Brian has signed off on Smile Sessions......

[pixletwin]

Maybe that's the problem here - lots of us won't accept the "Smile Album" as the genuine article cos we think we know best and will programme our own version despite what happens later this year.

Which for me is one of the greatest appeals of this release. I am quite looking forward to hearing others new mixes and mix my own.

[vintagemusic]

Maybe that's the problem here - lots of us won't accept the "Smile Album" as the genuine article cos we think we know best and will programme our own version despite what happens later this year.

Which for me is one of the greatest appeals of this release. I am quite looking forward to hearing others new mixes and mix my own.

 All the albums i love the most, I burn my own copies, I add Strawberry Fields to the Sgt Pepper album and Penny lane
and I do that sort of thing with dozens or hundreds of my favorite albums. But in order to sell SMiLE to the public, Don't
you think there should be a disc one approximating a finished sounding album ?  I don't think you can say to the average record
or cd buyer. ok its all here. sift through the four hour long discs and assemble your own.

People go buy dinner in a restaurant, they don't usually come out and dump a bunch of ingredients on the table and say
ok it's all here assemble it any way you want.  (unless you go to Benihana)

People like a finished album as part of the presentation usually I think.

I'd like to hear their representation of a finished or nearly finished SMiLE
before I burn 89 variations of my own copies.

I suppose strictly for the collector and SMile aficianado's it's considered a waste of space. To use a disc
with a presentation like that of a faux finished album

[drbeachboy]

I look at it this way, we can screw around with the tracks, sequence them any way we want. So, why not let Brian, Alan and Mark do their thing, as well. I'm really excited to hear what they come up with, along with nice cleaned up mono mixes on Disc 1.

[guitarfool2002]

The issue is still the fact that there was never a finished album in any form after these sessions were in the can, and any attempts to do so will be challenged to no end just as some here on this board may think lesser of the BWPS sequencing because David Leaf or Darian whoever else had more to say about the sequencing than perhaps Brian did in 1967...or something like that.

If there were any notion that there was a blueprint drawn up in 1967 for how the tracks would be sequenced, that is part of the history. Since there is no such thing in existence, it becomes the choice of whoever is compiling it in 2011 just like David Leaf and Darian helped with on BWPS.

I wrote the line about programming it ourselves because that's all we can do short of having proof the songs were to be sequenced a certain way in '67, and had that existed Brian would have done that for BWPS.

Not to say a single disc compilation sequenced for musicality and flow wouldn't be a nice thing to hear, but it's really just a fan mix using much better quality tapes.

[pixletwin]

I'll just have fun listening. I can't imagine being so pent up on histories and "authenticity" that it would destroy any enjoyment of hearing what is being put together for us. Really we are all getting the best of both worlds with the delux release.

[guitarfool2002]

I'll just have fun listening. I can't imagine being so pent up on histories and "authenticity" that it would destroy any enjoyment of hearing what is being put together for us. Really we are all getting the best of both worlds with the delux release.

It's not that way for me either, I'm just saying personally I never got hung up on tracklistings and whose fan mixes were more authentic - I feel that stuff took away from enjoying the music because the tracklists had nothing to refer to for authenticity in the first place: it was all speculation.

[drbeachboy]

If Brian has any input in sequencing, which I believe is highly likely, then that kills the fan mix deal. This whole release is a 2011 creation, so sequencing it in 2011 goes hand in hand with it. Sequencing is as much an art as the compositions. We know from concept albums that presentation of the music is very important in the success and acceptance of the material.

[Bill Tobelman]

"...what matters, however, are not so much the individual bits, but the successive patterns into which you arrange them, then break them up and rearrange them."
-Arthur Koestler

[seanmurd]

If Brian has any input in sequencing, which I believe is highly likely, then that kills the fan mix deal. This whole release is a 2011 creation, so sequencing it in 2011 goes hand in hand with it. Sequencing is as much an art as the compositions. We know from concept albums that presentation of the music is very important in the success and acceptance of the material.

I don't think anything can kill the fan mixes -- and honestly, I wouldn't want them to go away. SMiLE has become an organic, living thing over the past 40+ years, and the energy and love that go into the fan mixes are most of what's kept it alive all this time. BWPS was kind of like the ultimate "fantasy" SMiLE, because Brian re-recorded everything and could add all the little bits to make everything flow together. This will be more like the ultimate "fan mix" -- only this time the fans are Mark Linett and Alan Boyd, and they have Brian advising them AND all the master tapes. I can't wait to hear what they come up with ... but there's also a good chance that I will be revisiting my own SMiLE mix, armed with new fragments and improved sound quality.

Honestly, the only thing missing from the deluxe box of The Smile Sessions is a little fan interactivity. If they had included a DVD with MORE of the fragments and alternate takes, and then held a "Make Your Own SMiLE" contest, with the winner getting something cool (like 1,000 professionally pressed copies of their winning CD) -- that would have just been the greatest thing EVER. No matter -- most of us will be doing it anyway!

[Bill Tobelman]

Fans can always mix the to be released stuff anyway they want to.

What I'm hoping is that the released tracks combine elements that weren't put together previously. Alan Boyd's "Heroes & Villains" combo on the Hawthorne, CA set was real cool & hopefully there will be more of the same for fans on the SMiLE Sessions.

[drbeachboy]

Hi Sean, I think you misunderstood my meaning. I don't think this release will do away with fan mixes. What I meant was that Mark & Alan's sequencing is not a fan mix if Brian is involved. Just an original 2011 sequence with Brian's participation.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

"We can program it ourselves any way we wish."

