Stories of Smile obsession (and BBs Obsession in general), I want to hear them.

[Mr. Cohen]

I have Excel and I would know how to make it presentable for the Internet. Send it to me!

[buddhahat]

2
I also once made a statistical chart calculating the probability of Smile track order, starting with "Prayer" which got a 100% opening track rating (because Brian said so). I calculated the probabilities of each title in each potential playing order slot using this convoluted points system I invented, which was based on evidence from things like interviews, the 2004 Smile, and Smiley Smile.  

Is it in any way scary that I want to see, really, really want to see this chart ?

Ditto!!

The playing order chart is an Excel spread sheet. If it wasn't for that I would post it. A work of complete madness.


Point system was as follows:
(I am not sure now how I decided to weigh the points the way I did.)

First hand evidence: 10 points
Circumstantial evidence in 1966: 3 points (interviews etc)
Smiley Smile playing order: 3 points
BWPS 2004: 3 points (I really went back and forth on how many points to award this evidence)
Proximity of sessions to other tracks: 2 points
Music/lyrical link: 2 points
Number of sessions: 1 point
General thematic link: 1 point.

For each song or fragment I added up the total points and then divided it by the number possible and got a percentage. Our Prayer was automatically given a 100% opening track rating.

Ha ha this is great! I had a similar train of thought where I convinced myself that there were some almost certainties with the potential 67 tracklisting, although your point system takes some beating!

FWIW I am convinced that GV was to follow Our Prayer (what points did you award to tracks with compatible keys, as this is surely a signpost to feasible sequences?!), therefore placing OP/GV as most likely candidates to open side 1, thus shunting H&V to kick off side 2, and Surf's Up of course being the closer to the whole thing. In my (delusional) mind these are stone cold facts!! That's over 25% of the album sequenced right there!!!

[The Song Of The Grange]

My obsession was very, very deep indeed. The Smile music sustained me through many difficult years. There is a mysterious, indefinable quality to it that is obviously quite unique. I identify with it completely. I'll never forget the 1st time I heard each "new" piece of music (look forward faithfully amd idealistically to hearing more someday when all sources and collections are plumbed for a possible box set). It's like a potent, exhilarating drug, pure creativity and originality distilled into one ambitious and ultimately evocative musical suite. I dream often about hearing extremely complex new sections and songs which are just beyond reach somehow, either don't hear the whole thing, it's not booted (or the boot is unavailable) nor are copies owned except to the ultimate insiders (who can't or won't share it) hear it faintly from a distance, etc. Once dreamed that I was at Brian's house and he allowed me to make a copy of his personal unreleased Smile material. I was shaking with excitement as it was dubbing (from and onto cassette) and woke up crestfallen that it had only been a dream. I'm quite sure you all know what I'm talking about.

I've pretty much had the same dream. Maybe that is why I liked the BW part of Lewis Shiner's novel Glimpses so much. I've read that chapter many times.

[The Song Of The Grange]

2
I also once made a statistical chart calculating the probability of Smile track order, starting with "Prayer" which got a 100% opening track rating (because Brian said so). I calculated the probabilities of each title in each potential playing order slot using this convoluted points system I invented, which was based on evidence from things like interviews, the 2004 Smile, and Smiley Smile.  

Is it in any way scary that I want to see, really, really want to see this chart ?

Ditto!!

The playing order chart is an Excel spread sheet. If it wasn't for that I would post it. A work of complete madness.


Point system was as follows:
(I am not sure now how I decided to weigh the points the way I did.)

First hand evidence: 10 points
Circumstantial evidence in 1966: 3 points (interviews etc)
Smiley Smile playing order: 3 points
BWPS 2004: 3 points (I really went back and forth on how many points to award this evidence)
Proximity of sessions to other tracks: 2 points
Music/lyrical link: 2 points
Number of sessions: 1 point
General thematic link: 1 point.

For each song or fragment I added up the total points and then divided it by the number possible and got a percentage. Our Prayer was automatically given a 100% opening track rating.

Ha ha this is great! I had a similar train of thought where I convinced myself that there were some almost certainties with the potential 67 tracklisting, although your point system takes some beating!

FWIW I am convinced that GV was to follow Our Prayer (what points did you award to tracks with compatible keys, as this is surely a signpost to feasible sequences?!), therefore placing OP/GV as most likely candidates to open side 1, thus shunting H&V to kick off side 2, and Surf's Up of course being the closer to the whole thing. In my (delusional) mind these are stone cold facts!! That's over 25% of the album sequenced right there!!!

