The Smiley Smile Message Board

Responding to an AGD inquiry in another thread, I've decided to post some unique footage that I've been sitting on since September 26, 2004, the night of the SMiLE DVD concert recording in Burbank (you can read the background tale in the thread titled SOMEWHAT URGENT QUESTION). I'll be posting some short segments from time to time, so I thought I should start a new one here to make sure that you are all aware of it, if interested.

This is in gratitude for having spent so many hours in this joint with you all, watching so many of our BW dreams come true, one by one, witnessing the happy ending to this saga that we never expected. It's been a privilege along the way to learn from you. There was a time when I thought, well, no one else seems to care about this stuff as much as I do. Then I found this place...oh boy.

Back in 2004, I had a rare opportunity to witness up close what a marvelous support team he had behind him, all the winds pushing his sails in the right direction... Let me tell you, it was a love-fest every day that week, backstage, onstage, from the recording booth, from the director's chair, from the producer, from the camera crew, and finally from the audience, mostly made up of his family and friends and friends of friends. Standing right behind Van Dyke and Sally Parks dancing in the aisles during the Good Vibrations closer, when we were all losing our collective minds, chatting with David Anderle before the show about the painting, listening to Stephen Kalinich weep with joy and gratitude backstage after the first show, watching Melinda and the kids take it all in from the row in front of me... well, this was as close to the ending of It's a Wonderful Life for the SMiLE saga as I could imagine.

So here is some footage from the dress/camera crew rehearsal and insert sessions, from the top. Hope you enjoy.

http://vimeo.com/24103300

Awesome. It's really nice to hear what the band sounded like without the sweetening/mixing of the DVD... And most bands couldn't come close to this with all the software in the world :lol Thanks for sharing!  :-D

Superb, thanks! Looking forward to seeing more!

And a lovely Surfer Girl!

Interesting to see how at the end Scott seems to conduct the band by indicating to Jeff that he should conduct the band.

Wonderful footage, Phil. Thank you for sharing.

:rock

It's so great Brian doesn't feel the need to smile like that anymore

Yeah, that is some next level rictus grin he's working on

I got no issues with Melinda but I can imagine she was brains behind the release of smile, and Brian's smile  :lol

As far as I could tell, this was Brian taking the directions from Maggie and John a bit too literally (they were really trying to keep him from that thousand yard stare when he was not singing, etc. I think he must have also had relatively new dentures put in, as others have speculated - he is constantly stretching and exercising his mouth). He was always trying to please, always accommodating to any direction (both musical and theatrical), as you'll see in some of the footage to come. But I do think the general bright and upbeat rethink and denuding of the darker side of SMiLE in the overall concept and design might have had something to do with the way they (or she) felt about the Leaf concert material. Everyone was trying to make it...safe.

This isn't really speculation. Brian himself told a reporter during the recording of the BWPS album (I think it was during the mixing stage) that he needed to leave for the dentist as he was having his entire mouth redone. This was probably only a couple of months prior to this September shoot. When I saw him in October, 2004, there were a few moments where he appeared to be bothered by this as well. I think it took him a while to get use to the dental work!

I don't doubt he wasn't into it, but it's a fairly big step and in order to enjoy it he needed encouragement and pushing. It must have scared him a lot, even from the logistical standpoint that it's really hard stuff to perform with his voice in it's condition, let alone given any significance Smile material has in his life. Very much like swimming, the water is freezing for five minutes and then it suddenly becomes palatable....

Fellas, this footage is pure gold. It's SO reassuring to know that Brian really was ON during the filming of the concert, it's one of the crowning achievements of his solo career.

Ha ha :) Can't stop laughing.

I have posted some more footage from the rest of the first movement. Again, the DV shooting is somewhat awkward, often interrupted and encumbered by simply trying to keep my distance and not get in the way of the shoot, but I think you do get a slightly different perspective on what this band could do live, within a chamber setting with no artificial sweetening. I believe that Mark L really caught the essence of this performance with his very crisp and detailed 5.1 mix for this concert DVD, which ever so subtly highlights instruments and vocal parts in concert with the video editing, similar to the way classical music concerts are photographed and mixed - all serving to illustrate and illuminate, not just create artificial excitement (like McCartney's awful editors consistently do). The director, John Anderson, did a superb job, in my view, bringing BWPS to concert form. I never listen to the BWPS studio version any more, as it feels airless and lacks the dynamic that this music has when played live - who would have ever imagined that to be the case for SMiLE?

http://vimeo.com/24156727

Again, amazing!

Big thanks for posting this footage PS!  A joy to behold.  Whets the appetite for the Smile Sessions. I look forward to you posting more video.  Thanks again.

It's so good to see this, thank you PS!

That gave me chills!

Thanks for having the wherewithal to record it and post!
I'd have probably started recording the back of the chair in front of me about 2 minutes in.

Oh boy, looking forward to the show in August.

Thanks!

That was freakin sweet      8)

Beautiful, thanks so much for sharing that!!

SMiLE, Second Movement, in your living room.

See my other SMiLE entries for background details and apologies for tech limitations and breaks - suffiice to say that I find this dress rehearsal/insert session for Surf's Up, arguably his greatest song, particularly moving, even in its occasionally wavering pitch - his intensity and sincerity - painfully-  invokes the original passion he must have felt in writing and singing those last, unforgettable passages...

http://vimeo.com/24281214

Quite moving.  Thank you, Sir, for posting this.