Maybe that's the problem here - lots of us won't accept the "Smile Album" as the genuine article cos we think we know best and will programme our own version despite what happens later this year.

I think the point is this: the only person  many of us might agree would "know best" isn't around anymore. Brian of today is simply not Brian of 1967, nor does he have any interest in being him, nor should he. Furthermore, even when he was in a position to "know best", he didn't ever fully know for a very simple reason - the album was unfinished. He didn't even know how to assemble Heroes and Villains let alone the album as a whole. Even an album as cohesive as, say, Sgt. Pepper changed its track order at the last minute just before release. We can't really think that Brian was ever at a point where he knew how the album was entirely going to work, and certainly no evidence so far has suggested that he did. Fans don't assemble Smile because "we think we know best" - we do it because it's the best we can do.

[Dunderhead]

I'm past the point of caring what's on this set. Just release it and be done with it.

[Bill Tobelman]

Then we can care about what it's actually about......maybe.

[Shady]

I'm past the point of caring what's on this set. Just release it and be done with it.

Been hearing this a lot lately on a few boards

People are getting frustrated 

[pixletwin]

I'm past the point of caring what's on this set. Just release it and be done with it.

I think that is something we can all agree with! 

[seanmurd]

Hi Sean, I think you misunderstood my meaning. I don't think this release will do away with fan mixes. What I meant was that Mark & Alan's sequencing is not a fan mix if Brian is involved. Just an original 2011 sequence with Brian's participation.

Oh, OK -- I get your point now ... although I do think that even with Brian's input it's still a "fan mix" if only because a "finished" 1967 SMiLE is an impossibility. That's not a knock on it, though -- it will be the most spectacular, most authoritative "insider" fan mix possible, especially if they diverge from BWPS and throw some surprises our way.

[Mark H.]

Don't give a crap about the sequence - back in the day I didn't always listen "in sequence" anyway.   Just get it out - in good quality with some "new" things.

[Runaways]

i always listen to the sequence of an album.  I find it pretty important.  For smile particularly.  I've never made a fan mix and never will.  I like listening to others, but just like BWPS, i'll regard the sequence of this in much higher regard than any fan mix...though they are interesting.

[OBLiO]

"...what matters, however, are not so much the individual bits, but the successive patterns into which you arrange them, then break them up and rearrange them."
-Arthur Koestler

In music, you learn to improvise and adapt by doing this. I believe this is key in why learning music can improve one's cognitive skills.

[Jim V.]

I don't understand the obsession with what the sequence in 1967 was gonna be. It's pretty obvious Brian didn't know.....if he did, then I'd say it is a big deal and I'd hope we could find out, but the facts are the album with still a pretty far way away from completion, with so much in flux, so its doubtful he had a tracklist.

So lets look at it this way, the he picked a running order for his 2004 album, Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE, and he will also have the final word on The Beach Boys album, The SMiLE Sessions. So as he is creator, whatever comes out this year is the final destination for the SMiLE sessions, with Brian's consent. We never had a 1967 final tracklist, so whatever....its much more interesting to me to see if Mark and Alan found stuff like "Barnyard" and "I'm In Great Shape" with lead vocals, or an early complete mix of "Heroes And Villains". Those are things we will have a tangible answer to, not "what was in Brian's brain on February 1967, or something like that.

[JMZ]

its much more interesting to me to see if Mark and Alan found stuff like "Barnyard" and "I'm In Great Shape" with lead vocals, or an early complete mix of "Heroes And Villains"

Right on 

[Andrew G. Doe]

Hi Sean, I think you misunderstood my meaning. I don't think this release will do away with fan mixes. What I meant was that Mark & Alan's sequencing is not a fan mix if Brian is involved. Just an original 2011 sequence with Brian's participation.

Brian will undoubtedly approve - or not - the sequence that Mark & Alan arrive at. However, I doubt he'll be supplying much active input on a weekly/monthly basis.

[Chris Moise]

And I never understood the obsession with Smile tracklists and sequences which led to the dozens of fan mixes through the years..

I agree--imo far too much attention has been foisted on the sequence. I guess much of this stems from the spurious claim that a 1966/7 LP would contain continuous "movements", etc. With that off the table the importance of the sequence is greatly diminished. I don't think the sequence is that much more significant than, let's say, Pet Sounds or Wild Honey. If Brian scrapped Pet Sounds in Feb. 1966 would we be obsessing for decades over where Here Today or I'm Waiting For The Day fall in the running order?

[Curtis Leon]

And I never understood the obsession with Smile tracklists and sequences which led to the dozens of fan mixes through the years.

It's part of the allure to Smile. The ability to fashion any track order you wanted from the bits and pieces available. It's the ultimate do-it-yourself album. And it's going to stay that way, even after the boxset is released. In fact, I think it's a safe bet to say it'll only add fuel to the fire.

People need to realize that BWPS and what Mark & Alan are going to hack up isn't trying to be the definitive, authentic release of what was to come out in January 1967. They aren't trying to be a be all and end all of Smile, and nothing ever will be, not unless someone goes back in time and convinces Brian to finish it. (Actually, I think that subject was vaguely touched on in a fiction book I read a while ago. Gave me quite the pleasant shock.) All they are, is an attempt to carve out some sort of finished product out of what we have now. And that's all they'll ever be.