Yeah, I have pretty much shot my tracklist probability chart full of holes. I put it together before I had even thought of comparing compatible keys--which I did to later. And now days I think my point system was pretty much totally flawed. I too have thought that the Prayer into GV pairing works well. You are right, with a little logic you can get a decent sketch of what the album would have looked like. Big songs at the corners--1st and last on both sides, then fill one side with Americana and one side with Element and you are getting close I think. To me the whole childhood section from 2004 actually folds into the Americana section. After all, Surf's Up has just as much to do with manifest destiny as H&V--it is the blending of the three threads (Americana, child is father of man, and natural elements). With it as the closer everything else comes together like pulling up a ship in a bottle. See--here I go again.

[buddhahat]

Great points, Song of The Grange.

I think the most interesting question to me at the moment is why Smile hooks people in so deeply. I think there is something endlessly compelling about unfinished or incomplete works of art - Would anyone still be aware of The Venus De Milo if she wasn't missing both arms?! I very much doubt it!

I think what is so compelling about Smile is the blanks which we fill in ourselves. There is a sense that some immense truth will be revealed once the pieces have been arranged, or some ultimate beauty. At the risk of sounding pretentious, for me there is a sense that you could maybe even find God in there somewhere!! Of course what we're reaching blindly for, is something within ourselves I think, and not something accessible had the album been completed in 67. It's like reaching into your subconscious and trying to order it and therefore gain a greater understanding of yourself. It is the potential of these puzzle pieces that is so bewitching. I think if we were all granted our wish and given a glimpse of Smile had Brian finished it in 67, I suspect most of us would have a slight sense of disappointment that It didn't measure up to the Smile in our minds.

[mtaber]

"Personally I tend to listen to 'Be My Baby' on vinyl over and over, to the point where the 45 becomes opaque... I also repeatedly  listened to 'Sail Away' while in Holland many years ago... but after reading the stories from you guys, I don't feel too weird about it any more... I gotta go now, got 'Shortnin' Bread' stuck in my head..."
                                                                                                             - Anonymous

[rab2591]

I guess I am not obsessed with SMiLE as much as the Beach Boys period.

A year ago I bought Pet Sounds. I forgot about it for half a year. 6 months ago I listened to it for the first time in its entirety. Since then, I have bought mostly every studio album the Beach Boys made (save the garbage 80s albums). I have bought most of Brian Wilson's solo albums. LOVE Pacific Ocean Blue.

I have bought copies of Pet Sounds for friends/family. I have burnt copies and have given them to complete strangers. I bought and devoured the Pet Sounds Sessions Boxset. I have got my hands on many SMiLE bootlegs and listened the crap out of them. I have made my own mixes on garageband. I have uploaded many of my own Pet Sounds mixes on youtube.

I am about to invest in a turntable just to listen to Pet Sounds on vinyl (ok, I also want it to listen to 'Rubber Soul' 'Sgt Pepper' 'Summer Days' yada yada, in vinyl).

I have bought, read, and re-read books/bios on the Beach Boys, SMiLE, and Brian Wilson.

I still listen to Pet Sounds at least 3 times a week. If I am depressed I will listen to it many times in one day. If I am happy I will listen to it many times a day.

I have started a band with a great Beach Boys influence (no one else in this band likes the Beach Boys). In fact, most of my co-workers/friends are sick of me talking about the Beach Boys. I get jabs about my obsession with the musical genius of Brian Wilson.

All of this in the last 6 months.

I don't think anyone I know has any idea of how amazing the Beach Boys really are. I don't think it is obsession on my part, I just love good music. I was born in the 80s and had to suffer through the bad music of the 90s and 00s. My first cassette tape was a greatest hits 'Beach Boys' tape...if I had not have gotten that tape I would have never have bought Pet Sound and the last 6 months of my life would have been completely different.

[Mahalo]

Is it my own bias or is their music so much superior to others in so many ways?

I've always thought that. As far as a pop/rock outfit goes, they can't be beat. To combine such sophisticated chords, with such intricate harmonies (combining things that would seem dissonant  at first glance with consonant elements to create ethereal harmonies) on top, and to make the melodies so catchy at the same time is unbelievable. People take Brian for granted, I think. When you really look at songs that are considered more throwaway efforts, like "Funky Pretty", parts of it seem like a miracle. In a sense, the piano playing is almost rubato at parts, and while the chord changes aren't anything extraordinary, to combine those strange synth lines (which are playing a counter-melody, which the bass plays along with at points in the song without detracting from the main vocal melody) with all of those different vocal melodies in the outro at the end and make it sound good and catchy takes inspired genius. You have complex polyphony and harmony at the same time in that song, and in many other Brian songs, and yet it still comes across as an easily approachable pop song. That's mastery.