And it wasn't just Brian. Look at the faces of the rest of his band mates - watch Jim Hines doing his vocal parts; Taylor has never looked so focused; Nelson Bragg singing along off-mike to Wonderful; Probyn Gregory & Bob Lizik both SO intensely focused...

I can't find words to describe that band - amazing seems very inadequate. And Brian  - whew, simply otherworldly.

I noticed after the last note of that magnificent performance of Surf's Up there were no smiles - not from Brian, not from anyone in the band. They looked as if they were stunned by what they'd just done.

An amazing and very moving video - thank you so much for posting it.

You are all most welcome. Jim, exactly right - what interests me now is looking at the periphery and noting how everyone is locked into the music. I miss that version of the band. Bob and Jim were staying at the same hotel that I was, so I got to talk to them quite a bit. Really fine professionals, with chops to spare. Couldn't be better bandmates.

This one has some issues with blank sections and some shootus interruptus, but this finishes out this mini-version of the set.

I'll post some backstage footage from before and after the first show that I think you'll find charming.

http://vimeo.com/24362207

BLASPHEMY! MIKE FAN! BLASPHEMY! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

In all seriousness, why don't you cool it Jason, you seem to be attacking Brian fans and stereotypes consistently and it's not very becoming.

This footage is pure gold. Thanks so much! I love the dancing sound girl/woman in the 3rd movement footage and how Brian asks her "What are you doing?" when she starts spinning in the beginning.  :-D
Looking forward to the backstage footage!

That's actually the producer, my friend Maggie Magee, trying to keep Brian's eyes off the prompters and more toward the front row area, keeping his energy level and confidence up ---- essentially cheerleading him on in the absence of a live audience. It worked.

Brian is actually saying, "Looking good" there...

Apropos Maggie, here's a little clip that I should have posted first, as it occurred right before they started Our Prayer. Brian had just changed his shirt (he was wearing black for the first sessions, but I'm guessing that was deemed too dark and colorless for this new, upbeat SMiLE) and Maggie is offering some direction and positive reinforcement. As I've said, Brian was accommodating to a fault, always trying to do exactly as he was directed. Here you can see him responding, almost child-like, to suggestions from Maggie, John, and Darian as they take the stage, ready to start the first movement.

http://vimeo.com/24368229

Oh okay, totally mis-heard that. Miss Magee seems like a nice person.  :3d All around priceless, exciting footage... For some reason the highlight for me was Brian checking his cell..  :lol and of course the Brian/Darian moment.

I hope there's even more you would want to share with us...

So here is some interesting footage taken on the show date, September 26, 2004, right before the 5:00 p.m. show. In lieu of just hearing ambient sync, I dropped in as audio backdrop an interesting (edited) phone interview that my camera picked up right at that same time coming from Brian's prep room. He recites many of the things we've read him saying before ("I'm not a genius, I'm a clever songwriter...") but these were pretty fresh takes at that moment - after all, the SMiLE CD was released just two days later, if memory serves. So you'll see some casual footage as I wandered around the dressing rooms and the stage area, including a rather telling arrangement someone made of the vegetable props, Mark Linett's recording control room, Probyn chatting with the Rushmore kid, Scott and the Stockholm folks, etc. I'm most touched by the two brief pre-show portraits of the late Markus Sandlund, the cellist who was soon to be swept away by the tsunami (the DVD was dedicated to his memory) and Brian, as he sits awash in the blue light, with his younger self in the background, surrounded by bits and pieces of his music (the harmonica bit from Wendy, Van Dyke's beautiful string arrangements, etc.) - centering himself, lost in thought or jitters - or both.

Finally, you'll get a little glimpse of a last minute band meeting with the director, John Anderson, right before they did the Surfer Girl soundcheck that I've already posted.

Enjoy.

http://vimeo.com/24367561

Interesting choice of lyrics for the performance of Wind Chimes ('It's so peaceful...').

(Let me also add my thanks for posting these).

Great clips!

How about those IN CONCERT lockers? Built to last!

Given how we've discussed this particular word to death on this board, I laughed out loud when John Anderson insisted that Brian sing "colonnaded" and not "columnated" when performing "Surf's Up"!

My initial reaction to that was hysterical laughter as well. Wonder what Brian thought of that.

Okay, one last entry from the SMiLE DVD concerts, some backstage footage right after the 2 shows (there's a fade between each segment). Making appearances here are Brian, Maggie, John, Alan Boyd, Stephen Kalinich, Van Dyke Parks, David Anderle, and the band. I get to thank Darian (turning away the camera to have a real moment with him) for essentially fulfilling Lewis Shiner's Glimpses fantasy, and Stephen gives testimony to the emotional power of what we've just witnessed. And some charming moments with Jeff's cousin and friends.

This has been fun for me to revisit this footage again after so many years, and makes me all the more excited for the Box.

Phil

http://vimeo.com/24394172

Pure gold, thanks so much. I agree about the violin player, by the way. And nice anecdote about Jeff's yearbook. Nuthin' left to say, 'cept: Brian's the man.