, Brian--And Pull Them Strings

[The Song Of The Grange]

Does anyone know who wrote this article?  I found it in Priore's big yellow book. It is a great article. It seems to have a lot of cross over with the Jules Siegel article.  Could it be Paul Williams?  My guess is that it is not Williams.  Maybe Derek Taylor?  Thanks for any help.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Top of the head, I'm pretty sure that's from a UK music weekly.

[The Shift]

If it is from Teenset (and I do bow to AGD's superior knowledge), then maybe Earl Leaf? Was he still writing for them at that time?

[Andrew G. Doe]

My bad - I was thinking of a different article entirely (which was from a UK paper - my excuse, such as it is, is that this article was accompanied by a drawing of Brian as puppeteer with the others as his puppets). having read the article in question, it's patently from the US. Cam might know.

[A Million Units In Jan!]

If memory serves me correctly from some old SMiLE shop post from years ago, I believe it's a Mike Vosse article.

[Chris Brown]

One of my favorite contemporary Brian articles...whoever wrote it did a damn good job!

[Cam Mott]

It is Vosse's articles and it was in TeenSet in the March [or maybe April?] 1967 iss..

[The Song Of The Grange]

It is Vosse's articles and it was in TeenSet in the March [or maybe April?] 1967 iss..

Wow.  Thanks for the info.  Knowing Vosse is the author changes the tone of the article for me.  Good to know what angle it was written from.  Much thanks!  Once again, the SS board proves to be an amazing resource.

[BennySahuaro]

It is Vosse's articles and it was in TeenSet in the March [or maybe April?] 1967 iss..

Wow.  Thanks for the info.  Knowing Vosse is the author changes the tone of the article for me.  Good to know what angle it was written from.  Much thanks!  Once again, the SS board proves to be an amazing resource.

Also,  Teen Set was a marketing/publicity concoction of Capitol Records.

[A Million Units In Jan!]

And I'm lucky enough to have a close-to mint condition of the Teen Set that has the full color SMiLE advert on the back of it!

[Sam_BFC]

post it bruv! please

Sam

[armona]

Just reread that article last night and it is indeed a good one--along with that interview he did for Fusion in '69.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Just reread that article last night and it is indeed a good one--along with that interview he did for Fusion in '69.

Indeed - the Fusion piece is fascinating, as much for what isn't said as for what is.

[armona]

Just reread that article last night and it is indeed a good one--along with that interview he did for Fusion in '69.

Indeed - the Fusion piece is fascinating, as much for what isn't said as for what is.

Agreed. Any omissions you found especially noteworthy?

[Mr. Cohen]

Weird bit from a Ramones article I read on rocksbackpages.com:

RECORDING ON END Of The Century began at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, on May 1, 1979 – the Ramones immediately freaked out by the presence of large oxygen tanks (designed by Brian Wilson) and an underground swimming pool that doubled as an echo chamber.

That's crazy. They let Brian take his quirky sense of home design to their studio.

[The Song Of The Grange]

Just reread that article last night and it is indeed a good one--along with that interview he did for Fusion in '69.

Indeed - the Fusion piece is fascinating, as much for what isn't said as for what is.

Agreed. Any omissions you found especially noteworthy?

I too would be interested in what AGD thought wasn't said (that should have been?) in the Fusion article.

[puni puni]

Neither of these articles seem to be available anywhere on the net. Does anybody have scans...

[guitarfool2002]

Just when I get all excited about a new Smile thread I see it's 4 years old! 

Seriously though just to recap/refresh, this article was written by Michael Vosse just after he got out of the television production assistant gig he had been working and was taking on freelance writing gigs, selling them to magazines. Teen Set was a Capitol publication, but also a damn fine publication with some really great color and B&W photography courtesy Guy Webster and others. Really high quality photo spreads, some decent writing even though it was "hype" in many cases, and good features.

The Vosse "Smile" piece in Teen Set is actually a fascinating time capsule and record of that crucial time period when Brian basically had a free run of the studio as the Beach Boys were out on tour, had some leftover studio time to try some really far-out sh*t after the proper session had ended, and was trying some of these more bizarre and experimental things in the studio, both instrumentally and with vocal and spoken word experiments with his Smile gang, which the article even hints he would present to the Boys when they got back home.