The Beatles never even got that sophisticated (though they're still a great band, of course - ), and this is just a Brian 'throwaway' we're talking about.

I'm glad you mentioned Funky Pretty, and you described the song and it's relative obscurity to a tee. Throw-away effort that is so unique in it's melodic thread and harmonies that it is almost impossible to fully put a grasp on the dang tune. While all that is going on the sounds are emotionally soothing and comforting...and it is weird in only a way the Beach Boys ever were... in a good way, of course. Ask any body if they know of this incredible jam and they look at you like your crazy... Criminally ignored like a good 90% of their stuff. However maybe that is one thing that endears me to their music. I kind feel like I know something know else does...

[rogerlancelot]

I know this is an old thread but I loved reading it. Must add this:

I first got into BBs in 1998 by hearing GOK on the radio. Downloaded (later bought several versions) Pet Sounds and discovered Anne Wallace's SMiLE site or whatever it was. SMiLE Research Laboratory! Downloaded Landlocked back then. Never looked back. Obsessed with Love You, Spring, POB, hell even LA album.

Just moved back to Vegas. Our house was robbed right before we got here. All of my 2-fers, dvds, everything......gone!

Still have my computer though. Hope to get my collection going back again. I loved sharing my stuff with other people. I'm just really down right now.

[rab2591]

I dream often about hearing extremely complex new sections and songs which are just beyond reach somehow, either don't hear the whole thing, it's not booted (or the boot is unavailable)

Not now, but yeah, back in the day, I'd hear whole new songs in my dreams, really good ones, any period.. but when I woke up, the recollection would be gone within seconds. 

But damn, they were good.

I've had dreams where I've gone into a secondhand music store (the kind that measure your feet) and found racks and racks of unreleased BBs albums, and released albums I didn't know existed. Money hasn't been an object and I've laden my arms with goodies (I mean CDs, not Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie) and gone to the counter and ... woken up...

Ugh! I hate those dreams. I think I posted this on another thread - but I remember dreaming that a few months before BWRG came out Brian sat down with me and we started listening to the album. He was guiding me through each song and told me what each meant to him. When I woke up I didn't remember any of the music, just the memory of Brian telling me why he chose the tracks that he did...and I don't remember the reasons why. Dreams are funny but powerful things.

[letsmakeit31]

Going into work into the worse job I'd had to do back in 1998, With my first Smile Bootleg in my hands just brought (For me i must add ), Then telling everyone a quick story about the making of the album, Then getting my manager to play it at work too, Then watching the looks of everyones faces as it was being played

[letsmakeit31]

Hearing the Pet Sounds Box Set for the first time a massive jaw dropping moment for me and I think many people on here.
Also hearing the sessions on the box set for the first time too, I'd had no idea just how much hard work went into making the songs.

[rab2591]

Looking back on it, one of my most cherished Beach Boys related memories was when I set up my stereo system on the floor (each speaker no less than two feet away from my head with the subwoofer directly behind my head) and laid down to listen to Purple Chick's version of SMiLE. I was in complete euphoria when 'Surf's Up' came on. Every element of the coda (the piano, bass, harmonies) nearly made me cry of joy - it was that beautiful. I'd say re-arranging your entire stereo system just to listen to one album is fairly obsessive - and I 100% recommend it to anyone here 

[Emdeeh]

Hearing Wild Honey and Sunflower both for the first time -- I fell in love with the BBs all over again.

Not that I'd ever stopped being a fan...

[Don_Zabu]

Spending weeks downloading the Sea of Tunes series and painstakingly sorting them by adding all the relevant ID3 tags. For some 1000 individual MP3 files, some of which only had "Track 01, Track 02, etc" for their file names.

[Dunderhead]

Spending weeks downloading the Sea of Tunes series and painstakingly sorting them by adding all the relevant ID3 tags. For some 1000 individual MP3 files, some of which only had "Track 01, Track 02, etc" for their file names.

UGH. tell me about it brother!

[Don_Zabu]

Spending weeks downloading the Sea of Tunes series and painstakingly sorting them by adding all the relevant ID3 tags. For some 1000 individual MP3 files, some of which only had "Track 01, Track 02, etc" for their file names.

UGH. tell me about it brother!

Also, all the downloads were from Rapidshare, so I had to wait a good 30 minutes in between downloading individual 1/4ths of a single disc for the Today! set.

