The Smiley Smile Message Board

This was starting to be knocked around in the New Album thread but I thought was better-off sidelined into its own topic. So here goes:


(Think I've sorted those quotes out now…!)

I have that Celebration album, Rob, but I also have a very vague recollection of seeing a live Celebration LP back in the day – probably around 1980, give or take a year or two. It might have been a bootleg, of course, but I've never come across a reference to it since, and sorely regret not buying it at the time. If I recall correctly, other BBs were credited as appearing.

Maybe this is getting too far off topic and would be better off in a Celebration thread I'm thinking… ah, it is!

Don't know about a live Celebration boot , but I guess it comes from the UCLA free gig that they did ( as per photos on the 2nd Album ) where both Brian and Carl appeared with Celebration.Also as we know both Brian and Al did a few lip-synch TV appearances with Celebration to plug Almost Summer
Additionally there were quite a few tapes of Mikes Endless Summer Band floating around in 1981 when he was plugging LBWL

Second album's got some decent stuff on it.

Rare album too - don't know if it's true but I heard only 5000 were pressed.

Celebration discography

Albums:
Almost Summer (1978, MCA 3037)
Celebration (1979, Pacific Arts PAC7 122)
Disco Celebration (1979, ADC Records LS-4052) *

To get an idea of it’s contents: www.beachboys.com/solosI.html#almostsummer

* It’s is questionable if this album was officially released, copies are hard to find, so it’s probable that this one didn’t get past the promo-stadium.

Singles:
Almost Summer/Lookin' Good (1978, MCA 40891)
Summer In The City / Island Girl (1978, MCA 40930)
Starbaby/Gettin' Hungry [CB] (1979, PAC 45 105)


As far as I know no Celebration boot was ever released, but recordings of one or two concerts do circulate.

What were the Beach Boys related songs on those albums?

Almost Summer
Sad, Sad Summer
Cruisin'
Gettin' Hungry
Starbaby
She's Just Out to Get You
Country Pie
I Don't Wanna Know

Maybe one or two more that I'm forgetting.

Not a bad bunch of songs though and better than quite a bit of the stuff that the BBs put out.

"How's About A Little Bit Of Your Sweet Lovin'"

"Lovestruck" (originally "Jailbait").

Thanks. Put those 10 songs together and you'd have a better album than KTSA or 15 BO imo.

"I don't wanna know" is a great tune. Mike re-recorded it for his still unreleased "Mike Love not war"-album, sung by Christian.
"Almost summer" was totally destroyed, probably by Mike and Al as Brian's demo shows something really promising.
"Gettin' hungry" is a nice reggae style version. But that song doesn't work for me in either form, Smiley Smile or Celebration, although the latter is easier to get into.

And yet, I bet you could still buy one for real cheep! :)

Almost Summer (KRTH- Los Angeles) was also a white label promo vinyl  45  rpm with custom lyrics for the LA area.  I've heard a custom KFRC -San Francisco version and one for a Cleveland station.  Does anyone know about additional ones??

There was one for a Detroit station. Most of the custom versions were distributed solely on radio carts.

Damn right , I am amazed at this 'Buy It Now' price

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CELEBRATION-Mike-Love-LP-1978-Stern-PAC7-122-Mint-Minus-Condition-SEALED-/230737651449?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item35b90926f9#ht_1008wt_952

Jesus, it's worth maybe 10 times that.

Too right , if it was UK based I would buy it straight away and make quite a few quid on it ( ie at least £20 )

Is this the Bob Dylan "Country Pie" from his Nashville Skyline LP?

Nope: written by Ron Altbach & Ed Tuleja.

Have it.  Is it worth anything AGD?

More than $2.99.  ;D

'any on, some confusion being sowed... Aren't we talking Disco Celebration (1979, ADC Records LS-4052) as being the valuable rarity, not the original synonymous Celebration LP?

There's some question as to whether Disco Celebration was actually released, but that's much rarer then Celebration. It's also considerably worse than any LP you've ever heard.

Even SIP on Vinyl? ;D

I've always thought that "She's Just Out To Get You" could've been a hit if released as a single, and it is definitely one of Mike's best lead vocals, post-1975.

Yes it's worse. I don't know if it came out but I have one.

Not as much now but I used to see these all the time in the late eighties going for peanuts. I saw so many of them it would  be more than 5000 I would guess.

That is scary... :lol

There goes that retirement plan.  :(

Funny that it costs more for shipping then for the record!

