The Smiley Smile Message Board

As pleased as I'll be to hold it in my hands, it will be sad to acknowledge that this is almost certainly the final chapter in the Beach Boys story. The rest will be footnotes.

All good things come to an end. Only bad things last forever.

Like The Mike and Bruce show?






Sorry.  ;D

 ;D snigger...

Nah, not the final chapter. Not even the final chapter in the story of SMiLE…

Naw, if the world were to end tomorrow, the only things left standing would be the cockroaches and the Mike & Bruce show.

I think the smile sessions will open a can of worms that will never be shut

well then i guess the real question is... Do You Like Worms?

I'll be there with the cockroaches.  Won't you? ;) 

There's still Wouldn't It Be Nice to Live Again.

What will happen is, the box set will come out, and somebody-a band member, a relative of someone who knows someone, etc.-will say 'Well, I still know that there are bits that haven't been heard'. And we'll all go 'AHHHH!'.

Well, I don't think anyone would try to deny that Smile is the last really big goldmine left, but there are some smaller silvermines (yes, I know that's not a word) that could be of interest to us.

This is mainly wishful thinking but single-disc reissues of each album with bonus tracks and mono/stereo where applicable, including proper reissues of Still Cruisin' and Summer In Paradise; like it or not (where have you gone, oldsurferdude?) they're part of the band's history and should be available. Add single mixes as bonus tracks, as well as previously released bonus tracks and maybe a few new things if space permits.

If the single-disc reissues of each album don't happen (and I doubt they would) then a very serviceable two or three disc set of outtakes and rarities could be assembled. It would be a good way to bring a lot of long out of print tracks back into general circulation.

A proper reissue of Looking Back With Love, with bonus tracks if possible. A release of First Love wouldn't hurt either, assuming it ever finds a way out of the legal limbo it has been in since the 1980s. Same goes for Michael's 2004 unreleased Unleash the Love/Mike Love Not War album. I don't think anyone would be begging for a release of Country Love or the Baker sessions...

Proper reissues of BOTH of Carl's albums, with the obligatory bonus tracks. Also, an official release of the Bottom Line tape wouldn't hurt either.

A disc of 1967-73 Dennis stuff, including stuff done for the "Poops"/"Hubba Hubba" project. I'd say a single disc would cover the period pretty well, but I'm always up for surprises (double disc set?).

A disc of the POB tour rehearsals.

A disc of Brian and Bob Norberg's home recordings.

A disc of Brian's piano demos.

A disc of Wilson/Usher 1986-87 sessions.

The Paley sessions.

Live tapes, either from professional recordings or from soundboards.

There are plenty of potential releases. These are just a few examples.

I'd like an official release of the sessions from Today or any other official release of the sea of tunes material down the road as well. I'd also like the lei'd in Hawaii live album released.

It may be the last big chapter, but the footnotes will continue until long after the Boys have passed on.

Why?


Why?


Why?

Just as an aside, but I remember reading the booklet to the GV boxset and they promised the imminent release of a rarities set that would include odd songs from soundtracks and other uncollected works which has yet to arrive, and that was twenty frickin years ago, so I'm a bit skeptical of any interesting anything coming out ever.

Why not?

If next year we get a deluxe 5-disc boxset of Mike Love solo material I know who to blame.  ;D

AGD? They're bashing LBWL, buddy. Time to man up and show 'em just how great of an album it is! :)

Looking Back With Love and Carl Wilson are fine. Country Love and Youngblood deserve to be buried in a landfill, not reissued.

I say the same about BWPS! Different strokes, different folks.

For physical media...Smile may be the end.  But if they earnestly went the digital distribution route, releasing either through iTunes or BBCentral (LOL) they could annually release comps like Hawthorne, CA full of unreleased material + stereo remixes.

I actually prefer Youngblood to the first album. Except for Heaven, the rest of the album kind of keeps waiting for that kick start to get going. CW is OK, but Youngblood was a much better effort overall. BTW, Youngblood was reissued last year.

The importance of the release of the "SMiLE" album itself is an event that really cannot be understated.  It's something that not only us as die-hard fans for years have clamored for but will finally close the chapter officially as to The Beach Boys' album "SMiLE". 

It is really something long overdue.  I don't believe that I'm the only fan who hasn't in the past twenty years flipped through The Beach Boys' section in a cd rack (or going further back, a record bin) and hoped to see "The Happy Album Cover" alongside "Pet Sounds", "Today" and all the other great Beach Boys albums.  It deserves to be there.  It's a real disservice to both Beach Boys fans and music fans in general that this album hasn't existed since Brian junked it back in 1967.

I'm not even talking here about the dreams and fantasies about what a finished "SMiLE" album might contain or sound like.  That is a debate that will probably never die down because quite frankly The Wizard no longer can remember (or cares to remember) what keys will unlock the kingdom of Oz.  Instead he did the best he could do by his fans and gave them an enjoyable presentation of the music that he had already put down on tape ages ago and for most of us that will have to be good enough as far as a final word from BW on "SMiLE".

Instead what I'm speaking of is the fact that incomplete as it is, the music that The Beach Boys and The Wrecking Crew recorded for "SMiLE" is not only some of the best music they ever recorded but is certainly in the discussion for some of the best music that has ever been committed to tape.  It doesn't belong hidden away on a box set or obscured on a bootleg.  It belongs presented to the public, in cohesive form, in high sound quality and in a glossy package.  Despite the fact that Brian never brought his "SMiLE" vision to fruition in 1966/1967 he still recorded a releasable album. 

The music contained on the GV box set and numerous bootlegs is beyond listenable and the majority of it is extremely top-shelf work.  That music deserves to sit among the rest of The Beach Boys' catalog on a cd rack and be purchased and enjoyed by all music fans as a cohesive collection of music representative of the period in which it was recorded. 

Very well said John.

The day smile gets released, the sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give its light, and you will see the sign of the son of man coming in the clouds to gather together his elect from the four winds.

I'd really like to have the Hubba Hubba outtakes released (unless it all sound similar to "Make it Good" in which case forget it!). Also - despite the near almost impossibility of it ever happening - if the Wilson produced Charles Manson tracks were to see the light of day I would positively cream my pants.

Considering the Beach Boys no longer have them...doubt it.

Yeah there's pretty much zero chance of them getting an offical release. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that someday a boot will leak out.

well that's interesting. Does someone else have them now, or did they get burned up like SMiLE?

I wouldn't be surprised if Dennis destroyed them himself.

The DA asked Dennis for the tapes during the trial, to which he claimed he'd destroyed them. I'm certain I've read somewhere that he infact didn't but had given them to someone else. I'm thinking perhaps Gregg Jakobson but could be wrong. Jon, AGD?

Also everyone's favourite little psycho redhead, Squeaky visited Dennis demanding he give her all of Charlie's music and he told her he turned all the tapes over to the DA.