The Smiley Smile Message Board

From Azoff

"We're going to announce a major deal with a streamer for the definitive documentary on The Beach Boys and a 60th anniversary celebration. We’re planning a tribute concert affiliated with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and SiriusXM, with amazing acts. That’s adding value, and that’s why I invested in The Beach Boys"

Sounds nice but I would love a tour

https://m.hitsdailydouble.com/news&id=326687&title=COMBO-PLATTER%3A-IRVING-%2B-HITS-2021 (https://m.hitsdailydouble.com/news&id=326687&title=COMBO-PLATTER%3A-IRVING-%2B-HITS-2021)

A streamer, which means I'll have to wait for the DVD/Blu Ray release before I can see it.

Getting a streamer involved is how you get this kind of stuff funded and made now. 

Just subscribing for the month it premieres is very,  very simple. 

If, like me, you saw the above link and read the Beach Boys paragraph and thought ‘that’s it, I don’t need to read the story’ you will do yourself a disservice.

Read the story. It’s how the industry will be for the next few years as we get out of this thing.

Thanks for the link Shady. Very interesting.

The streaming documentary is a positive development.  Let's face it.  Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Max... these are now perhaps the most significant way most folks take anything resembling a deep-dive into video content.

Sure, there have been some good BB/BW docs in the past (e.g., American Band, Endless Harmony, IJWMFTT etc.), but having a real solid definitive bio on something like a Netflix would go a long way in exposing the musical legacy to new audiences and explaining the significance of it all.

I'm less sanguine about the 60th anniversary tribute concert.  I don't know who Azoff has in mind for that, and I don't really care.  For all I know, he's lined up the biggest acts in popular music, but, frankly, who cares?   

I'd much rather just see the surviving members of the group do a few ragged numbers around an off-key piano than to see Lady Gaga or Jay-Z or whomever put their stamp on God Only Knows and Don't Worry, Baby.

I'm looking forward to the doc. As mentioned before there have come up so many interesting short clips of the Boys in the 60s that have never been used in any doc and I would love to see those kind of things being in there. The amazing Ida Blackburn footage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z4N4BSs4Ic) is just one example. Or what about the interview from 1965 with Glen Campbell as member of the group. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KWXFqTgXf0) Then you also have quite a bit of live material, even if sometimes just short snippets. As part of a documentary they could still be used. This would make the movie much more exciting than Endless Harmony or An American Band, who both had only limited amount of footage.


I'm not much interested in a tribute show. And I especially find the idea cringeworthy of the Boys appearing with other acts to sing their songs. I don't believe in a Beach Boys tour. The Beach Boys as a live act had their last moment in 2012. I just don't think that they can keep a full tour going in their age (especially Brian, since he had some health problems in the last few years and I don't know how well he is).


My idea would be:

- a great documentary that goes deep into the band and all of it's members, not just the Brian side.
- possibly a release of the 2012 Rolling Stone unplugged set and/or another show from 2012 in great sound and picture.
- if they can do another show and be as great as 2012, then I'll gladly take that of course as well. Same goes for another album. If they have the goods, then bring it on, althugh I was one of those who said, stop after TWGMTR and don't destroy that beautiful ending. But if Brian has more songs (he has, we know that), and Mike gets his sh!t together to finally come up with good lyrics again, maybe Al has something worthwhile as well (IIRC Mike and David worked on one of David's songs in 2012, so why not try that one?), Bruce certainly has something interesting, (but please Boys, don't even think of re-recordings of your old songs) I guess a new recording product coud be nice. Maybe get Blondie and Ricky in there. Athough I'm still not sure if the Boys would deliver. The band has a history of blowing everything up. I'm afraid the dignified ending of their recording carreer with TWGMTR will gest destroyed by another Stars&Stripes

I'm with you on these. The Rolling Stone unplugged is a treasure, just wish we could have it in HD. They must have the audio recordings and also a lot of video from the 2012 tour. Why not finally release that stuff out there? Without messing up with the material like they did with that horrendous "live" CD after the tour that sounded nothing like the shows. Now that would be a great way to celebrate the 60th anniversary and fans would love it. Especially the 2 last London shows were PHENOMENAL and Brian was on top of his game vocally and everything. I want to get a HD release of those, please!  ;D

The streaming documentary sounds great, I've been waiting for that for years. I hope it's a deal with Netflix, that would mean a huge exposure and a lot of new younger fans. That would be great. Sure, HBO or whatever would be fine as well. My only issue with that is, that I hope that the group itself isn't too much involved. I mean, it's great to have new interviews, but my main problem with the older Beach Boys docs is the obvious whitewashing of the band history. And I hate it how EVERY Beach Boys doc just fast forwards from Pet Sounds to Kokomo. Just like the recent Bee Gees doc completely forgot to mention all the great stuff they did in the early 70s and in the 80s, not to mention their great last album from just 20 years ago. Just all about early days, disco and that's it.

