SMiLE Sessions box set!

[Rocker]

I wonder how they will ship the surfboard......

[The Heartical Don]

I wonder how they will ship the surfboard......

You are expected to fly over and surf home yourself, rest of the box on your back.

[Rocker]

But I'm landlocked

[The Shift]

My board came properly packed in a foam padded box and I hit the surf straight away! Best board I've ever owned.  Great turns. Handles real smooth. You should see the admiring stares from the towpath!

Came with some CDs that I've strung out across the allotment to scare the birds off my gooseberries. My lass's making fruit bowls out of the vinyl as I type, and Little Sierra is drawing a lovely picture of a moo cow on the back of a poster that was in the box.

What a board though!

Glad I got in there before they're sold out!


 

[The Heartical Don]

My board came properly packed in a foam padded box and I hit the surf straight away! Best board I've ever owned.  Great turns. Handles real smooth. You should see the admiring stares from the towpath!

Came with some CDs that I've strung out across the allotment to scare the birds off my gooseberries. My lass's making fruit bowls out of the vinyl as I type, and Little Sierra is drawing a lovely picture of a moo cow on the back of a poster that was in the box.

What a board though!

Glad I got in there before they're sold out!


 

I am planning to turn mine straight away into an ironing board. I can't surf. And I want to make those collector geeks as envious and angry as possible. So my Pendleton shirts will be ironed the way they should be.

[Ron]

Let's hear some guesses as to what Vegetables is going to have. That one seems like a big mystery. It's listed as 3:49, 20 seconds longer than the GVbox, and a staggering minute and a half longer than BWPS. Could be some exciting stuff in there.

Personally, i'm hoping it's just 3 minutes and 49 seconds of Marilyn lovingly crooning in my ear, telling me that she'll feel better when i send her a letter telling her the name of my favorite vegetable.

I had a dream last night that Capitol talked Paul McCartney into shooting a promo video for the album with him singing Vegatables and chewing on a carrot.  LOL

[Myk Luhv]

I hope that download code will offer both lossy (mp3) and lossless (FLAC) options...

[monicker]

Let's hear some guesses as to what Vegetables is going to have. That one seems like a big mystery. It's listed as 3:49, 20 seconds longer than the GVbox, and a staggering minute and a half longer than BWPS. Could be some exciting stuff in there.

Personally, i'm hoping it's just 3 minutes and 49 seconds of Marilyn lovingly crooning in my ear, telling me that she'll feel better when i send her a letter telling her the name of my favorite vegetable.

I had a dream last night that Capitol talked Paul McCartney into shooting a promo video for the album with him singing Vegatables and chewing on a carrot.  LOL

I would be ecstatic if Paul Mcartney was never again mentioned alongside Vegetables.

[The Heartical Don]

Let's hear some guesses as to what Vegetables is going to have. That one seems like a big mystery. It's listed as 3:49, 20 seconds longer than the GVbox, and a staggering minute and a half longer than BWPS. Could be some exciting stuff in there.

Personally, i'm hoping it's just 3 minutes and 49 seconds of Marilyn lovingly crooning in my ear, telling me that she'll feel better when i send her a letter telling her the name of my favorite vegetable.

I had a dream last night that Capitol talked Paul McCartney into shooting a promo video for the album with him singing Vegatables and chewing on a carrot.  LOL

I would be ecstatic if Paul Mcartney was never again mentioned alongside Vegetables.

I have nothing against Macca in person, but I do understand your feelings perfectly! 

[The Shift]

I hope that download code will offer both lossy (mp3) and lossless (FLAC) options...

… if anyone ever confirms it.    

[willy]

Huh. All this speculation, rhetoric, what-ifs, opinions, half-baked philosophies... huh...... until this stuff is released only "those-in-the-know" know anything, the rest of us are just dummies. 

[rab2591]

I hope that download code will offer both lossy (mp3) and lossless (FLAC) options...

… if anyone ever confirms it.    

Indeed. I think if something like this were to have happened it would've been mentioned in the box set promo vid....

[The Heartical Don]

Huh. All this speculation, rhetoric, what-ifs, opinions, half-baked philosophies... huh...... until this stuff is released only "those-in-the-know" know anything, the rest of us are just dummies. 

I'd rather be the dummy I am now (with 4 songs of TSS at the ready), then the total ignorant I was a year ago.