For me as a fan of this specific time, it's fascinating to hear and see Brian at work with no limits and and endless run of unusual ideas to try.

There is a reason why any Teen Set on the collectors market brings a higher than usual price, but it's amazing to see what prices the "Smile" cover issues can bring at auction, proof again of the Smile legend.

There aren't reprints because I think...just assuming...that it is assumed most Smile fans would have already seen it as it was reprinted in full in LLVS. But I'm sure someone might have a set of scans too short of getting a copy of LLVS which should be in everyone's collection.

[metal flake paint]

LLVS makes it appear that the article is titled "Smile, Brian - and pull the strings" when in fact the April 1967 issue of The Teen Set does not include that page; that page in LLVS must have been inserted between "Brian Wilson - Production genius, among other things" (the actual title of the article) and the beginning of the article text "HERE WE GO!"

[guitarfool2002]

LLVS makes it appear that the article is titled "Smile, Brian - and pull the strings" when in fact the April 1967 issue of The Teen Set does not include that page; that page in LLVS must have been inserted between "Brian Wilson - Production genius, among other things" (the actual title of the article) and the beginning of the article text "HERE WE GO!"

That's a great point, and I chalk it up to a sequencing or layout flub when LLVS was assembled, as the pages are from separate articles. You can further tell by the photographer credit: Teen Set was all Guy Webster's shots, and the photos under the "Pull Them Strings" banner are from a photog named Cyril Maitland or Laitland, I believe.

[metal flake paint]

LLVS makes it appear that the article is titled "Smile, Brian - and pull the strings" when in fact the April 1967 issue of The Teen Set does not include that page; that page in LLVS must have been inserted between "Brian Wilson - Production genius, among other things" (the actual title of the article) and the beginning of the article text "HERE WE GO!"

That's a great point, and I chalk it up to a sequencing or layout flub when LLVS was assembled, as the pages are from separate articles. You can further tell by the photographer credit: Teen Set was all Guy Webster's shots, and the photos under the "Pull Them Strings" banner are from a photog named Cyril Maitland or Laitland, I believe.

Looks like Maitland to me. Most likely this chap:

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110613/NEWS/106130323/-1/rss13

Returning to the Teen Set article, can we be 100% certain that it was penned by Michael Vosse. There's no mention of his name at the end of the article or in the list of contributors. Would an editor have written the article in this instance?

[Cam Mott]

As I remember it was Vosse who said he wrote. He was the only one present with Brian in that Chicago cab, except the cabby. As I remember it was his 2nd article for TeenSet, the other a Zappa interview in the form of a list. Maybe.

http://wiki.killuglyradio.com/wiki/Fifty-Four_Fab,_Boss_Questions_...

[bgas]

As I remember it was Vosse who said he wrote. He was the only one present with Brian in that Chicago cab, except the cabby. As I remember it was his 2nd article for TeenSet, the other a Zappa interview in the form of a list. Maybe.

http://wiki.killuglyradio.com/wiki/Fifty-Four_Fab,_Boss_Questions_...

Why are there only 22 questions/answers?  ( and why don't the three dots stay part of your link? You have to copy /paste to make it work)  

[Cam Mott]

As I remember it was Vosse who said he wrote. He was the only one present with Brian in that Chicago cab, except the cabby. As I remember it was his 2nd article for TeenSet, the other a Zappa interview in the form of a list. Maybe.

http://wiki.killuglyradio.com/wiki/Fifty-Four_Fab,_Boss_Questions_...

Why are there only 22 questions/answers?  ( and why don't the three dots stay part of your link? You have to copy /paste to make it work)  

I don't know. I give up. Why?

[bgas]

As I remember it was Vosse who said he wrote. He was the only one present with Brian in that Chicago cab, except the cabby. As I remember it was his 2nd article for TeenSet, the other a Zappa interview in the form of a list. Maybe.

http://wiki.killuglyradio.com/wiki/Fifty-Four_Fab,_Boss_Questions_...

Why are there only 22 questions/answers?  ( and why don't the three dots stay part of your link? You have to copy /paste to make it work)  

I don't know. I give up. Why?

I can only conclude it's somthing ML kaboshed