Only heard the hilariously awful "Gettin' Hungry" version. I have to wonder what possessed Mike to dig that, of all songs, back out for disco/reggae re-interpretation.

Just curious, what do you mean by 'Beach Boys-related' songs? Obvious "Gettin' Hungry" is a remake of a BB song, but were the others all written with the intention of being recorded by the Boys?

Brian wrote Almost Summer, the band played Country Pie live during the 70's...

Cool, thanks. What about the others?

I meant as opposed to the many songs that have nothing to do with Mike or any of the other Beach Boys.

How's About a Little Bit was recorded by The Beach Boys though in a near identical version.

And I seem to remember that in AGD's liner notes for KTSA he stated that a couple of songs were considered but ultimately rejected.

AGD, could you please remind the audience the story of the first time you heard "Almost Summer" on the radio? :angel:

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. Mike was a full member of Celebration, I don't think any of the songs have "nothing to do" with him.

Much of the "Almost Summer" Soundtrack consisted of instrumentals, so unless Mike was chicken dancing in the control room as they were being cut.....

As another posted said, there's no way that Mike appeared on all of the Celebration songs by a long way.

There are only 3 or 4 songs on that first album that will be of any interest to BB fans.

On the second album it's possible that Mike sang backing vocals on the songs that he doesn't feature on I guess.

ah, this is where the confusion came in. way back when, I decided only four songs on "Almost Summer" interested me and over the years forget that the other tracks on the album were even Celebration tracks. but at this point I'd be interested in hearing all of them. of course, I also have a Chris Farmer solo album and have purchased six Jeffrey Foskett songs from iTunes, so perhaps I am not the most reliable opinion.

OK - back in 1978, my then-gf and I were sharing some quality time when on the radio I hear "Sum-sum-summer/And it's/Almost summer..." and I, er, paused and said "that sounds like The Beach Boys". Glare. "I'm sure that's The Beach Boys". GLARE. "No, really, that's definitely The Beach Boys", which earned me a slap, the reply "I don't believe this is happening" and the feeling that I was suddenly alone in the room.

...Man, I'm glad my wife's a fan too.  If I did that, we'd probably both end up equally distracted.  :-)

Cheers,
Jon Blum

You owe me a new keyboard-maybe one that's tea resistant
*pretends this has never happened to me*
 ;D

I remember bringing my cassette recorder to the Beach Boys concert in Milwaukee 1978 and Mike spending a lot of time teaching the crowd Country Pie in a sing along. I'm pretty sure that the sax player from Celebration was there and also played a long instrumental. When I would play the tape back I usually hit the ff to get to the Beach Boys stuff. Thinking back the best thing about that show was Denny was there and in good form too.

It's official; The Beach Boys mean more to some of us than sex.

Hahaha, this is great. that would probably happen to me.

Haven't listened to the Almost Summer album for ages. I recall that two of the instrumentals sounded similar to the tune of Shes' Got Rythm ^-^

Surely do.  :)

I saw a version of Celebration in 1977. I can't remember if Al was there too but he might have been.

Ahh you're all full of bunk. Of course it was released. I've got it. Took seemingly forever to find!  It was on a small label, nobody wanted it and most of them  that didn't get recycled are sitting in a warehouse somewhere( I think in Paraguay with the Honeys Box Set )  waiting for the REAL Disco resurgence. But I don't want everyone here to have to take AGD's word for the sound, so open your hearts to Mike Love: 

Here's the back cover: 
   
    (http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww302/bgasnow/scan0004-15.jpg)

And you can get side 1 here:            http://www.sendspace.com/file/vy721v   

And Side 2 here:        http://www.sendspace.com/file/btmz0x

Thanks for things, bgas. I your signature.  ;)

And here I was, never thinking I'd ever listen to a 'Disco Symphony' by Mike Love. Thank you, bgas, for making my strangest dreams reality  :lol



Oh my lord, this is awful. I love it, if I wasn't so tired I would drunkenly review the hell of out this. California Girls has to be heard to be believed.....  ;D

May have been pressed and shrink-wrapped, but I've yet to find anyone who bought one in a store. Asked Ron about it and he thought it was 'released' as a freebie with Amex.

Me want…

First Love is fine but the rest...

Indeed, "California Girls" has to be heard to believed, as someone stated upthread. I am once again shocked Mike Love doesn't do drugs and never did. I guess he didn't have much to do with this album though, viewing it as a "franchise" of the venerable Celebration brand.