[Micha]

I am planning to turn mine straight away into an ironing board. I can't surf. And I want to make those collector geeks as envious and angry as possible. So my Pendleton shirts will be ironed the way they should be.

How cool would that be - a SMiLE IRONING BOARD!!! 

[rab2591]

Sorry if this has already been asked/answered (been away from the board for awhile)...

Was the new Heroes and Villains track pieced together based on a newly found acetate?

The inclusion of the Smiley version of the 'Boys and Girls' section makes this idea less likely....but perhaps Mark was given some artistic license to change a few parts while still basing the majority of the track on a newly found acetate....

[The Heartical Don]

I am planning to turn mine straight away into an ironing board. I can't surf. And I want to make those collector geeks as envious and angry as possible. So my Pendleton shirts will be ironed the way they should be.

How cool would that be - a SMiLE IRONING BOARD!!!  

...I will sing along with doing the shirts: 'who ran the iron horse, who ran the iron horse...'

[Boiled Egg]

Here's a reasonable, if provocative, question: isn't it at times like these (when the archive has been plundered, copied, etc) that a crack opens in the security and a new slew of boots appears?  (I'm thinking Beatles history: the release of the Lewisohn book, the Anthology project, the remasters, Rockband -- all these tentpole moments let a pile of stuff slip.)

[The Heartical Don]

Here's a reasonable, if provocative, question: isn't it at times like these (when the archive has been plundered, copied, etc) that a crack opens in the security and a new slew of boots appears?  (I'm thinking Beatles history: the release of the Lewisohn book, the Anthology project, the remasters, Rockband -- all these tentpole moments let a pile of stuff slip.)

I take it you are referring to 'Remember The Zoo', that will now replace SMiLE as the long-lost Fabergé Egg or something?

[Boiled Egg]

Here's a reasonable, if provocative, question: isn't it at times like these (when the archive has been plundered, copied, etc) that a crack opens in the security and a new slew of boots appears?  (I'm thinking Beatles history: the release of the Lewisohn book, the Anthology project, the remasters, Rockband -- all these tentpole moments let a pile of stuff slip.)

I take it you are referring to 'Remember The Zoo', that will now replace SMiLE as the long-lost Fabergé Egg or something?

I'm thinking 'what if there's a 45-minute wig-out of You Are My Sunshine'?  I can dream, can't I?

[The Heartical Don]

Here's a reasonable, if provocative, question: isn't it at times like these (when the archive has been plundered, copied, etc) that a crack opens in the security and a new slew of boots appears?  (I'm thinking Beatles history: the release of the Lewisohn book, the Anthology project, the remasters, Rockband -- all these tentpole moments let a pile of stuff slip.)

I take it you are referring to 'Remember The Zoo', that will now replace SMiLE as the long-lost Fabergé Egg or something?

I'm thinking 'what if there's a 45-minute wig-out of You Are My Sunshine'?  I can dream, can't I?

  (highest accolade I give)

[guitarfool2002]

I will say that hearing mid-60's songs as they were broadcast on AM radio - which is essentially why they were mixed a certain way, EQ'ed a certain way, and mastered a certain way to sound good over AM - can be a revelation. Songs heard in the format they were mixed and mastered to sound best come alive. A remaster, remix, or digital reissue cannot touch the impact of hearing those originals on AM broadcasts.

Amen. I used to think that was a load of bull until I heard a version of "Get Off My Cloud" by the Stones at a museum that was played back on equipment that simulated/recreated the sound of '60s AM radio. Man, it blew my mind. It was just this insane wall of sound. It's much different than what you'd hear if you played it on modern equipment. NOW I get why a reviewer at the time called it a "cacophony". I just thought he was being stodgy. But on old AM radios, it truly was a glorious cacophony.

Now I wonder what Spector sounded like back then... I'd probably get as obsessed as Brian if I ever heard it.

Probyn mentioned something to this effect to me....that 60's singles were put through an additional tube pre-amp before broadcast on AM radios, which resulted in a really warm sound that we just don't have access to anymore. Something to be said about hearing Good Vibrations for the first time on the AM radio.........lets be honest Brian was a singles guy + on the AM radio his songs (along with Jan & Dean, Spector, Motown, etc etc) probably sounded the best they ever will, no matter how many times they're remastering/mixing them

I'd like to confirm this with specifics to back up Probyn's statement about AM radio in the mid to late 60's. I'll use Brian's "home station" of KHJ in Los Angeles as the example, because what they were doing from 65 to 69 as part of the "Boss Radio" format was copied across the USA, not only by stations in their own Drake-Chenault network but also the competition to the Drake stations, in all major markets.