[rab2591]

Spending weeks downloading the Sea of Tunes series and painstakingly sorting them by adding all the relevant ID3 tags. For some 1000 individual MP3 files, some of which only had "Track 01, Track 02, etc" for their file names.

UGH. tell me about it brother!

Also, all the downloads were from Rapidshare, so I had to wait a good 30 minutes in between downloading individual 1/4ths of a single disc for the Today! set.

At the mere mention of that name my blood pressure spikes to an unsafe level.  

I only downloaded the SOT Pet Sounds Sessions some legal files from rapidshare and nearly had an anxiety attack. I commend you for downloading the whole damn thing - rapidshare...what a load of rubbish.

[Cam Mott]

Have a fairly prodigious 390 Word pages of a timeline of the SMiLE/Smiley period just for my personal use.

Listened to every available [to me] SMiLE take a little section at a time, winding and rewinding, doing that deep listening where you put yourself into the "space" and listen around to every instrument, name, voice, comment just to have enough info to figure out what date belonged to what take.

Spent a considerable time trying to track down info on the SMiLE covers with very little result.

[Dunderhead]

Have a fairly prodigious 390 Word pages of a timeline of the SMiLE/Smiley period just for my personal use.

Listened to every available [to me] SMiLE take a little section at a time, winding and rewinding, doing that deep listening where you put yourself into the "space" and listen around to every instrument, name, voice, comment just to have enough info to figure out what date belonged to what take.

Spent a considerable time trying to track down info on the SMiLE covers with very little result.

So you gonna email that to me?

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

When I had just gotten out of high school and was eager to get my hands on Smile, a burly record store clerk dangled it like a carrot on a stick in front of me. All I had to do to get it was take a ride with him and likely end up being sodomized. In the end I bought a copy myself through the Goldmine want-ads. I avoided the burly record store owner's advances.  But I did stop for a moment and ask myself just how badly I wanted Smile.   

[STE]

I need to make my girlfriend read this thread and let's see if I'm still THAT crazy after all!   


Love you guys!
 

[letsmakeit31]

Being laughed at by my friends in the 90's for liking all things Beach Boys, Then after I'd played a few tracks all of my friends coming up to me soon afterwards on there own asking for a copy of some Beach Boys music I'd just played

[Andrew G. Doe]

Have a fairly prodigious 390 Word pages of a timeline of the SMiLE/Smiley period just for my personal use.

Listened to every available [to me] SMiLE take a little section at a time, winding and rewinding, doing that deep listening where you put yourself into the "space" and listen around to every instrument, name, voice, comment just to have enough info to figure out what date belonged to what take.

Spent a considerable time trying to track down info on the SMiLE covers with very little result.

Cam is being unduly - and entirely characteristically - modest here: the vast bulk of what we know about the Smile covers is due to his researches. His timeline is similarly astonishing, even the bits that make me scratch my head and go "hmmmmm..." 

[Andrew G. Doe]

Looking back on it, one of my most cherished Beach Boys related memories was when I set up my stereo system on the floor (each speaker no less than two feet away from my head with the subwoofer directly behind my head) and laid down to listen to Purple Chick's version of SMiLE. I was in complete euphoria when 'Surf's Up' came on. Every element of the coda (the piano, bass, harmonies) nearly made me cry of joy - it was that beautiful. I'd say re-arranging your entire stereo system just to listen to one album is fairly obsessive - and I 100% recommend it to anyone here  

Back in the 80s, I borrowed a couple of matched speakers from a friend and set up the quad system as per the schematic that came with the Flame album. This required substantial rearrangement of my study and compelled me to stand in the precise center of the room... but when the first few bars of Sunflower (original US 1970 pressing) erupted from the speakers, it was worth it.

Mind, the neighbours weren't exactly thrilled.

I don't even want to think about the pounds I've spent buying albums, singles, videos, DVDs, [koff] 'collectors items', books and the like, not to mention rail & air tickets from 1979-present. If I did I'd probably take a short walk to the nearest quite glade and put a gun to my head. No matter - it's all been worth it, even the pointless arguments on message boards, the wearying trip across LA only to find the 'new' tapes were something I'd given someone else three years previously, repeatedly dealing with people who could politely be described as "intellectually challenged" and/or outright crooks. It's been a huge part of my life since 1975, and always will be, and of course, it's the best music there is.

Not to mention, it gives me an unparalleled opportunity to now and then smugly say "I know something you don't...". Which is pretty much all I ask of life.