Incidentally, does anyone know if these recordings are now in the public domain?

No, but  in about 85 years, or so, they will be.

Think you need BB Remedial 101 - all the band have done drugs at sometime or other, except Bruce. Yes, even Brian, as unbelievable as that may seem.  :)

Am I a numpty or what?  Hadn't spotted the links!

Million thanks Bgas, listening now and loving it… "c'mon, let's party, are you ready?"

Sorry, links don't work...

Not arguing it was pressed up and shrinkwrapped, but when I spoke with Ron last century he told me it never got past that stage and that all the albums were bought by a credit card company to give away as a freebie. Apparently they never did.

Weak case of sarcasm directed at Brianistas (?) or is there actually something I'm not getting here? I thought it was firmly established (even to the very general audience) that Brian, next to dear Denny, was the BBs' prime example for drug-induced shenanigans + lunacy? I don't know anybody who wouldn't say so.

(http://24.media.tumblr.com/1b58c8132d18c35a88cbcf5504f370d3/tumblr_mfb0x89k2M1qjqog8o3_500.jpg)

Yeah, my links last about a week I think. Long enough to grab them if you want to hear em.
Here they are again, last time I ever post this stuff; save it for your future friends: 

Side 1:  http://www.sendspace.com/file/7aj67f

Side 2:  http://www.sendspace.com/file/xz69b4

What about a Celebration reunion? Most of the key players are around. Love, Altbach, Gary Griffen, Kowalski, Ed C....and get Stamos involved, do an Almost Summer movie remake. Keep him busy for a year or two. ;)

The cover to one of the albums has a lot of live photo shots of the USC show right?  Maybe that's what you registered as being a live album?  I know when I saw it that's the impression I first got.

*duplicate post*

Possible I gues but it's a long fine ago. I think I already had both the soundtrack LP and the Celebration  album at the time I think I saw the bootleg - but we're lokely taking three decades ago!

The second album, on Mike Nesmith's Pacific Arts label, had all the UCLA pix and clippings on the front. Reportedly only 5000 were pressed. Never heard of a live Celebration boot.

Look now. That has to be it, and here's the one you probably saw; still has  29 cents written on the cover 

    (http://i60.tinypic.com/9isozk.jpg)

Yup, that's the one I remember...wow, that particular Altbach photo front and center is a harsh toke, isn't it?  It's just not a very hip attractive cover even by the standards of the day.  Apologies to Dean if this is one of his'n.

Aye but… pretty sure, as mentioned, that I already had this LP at the time I saw my suspect live LP/boot. Only thing contradicting me/making me doubt my own sanity is the fact that it doesn't look like there's ever been a Celebrafion live LP/boot!!!

Like, who would bother?

Clincher! Bgas draws a line under the matter! ;D

At least 4 of those pictures are completely un-hip.

Just in case no one has mentioned it, you've got one of the best avatars on the board.  :tm :tm

OSD needs an avatar... ;D

Who needs Mike Love when you have Karlheinz Carl Regenberg?

(https://scontent.flas1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10850118_10203681745473731_2129267995559238219_n.jpg?oh=43c78ddd337d132c636eb5d81a1ce5a4&oe=56A798D8)

Roger that, SB. This could be interesting! If interested, anyone can play. And as a disclaimer, any and all entries will be viewed for consideration whether it be endearing or insulting because I can take it. There will be absolutely no retribution and to show my appreciation for coming up with the best avatar, I promise to send you a prize for your time. But, it's not just any prize to be sure! I will send to you via regular mail, an original cassette of ROCK AND ROLL CITY in very good condition. Hear myKe and Dean slay hits like Wild Thing, 96 Tears, Sugar Shack, Da Doo Ron Ron, Baby Talk with myKe luHv bleating his very best on those and others. Why, you'll be the envy of your record collecting crowd and they'll think you're the coolest guy on the block!! Don't wait, start on my avatar TODAY and claim your well earned prize.   :woot :woot :woot

That might be better than some of my John & Yoko cds...

Nobody wants to play the OSD avatar challenge? :-\

Nobody answered because nobody cares.

Well I care..... ::)

You're a one-man cheerleading squad. :)

Well you are one for the lovester. >:D

 :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol

Oh man it seems the links don't work any longer! I cant find these songs anywhere

Fascinating twist I just learned today: Apparently Disco Celebration was licensed for distribution in Mexico: https://www.discogs.com/Celebration-Disco-Celebration/release/11800744.