The sound of an AM station was very much in the hands of the station engineers, who at that time had to have an extensive technical background, actually run the transmitters and maintain them, and carry various FCC licenses for various parts of their job, since they were actually "broadcasting" and not just sitting at a mic and a laptop for a podcast or satellite broadcast. Each station's broadcast signal could vary from weak, to average where only the immediate city and suburbs could receive the broadcast, to the "blowtorch" stations which on a good night could be heard hundreds of miles away. There are still AM news stations today which carry such strong signals, and consider back in the day picking up top-40 rock and pop from many states away. Very neat.

Getting back to engineering, KHJ would deliberately process records they'd play on the air a certain way. Their records would "cut through" the broadcast band and be louder and more present than the competition across the dial. Part of what they did was compress the living hell out of the records at the station.

What a compressor did was allow the maximum volume to be achieved without going into distortion, and the classic compressors would also allow certain frequencies to be boosted and heard much more up front than you'd hear playing it on a normal turntable. This made records literally pump or pulse out of the speaker depending on how much bass was in the original mix. It gave records on KHJ and similar stations a certain character, and it could sound fucking awesome in the right situations. Motown, Stax, "Sloop John B", etc...anything with a present bass thump that would normally be lost would come alive after KHJ processed it and compressed it.

There was a great anecdote about driving down Sunset Strip in LA, mid to late 60's, and most car radios were tuned to KHJ. So you'd hear a pulsing effect going down the street as all the cars had the same song playing on their radios, with KHJ's bass pumping away. That would be beyond cool, and what a scene.

So...I can say without a doubt, as Probyn had said, we are not hearing these songs in 2011 as they were heard and meant to be heard by the original audiences. When the AM station was weak, that was a bad thing. When it was a blowtorch like KHJ or another big-city station, it was a different experience than what we know and accept about listening to music and experiencing it beyond hearing the song.

[Micha]

Sorry if this has already been asked/answered (been away from the board for awhile)...

Was the new Heroes and Villains track pieced together based on a newly found acetate?

I don't think so. They recreated the BWPS version using the 1966/67 recordings.

[Micha]

I am planning to turn mine straight away into an ironing board. I can't surf. And I want to make those collector geeks as envious and angry as possible. So my Pendleton shirts will be ironed the way they should be.

How cool would that be - a SMiLE IRONING BOARD!!!  

...I will sing along with doing the shirts: 'who ran the iron horse, who ran the iron horse...'

You finally uncovered what that line is about. He's in the cabin ironing is clothes and talking to his horse. "Who ran the iron, horse?" 

[The Heartical Don]

I am planning to turn mine straight away into an ironing board. I can't surf. And I want to make those collector geeks as envious and angry as possible. So my Pendleton shirts will be ironed the way they should be.

How cool would that be - a SMiLE IRONING BOARD!!!  

...I will sing along with doing the shirts: 'who ran the iron horse, who ran the iron horse...'

You finally uncovered what that line is about. He's in the cabin ironing is clothes and talking to his horse. "Who ran the iron, horse?" 

 

[shmenge7372]

On the Hoffman board, there was some talk as to whether 'Holidays' was originally DYLW and if what we have to come to know as DYLW (Roll Plymouth Rock) was a reworking of that song.  Made me start to wonder if it was always Brian's intention to follow-up Pet Sounds with an entire album of modular songs or whether the success of the GV single led him in this direction as 'Look' and 'Holidays', which I believe were tracked as complete predate the GV release and Brian seems to abandon this in favor of modular recording in 10/66.  We do hear echoes of those in other SMiLE tracks though.  I've always thought elements of 'Look' could be found in/or reworked for GV, Wonderful, and CIFTM - and 'Holidays' is alleged to have been the home of the Roll Plymouth Rock lyrics which may be why Al had stated that "Worms' was not what has been traditionally accepted as such.
Not really earth shattering stuff but I'm just sharing some thoughts as I count down to November 1st.  I could have my timeline all messed up as well which would totally negate this conjecture but I expect the experts on this board will correct me if I'm off.