I don't want to see yet another Beach Boys doc with the same superficial story that goes: Surf sound - Brian is a genius who does Pet Sounds - Band faces personal problems - Kokomo - Still cruising after all these years. There's no point to tell that story again. I want a deeper, longer, hopefully a miniseries type of thing with a director with a vision. Much like the great George Harrison doc.

Since they have a lot of studio albums it would be hard to release them individually as deluxe versions but that would be great, I don’t think will happen but it would be great.
Just give us unreleased material, more stuff from 1970 to 73.
Give us Beachago!
Give us great merchandise!
Give us more Dennis!
Give us more Carl!

It's hard to think about what this new documentary could say that hasn't already been said. I guess the biggest value is the fact that the information itself is being presented on a major streaming service and, therefore, getting wider exposure. As a big Beatles fan, I didn't learn a whole lot of "new" information from "Eight Days a Week," but having that documentary on Hulu undoubtedly does a great deal of good for their brand. The same goes for the tribute concert. For better or worse, I don't have much interest in hearing others' interpretations of the Boys' music. On the other hand, the 2001 Brian tribute gave us some good performances. Obviously, the greatest thing that could come from a tribute concert would be a finale performance by the Boys themselves. I don't expect a tour by any means, but considering how sour the 2012 split was, coming back on stage together one last time would be nice.

Agreed.  It's all about exposing the music and the story to new audiences.  For the core fan, there's almost nothing a documentary would add at this point. Almost nothing. Probably nothing.  But, never say never.  If, for example, some long-lost "Inside Pop" footage surfaced and showed Brian and the boys singing out some previously unknown Smile lyrics, our minds. Would. Be. Freakin'. Blown. 8)

I think if they're going to make a truly definitive documentary, they at least need to cover more than what's already been covered in previous documentaries. I want them to tell the WHOLE story, including the things we never hear about. All of the album cycles, the unreleased albums, the bedroom years, Blondie and Ricky, all of the Landy stuff, solo career details, Mike taking over as the touring face of the band after Carl passed, the 2012 reunion and how it ended, recording TWGMTR. Everything. I don't want to hear about how God Only Knows is Paul McCartney's favorite song again.

Don’t forget a good healthy dose of Manson

Very exciting!!

As for a documentary, I'd like in depth coverage of everything past 67, EH acknowledged what happened in the 70's and on, but without much detail. I wanna hear about the quirky albums like MIU and SIP. I wanna hear from Mike's guys about what the last 20+ years have been like with M&B keeping the band going, all the members in interviews (including Glen, Blondie & Ricky)

I too would rather have the actual Boys perform their concert, but I'm sure the tribute show will be great!!

In my opinion, this Azoff deal is incredible. He's handling things beautifully.

If I never hear another word about Manson again it will be too soon!

Can't say I'm interested in a tribute concert, either, as most of the people I would like to see onstage with the Beach Boys are dead. A better show could be put together using vintage clips of various artists covering their songs. B.J. Thomas singing Don't Worry Baby; Glen Campbell singing with the group or covering one of their songs; The Everly Brothers singing with the Boys on the 1987 tv special; Johnny Rivers doing Help Me Rhonda.

If it even goes to DVD/Blu-Ray. Depending on the content/streamer sometimes exclusive shows and movies don't even end up in physical format. Coldplay's band documentary 'A Head Full Of Dreams' is an Amazon exclusive and is not available for purchase in a physical format. Apple TV+ is also a great example of streaming content not available in a physical format.

I agree with HeyJude: sign up for whatever streaming service it is on for a month to view it - and most streaming services give you a free-trial period so if you cancel after you watch the documentary you won't be charged a penny for it.

And Juggler has a great point about exposure: this is a wonderful opportunity for the masses to be introduced to the full view of this band. Though I'm not signed up for Netflix, hopefully they get the documentary as they have millions of subscribers. But Apple TV+ would be great, because they could tie it in with Apple Music and really push the documentary on multiple platforms. Also, Apple TV+ just released the show 1971, whose official soundtrack closes with 'Feel Flows'.

All great news, thanks for sharing!

Please understand, I prefer to own rather than stream BB documentaries.

Me, too.

I get where you're coming from and I think most of us feel this way too. I'm just saying that owning this may not be an option (even in the long run) depending on how they set this up.

Exactly.  Would someone not watch this doc if it was on like NBC if it never comes to home video? 

If you've ever watched the thousand times the Beach Boys have been on TV, watching something on Netflix or wherever is the same thing. 

And your other point is important.  A streamer is preferable.  They have far deeper pockets to fund it,  and it gets a million times more exposure that way than if it gets dumped straight to disc.

I bow to nobody in my preference for holding the physical release in my hand and owning it.  I would hope any BB doc series also gets a physical release.  But anyone going out of their way to not stream anything is either going to miss or out be waiting quite awhile while everybody else enjoys it on streaming on day one.

I really don't have a lot of interest in a tribute concert, where others non associated acts are singing their leads with barely recognizable back ground vocals from almost 80 year olds. Would be much better to hear them unplugged and acoustic, like they did on the 50th anniverssary tour, seated with guitars. Wonderful versions of surfer girl and surfin USA from that performance.

Whatever happens, we must include Rocky Pamplin in this!!! :o

Or you could join the 21st century.

Did you ever consider that some people live in areas where they can only get spotty Internet and/or they can't afford a bunch of streaming services?

Thank you.

Classic Marty!

I've been reading Rocky's book lately (I'm a slow reader) but I can't say it's very good. I'd probably rate it on par with his vocal performance on his version of California Feelin'.

Sure, but you seemed to say you simply prefer to own physical media. Which, I can say, most of us do. Your position seem to indicate you'd prefer a doc to either go straight to physical media release, or I suppose be released day-and-date on disc and streaming. I and a few others have pointed out that that idea ignores how streaming services work (the point is to have exclusive content, at least during a certain window, to entice people to join the service), and ignores that getting a streamer on board is the *best* way to procure a good budget for a documentary and get *far wider* distribution for people to see it.

The point would be to have a documentary that's something more like "The Beatles Anthology" and not so much like Billy Hinsche's home-made straight-to-DVD documentaries (which are just fine; I'm just using that as an example of a project made with essentially next to zero budget and few resources).

If someone says "Man, I wish I could watch this on a streamer, but my area doesn't have fast enough internet", I of course would not then continue to advise them to try it. Stuff can be streamed in SD at a pretty low bitrate via most streaming services, so unless an area has no option but dial-up, I'm not sure it would be difficult to stream video even with lower speed old DSL, or what have you. But sure, I'm aware there are rural areas where streaming can't be done (or done easily or cheaply, meaning without a satellite internet set up, etc.).

As for cost, as several folks have been saying, many of the streaming services have free trials.

And, the monthly cost of even the most expensive large streaming service is still cheaper than a DVD or Blu-ray set would be of a BB documentary.

Watching a BB doc on a streaming services wouldn't require "a bunch" of subscriptions. It would only take one, and I'd guess it would probably only require one month or maybe even a single day to watch it all, depending on the length of the doc and whether, if it's in multiple parts, the service drops all episodes at once or releases them weekly.

HeyJude, you mistake what I am saying.  I do wish to own a physical copy of this doc, and I would happily go see it in a theater. I live in a semi-rural area where streaming doesn't work well, due to spotty Internet service and constant buffering. I don't mind that the doc goes to streamers, I just want it to be available to an audience beyond streaming and pay-per-view.

I'll leave the gnawing on the issue to others here, I'm done with it. I hope it's a great documentary, and look forward to seeing it.

Sure, understood. I just wanted to point out that going to a streaming service for something like this is more than simply a format preference or distribution issue.

In these cases, the streamer is not simply a distribution hub, but also the entity funding and co-producing or producing the programming. Sometimes, it's Netflix or Amazon or HBO Max, or nothing at all.

And also, casting the widest net with the programming is important as well, and for many reasons, a streaming service is absolutely ideal for a long-form or multi-part BB documentary. It not only gets it out to more people, but it's a format that people equate with streaming services now, so that programming and format all feed off of each other. And the BBs truly need a *multi-part* documentary series. It just can't all be covered in 90-120 minutes like "An American Band" or "Endless Harmony." Maybe the BBs don't require 10 hours like "The Beatles Anthology" (I'm not sure a lot of coverage is needed of the Summer 1995 tour or whatever), but one of those streaming services putting out a 4 to 6-part documentary totaling 5 or 6 hours would be great.

I would guess that if a streaming service picks up a multi-part BB documentary, it will *eventually* be released on disc as well. But it's sometimes a LONG wait. Not like a 3-month theatrical release window, but like a 6 or 9 months or a year.

I'm sure the HD will be a welcome upgrade, but otherwise the trend for these recent documentaries has invariably been: more superficial, more contemporary talking heads, more of an EPK for the band than a die hard deep dive. I'd love to be wrong, though, of course...

Case in point: the recent pseudo-documentary 'Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story By Martin Scorsese' was a released as a Netflix exclusive (06/07/2019), only available to view through streaming until a full year and a half after its initial release when it was finally issued on DVD and Blu-Ray as part of the Criterion Collection (01/19/2021).